Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Tarath]

I didn’t expect any changes to my character from this patch as the previous patch did zero changes, so I didn’t really take a close look…(doesn’t help that most of the headgear I use covers the eyes)
But to my surprise they actually squared up the transition between eyebrows and nose so the eyebrows are no longer bleeding downwards onto the nose.
Additionally the blinking animation has been adjusted so the eyebrows aren’t being dragged along. There’s still a bit of pulling on the eyelid line as it was static originally, but honestly I’m not complaining and I’m happy that these things have been adjusted.


I wanted to make a clearer comparison of the blinking on a different race, but uuuh I guess there’s been less of an adjustment there? I hope that gets looked into as face paint makes it much more noticeable (along with other face paint issues).


However I’m guessing due to the nose being wider, the eyebrows aren’t as long as they used to be. (God I miss the old nose)



(I know I’m repeating myself like a broken record here)
I don’t watch much cutscenes anymore, but the few I have (and cannot skip, which is used as an example here) keeps highlighting the issues I still have with the face (mainly detached face scales that stretches with the skin, uncanny expressions, completely different lip shape, oh and of course the static upper eyelid bug)


I want to emphasise that the tips of these face scales have always been detached from the face pre-DT. However in DT the scales are literally floating off the face, while the rigging in DT treats the scales as if all of it is attached to the face.


EW left, DT right


DT




Despite each major patch having only brought tiny adjustments here and there, I do hope they continue to address the feedback given here on the forum. Hopefully they will consider bigger changes to make the faces look more like the old ones, but also offer a solution so players enjoying the new faces don't lose the features they now like.

[SalamanderIX]

I'm still waiting for a fix on some of the various male skin textures which have the rainbow flecks on them. Meanwhile most other faces have smooth skin that is one of the best features of the update.
Does Square even know the issue? It isn't something a lot of people may notice, except in zoom-ins. Thancred has it for instance. A lot of the Hyur and Viera faces.

[slowpeach]

The mouths are the worst part of the "upgrade," and changing two pixels on the face texture will never fix it, but that's sadly how theyve been addressing feedback so far...

I agree. I took a 2.5 month break from the game and recently came back, and i miss the old lips/mouth on my main character even more. (face 4 au ra mouth 2)

Even though the old graphics were drawn on textures, the lips in particular honestly had more shape/detail than the new rendered graphics. I expected the new graphics to be capable of rendering the same or higher level of detail but instead the new lips/mouths look like flat plastic.

the lip colour barely has any gloss effect either.

i will say that the zones look amazing though, and the new gear textures are great, but i can't help but feel that the character assets were either rushed or didn't get as much focus which is really sad.

I would hope they can revise the lips/mouths to be comparable to its pre 7.0 appearance, but as of 7.3 i haven't seen many changes in general sadly.

[Louhikko]

Did once again a bit of editing based on my personal tastes on how I wish the update was fulfilled. Feel free to open the images in a new tabs to flip back and fort for a poor mans gif.



I did a bit more than just bare minimum edits for this in the hopes that even if the current faces won't get updated/fixed further that we could possibly get new added faces more in line of the edit. Overall as a face 1 middie lover specifically, I wished the faces would slim down the nose, the current one looks rather big and the nostrils look flared and remove the big puffy eyelids along with bringing the eyeball slightly forward to make the eyes look less sunken in (I should'vee added some bottom eyelashes so image she has some). I also edited the jaw just slightly and brought the eyes down a bit for a more "youthful" look but that's a bit of extra I did just to highlight my personal taste rather than being an attempt at an objective fix.

But yea really wish we got something closer to the edit, maybe in form of a completely new face, my current middie has been sitting on sidelines untouched as I'm playing my alts in hope for the better future for my main.



Did a bit of editing for the face 2 as well (my second favorite face), it doesnt suffer as badly as face 1 does imo but I gave it a same treatment as face one.



I'm adding a face 5 to the mix, because I can and I have rage. It's the face that really want to like, because it's without a doubt the cutest of them all and I like cute but no matter what I can never get the face to work for me so it never gets used.

My biggest beef with face 5 is that while the nose size is fine the shape just looks so artificial like a product of plastic surgery, so I would smoothen it out a bit, make it more "buttony" and cute. The eyes on the other hand just look shellshocked, like the WoL is constantly reliving the horrors of the eight umbral clamity. This is probably due to the weird lines around the eyes as well as due to the sunken eyeball syndrome that prevails all faces, I would fix both, bring forth the eyeball and smoothen out the trauma lines around the eyes. I also touched up the lips a bit since people said they got issues with them and I think it's the desaturation that makes them look so plasticy, giiving them a bit of color would improve the issue a lot. The last I would rounder out the jaw just a bit to make her face even cuter and make the chin look less "dorito"ish.

But yea overall, all the faces struggle from similar issues which could be fixed relatively easily with some sculpting or normal map adjusting (smoothening) or just give us whole new faces, that is always a good neutral option that I would imagine would please pretty much everyone.

