Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Fiel_Tana]

I'm going to post links to a few threads that I think are worth looking into. They might be off topic in terms of 'character graphics' however it's in line with the graphical update. If it improves the visibility for some issues (and hopefully fixes them/addresses them), the game will likely return to how it was once before. Please consider it.

Eyestrain Thread - Here
Environment Thread - Here
Benchmark Compendium [Might be slightly outdated but there were alot of feedback regarding character faces/changes that were never altered in the current release] - Here

It's a shame to see that all this feedback might be buried. I tried my best to organize it as I could, I'd continue updating it if someone has some loose threads.
Please consider it! Alot of effort went into the feedback and it's unfortunate that we didn't have it all in one place.

Anyway, sorry if this breaks the 'on topic'. I felt like these were worth mentioning....

There's also a thread about the combat graphics that are bothering some people. While the player graphics can be turned down/off, the boss and arena effects are a problem for some. For me it was unpleasant in EW, but it became unplayable now in DT with the graphics update.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-more-gameplay

[Rueby]

There's also a thread about the combat graphics that are bothering some people. While the player graphics can be turned down/off, the boss and arena effects are a problem for some. For me it was unpleasant in EW, but it became unplayable now in DT with the graphics update.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-more-gameplay

I need to bump that thread...
I agree with you, I stopped doing extremes and savages in EW because the effects were bothersome and the arena design/raidwides seemed to go in the direction of less visual clarity. I look at Hades then I look at Trial 1 in EW...and notice a huge drop in visual clarity. Dark purple BG on dark purple arena, with bright neon mechanics is not great for the eyes....

I fear how things are in DT, I already get headaches from the weird blur/sharpen flicker. I am scared of certain duties most of them being CT raids where the saturation and contrast went through the roof. The crystals are physically painful. I never seen a game hurt my eyes this much and it's upsetting because it NEVER did.

If they do nothing about it, it sends such a bad message. 'we don't care about the people who may have paid for this game's sub if the game is no longer playable, moving forward this is how the game is changing'

I hope this isn't it and that the devs can see the feedback on visual clarity/eye strain and take note. I never had issues in any game before, I don't suffer from anything severe the only issue I have is with repeated flashing lights which disorient me ie. strobe lights and sunlight (that I can use sunglasses for)...unless we're expected to play the game with sunglasses now.

[Fiel_Tana]

...unless we're expected to play the game with sunglasses now.

I tried that, it didn't work for me. All it did was make the darker areas harder to see but the bright flashes and intense glare effects were still painful since my eyes had adjusted to lower light. Also tried adjusting every in game graphics settings, computer settings, playing only in a well lit room with light behind the monitor, nothing helped.

I agree about the message Squeenix is sending by being so quiet about all this. I kept putting off the MSQ (I'm at the final dungeon and trial) telling myself that I'll finish it on a day I can take the headache then realised how silly that sounded. No game is worth physical pain. My sub is now cancelled, 2 weeks left so I'll see if there's any word from the devs but I'm not feeling hopeful.

The graphics update also made my WoL look angrier, which in fairness suits her well at the moment. I headcannon that she was grumbling about an impending flood of light on the source every time she was dragged into a boss fight lol.

[Rueby]

I tried that, it didn't work for me. All it did was make the darker areas harder to see but the bright flashes and intense glare effects were still painful since my eyes had adjusted to lower light. Also tried adjusting every in game graphics settings, computer settings, playing only in a well lit room with light behind the monitor, nothing helped.

I agree about the message Squeenix is sending by being so quiet about all this. I kept putting off the MSQ (I'm at the final dungeon and trial) telling myself that I'll finish it on a day I can take the headache then realised how silly that sounded. No game is worth physical pain. My sub is now cancelled, 2 weeks left so I'll see if there's any word from the devs but I'm not feeling hopeful.

The graphics update also made my WoL look angrier, which in fairness suits her well at the moment. I headcannon that she was grumbling about an impending flood of light on the source every time she was dragged into a boss fight lol.

