Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[azaleai]

I wonder what happened to the people that posted early on in the thread when DT first launched. Have you guys gotten used to the changes or has the graphics update just demotivated you from logging in whatsoever?
I ask because it looks like a lot of people didn't fanta into something else despite their grievances. Not trying to antagonize or belittle anyone; disliking the update is totally valid. Just curious where you all stand 2 months later.

I've honestly just been raidlogging since I already agreed to raid with several groups this tier and I didn't want to let them down... Just logging in frequently enough to do roulettes for tomes has been a struggle, I'm seriously considering finishing up this tier and unsubbing, but... I know at least one of those groups (and possibly two) are expecting me to do the new ultimate with them. I don't really see myself enjoying it much, though.

For me it's not just the graphical changes, I main(ed) black mage and the changes to it (and the fight design) make it incredibly unpleasant to play. I'm not hating raiding on other classes, but I'm always thinking "I miss black mage", except. old black mage. Picto is fun and cute and I certainly don't dislike it, but it feels like an alt class to me.

The graphics are kinda the same, now I'm done with MSQ and not having cutscenes that zoom in on the face thrown at me every 20 seconds. I can sit though a raid session or do some gathering and it almost starts to feel like the same old game... and then I turn the camera around or see my portrait and I cringe.

I didn't fantasia because my character is an intrinsic part of this game to me; it's her story, her world. Starting over with a new character would feel like starting to play a new game I have no attachment to (though, I suppose I'm already experiencing that). She's a muse to me - I would be wasting years worth of art, stories and screenshots if I were to start fresh.

I don't think I can adequately express how rough the past two months have been for me without divulging that I'm autistic and this game is (well... perhaps was) my special interest, and perhaps the stereotypical dislike of change has something to do with my refusal to fantasia. I used to play daily for hours, delving into any and every piece of content I could, racking up hundreds of days of playtime without ever getting burned out in the slightest. And now? It's not the game I fell in love with, that I devoted years to. Now, on days I don't have raid? I don't even log on. And raid days I'm on for the duration of raid and nothing more, no dailies, weeklies or achievement hunting. I haven't found anything to fill the void and occupy the extra time I have on my hands now either, so I have plenty of time to ruminate on why it feels so wrong.

Suffice to say... If I could 'vote with my wallet' without causing problems for my friends, I definitely would.

[Argantaelle]

I wonder what happened to the people that posted early on in the thread when DT first launched. Have you guys gotten used to the changes or has the graphics update just demotivated you from logging in whatsoever?

I couldn't play and stopped paying a sub for about a month, I guess (I don't remember), but then I sat and thought: I pre-purchased DT, I paid for it, and I didn't want to refund DT because of sentimental reasons (I've been playing FFXIV for about a decade; it's not that kind of ties that are easy to break), so I might as well create a brand new character. And if my main isn't fixed when I get to the end of DT, well, that will be the time to make a decision.

I'm not afraid of quitting a game because of character changes; I left WoW after 7 years and Destiny II when they changed my character's face and voice (the character remodelling wasn't the sole reason, but it was one of the major ones). I never logged back since then.

[faiarrow]

I wonder what happened to the people that posted early on in the thread when DT first launched. Have you guys gotten used to the changes or has the graphics update just demotivated you from logging in whatsoever?
I ask because it looks like a lot of people didn't fanta into something else despite their grievances. Not trying to antagonize or belittle anyone; disliking the update is totally valid. Just curious where you all stand 2 months later.

Still devastated, honestly.

I fantasia'd to femhroth. I like my femhroth enough to the point that if they ever fix the completely destroyed hellsguard racial traits and the butchering of femroe as a whole to be 'Bigger Highlander Hyur' with the rounding of their features I will make one of my alts my femhroth permanently.

I have an FC to maintain and a personal house so I'm ransomed into a sub that way and paid for 6 months anyway so couldn't vote with my wallet. I'm still logging in but it's nowhere near as much as I used to. It's a relief to not be in the MSQ honestly because I don't have to see so many cutscenes without the character I was expecting to be playing for the expac.

What was really upsetting recently was doing Moonfire. Moonfire would've been my 10th anniversary with my character. Ten whole years! I've written thousands of words and drawn art of her for ten years, and woven stories with my friends in the world of XIV for that long with the same character for a decade. Doing it with a fantasia'd character that I've cobbled a backstory for but still using her name absolutely sucked and I actually don't want to even do the Rising on her because of how much it stung.

So yeah. 2 months in and I absolutely hate the update still. My 2nd major character I've played who I've had for about 4 years is also a femroe and while I haven't fantasia'd her I now play her fully masked because she looks like she's had plastic surgery for how big the changes to her features have been.

