Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Aurumis]

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 almost don't log in... I don't like the changes but I love my characters and using a fanta is not going to fix anything. The only way to fix it is if they listen to us and see how they fucked up.

[Argantaelle]

Well, until we get an official reply, I think it might be useful to post some feedback yet again (I bet you all got tired of me, haha). This time I want to talk about my Elezen girl.

Face type: 4
Jaw: 1
Eye Shape: 3
Eyebrows: 3
Nose: 4
Mouth: 2
Facial Features: none

EW and DT comparison:

Full-face


Three quarter

Changes:

1. Eyes feel off, maybe because the iris became darker (it can be corrected) or maybe the eye lost its slight squint towards the end. Instead of a mature, intense stare, I've got a young girl with wide-opened eyes. It's not a bad thing per se, and I think I can correct it by putting on some face paint and changing the iris colour.

2. Light eyebrows lost their dark undertone, which helped to make them more prominent. I've already written about this issue.
The eyebrows changed their position, but it can be corrected by choosing another type.

3. What has happened to the poor girl's mouth? Has she been stung by a bee? Why did her mouth all of a sudden get plumpier, and why is the lower lip so thick?

4. Lip gloss. I'd rather have the matte option, please; if I wanted to apply lip gloss, I'd put some colour on her mouth.

5. Cheekbones. The shape of the face has changed; it became more narrow and cheekbones less prominent.


Overall conclusion: not bad. It's not a win in the graphical upgrade lottery, but not a loss either (if the mouth and cheekbones return to their original shape).

P.S.
Male Raen lost their blue tongue:

It used to be much brighter:


The source of the picture:
https://cinnamon-suncat.tumblr.com/p...errycheesecake

P.S.S.
To all the players who keep telling about overreacting and how insignificant it is when "only a few pixels" are changed.

(very minor SB spoilers)

Look at this photo of Alphinaud and Alisaie. They are twins. They have the same face, except for very small changes in eyes and mouth. And these "few pixels" help to tell one twin from another unmistakably, even if they are dressed in the same clothes.

[Turnintino]

He is using the thick eyelashes in the old screenshoot one too

Sorry, I was referring to the GIF they quoted where it seems to be missing in the EW bit. (I probably should've linked to that directly in my response for clarity, but I thought it would be more valuable to link your whole post, since it brings up many points I agree with.)

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...

Agreed on all counts. During emotes that furrow the brow, the ends of his eyebrows turn up more than they did previously and it looks so strange lol. Sadly, I don't have any 6.x screenshots of what it used to look like (it's probably possible with the old EW benchmark I use, but male miqo'te are so animated that it's difficult to get a good mid-emote screenshot without being able to pause like we can with gpose), but it's something I noticed immediately. The eyes, in general, are so frustrating as well because the slit pupil is so obscured in most lighting now that you can forget they have them, not helped by the males' smaller eyes, compared to their female counterparts.

[lunartears]

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 pushed myself to clear the MSQ so I could keep myself busy, but since clearing it and getting a few jobs to 100, I've only been logging in for my retainers and to keep my estate. The game has felt empty and pointless ever since the character update, I feel a consistent apathy towards all new content (especially if it involves cutscenes).

I originally intended to cover all of my glamours in a mask but I got fed up with how bare my character's head looked from the back while fighting so I stopped bothering to do it outside of crafters/gatherers.
Each time I see my character in a cutscene without a mask on, I immediately mentally sigh and just feel so depressed. Even with time passing, I can't accept how they changed the face. The way the eyes and lips look continue to stick out to me, they still feel very gross to look at.

I could also go on about the changes to scales, the skin and the other things but it isn't going to contribute anything new as I've already stated my thoughts in many posts before. I basically can't unsee what I saw since Benchmark 1.

I haven't used Fantasia because I can't do anything about what was changed. My character means a lot to me and the way she appeared in Endwalker was perfect. Sometimes I launch the Endwalker Benchmark to feel some normality again.

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.

I couldn't help but feel so seen in your post.
Everything you wrote accurately describes how I've been feeling.

[Argantaelle]

I also would like to talk about facial expressions. I used to play a male Au Ra, so all the examples are going to be illustrated with the generous help of my Test Subjects from 1 to 4 (except for the 2nd, because it still pains me to see what has become of the 2nd face). All mouths belong to the 1st type.

The main issue is smiles. They are not that good across most races I've seen during MSQ up to Stormblood. Just look at this lovely fellow and his charming smile:

(NIN 60-70 questline spoilers)

This picture vividly represents what's wrong with smiles: only the corners of the mouth are pulled up, the middle part is unaffected in any way, and it looks very unnatural and just plain weird.

A few examples of smiling expressions of male Au Ra are listed below.

