Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Argantaelle]

This is some late-time feedback on 7.1 character changes. According to data, SE did change various features (mostly eyelids, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc.), even though very slightly. The eyelids of Elezen face 4 were also affected. I did some comparison screenshots.

The changes are minuscule and hardly perceptible on screenshots, but when playing, I noticed that the eyes started to look narrower and a little bit closer to their former self. Maybe it's just an illusion, because the eyebrows, the forehead shape, and the mouth (the worst culprit) haven't been touched at all. Somehow I doubt they will ever be.

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2.

P.S. Also, it seems like SE changed the lighting in the character creation menu: it became less bright. Look at the hair: the lighting was so strong that it even caused the loss of graphical information, and some patches of hair turned into the true white. On the 7.1 screenshot, the hair colour looks more natural. Also, the saturation decreased and skin and hair colours became closer to the original ones. These are good changes.

[Argantaelle]

A new lengthy post is on the horizon, so be prepared.

It all started when I was going through Dawntrail, and all of a sudden, in one of the cutscenes, I saw this NPC and his lovely smile.

The spiritual animal of SE animation artists:

Fortunately, not all NPCs smile like this. For example, this nice fellow has a very natural-looking, genuine smile, which is pleasant to look at.

When I compared these two pictures, I was curious: how many faces were affected by the cartoonish creepiness? I have no illusion this feedback will ever be interesting to SE; I'm doing this for my own enjoyment (and a little bit out of spite, haha). Fortunately, I'm a veteran player, so I get a free bottle of Fantasia with every new character. Thus I could change the appearance of my test subject freely for 60 minutes, significantly reducing the time required to collect all the examples.

All character faces have the same traits: jaw 1, eyes 1, nose 1, mouth 1, no facial features, light skin tone, and no character paint. All characters are male, because during my MSQ playthrough, female NPC smiles looked better in general. I also didn't test any Hrothgars or Lalafells, because their character models are unique. All screenshots were made in gpose; the emote was "simper," lip movement 2.

[Argantaelle]

Midlanders.

Some of the faces look very natural when smiling and talking; the other ones have lost in the character upgrade lottery.

Face 1.

Face 2.

Face 3. A non-standard face, which is not preventing the smile from looking good.

1.

2.

Faces 5 and 6 got hit hard with the update. The smiling line is created mostly with the lower lip; the upper lip isn't changed in any way and stays short and stiff, thus creating an uncanny impression, especially when only the thin corners of the mouth are raised high. The smile turns into a semicircle when the NPC is talking. The lower lip is enlarged, protruded (even to the point of crossbite), and lowered down so much that it looks unnatural. We'll see the same pattern a lot, so I'm going to refer to this type of cartoonish smile as the "semicircle smile.".

5.


6.


6.

This NPC has the 5th midlander face:

The emote is /taunt, though, but I think it can be included in the list.

[Argantaelle]

Miqo'te

Small cats won in the smiling lottery; all faces look good when smiling and talking.

Face 1.

Face 2.

Face 3.

Elezen

Elezens are mostly fine; only one face has the semicircle smile when talking, but it's less prominent and looks almost normal.

Face 1.

Face 2.

Smile with the lips closed:


Smile when talking:

The issue is present, but the smile looks a little bit more natural, maybe because Elezens don't open their mouth wide when talking. If the mouth is longer than the default Hyur mouths, the semicircle smile turns into the semi-oval one (like on this screenshot). You are going to see this pattern a few times later.

Face 3 is ok. Face 4 is good:

[Argantaelle]

Roegadyn

As with Highlanders, some Roegadyn faces suffer from the worst talking when smiling animations.

Face 1. Bad.

1.
He looks like a normal fellow, doesn't he?


2. Oh no!

SE even hasn't bothered to adjust the size of the smile proportionally to the large Roegadyn face or just turn the semicircle smile into the semi-oval one, like they've done before. The large mouth shrinks miraculously into a short semicircle.

Face 2. Good.

Face 3. Good.

Face 4. Not that good.

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2.

Once again it's the same semicircle "smile" we've seen a few times so far.


Viera

Bunnies look good when smiling and talking.

Face 1.

Face 2.

This mouth shape looks a little bit suspicious, but still better than many others. Maybe it's because of the upper lip; it's plumper than an average one.

[Argantaelle]

Au Ra

Au Ra got the short end of the stick with the character update, so I'm not surprised that only one face looks more or less natural when smiling and smiling and talking.

Face 1. Good.

Face 2. Gods, my eyes!

1.


2. What a lovely smile!


So, SE, you replaced my character's lips with this monstrosity, and you are adamant that now this new mouth looks good, right? That this unnatural, cartoonish "smile" was the vision SE artists had in mind when they created Auri faces back in 2014-2015?

Face 3. Not as bad as the 2nd face, but still leaves to be desired.

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2.

Face 4. We've seen that SE can animate non-standard old faces properly, so I was surprised to see that the 4th face doesn't look good when smiling and smiling and talking.

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2.


3. The same copypasted semi-oval "smile", as we've seen before.

And why does this fellow always look above the camera? I swear I clicked on the "look at the camera" button.

[Argantaelle]

Highlanders.

Some Au Ra and Roegadyn faces look bad when smiling, but it's nothing compared to how disfigured Highlander faces are when they are trying to show you their affection.

Face 1. I have no words.

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2.


3.

Face 2. Good.

Face 3. I wonder if there was any QA at all. I know these faces aren't popular, but this is unacceptable.

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2.

Face 4. Good.

Bonus image.
The smile of this female Miqo'te looks suspiciously familliar...

Maybe I'll look through female faces later. Unfortunately, taking screenshots, processing them, and making posts takes lots of time.

[lunartears]

I have little faith in 7.2 for personally requested changes but I hope at the minimum that the eyebrow discolouration issue on some races will be addressed.

Miqo'te (incorrectly coloured grey)



Highlander (correctly coloured white)



*Correctly coloured if you use thick eyebrows on Miqo'te:



I also hope for fixes regarding related issues like the thickened/matte texture (and shape of eyebrows) on certain faces, and of course the lip shape/colour on the majority of faces.

[Heavenchild]

I already spoke about this but I want to bring it up again, because I am really so sad about it.

Please SE could you please bring my beloved potato back? qwq

He looked so much cuter before the update. His eyes had life and his smile was so cute and lovely.

Now he looks so dead, the space between mouth and nose is bigger, and the smile is so creepy with that sharp edges... The whole face is off compared to before.
I have no fun logging in on him anymore and there is no way for me to fix him.
Please save Verlin. :C
I cry qwq

[Fatty]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, I took a break again and didn't follow this up, but are you saying that SE didn't fix or revert the character textures/models after the 7.0 update, to this day?

Completely baffled.

Look at my post count and join date. I've been a very long time supporter of SE, with decades of XI subscription as well.

I don't like what I am seeing here. I work in the industry myself, and have worked on multiple MMOs before and worked for companies everyone knows. This is something you just don't do. You don't just go and change people's characters after a decade. That is common sense.

I'm just baffled. Especially after their official response here, that they just didn't do anything.

Then I wonder, all these decades-long subscription fees. Where are they going, and what is it funding?