Edit now I'm not at work:
I miss them both tremendously...





And you cannot make anything that carries the same soul as they had in the current update





Sko actually had warmth and now seems like a stranger. Wyta's aloofness was so charming now she's just... a glamoured up doll.

I don't think I can adequately express how rough the past two months have been for me without divulging that I'm autistic and this game is (well... perhaps was) my special interest, and perhaps the stereotypical dislike of change has something to do with my refusal to fantasia. I used to play daily for hours, delving into any and every piece of content I could, racking up hundreds of days of playtime without ever getting burned out in the slightest. And now? It's not the game I fell in love with, that I devoted years to. Now, on days I don't have raid? I don't even log on. And raid days I'm on for the duration of raid and nothing more, no dailies, weeklies or achievement hunting. I haven't found anything to fill the void and occupy the extra time I have on my hands now either, so I have plenty of time to ruminate on why it feels so wrong.

This absolutely hits home and hurts. I'm so sorry. I know it's not much but you're not alone in how that feels at all.

[Cheapshot]

I wonder what happened to the people that posted early on in the thread when DT first launched. Have you guys gotten used to the changes or has the graphics update just demotivated you from logging in whatsoever?
I ask because it looks like a lot of people didn't fanta into something else despite their grievances. Not trying to antagonize or belittle anyone; disliking the update is totally valid. Just curious where you all stand 2 months later.

Very demotivated. I still haven't done Dawntrail yet. I don't even know how I got to level 91 because I've barely played. If I hadn't won the housing lotto on the day I was going to quit I wouldn't have played at all in the last two months. I used a fantasia for the first time in my 6 years of playing. I knew it was useless just picking different features because the CC is so so limited, so I tried a different race. A friend suggest I became an Au'ra with her. I wanted to at least give it a try instead of just feeling hopeless. My Au'ra is cute, but she's not my character and the motivation still isn't there. I remember spending so much time getting screenshots of my character before Dawntrail because I had a feeling I was never going to see her again.

If the adjustments we got between the benchmark and the full game are any indication of what's to come, I have a feeling my original look is never coming back. I want to be hopeful, but it's hard to. I have to decide what I'm going to do. If I'm going to give up my house I finally won after 6 years and stop playing? It's tough.




I wanted to enjoy the next chapter of my characters life. Look at her. She didn't need to change. Updated textures would have been plenty. She was already beautiful. This game has meant a lot to me. I genuinely miss my character deeply.

[CidHeiral]

Since the devs are reading this thread and I've seen the "soulless eyes" feedback pop up again recently, I'd like to say that I strongly disagree with that feedback (which is not to say you shouldn't post it if you agree with that feedback) and I'd wager a lot of people who are pleased with the update and not posting here would say the same.

To me the pre-7.0 eyes are what look soulless by a mile. They look completely vacant and flat, like a lifeless mannequin with a thousand yard stare. One of the best parts of the graphical update has been the massive amount of life that's been breathed into the characters through the eye updates. They have detail, depth, proper shading and lighting, and I love the subtle eye movement that was added as well. I would be very sad to see them go back to the O_O look they were before, so I hope this feedback can be taken into account with whatever path the devs choose to take. Thanks.

[Arzalis]

Since the devs are reading this thread and I've seen the "soulless eyes" feedback pop up again recently, I'd like to say that I strongly disagree with that feedback (which is not to say you shouldn't post it if you agree with that feedback) and I'd wager a lot of people who are pleased with the update and not posting here would say the same.

To me the pre-7.0 eyes are what look soulless by a mile. They look completely vacant and flat, like a lifeless mannequin with a thousand yard stare. One of the best parts of the graphical update has been the massive amount of life that's been breathed into the characters through the eye updates. They have detail, depth, proper shading and lighting, and I love the subtle eye movement that was added as well. I would be very sad to see them go back to the O_O look they were before, so I hope this feedback can be taken into account with whatever path the devs choose to take. Thanks.

I think there was an issue with "soulless eyes" back in the first benchmark, but it was related to how the lighting was interacting with the iris. It looks perfectly fine now. Doubly so in-game because the eyes actually move around quite a lot too.

I think it's important to also state your character's race and character creation parts when saying things like this. You may be right but I don't think it's a true blanket statement for every race/option/maybe even color of eyes/etc.

I'm using a picture I've used before but just because you can see his eye color here, doesn't mean it has more life. I think it's more realistic that you can't always tell someone's eye color unless you're up close. You can see more color here but as a result, it looks completely unfocused and souless. (I know you didn't refer to color specifically but if not that for my example, it's pretty clearly more empty looking.)

