Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Doopliss]

I don't play this combination, but I haven't seen it mentioned in a while, so I wanted to add that the nose smudge option for ♀ Dunesfolk Face 4 has still not been fixed.

Here's a comparison of the same option on the Plainsfolk variant of the face to show what it's supposed to look like:



I only feel a need to mention this again because, for some reason, the nose smudge issue had been fixed on every female Plainsfolk face, and faces 1-3 for female Dunesfolk, but not 4. So it feels easy to potentially miss.

I know ♂ Viera Face 1 is also having issues with its dark nose/nose smudge option's colors--particularly against dark skin--so please also look over these.

Just checked my retainer. Four months later and they still haven't caught this bug with female Dunesfolk Face 4, lol. I'll try to make a proper bug report on it later. How did they correct every face for each clan except this one...?

[Joralia]

Thank you for another update. I will be giving my feedback here.

Face 1 Raen, Eyes 6, Mouth 1, Large irises
7.0


7.1


Apologies for the angles/zooms being different.

I must ask, why are the limbal rings so bright now? Because my pupils are larger, the limbals overpower the irises. I can barely tell what colour my Au Ra's eyes are anymore. Also, the limbal rings appear white even though they are a light purple in the character creator...

I see the lips have been changed and it looks a little better, but they still look nothing like they did in Endwalker. Her smiles are still creepy. And in some lights, I still get the old Face 2 dimples as seen here:



Overall, it is an improvement, but I am unsatisfied. The limbal rings are the most egregious change with how much they overpower the irises and the fact that they lack colour now. The mouth is still the wrong mouth.

I will post again later after I look at my friend's Miqo'te.

[Cyrtip]

Taking a quick glance at face 4 Au Ra, there were definitely some good changes.
I don't have time to get 7.1 pictures of everything right now, but my feedback posts have images of 6.5/7.0 versions of the faces for at least a partial reference, and I'm using it as a checklist here aha.

Nothing from my first post was addressed, oh well...

From the second post, face 4's eyelashes have been straightened, more like they were in 6.5.
Eyeshadow also now follows the shape of the eye, like in 6.5.
The deep troughs under the lower eyelids were removed again, like in 6.5.

From the third post, cheeks are ever so slightly less puffy.
Nose 5 has a wide bridge again, and looks closer to its 6.5 appearance.
The scale that warps unnaturally at the bottom of the forehead scales has been fixed.
The lower lip of mouth 1 was flattened just a bit, but it was the top one that jutted out and looked odd, so... (Still doesn't resemble its 6.5 counterpart at all, though)

From the fourth post (This stuff is more universal, not character/race specific), the root of the hairstyle I'm using is still oddly dark.
Hair still looks too greasy.
Hair still casts shadows over the eyes, but still doesn't cast shadow over the forehead, glowing foreheads weren't fixed :/
Overhead lights highlighting cheekbones while the cheek just under them is shrouded in complete darkness, unfixed.
I can't say for sure if noses are less pronounced with 7.1's lighting right now, but the devs don't seem to have looked at lighting, so probably no fix.
Skin still looks like sandpaper both when poorly lit and in places on the face where there is a gradient from lit to in shadow. Skin is also still really oily.
Glowing lips, lower eyelids, and teeth, also unfixed.
So, nothing from the 4th post, either.

[Iscah]

So looking around at NPCs and other player characters, all the miqote seem to have enlarged lips in this patch for some reason? I've also seen some female midlanders were hit by the issue too.

My gut feeling for face 3 Midlander was that her mouth looked less wide, though the same width and vertically thicker might give the same impression. I'll have to compare more closely later.

[Solazz]

I'm at work now, but had a couple minutes this morning to check my character's face out. I'll edit this with a pic later, but I can definitely side with Joralia that au ra limbal rings are insanely bright suddenly.

I'm a face 4 xaela female that had a soft red glow that's now neon pink.

[Astronis]

Well, I'm not happy. The change is very very subtle, and if this is what I had gotten with the first update originally, I wouldn't have been unhappy. But that's not what happened. What happened is I got to get used to something I liked very very much, and then had that positive change taken away. It's extremely subtle, I'll get used to it, but I will not forgive the people screeching about eyelashes for the fact that it happened.

