Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[HawkeScream]

I fell in love with her as she was. This plastic doll that is pretending to be her will never be the character I loved for all these years.

Why do they hate our old lips so bad T.T (I know there's more than just lips issues happening that one just was such a WOW)

[Darko]

Same with my male midlander. The spark in his eye is gone, so is the sharpness of his features. As far as faces go, this is not a graphical upgrade but a downgrade in my opinion. I want my WoL back. I've never felt less motivated to play, I can't even find any trace of him in that face. It's unacceptable and I will also keep pushing for the issue to be addressed. Also, Thancred's face needs to be fixed.

[IndraSyngiwyb]

Why do they hate our old lips so bad T.T (I know there's more than just lips issues happening that one just was such a WOW)

I wish I knew. Same with Roegadyn eyes and just dark skin in general. My pale characters are mostly fine, but the dark skinned ones all STILL look like they are covered in oil. They just can't figure out how to handle lighting on dark skin and it's frustrating af.

[Daralii]

I wish I knew. Same with Roegadyn eyes and just dark skin in general. My pale characters are mostly fine, but the dark skinned ones all STILL look like they are covered in oil. They just can't figure out how to handle lighting on dark skin and it's frustrating af.

Darker skin tones are always either waxy or overly porous now. When you combine the former with the removal of catchlights, they look like mannequins.

[HawkeScream]

I wish I knew. Same with Roegadyn eyes and just dark skin in general. My pale characters are mostly fine, but the dark skinned ones all STILL look like they are covered in oil. They just can't figure out how to handle lighting on dark skin and it's frustrating af.

Yes, oily or waxy =[ Whatever they changed with the lighting makes anything dark look SO shiny. It happens with dark dye on new texture glams too. There's like an almost gray sheen that makes it look shiny and kind of velvety? You can see it really bad on the Courtly Lover's glams on the roses, or like the neo-tunic t-shirts, ESPECIALLY if you compare it with something that hasn't been re-textured yet. And Great Lengths hair dyed dark always looks wet cuz it's so shiny.

[RedLolly]

One thing that always got me is how weirdly the old graphics handled very dark skin. I've previously played jet black skinned characters in the same tone range as Erenville, the darkest possible. Tried this on Lalafell, Hellsguard, and Viera. In the pre-DT graphics, those characters would *completely* vanish in dark scenery with nighttime lighting, which was probably as much an attractive detail as much as a turn off.

I recall making a black viera just before doing the GNB opening quest, which it takes you to the Bramble Patch area of the Shroud. In a cutscene after putting on the primarily black starter gear, her silhouette was barely visible, let alone any emotion on her face. I do believe some players probably enjoyed that effect a lot, but I also believe that's a big factor why so few players gave their avatars the darkest options. (The fact we have so few dark elves and black cats still strikes me as odd when everything is there to do so.)

The "oily" and "waxy" effects that those colors on new textures that we are getting now might be how the new system compensates to still show those textures in very minimum lighting, but it's making lighting reflection TOO obvious for some.

[Argantaelle]

There was no mention of a character appearance update in the last Live Letter. Well, let's wait for the fanfest, but I won't hold my hopes high.

Btw, more than a year has passed since Responding to Feedback on Player Character Models was published. Still, most of the issues mentioned haven't been corrected.

P.S. I looked through the document yet again. It's a monument to times when SE felt fat, complacent, and absolutely untouchable. In one of the latest interviews Mr. Yoshida said that he changed his mind about the direction the game had been going around 7.2. Let's hope he acknowledges the problems with the character creation and animations too and this time responds wholeheartedly.

[Roido_Avingu]

Still praying they fix the male Miqo'te face 1 lips and face, he's a battle hardened fighter, not some pretty boy. Hell, I'd take even just the lips, my WoL does not wear permanent lip gloss.

[Winyumi]

I was looking back on this just now and figured I'd share a comparison update as it has been quite a while.

It sure has come a long way since 7.0. The eyes in 7.45 are slightly more open compared to 7.21. I've included an edited version, superimposing 6.x's eyes and lips with matched lighting.



Seeing the 7.0 face again is making me relive the horrors...

[Sunhwapark]

In the 7.5 Preliminary notes I see the mention of GPOSE now having an eyelid tracker thing, but I'm assuming this means we still will have creepy gazes in our Adventurer Plates.
Hope I'm wrong though.