Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Adamantini]

Not sure if chubbier but definitely rounded/smoothed, I have a face 4 alt and he completely lost his nice square chin, now he looks just as soft and effeminate as the three other faces. I specifically chose face 4 because it was the only with a "harsh" jaw (compared to the others), my lad is a grumpy, grizzled old fighter dagnabit, not some pretty city boy and I want him back!

Yeah, I also preferred face 4 because it was the most "masculine" of them, if I can describe it that way. I liked how it stood apart from the rounder style of the other faces and had an older look. After this last update, I started noticing my cheeks looking rounder, completely losing their definition (I had already noticed this with 7.0, but now it seems worse? Or maybe it’s just the lighting in which I looked at my character? I’m not sure; he just feels off to me).

At least it seems like the character’s expressions have improved. Before, it looked like he was smiling to hide how dead he felt inside, but now there's been some improvement—except for the "Big Grin" emote.


EDIT

I decided to look for old images on Discord to compare my character, and I totally regret it. Now I’m just frustrated and want my character back. The face is definitely a lot rounder. When looking at the images below, keep in mind that I changed my character’s lip shape and eye color, as well as my use of Reshade.

This is an image I took from the EW benchmark, and next to it, an image I tried to match at the same angle. The expression is also much worse than it used to be.


This one here is in-game, right when EW launched. You can see that the “square” definition the face had has turned into a rounder shape.


I don’t usually take many zoomed-in images of my character’s face, but my friends have this weird habit of taking screenshots that make my character look as ridiculous as possible. Despite the awful pose, you can clearly see how the face shape has changed from a V to a U.


Bonus: AND CAN I KNOW WHY THE HELL THIS TATTOO IS STILL IN 144P?

[potatsdevourer]

Haha I am not surprised but also still disappointed.

Tell me honestly, if there is any difference between these two patches. I'll wait.

Okay, so apart from the eyebrows on 7.0 is #3 and on 7.1 is #2, and tanner skin that I picked, there are no discernable change that I can identify in relation to the so-called new graphic patch for 7.1.

Try again, Square Enix. My complain is still the same.

[MikatoKai]

Yeah, I also preferred face 4 because it was the most "masculine" of them, if I can describe it that way. I liked how it stood apart from the rounder style of the other faces and had an older look. After this last update, I started noticing my cheeks looking rounder, completely losing their definition (I had already noticed this with 7.0, but now it seems worse? Or maybe it’s just the lighting in which I looked at my character? I’m not sure; he just feels off to me).

At least it seems like the character’s expressions have improved. Before, it looked like he was smiling to hide how dead he felt inside, but now there's been some improvement—except for the "Big Grin" emote.


EDIT

I decided to look for old images on Discord to compare my character, and I totally regret it. Now I’m just frustrated and want my character back. The face is definitely a lot rounder. When looking at the images below, keep in mind that I changed my character’s lip shape and eye color, as well as my use of Reshade.

This is an image I took from the EW benchmark, and next to it, an image I tried to match at the same angle. The expression is also much worse than it used to be.

I have no idea what they did with the /annoyed expression, but it's completely different. The inner eyebrows raise more and it gives it more of a concerned expression, but I didn't have the photos to compare myself, just that I KNEW it was different, so thank you for the evidence.

Sigh. I feel like this face is so unpopular that it won't get fixed. I'm trying to console myself a bit and tell myself it's not as bad as I think, but I love my boy. He's my rp main, I've been rping on him for a year now, he's based off of my late bunny. I CAN'T change him. But he's been changed... I can't get over how they made him softer. I wanted a strong viking man...

[Hatsuoki]

I'm making a new post since I posted last time before I had a long look at the changes. I do think the philtrum look less deep (male midlander face 6) and the puffiness under the eyes have been reduced a little (female au ra face 2). Thank you for these fixes.

But I'm still really disappointed in the lack of change this patch, especially because I thought lip fixes were coming until the patch notes the day before the patch dropped. I hope that they're not considered "spec" and that a fix is still coming. I'd like to hear an update from the devs that lips are still being worked on.

Personally, I feel that fixing the lips would solve a large part of the "different impression" problem. I'll post a comparison photo once again because I don't want to give up. In the 6.x model, even though the corners of the mouth is turned down, the way his lips were pursed gave a cheeky, attitude-of-superiority look. The impression was clearly expressed to artists and writers and helped build their understanding of the character. But even though I'm always posting about an NPC, this also shows why it's important to copy the details of the previous models since the team working on these are understandably disconnected from our personal WoLs whom we picked these traits for a reason or built them up in our minds over our years of playtime because of their features.

I also usually only talk about the lips and expressions but I also want to know if the darkness around the eyes are going to be lessened. I want to be clear that I'm not talking about the dark under eye circles since he had those before. But the area between the eyes and nose are so unnaturally dark that they don't look like shadows and give the face a very pinched look. I can't help but think it looks like dirt on his face because it doesn't seem to change based on lighting anymore. These deep shadows used to only show up under harsh lighting conditions.