Bruh..well.

I personally didn't set foot in DT yet because I'm trapped in post EW and how everytime I go to do it, I see a bug, or uncanny char expression and I go play another game. I'm really disappointed in SE, I had super low hopes for DT to be something I enjoy because everything I loved ripped in EW, but they surpassed it all, by not only making it so I feel that the MSQ is no longer for me, but my characters, the memories I had with her, my favorite characters and areas, and at some point my house. Is affected negatively. I never expected the graphical update would hurt my eyes, or I would've never preordered.

I think the only thing shackling me is my houses which got grandfathered in. I have some memories associated with them and I don't wish to lose them.

I really wish the message I think they're sending us isn't true, because this game has been around for 10 years, I only invested 4 years into it, but even then is alot. I can't possibly imagine someone affected negatively by this update after many years. I'm sorry if my post is abit negative, but the silence is truly defeaning. I don't think it's fair for us to get lumped in the 'collateral damage' of the graphical upgrade to attract more customers who love when games go nuclear on their eyeballs.

[CidHeiral]

Personally I do like the new teeth. One of my biggest petpeeves before was how pronounced the teeth were but I quess it's a matter of taste.

Agreed, the lines on the old set were way over defined, like a wacky PS1 character in the 90's.



The new teeth are a night and day improvement over the old teeth.

[ConantSivrha]

Personally I do like the new teeth. One of my biggest petpeeves before was how pronounced the teeth were but I quess it's a matter of taste.

I sometimes thought the outlines between the teeth (pre-Dawntrail) were a bit too dark, which could make the teeth look like they’re too far apart or too small. However, the new teeth look unnaturally white and unshaded. Overall, I found the pre-Dawntrail teeth less distracting. In my opinion, the new ones look unrealistic to the point of being offputting, and they draw too much attention to the broken lighting inside of characters’ mouths because they’re so blindingly white to start with.

[Kaziek]

I sometimes thought the outlines between the teeth (pre-Dawntrail) were a bit too dark, which could make the teeth look like they’re too far apart or too small. However, the new teeth look unnaturally white and unshaded. Overall, I found the pre-Dawntrail teeth less distracting. In my opinion, the new ones look unrealistic to the point of being offputting, and they draw too much attention to the broken lighting inside of characters’ mouths because they’re so blindingly white to start with.

The lack of baked in fake shadows is really distracting in a lot of places. I agree that both versions of the teeth aren't the greatest, but the new ones are pretty disappointing when they look as off as they do considering they were just updated compared to a decade old asset.

[nattherat]

Hi, I made a forum account just for this like many others, because I'd desperately like the dev team to see all and further feedback on this update. I'm trying to word things reasonably and calmly, but I'm definitely upset about what's been done to my character. I have a few reasons for unsubbing at this time, but this is probably the largest one as even when other content might not be for me, I'd still ordinarily be able to wander the world and roleplay my character. This isn't possible any more, with how much she has been changed.

Apologies, I have to split this into multiple posts.

I spent many hours collating these images, and I've done my very best to have them from the same angle, same frame in an animation, same lighting direction, even the same location in Black Shroud. These are exactly the same character, I have had the character appearance saved since Heavensward, so all the same options with the sole exception of forgetting to put lipstick on some of the DT ones (however I'm not bringing up lipstick, so I feel this is irrelevant). I really hope these actually show up and this post gets seen as a result.

I want to bring up Lalafell, because I don't feel I see enough lalafell feedback but the changes are extreme and in some cases unacceptable. I believe most of these issues, likely the same as other races, stem from making all heads based on a Hyur head. But I'm not playing Hyur, I'm playing Lalafell, and squishing and stretching a Hyur face into a Lalafell face is a horrible solution that does a disservice to unique races.