1st face

The first face won the lottery; its smile looks almost normal.

beam


grin

As you can see, the same general problem is present here, even if to a lesser degree.

EW benchmark for the sake of comparison:

It seems like the poor guy with the 3d face didn't get the care and attention he deserves.

smile


Once again, the thin corners of the mouth are pulled up, and it looks not that good; also, the eyes turned into very narrow slits. Other "smiling" face expressions have the same problems, and, to be honest, some of them are just plain scary.

beam


grin


content


scoff


EW benchmark smile:

4th face
I was curious how SE animated non-standard wide mouth, and I wasn't disappointed!

smile

Oh my. I have no words.

beam


content


Maybe it's just the first-mouth type? Maybe a smaller mouth will look more natural? Not a chance!

content, mouth type 4:


grin (once again the 1st type)


scoff


sneer


EW benchmark smile:

It looks so much better.

[GreenLeafy]

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 dislike it , outright hate some parts. I don't really care for the character the same way I used to at all and in turn made me care about the game even less. At any point if I dared think, hm maybe its not that bad , I'd see myself do a jank face animation in a cutscene or look at a screenshot of the old version and am like , yeah nvm the new look is still terrible. I just really can't get over my miqo's face looking like its made out of plasticine and the eyes make me look stoned 24/7 when in the past they were bright and engaging. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So yeah the feelings I had toward it even from the previews before the benchmark ,which really solidified with the benchmark release , have not really changed - genuinely despise the new look.

Used to be more engaged in the conversation about it too but honestly seeing how they didn't even care to properly address mixed feelings toward this update for months and we have the miniscule amount of attention from just a mod post in a forum thread my good will towards anything they might do is non-existent. Especially after reading the recent Yoship interview of him addressing feedback toward the expansion as a whole. The underwhelming mixed bag DT brought along with this graphical update ended up pushing majority of the friends I had on the game away from it and basically agree we're never pre-ordering anything and might just straight up quit haha. Really the only reason I'm a bit torn on ending my sub is because I've owned a house on the game for 6 years and have become attached to it because of sentimental value and memories and only resub on a house demo timer... Heavily considering ending that soon tho. :/

[Alice9]

Still haven't gotten used to the changes to my Face 4 Fem Au Ra at all, and at this point I feel like I am not going to. I've tried different hairstyles, makeup, and even messed around in character creation to see if I could try to replicate a close look. A fantasia isn't going to fix a complete style shift.

I've heard some have said Face 4 Au Ra looks cuter now, but I don't want to look cuter, I want to look the same way I did before. It really does feel like there was some misguided attempt at making characters look more "conventionally" attractive and/or younger. But I didn't make my character based on attractiveness, I enjoyed the sharp-looking style of the face- that has now been rounded off and deprived of its identity. Not to mention how the jaw, eyes, and mouth of the face look nothing like it used to. The idea that a fantasia could/would ever have fixed a complete style like this is at best a poor joke and at worst, an insult. I wanted my character to look the same, just upscaled. I did not want what feels like a random mishmash of traits added onto the face that they were hoping would stick with players.

[Fhaerron]

It's a shame we cannot fully turn off DLSS/FSR.
So for now I have settled with FSR and 99%res scale which for some bizarre reason gives the most sharpest image out of all options. (I've injected extra sharpness trough the Nvidia control panel for FFXIV which helps to mitigate it some more).

I don't know what it is with the implementation CBUIII uses but it's the same on FFXVI demo, the same blurriness & softening.

Funny thing is with the FFXVI demo few hours after it came out some in the community already made a mod to fix it.

Anyhow there's not been a single word about any of this from SE side and I'm guessing they just won't do anything about it and we'll just have to stick it up.

[Shnrnr]

I wanted my character to look the same, just upscaled.

This, times 1000. If I could boil this entire thread down to a single bug report, it's this:

Steps:

• create a character with the following characterstics (race, gender, face, etc.)
• compare the results between Endwalker and Dawntrail

Expected Results:

• the DT character looks like a higher-resolution version of the EW character

Actual Results:

• the DT character looks similar to the EW character but with clear design differences between the [brows/jaw/mouth/eyes/chin/cheeks/etc.]

I understand that there isn't an easy fix, especially now that many new players have created characters that they must be happy with using the updated facial features. But I'll say it again: if I could turn off the entire graphics update just to get my character back, I'd do it.

[Argantaelle]

And the last post for today. This is a character update done right. This is the same face structurally and fundamentally; the only changes are the loss of frowned brow texture (maybe because of lighting) and eyes (pupils moved up and are almost covered with the upper eyelid; it's a common issue with male Au Ra eyes).

Full-face


Three quaters

It's amazing that the least popular Au Ra face got the best treatment. I want to thank whoever was working on it. You did a great job.

P.S. I'm tired. I spent way too much time posting all this crap.