Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Einnecy]

I thought about making more comparisons but I'm really tired of this and so many people have done a fantastic job already, so as my closing thoughts I'll leave this:


(Note: Eyebrows in picture 1 are different and I couldn't be arsed to change it for the other comparisons.)

(Note: Hair color is different in picture 1.)

In essence, 7.1 did nothing for me.

The patch notes mentioned having fixed corners for some lip options and, having no comparison photos to go by, I was hopeful that it would include au ra♀ face2 mouth3 but it did not. The mouth remains smaller and in a perpetual smile. A far cry from its original.

Despite having no lip color options chosen, both give off the impression of wearing lipstick/lip gloss. They look particularly darker and with more shine on my midlander.

And while I am on the topic of mouths, in my last reply I have jokingly mentioned that the new facial animations might as well be "spec"...

I guess the bleached ♀raen scales, strong shine and darkened colour of the lips, uncanny white eye texture, large pupils, new facial animations, etc. are all spec. lol

This looks horrible...

While I do think toning the intensity of the philtrum is a step in the right direction, I must reiterate my last statement that waiting 4 months for that is an absolute embarrassment and insult to this game's players when so much else has gone unaddressed.

On the topic of eye bags, it being something I strongly want on my midlander, I am just baffled that, as far as midlander♀ faces go, face1 and face4 seem to have had a swap. Face4 used to be the only face with noticeable creases under the eyes. I would love to see face 4 regain that subtle maturity and older appearance it had.

The pupils also still remain way too large that they easily make the eye color as a whole darker, especially on au ra and the imbal rings in 7.1.

And lastly... A minor nit-pick but something I dislike are the straightened bangs on the hime cut for au ra♀. I might be one of few who enjoyed the gentle messiness of it. It's too clean. Too perfect. Much like every other change brought by the graphical update.

I am curious to see where SE/CS3 will further take the aesthetic direction of the game, but not curious or hopeful enough to keep subscribing. I haven't been a huge fan of the game's glamour direction for a while now, especially when I see something like this, but it was easy to dismiss it as a "me thing". Until it affected the characters I play with, anyways.

I appreciate everyone who has commented and those who will continue to fight until their characters are back home. Going through this thread has been a great solace for me. Sadly, I've come to terms that FF14 isn't for me anymore and that I'll never have my characters back. And so I must say goodbye. Thank you, everyone. And good luck.

[YumekoKei]

I honestly wish SE would give me the old graphics back...

[AvaloniaFallen]

The patch notes mentioned having fixed corners for some lip options and, having no comparison photos to go by, I was hopeful that it would include au ra♀ face2 mouth3 but it did not. The mouth remains smaller and in a perpetual smile. A far cry from its original.
[

It's bizarre to me that they got rid of fem!ra face 3's smile and decided that face 2 and 4 need to have a resting smile instead, and that face 4 should have face 2's dimples. I chose face 4 partially because of the somewhat dour resting face, I don't know why they're changing the vibes of all the fem!ra faces around.

[IndraSyngiwyb]

Checked in on my femroe to see if anything has changed and, nope. She looks just as terrible as she did when 7.0 dropped.

I'm not expecting Square to ever fix Femroes since they are not as popular as Miqo'te, but whatever. The only reason I'm even staying subbed is because I don't wanna lose my house that I struggled for ages to get.

[duckslap]

I already gave feedback on the pupils and new limbals a few days ago, but I'd also like to point out that the lips on female Face 1 Au Ra are still downturned, with the centre lip line being straighter and thinner compared to Endwalker.

[azaleai]

Checked in on my femroe to see if anything has changed and, nope. She looks just as terrible as she did when 7.0 dropped.

I'm not expecting Square to ever fix Femroes since they are not as popular as Miqo'te, but whatever. The only reason I'm even staying subbed is because I don't wanna lose my house that I struggled for ages to get.

All that changed was the philtrum and the line around the lips being blurred out... which was only about 15% of the problem.

[Elissar]

Two very different characters with all those changes. -_-

Damn the one on the left looks dangerous/menacing/confident, the right one looks cuck/childish/on drugs/lazy/lifeless
Almost like nofap/daily fapping


sorry

[Tarath]

So this took four months and warrants another fantasia?

