Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Metool42]

Fem Miqo Face 2 eyebrows still completely messed up. Absolutely annoying.

[Turethir]

Just another request for Thancred's face to be fixed <3 And I hope that we see some changes in 7.2 for everyone wanting them!

[lunartears]

Someone posted a website that compares every face in the JP thread, the faces aren't consistently aligned though.
http://ss683699.stars.ne.jp/

[Valence]

What I find the craziest is how the rendering quality of hair has significantly dropped: the base diffuse texture is higher resolution yes, but there is no reflection or light map anymore, no shaders, nothing much affects hair and it's just turned into flat cardboard. They don't even seem to get wet anymore.

[Kranel_San]

My only graphical update wish is to see some ARR/HW models in HD textures.

Ahriman, Ifrit, Titan, etc.... all look pretty ugly and you can even see their polygons and pixels from your normal view. Actually, we have an updated Ahriman model (The Lunar subterranean) as well as the first boss in WoD, both of which look absolutely amazing in comparison to the base ARR Ahriman model which looks almost like a PS2 model.

[Cyrtip]

My biggest disappointment from the update, at least on the character side, was probably the mouths. The old drawn-on ones fit the aesthetic so much better, and the new ones are just realistic enough to look uncanny on the otherwise stylized faces. Chances are though, they're 'to spec' and are here to stay.

Someone posted a website that compares every face in the JP thread, the faces aren't consistently aligned though.
http://ss683699.stars.ne.jp/

At least on face 4 Aura♀ (both clans), those are the faces from 7.0, though 7.1 didn't improve very much.

[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.

1.


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: