Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Tahli]

Again, thank you to the staff for taking feedback into consideration and being willing to make further adjustments. I'll repost my main thoughts from before and add on a few more. I use a Face 2 female Miqo'te, so most of my feedback will be based on that.

I have 2 bug reports in the Accepted Bugs subforum, this one regarding the eyebrows of Face 2 female Miqo'te, and this one regarding a shading error in the iris of all races, but most noticeable in large-eyed races like Miqo'te or Lalafell.


To add on to feedback on the eyes:

1. If I could edit my bug report on the iris bug, I would add this comparison picture as well:
Top pic: In Ul'dah at daytime with shadows over eyes, with one gold and one silver (RGB: 179, 179, 179) eye
vs
Bottom pic: Daytime with light shining on at least the silver eye


2. Miqo'te eyes also appear to have a grey overlay that gives the appearance of "cataracts" that wasn't as present in previous versions. It is fine for Moon Miqo'te to have the pupil be a much darker shade of whatever the iris color is, to give it a glowy moon-eye look, but it appears too white/grey toned in Dawntrail and makes it look cloudy instead of glowy. The sclera is also grey, and makes the eyes not stand out anymore.

3. Catchlights in the eyes since the 7.0 update, especially for Moon Miqo'te, are too numerous and make the eyes look dazed and unfocused. I strongly believe eyes can look "lively" with fewer white catchlights, but more colored highlights of the iris to make the color "pop". The catchlights on Miqo'te are also unevenly spaced, and aren't symmetrically showing up in the same place on each eye.

4. Add an option for Miqo'te facial features to include added eyeliner/mascara options, like what other races have. I saw how there was heavier eye makeup in the first Dawntrail benchmark that was toned down afterwards, and would like that option back.


To add on to feedback on the eyebrows:

While I included in my bug report that Face 2 female Miqo'te's eyebrows were made too dark, I think an overall beneficial update would be allow us to separately pick our eyebrow color in the character creator.


Additional thoughts on shading

I feel that the shading and lighting in Dawntrail is a bit too intense. Especially when in bright, direct lighting, pale characters suffer from bright light washing out parts of their skin in white, and shadows being too intense and making deep pockets in their facial features.