First, general/overall structural changes:

Front angle. I've listed on the image everything that is inconsistent between the two, but also made exaggerated doodles to try and help get the feedback across any and all language barrier.
The zodiac stone change is especially bizarre to me. Why is it so much smaller now? That's important to my character, it's the whole reason I enabled that feature. Please restore it to it's original size. The worst issues are the nose and lips, but I appreciate that they're harder to see from this angle/lighting (thank you at least for making dark-skinned characters actually visible now).


The changes to the facial structure become far more apparent at different angles, where my forehead has been inflated, and the tiny pursed lips and strange shrunken hyur nose are more obvious. The entire bridge area has changed. I should have mentioned it in the image, but you can also see how extremely the chin changed here too, which I go more into on the next post.


To demonstrate this further, here's a top view. Lalafellin noses were very stylised, a very anime shape, and had a really smooth transition from cheek to bridge. Now they have this hyur nose slapped on.

1/3

[nattherat]

Now for more emote-based stuff:

From another angle and getting into emotes. Sorry for anyone getting bored of me talking about the hyur nose. I'm showing it from every angle to prove that this isn't just some cherry-picked bad angle, it's a legitimate severe change to the mesh. Same for the mouth/lips. This adorable satisfied smile she pulled when stretching has been changed out to a kind of strained fake smile thanks to the smaller mouth and no lips.


More emote issues due to the much smaller mouth (why was the widest mouth option shrunk anyway?). The cheeks are quite swollen looking, and whilst the teeth are an improvement over the DT benchmark (yes I remember the dolphin teeth), they're still too narrow for the skull. I don't think the ears are the worst but one of the reasons I'm pointing them out is because that amount of complexity is completely at odds with the lalafellin look. They don't have that many contours on their entire body, yet here's their ears with a higher poly count than the whole rest of the lalafell would ever need.


Presumably because we are basically all hyur now, I noticed an issue across several races in that if we previously had an overbite/receeded chin, this has now been changed. Regardless of whether you think an overbite is a bad thing or not... an overbite is what my character had! This is a huge fundamental change to her jaw structure. This also highlights the same strange brow distortion other people have noticed, where the brow bone casts dramatic triangular shadows that don't match what the actual eyebrows are doing.


The same emote from another angle. Wow has this one lost all emotion. The character is now bored, whereas previously she looked on the verge of tears.

2/3

[nattherat]

I now want to show female Elezen, because a lot of the same issues here are exactly the same as the lalafell.

The nose has been made more narrow, and the lips have completely changed shape. Very notably, the cheeks have become swollen/the jaw has been moved.


Like lalafell, the shape of the nose has been changed, as well as the shape of the lips, and jaw has been pulled foward to remove the overbite.


Just as with lalafell, the brow bone does not correspond with the eyebrows like it used to, leading to bits of shading on the forehead. The cheek-swelling/jaw shifting is also apparent here.


Quality control-wise, I also wanted to bring up these. Dunesfolk eyes look really really bad close up. Jagged eyelashes, some very strange misaligned and overly reflective bit in the iris, blurry muddy sclera, and the pores are horrifically oversized. I really don't think pores should be on them at all, again they're not hyurs, but if they're going to be on there you can't just stretch the hyur normal map onto them. They need them made properly.

There are many smaller issues that all compound, but I think the main issue with lalafell, and I suspect most races, is this: My stylised lalafellin features have been removed and replaced with a weird squished hyur. It's genuinely distressing. I'm not a lalafell anymore, I'm a mutated Hyur.

At this point, I'm not sure how this can be realistically be fixed if all races now have to be based on a hyur mesh. So by now I'd actually be happy with a toggle for old graphics, with a confirmation that I just can't watch any DT-and-onwards cutscenes or something. I just want my character back.

That said, as disappointed as I have been, I do want to stay positive, and I thank the dev team for at least acknowledging this thread and the feelings players have had. I hope these images come in useful, and... if the August update brings news that reassures me, maybe I'll resub.

Thank you everyone for this thread, I really hope everyone gets what they need to feel happy with their characters again!

3/3