Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Rueby]

In the 7.1 patch notes there is literally more detailed information about the fem Hrothgar arms and the changes that were made than about any of the changes that were made to the character models "based on feedback from the community".........

I'm not surprised honestly, I never expected them to implement all the feedback and I was genuinely very pessimistic about it given their vague responses to us. It's a shame really, I stopped looking at my character until recently to check the twitching eyebrow bug that I wanted to report.

[Daralii]

I'm abit surprised that they haven't mentioned anything about the fem hrothgar comically large uhhhhh.......arms..armor thing. Did they ever fix it or say anything about it?
I don't see fem hrothgars often at all

edit : oh seems like they fixed the eyebrow twitching thing that was happening on multiple faces?

They listed several pieces that had their scaling fixed in the patch notes, but it's a drop in a bucket. The racial armor, strangely, was one of the sets not fixed.

[MikatoKai]

Hi, everyone. I'm here to ask a question that's been driving me crazy.

Is it just me, or is the male Viera face 4 looking chubbier over time? I have this impression, but when I compare I can’t tell if I'm just being picky, or if he really had a more angular face and, every time SE tweaks the graphics, his face looks rounder. Is anyone else noticing this?

I have the exact same feeling, and my face 4 male viera is my baby... But he looks like he's gaining weight. Which, while it's actually appropriate for his story, isn't really a change I wanted to see permanently in game. I think this recent update fixed his lip issues, but he still has a smoother jaw than he used to and bigger cheeks. I felt crazy for being the only one who noticed, too.

[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...

[Rokke]

Hi, everyone. I'm here to ask a question that's been driving me crazy.

Is it just me, or is the male Viera face 4 looking chubbier over time? I have this impression, but when I compare I can’t tell if I'm just being picky, or if he really had a more angular face and, every time SE tweaks the graphics, his face looks rounder. Is anyone else noticing this?

I think its a combination of the light hitting our cheeks/chin different (look at how your bun's chin catches the light in your old pictures vs the new for the clearest example of what I mean) + the noses no longer being shaded to look flat like bunny noses. Its hard to describe but its like every update sands down the angular features a little more which makes the face feel increasingly puffy and round.

[PaleYonder]

Meanwhile, I used to play male Viera face 4 for a long time before Dawntrail, then had to change it because it was wrong in ways I couldn't explain, and after way too many fantasia experiments and playing alts, I only just went back to male face 4 on my current main because in 7.1 I love the look again and it's just right. I've got my Endwalker character back except slightly more realistic, which I prefer.

It's kind of impressive really how all these changes manage to make almost everyone unhappy on at least one occasion, and now everyone wants to halt the changes at a different stage. For me personally, I'd say "Yes, please stop right here, this is good."

[sleepystaccato]

I ended up putting together more descriptive images of the limbal ring issue, it's still really bothering me how inconsistent the color is.
To start, this is the color swatch my character's limbal rings are and how they look in the aetherial sea background in character creation/the aesthetician

In this zone her limbal rings are darker than her iris, but as soon as she is put in any outdoors environment they get lightened substantially.

If the effect is meant to be for them to glow, why are they brighter at day time than in the dark?

as well, there seems to be a strange gradient effect happening at sunrise/sunset now that was not previously there, or if it was was far less noticeable. this gradient is also present on the character info screen. this has been more noticeable to me on characters with extremely light limbal rings where they'll just have a speck of neon color when examining them


The environment that closest replicates what her limbal rings looked like prior to 7.1 I've been able to find has been in the Tulliyolal inn room, too bad it's not this way everywhere.

They're not currently in a state where it feels good to keep using them, but my characters impression changes without them even though the effect is subtle. I kinda feel like her iris is too bright too but I'm not sure if I'm just going crazy from staring at eyes for so long.
Before, people with light color limbal rings were disappointed and now people with darker ones are upset... the back and forth between the two extremes is frustrating and I hope that they will be more transparent with what they intend to change and what is working as intended because just praying that an aspect of my character I like is going to stay how it is in the next patch is making new patches less exciting and more anxiety inducing. It sucks getting used to how your character looks just to have the rug pulled every few months.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

I happened to have the Endwalker benchmark open while reading sleepystaccato's post, so here are some 6.X references in case you want them:


(I don't know if the color of the iris is accurate, but the limbal ring is the same as what you posted)
From left to right: Aether environment, Black Shroud day (in the shadow, backlit), and Black Shroud night

100% agreed with how this is anxiety inducing, I'm very worried that if they decide to fix/revert the darker limbal rings it will have an impact on the brighter ones and I'll lose my character again in 7.2.

[sleepystaccato]

Thanks for taking these, I wanted to grab them myself for comparison but I don't have the Endwalker benchmark on my new pc.

It's awful that either way they've gone in 7.x has negatively effected one or the other groups characters and I wish at least for limbal rings they'd just revert to however the were rendered pre-graphics update.

[RainStormwalker]

Is there a thread anywhere talking about the loss of the red subsurface scattering for Au Ra? I know they did that because people complained, but I thought it was beautiful and I feel really robbed. Horns will have a layer of dead keratin, but they still have blood vessels in order to grow, so their arguments didn't make sense anyway. If you shave an animal's horn down too much it will bleed. Were the people complaining even au ra mains? I never saw the posts Yoshi P was talking about anyway, everyone I know loved it. Could we have a toggle at least?

I had reserved from saying anything because I wasn't sure how it would look when they changed it, but it looks really sad compared to how pretty it used to be.

Edit to add: Also her pupils being so much larger in 7.0 and the inner edge of the iris being darker means she looks like she has black holes for eyes with the blue limbal ring around it. I know the larger pupil looks good without limbals and with some color combos, but it really made my character look strange. I miss being able to see the color of her iris. I'll deal with it though, I'm more sad they took the pretty color from the horns and tail.