Face 6, mouth 3

[Kahnha]

To be honest Au'ra is and always has been my favorite race has been since HW

I was trying to really enjoy 7.1 but it keeps souring for me when I see how my chara looks now
I'm Kinda upset that 7.1 removed Auri horn glow near light sources I don't normally post here but it was the whole reason I went to be a raen was because the horns had the glow
(like light traveling through your fingers)
I know some people did not like it but this really should have been made as an option that you can turn on and off. atm the character looks downgraded like we went back to 6.x. after 7.1.

[Peachyyyy]

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6513666

I put all this effort in, as early as I could, and hardly anything changed. A small tweak to the mouth. I was right not to get my hopes up, and yet I still feel disappointed anyway. I made a trial account to preview the changes. This was their chance to win me back, but I think maybe I stay unsubbed. I miss my miqo'te so so so much.

I feel this so much! I appreciate all the effort you put in for talking about face 4 miqo. I mostly play a viera alt now because any time I look at my miqo in a cutscene I feel so uncomfortable, especially when she emotes now or there's any light on her face. She just doesn't look like herself and I don't think she even looks good unless she's in shadow with a neutral expression. I was such a big miqo fan that I couldn't imagine playing any other race and I miss mine so much.

[Cheapshot]

I feel this so much! I appreciate all the effort you put in for talking about face 4 miqo. I mostly play a viera alt now because any time I look at my miqo in a cutscene I feel so uncomfortable, especially when she emotes now or there's any light on her face. She just doesn't look like herself and I don't think she even looks good unless she's in shadow with a neutral expression. I was such a big miqo fan that I couldn't imagine playing any other race and I miss mine so much.

I appreciate it. I fantasia’d to this au’ra because I wanted to do stuff with friends and seeing my miqo’te made me too sad to play. It’s just not my character though. I miss the voice and emotes of my original charcter. This new character appearance just isn’t me. I still haven’t played Dawntrail because it just doesn’t feel right without the WoL that’s been with me throughout the whole story so far.

I’ve been unsubbed for about two weeks now. You aren’t allowed to post without logging into the game within 14 days, so I guess I likely wont be able to respond or leave any more feedback indefinitely. I’ve been paying them just so I could be part of the feedback process and try and get my character back. No luck though. I just hope they have a change of heart and treat this issue more seriously. I hope they’ll realize the value of the players who miss their pre 7.0 appearances. I’ll keep an eye on things from afar and hope I can return to my favourite MMO eventually.

[Cheapshot]

I just don’t understand their priorities. The players who were invested in their characters appearances are the ones who are likely to stay subbed in off months between expansions. More likely to buy mog station clothes and emotes. Maybe we didn’t buy as many fantasias, but now they’ve already given two free ones away to everyone. I just don’t understand why they seem so entrenched in sticking to these new appearances. Just pull the old meshes in, overlay them, and adjust the new meshes to match the old shapes better. Overlay the old and new textures and see where they differ and fix it. What were they doing if not that, and why?? They should be returning peoples appearances back to how we enjoyed them for up to a decade. After that, work on expanding the character creator to use sliders or a wider selection of options or both. This seems so straight forward. Im just so at a loss and confused.

[Daralii]

I just don’t understand their priorities. The players who were invested in their characters appearances are the ones who are likely to stay subbed in off months between expansions. More likely to buy mog station clothes and emotes. Maybe we didn’t buy as many fantasias, but now they’ve already given two free ones away to everyone. I just don’t understand why they seem so entrenched in sticking to these new appearances. Just pull the old meshes in, overlay them, and adjust the new meshes to match the old shapes better. Overlay the old and new textures and see where they differ and fix it. What were they doing if not that, and why?? They should be returning peoples appearances back to how we enjoyed them for up to a decade. After that, work on expanding the character creator to use sliders or a wider selection of options or both. This seems so straight forward. Im just so at a loss and confused.

I'm pessimistic and jaded enough at this point to think the goal first and foremost was to streamline the face animation process, which meant homogenizing features that strayed too far from the norm, and everything else was an afterthought.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I just don’t understand their priorities. The players who were invested in their characters appearances are the ones who are likely to stay subbed in off months between expansions. More likely to buy mog station clothes and emotes. Maybe we didn’t buy as many fantasias, but now they’ve already given two free ones away to everyone. I just don’t understand why they seem so entrenched in sticking to these new appearances. Just pull the old meshes in, overlay them, and adjust the new meshes to match the old shapes better. Overlay the old and new textures and see where they differ and fix it. What were they doing if not that, and why?? They should be returning peoples appearances back to how we enjoyed them for up to a decade. After that, work on expanding the character creator to use sliders or a wider selection of options or both. This seems so straight forward. Im just so at a loss and confused.

So much this… I was thinking about it last night when I was reading another post, and someone was mentioning the limitations and how they can’t possibly get exactly the same or even close to the original character design.

Now I freely admit that I don’t have the first clue about the tech involved. But you’re telling me the newer, better system can’t render shapes as accurately as the older, outdated one could? How is that an upgrade exactly? A lay person would think adding more polygons would give you greater control over rendering the shapes of the facial features, not less!