Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Khryseis_Astra]

It's just wild to me that I need [REDACTED] to have my characters look more like the original, vanilla game now. Absolute upside down crazy world.

And I could weather it all if I just had my silly little blorbo to look at. But I don't, and my patience is wearing thin.

I’m really hoping we get some encouraging news and/or visuals in the Live Letter this coming weekend. I’m playing through the MSQ on my Highlander now and it’s just striking to me how much she’s changed. I can almost pretend she’s still ok until the cutscenes play… one of the big things was supposed to be this new lighting that was going to be so much better. But I’m watching cutscenes, and beyond my character having a totally different face (I swear the way they did the brow and nose, along with the awful philtrum, she looks more like a Roe at certain angles than a Hyur!), the way the light and shadows fall is just awful! I’ll have to take some more screenshots, but I’m just getting to DT zone 3, if you remember any of those scenes leading up to there.

But I feel you, as someone else who spends a lot of time in gpose, it really sucks to have that taken away. Certain facial expressions have just been totally ruined, and that really affects the personality of a character.

[lunartears]

Personally, my main ask is for the Au Ra pupil size to return to its original size (or have an option for it). It really shouldn't be that hard to fix. If I don't see any change in the upcoming patch, I swear I'm going to lose it. I can't bear to wait for another future patch in hopes that it gets fixed if ever.

FFXIV has been my main game for years. As I struggle to come back to play a stranger of my character, I'm slowly but surely losing interest and motivation to keep going. I barely log on anymore.

I'm bothered that they haven't addressed this, I don't understand why it was changed when it was perfectly fine before and the lack of acknowledgement makes me anxious that they are considering it "spec". The lip change is the worst part for me but add those big pupils and it makes my character look ghoulish. I empathize so much, my character is totally unrecognizable at the moment and I haven't been playing as a result. Even if I haven't played as many years as others, I have pretty much logged in for a few hours every day and that trend fizzled out after the graphics update went live.

This photo that makes me ask "Who is this?"

[noumen0nn]

I'm bothered that they haven't addressed this, I don't understand why it was changed when it was perfectly fine before and the lack of acknowledgement makes me anxious that they are considering it "spec". The lip change is the worst part for me but add those big pupils and it makes my character look ghoulish. I empathize so much, my character is totally unrecognizable at the moment and I haven't been playing as a result. Even if I haven't played as many years as others, I have pretty much logged in for a few hours every day and that trend fizzled out after the graphics update went live.

This photo that makes me ask "Who is this?"

What made them decide that everyone's nose has to be the most prominent, stuck-out feature of their face? It looks comically bad. Practically every other shadow on the entire model has been softened, and then our noses just look like they have dirt smudged along the edges

[Kaziek]

What made them decide that everyone's nose has to be the most prominent, stuck-out feature of their face? It looks comically bad. Practically every other shadow on the entire model has been softened, and then our noses just look like they have dirt smudged along the edges

It drives me nuts honestly lol. A lot of noses look so much bigger now because for some reason they just always have a ton of shadow on the edges.

[Birdbrain]

Is it too late to get in on the "funky lighting" update discussion?

Spoiler warning: very frightening image below

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I think the graphical update did something weird with the insides of aquariums too. If you go stand inside your fish tanks, your hair color can change dramatically depending on how light it is. Highly recommend people go say 'hello' to their fish.

[Kaziek]

Is it too late to get in on the "funky lighting" update discussion?

Spoiler warning: very frightening image below

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I think the graphical update did something weird with the insides of aquariums too. If you go stand inside your fish tanks, your hair color can change dramatically depending on how light it is. Highly recommend people go say 'hello' to their fish.

To be fair, areas with lighting like that have always looked pretty bad. You'd have similar results standing there before DT. Fish tanks would also do weird things like removing your eyebrows, which actually doesn't happen anymore. You aren't really meant to be inside of aquariums anyway so I doubt it's much of a priority if at all.

[Drakulia]

I was told to post my opinions about the graphics update here as well.

As I said in the other post there are several reasons for me having noticed that my face is no longer my face but the major points for me right now is that her eyes are different and a bit milky. Not as bad as the characters that have lighter eyes but to me fully noticeable. Her face has a different shape, her scar is bigger and her mouth has also changed shape. On top of that the eyebrows makes her facial expressions totally different to what I am used to. I have therefor not been able to play dawntrail.

I just cannot look at her in cutscenes and see her as my friend for ten years and that to me is really sad. I know that you are doing your best to fix it and as I said before in the first post I have waited patiently for the issue to be resolved, but now that I heard that after this there won't be any major changes I must say I got worried hence the post.

To help with the differences and to show graphically how she looked before compared to now I have added screenshots of her. I hope that that will be of help to you in your work efforts.

How she looked before dawntrail

How she looks now

Showcase of horrible eyebrows

If you want to see my first post with more pictures it is linked here below.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...out-the-faces.

[Hatsuoki]

Why couldn't they have given us some examples of the fixes during the PLL...? Right now we still don't know if the fixes are going to go in the right direction.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Why couldn't they have given us some examples of the fixes during the PLL...? Right now we still don't know if the fixes are going to go in the right direction.

True, but we are getting another Fantasia at least… just crossing my fingers they’ll fix my Highlander!

[HawkeScream]

Why couldn't they have given us some examples of the fixes during the PLL...? Right now we still don't know if the fixes are going to go in the right direction.

Tbh I think that's exactly why they didn't. People who don't notice won't notice. No spotlight, less backlash.