Removal of the philtrum and minor adjustments to the face scale texture that’s still misaligned?


Clearer screenshot of the scale texture under the spike

Meanwhile the face scales are still not attached to the face.

Though the gaps can only be seen from certain angles, it’s pretty easy to see how detached they can be in cutscenes as well.
Here are some more screenshots where the gap between the face and bottom spikes is seen. All are from the same cutscene along with the first image in this post.



Limbal rings have improved in my books. Overall they glow brighter especially where they would be more muted before. However they’re too dependent on the surrounding light which decides how much they will be glowing.

Same cutscene

They weren’t perfect before the graphics update and relied on light as well.. Yet they never disappeared or blended with the iris regardless of light source.

Pre DT screenshots

The portrait highlights how dependent they are on a light source to glow, which can lead to a jarring shift between dark and light shades.

One of the face spikes can be seen detached from the face here as well.

Additionally it doesn’t give off a glowing effect unless the directional light hits the entirety of the limbal ring.

Right click to enlarge image

Something I wished the graphic update would adjust was for the limbal rings to have a more independent glow, and I’m still hoping there will be adjustments for it in the future. Currently it is sort of on the right track for brighter colours, yet still too dependent on a light source.


In regards to the subsurface scattering on horns and tail, to me it felt like they slapped the shader on whatever they could get away with. Seeing that there’s none of it now, contrary to what the lodestone post stated, I actually prefer it this way. I wouldn’t mind some translucency as long as face scales on male Au Ra gets the same or a similar treatment, for the sake of consistency.




Overall the very few changes are a positive in my opinion, yet the lack of changes overwhelms me with disappointment. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was hoping for similar adjustments made between the first and second benchmark.

And it’s especially saddening to see that none of my bug reports have yet to be addressed. They might be considered minor since most of them are related to the face type I use, however I still can’t stand the uncanny blinking animation that’s still present.


I still miss his unkempt aggressive eyebrows and how the shape around the eyebrows used to be. Though the nose is pretty close to how it was, I do miss how thin and sharp it was. I miss his old stylized and somewhat goofy lips, the old scale texture and all of the previous expressions. Here’s hoping Square will still consider the previous given feedback.

[noumen0nn]

I've been talking to a lot of people in the past few days regarding the update, and something I've found is that the crowd of players who are generally unhappy with it is much, much bigger than what's represented by the forums. Maybe they weren't bothered enough to post here, or were able to get used to it, but out of everyone I've spoken to since Dawntrail dropped, almost no one was fully happy with their character after the graphics update. I know this is anecdotal, but by far the most common sentiment I've encountered is either total ambivalence, or some version of "It's weird but I got used to it."

I want Square Enix to be aware of how widespread this sentiment is. Social media would have you believe that the majority of players were actively happy about the update, and this simply isn't the case. I don't know what factors went into the 7.1 changes being so embarrassingly insubstantial, whether it was lack of time, or fear of changing things too much for those who are okay with the current state of things. But you need to make these adjustments a higher priority. You isolated a very large portion of your player base to varying degrees, for very little tangible gain. You owe it to us to do better. You owe it to us to be transparent about how this process is being handled. And most of all, you owe us an apology.

It is no secret that community sentiment surrounding FFXIV is at an all-time low in many areas. I hope you are not thinking that you can get away with relying on patience and good faith, because you have long since exhausted those. If you want players to stick around, it is past time that you start demonstrating that you actually care about our feedback.

[Reinha]

I've been talking to a lot of people in the past few days regarding the update, and something I've found is that the crowd of players who are generally unhappy with it is much, much bigger than what's represented by the forums. Maybe they weren't bothered enough to post here, or were able to get used to it, but out of everyone I've spoken to since Dawntrail dropped, almost no one was fully happy with their character after the graphics update.

It's like a mold that grows in your wall. No matter how many coats of paint you put over it, it's never going to be the same. You can pretend it's fine for months and enjoy the colors and then all it takes is one day going through your screenshots and seeing that familiar face again. Zooming in while playing you realise that what you have in front of you is not your character anymore.

And you're paying monthly to the people who deleted it.