Take care, I'm out. Hope you guys got what you wanted.

[Cyrtip]

(snip) why are the limbal rings so bright now?

(snip) au ra limbal rings are insanely bright suddenly

I know that in 7.0 limbal rings became obnoxiously bright at night and invisible during the day.
Personally, I only checked to see if they were back to not glowing at night, because that's what time it was in-game when I logged in.

Making them obnoxiously drown out what little pupil color we still have with our dilated 7.0 Au Ra eyes, both in day and night, seems like a great way to disappoint everyone...
Hopefully, if the limbal glow is now actually consistent regardless of time of day/light sources (will have to check), we can just pick a darker color, but there's only so many colors in the game's limited palette.

[Neytirhi]

4. Light-haired eyebrows (all faces).
They are still transparent.

face 1

face 4

Same problem with Keeper of the Moon face 4 female Miqo'te sadly. It even lacks color itself, like it's very greyish for every light hair color.
I still look eyebrowless and I just don't want to play the game looking like that...

EW :




DT :





Also notice how the smirk looks absolutely stupid now (yes, those are supposed to be the very same face emote... yeah...), but that I could ignore compared to the eyebrows...

But since that's an issue for less people, they just ignore it, even though it looks absolutely awful. And obv in Japan that must be very niche... dark skin light & hair, right...

[noumen0nn]

Four months. Let's tally up the adjustments that took you four months:

• very slight adjustment to the eyeliner facial feature, still not nearly as dark as it was in 6.0, and still only dark just above the upper eyelid instead of covering the whole eyelid
• nigh-imperceptible adjustment to the eyebrow shape in terms of vertical thickness, with no adjustments to hair thickness or overall shape
• normal map of the philtrum has been adjusted to make it less thin and deep. It is still thinner than in 6.0 and still doesn't widen toward the lip like it should.
• shadow under the lower lip has been restored to its pre-7.0 shape, at the cost of making the lower lip bigger for no apparent reason.
  
  Using ReShade's display depth filter, I have confirmed that not a single adjustment to the geometry of the face has been made.
  
  7.0 on the left, 7.1 on the right
  

THIS took you four months? To anyone on the FFXIV team reading this message, I want you to know from the bottom of my heart: You should be ashamed of yourselves. I have completely lost faith in your ability to right your wrongs, and I'm sure that we can count on the 7.2 adjustments being just as insubstantial. I guess I'm just never getting my character back. I hope that the art team reads every single heartbroken message in this forum, and knows that you have failed us.

edit: going into the in-game lighting, it's also apparent that you didn't actually adjust the under-eye bags. Great job.

[Doopliss]

It's extremely subtle, I'll get used to it, but I will not forgive the people screeching about eyelashes for the fact that it happened.

Take care, I'm out. Hope you guys got what you wanted.

Nobody was 'screeching' about that. If you really care about how others feel, too, you wouldn't be antagonizing them with exaggerated word choice. I'm sorry for what you're now also going through, and I hope that you can still enjoy your character, but most people who are upset had way more major changes than just...eyelash adjustment.

So, more like welcome to the club, I guess. And I'm sorry you're in it. The changes they did in this patch seem to be of a completely random, subtle variety, and they outright didn't touch any faces that did actually possess major geometrical changes.

I know that in 7.0 limbal rings became obnoxiously bright at night and invisible during the day.
Personally, I only checked to see if they were back to not glowing at night, because that's what time it was in-game when I logged in.

Making them obnoxiously drown out what little pupil color we still have with our dilated 7.0 Au Ra eyes, both in day and night, seems like a great way to disappoint everyone...
Hopefully, if the limbal glow is now actually consistent regardless of time of day/light sources (will have to check), we can just pick a darker color, but there's only so many colors in the game's limited palette.

Ohhh my god. Speaking of completely random; why did they do this? This is way too over-tuned.

The initial 7.0 change didn't look like the original color I picked for her, but neither does whatever this is. She is supposed to have the darkest grey option possible--as in, the literal last option before you reach outright black--so why does it look outright white in even the daytime now!?