Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Khryseis_Astra]

I've been trying to give it some time to see if it's just that I'm not used to it, but after having played with it for a couple of weeks, I'm really not a fan of the changes, specifically to dunesfolk lalas.
I've got a bit of an identity crisis with my character now, as it just doesn't feel like the same character I've played with up until now.

I posted this on the Lala graphics update thread too, but you can really see the difference in the portraits:



Biggest issue is that the lips aren’t as full as they were. Both lips are reduced, but the upper is almost gone. The other thing you can notice is that the eyes are definitely a different shape: this isn’t an optical illusion, her eyes are looking in the same direction in both pictures, but you can barely tell in the DT picture! lol I’m not sure if that’s also the positioning of the eyeball or not… I can get a similar look now but only if I make her look very far to the side. Cheeks were also made fuller, so the face paint looks stretched.

I’d still like these things to be fixed, but at least my Lala is still good enough to be playable. My Hyur alts on the other hand… if something doesn’t change with those, I may not ever play them again.

(My Lala is a Dunesfolk, using Face 1, Jaw 1, Eyes 4, Brows 2, Nose 5, Mouth 2 and Ears 1.)

[Daralii]

Something else in regards to this update I particularly can't wrap my head around is which races got the subsurface scattering on their ears and which did not. To my current knowledge, only elezen and raen au ra* (your guess why is as good as mine) have it enabled. Other races that should have the effect, namely lalafell, miqo'te, viera, do not.
*My female raen au ra has it and so does every female raen face, but I can't tell if all the other au ra combinations do not have it or if it's more subtle.

I think viera ears had it in the first benchmark, but it was very buggy with some ears in some lighting and caused the interiors to glow white. I assume it was removed as a stopgap, but who knows whether or not it'll get fixed and added again.

Another thing that bothers me a lot which I would like to add in regards to this particular topic is that they've basically bleached the female raen scales and horns in an attempt to further "beautify" them (read: butcher). I was under the impression the horns were basically bone, which are naturally more yellow. Male au ra did not get this treatment.

Do you have a comparison? I noticed that they added the pink accents that Yugiri's horns have(but not the ones her scales have), but the color seems consistent to me otherwise.

[Einnecy]

Do you have a comparison? I noticed that they added the pink accents that Yugiri's horns have(but not the ones her scales have), but the color seems consistent to me otherwise.

Just took one, but I also have one here and here.


The bleached scales were something I also took note of when the new graphics were being showcased, here's a timestamped video and here's another screenshot. It's interesting to note that your scales look darker even! But I think mine look whiter.

I could be wrong though. Maybe the colors don't mesh as well as they do pre-DT. Thanks for the feedback!

Oh also the pink effect is the subsurface scattering I was previously talking about! I don't think it's supposed to emulate Yugiri's pink tinted horns. It's weird that we got it out of all the races.


EDIT: I have very conveniently just found an old screenshot in more objective lighting and could make a more proper comparison. Everything is the same except the hair color.

[Asteri]

[SNIP]

Man, I really miss the cream colored scales and their overall smoother look. It looks like they reduced the color saturation to near gray when comparing them side by side. I liked the smoother look of the scales too instead of those sharp edges and gray details, especially on the neck, it makes the scales look dirty. :<

The horns tend to look great and closer to the old color, but the scales are way too ivory. I really wish/hope they would give us option between cream / ivory scale colors, and blue / black for Xaela too!

[smitten_miquitten]

This issue is currently in 'Accepted bugs' in the English forums and it's listed as "fixed" in the JP bug area (was marked fixed a week or so post-Dawntrail launch), but the fix definitely isn't in game yet. For Miqote face 4, eyebrows are now super dark and look really not great on darker skin
No idea what the shchedule for the fixes are but it's definitely not looking any better in game.

Endwalker
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 2
Current

[smitten_miquitten]

Spending all Dawntrail looking like a male Highlander ;.;

[smitten_miquitten]

Face 4
Literally all three other faces

[Doopliss]

EDIT: I have very conveniently just found an old screenshot in more objective lighting and could make a more proper comparison. Everything is the same except the hair color.

God, I've been trying to not get upset about the current state of the graphical update because I'm choosing to believe they're going to fix it due to the language they used on the second benchmark lodestone post, but it's so hard to not feel that way every time I see ♀ Au Ra Face 2.

All the faces have weird decision making, but this one straight up just feels like a new face entirely. I've seen nobody argue against this specific one--even my friends who struggle to see detail differences are like "holy shit, that should be a Face 5 or something".

The theory about letting a developer's personal taste get in the way of the design updates feels the most true for female Au Ra, while the other races feel like they were sort of haphazardly done instead. The lighter scales, the insistence on making their pupils way larger (they actually decreased the size for male Au Ra on release to be closer to their original size, but not female Au Ra lol), the narrower mouths all around...

"As close as possible" is a blatant lie here. Ugh, sorry.

[ConantSivrha]

This issue is currently in 'Accepted bugs' in the English forums and it's listed as "fixed" in the JP bug area (was marked fixed a week or so post-Dawntrail launch), but the fix definitely isn't in game yet.
(…)
Current

Yeah. This is something I’ve been bothered by, too, but characters with dark skin and light hair definitely got the worst of it. I assume this change was made so that characters with light skin and light hair would have dark eyebrows that are more visible against their skin, but the underlying assumption that everyone with light hair is also going to have light skin is…well, we can see the result here.

Granted, my face 4 female miqo’te does have light skin and light hair, but even I hate the dark eyebrows. I made the character’s skin and hair colors very similar to each other intentionally, so it seemed perfectly natural that the eyebrows wouldn’t stand out much against the skin. The new eyebrow color looks unnatural and out of place, like something that could only be the result of makeup. (Though, I should add, an eyebrow darkening toggle or slider would be a great addition to the character creator. That female elezen* from a few pages ago who got her eyebrows bleached by the graphics update would certainly appreciate it.)

I hope that the bug being “accepted” means it’ll actually be fixed. Though, there seems to have been some attempt to fix it already (eyebrows are slightly closer to the real hair color in Dawntrail, compared to the benchmark), so I’m not sure what to think.

*The female elezen I mentioned:

[Einnecy]

<snip>

Honest to god the picture makes me feel physically ill. Every second I spend looking at it I feel a psychic damage over time effect on me. :')
It is irrefutable proof that the changes go beyond lighting. Proof that they did not fulfill their promise of maintaining the coherence of the characters. Dealing with that betrayal, and then also three weeks of silence, is especially upsetting given how quickly they resolved the housing issue. Even a simple "we are still currently investigating and reviewing feedback" announcement would be good.

I'm sorry for ranting, I've been trying really hard to offer constructive criticism and comparisons and keep ranting on a low, but just... holy f*ck. I knew it was bad, but somehow it's actually even worse. I could cry, but it's been three weeks. I'm all spent.