Show us the picture in the same or similar lighting, please. Otherwise it's kind of a moot comparison. Also you're showing one picture with reshade and one without.

[noumen0nn]

Since the devs are reading this thread and I've seen the "soulless eyes" feedback pop up again recently, I'd like to say that I strongly disagree with that feedback (which is not to say you shouldn't post it if you agree with that feedback) and I'd wager a lot of people who are pleased with the update and not posting here would say the same.

To me the pre-7.0 eyes are what look soulless by a mile. They look completely vacant and flat, like a lifeless mannequin with a thousand yard stare. One of the best parts of the graphical update has been the massive amount of life that's been breathed into the characters through the eye updates. They have detail, depth, proper shading and lighting, and I love the subtle eye movement that was added as well. I would be very sad to see them go back to the O_O look they were before, so I hope this feedback can be taken into account with whatever path the devs choose to take. Thanks.

While I agree that the totally-pure-white eyes could look out of place in the new graphics, one look at the state of character portraits should be enough to see that eyes look terrible right now. They are dark grey and dead, and need some touching up

[Luluna]

I am happy with some of the update but not some parts. I find the cat eyes look like they have a film over them? I also feel as I have said before they have made midlander females noses and mouths look angry on face 1 and 2. I have managed to make a Hyur I like but do not love, and I have been switching between her and cat.

It takes me back to 1.0 they took away our voices and changed them (Not sure why) but it was not a improvement.

My 1.0 cat did not look great coming to ARR so I switched to a diff face played her for years then discovered I enjoyed being a Midlander so played her the last few years and now I am back having a identity crisis lol. I will add every skin seems to have a horrible beige undertone and also lip colours are dull and beige like.

[Turnintino]

I think this gif of yours really goes to show how confusing some of the choices they made were. They specifically made face 4 M miqo'te have heavier eyeliner/eyelashes as well as bringing the upper lid down over the eye more, which is the exact opposite of what they did to F midlander face 1 where they took away a lot of the eyeliner/lashes and gave the eyes a much wider appearance.

Thicker eyeliner is a facial feature setting for Face 4 that the character in question doesn't appear to be using in the Endwalker screenshot.

Here's a comparison of my character, for clarity:



I agree with Aurumis's conclusion, but to your point, the eyeliner 'facial feature' was not made thicker -- though it was certainly altered in other ways. At least on the eye option I'm using, I appreciate that the additional eyeliner's lumpiness was smoothed (for the most part lol), but that's about all I can say for it.

You can also see the way his profile's been changed in these comparison shots I took previously:



(The annotations are about the shape of the nose and lips. The upper lip, in particular, is now pressed flatter against the face in DT, making it unusually uneven with the lower lip, unlike the previous model. The shape of the nose has lost the feline sleekness it had previously as well.)

And gods, I miss my thicker eyebrows (which is also a facial feature option my character's using in all screenshots).

[Aurumis]

Thicker eyeliner is a facial feature setting for Face 4 that the character in question doesn't appear to be using in the Endwalker screenshot.

Here's a comparison of my character, for clarity:



I agree with Aurumis's conclusion, but to your point, the eyeliner 'facial feature' was not made thicker -- though it was certainly altered in other ways. At least on the eye option I'm using, I appreciate that the additional eyeliner's lumpiness was smoothed (for the most part lol), but that's about all I can say for it.

You can also see the way his profile's been changed in these comparison shots I took previously:



(The annotations are about the shape of the nose and lips. The upper lip, in particular, is now pressed flatter against the face in DT, making it unusually uneven with the lower lip, unlike the previous model. The shape of the nose has lost the feline sleekness it had previously as well.)

And gods, I miss my thicker eyebrows (which is also a facial feature option my character's using in all screenshots).

He is using the thick eyelashes in the old screenshoot one too, it's something I choosed because it made the eye look more feline. But even so, now in DT they changed too much the form of the eyes and how much they closed the eyelids and painted over the iris is still there, obscuring even the SHINE in DT, that little white bubble of shine that only appears when they open the eyes in cutscenes or looking from the character from under. I also had the thicker eyebrows that now are nonexistent no matter if you choose the option or not. It's all a mess. I'm so angry. I don't get how some answers say this is better, they are BLIND.

Also agree on the mouth and nose too (apart that as you can see in endwalker they didn't have that corners up and they added it and looks horrible when you do some emotes, in some cutscenes my miqo'te looked distorted as fuck when smiling sly and challenging and such). But if they fix the eyes, I would be happy...since it's the worst change and the one that make them look dead... Also the color of the iris obscured for no reason too, and the pupil...