[Ellisya]

I did a bit more than just bare minimum edits for this in the hopes that even if the current faces won't get updated/fixed further that we could possibly get new added faces more in line of the edit. Overall as a face 1 middie lover specifically, I wished the faces would slim down the nose, the current one looks rather big and the nostrils look flared and remove the big puffy eyelids along with bringing the eyeball slightly forward to make the eyes look less sunken in (I should'vee added some bottom eyelashes so image she has some). I also edited the jaw just slightly and brought the eyes down a bit for a more "youthful" look but that's a bit of extra I did just to highlight my personal taste rather than being an attempt at an objective fix.

But yea really wish we got something closer to the edit, maybe in form of a completely new face, my current middie has been sitting on sidelines untouched as I'm playing my alts in hope for the better future for my main.

Your edits are fantastic! I am also feeling the frustration of middie face 1.

EW left, DT right on all the pictures.


Everything about her face has changed, and not for the better. Her nostrils are wider. Her mouth is still completely different. Her eyes are smaller with much, much less eye makeup (both top and bottom lashes), and her expression is more.. puffy. Her chin is rounder. And then the eyebags. Oohhhh the eyebags.


Her lower eyelid catches the light in so many awful ways, and with so much less eye makeup, it looks horrible.

Her sad face looks like a completely different character.


I haven't posted because so many people have already pointed out the problems so very clearly, and I truly thought a years worth of time would be enough for things to be sorted. But here we are. I can only hope at the very least, the eyebags and lack of eye makeup are addressed.

The bitterness is the best part...

[Louhikko]

Your edits are fantastic! I am also feeling the frustration of middie face 1.

Your images illustrate the issue sooo well, my god do I miss the old middie. My middie used ro rock that same hair and nearly same color, so seeing your middie is almost like seeing my own and goddamn, especially the sad face picture just shows how much more "youthful" our middies used to look. (also the last image made me snort out my drink so thanks :,D )

I think one of the big issues with the update, especially for middies and stay with me for a moment is that they actually didn't change the faces enough to fit the new lighting environment to keep the illusion the same. For example the puffy eyelids, the old model has them too however because of the way the lighting worked, they never got highligted as much as they do after the update. Same with the nose and the eyesize, the difference may not be technically huge but looking at the overall picture, the old middie looks more youtful with slimmer nose and bigger eyes, again lot to do with the way the old graphics tended to highlight the eye area making them stand out more. I think the issue with the devs (and I say this as an artist) is that there's a sort of communication breakdown between them and the playerbase. The players may say "don't change her" and devs take that literally without understanding that players are not devs or artists, when most players say that they want to keep everything the same what they really mean is that they want it to look the same not BE the same. Kinda like how those optical color illusions work where a same color looks different in different environment, the reverse can also be true and that's where the failure comes. The devs wanted to update the graphics but keep "the integrity" of the characters in tact but they see the characters as "polygons, normal maps and textures not as a finished product inside the game in different environments, so they may think "well the original model has these huge eyebags so they must be what the players want" but you add completely new lights and the character looks totally alien.

Not to say there aren't some objectively bad changed like the jaw being noticeable and the lips on many races as well but from an artist point of view this is just something I observed when comparing the models, especially when I look at all the pictures you posted. It just seems clear to me that not enough thought was put into preserving the "illusion" of the characters appearance than it's tecnhical jargon.




In fact to illustrate a point (on the left), I did the same edits to your character as I did to the previous edits; Make eyes a lot bigger, reduce puffy eyelids, make nose slimmer, make jaw smaller and bring eyes down a bit and despite my changes being obviously more on the nose (hehhe) it looks to me more in line with the original.

[Luluna]

You have shown how bad the midlander has changed. Face 1 just was ruined and she looks like she needs a big sleep and face 2 has lost that lovely pout and gentleness. The lips on all look rubbery and have no real textures and the noses look squashed and I find it so sad as I loved being a Midlander. I will be one again soon but on Au ra atm for a little change. I really hope they look again at what they have messed up as it looks bad.

[Louhikko]

You have shown how bad the midlander has changed. Face 1 just was ruined and she looks like she needs a big sleep and face 2 has lost that lovely pout and gentleness. The lips on all look rubbery and have no real textures and the noses look squashed and I find it so sad as I loved being a Midlander. I will be one again soon but on Au ra atm for a little change. I really hope they look again at what they have messed up as it looks bad.

Ugh, ikr, it's saaad. I do get though that even my changes may not be to everyone's taste but I was kinda going for how I imagined the old characters would look if they got updated. The updated characters are high quality but I also feel like they lost some of that final fantasy aesthetic identity. I also agree on the lips, I didn't even try to save them but they indeed look plasticy and at least for me the only lipcolor I can use are the very pale ones because anything else just looks really unnatural as if the lip color were just plastic stickers slapped on the lips rather than a rouge.

But yea my aura as also getting her share of adventure in the meantime.

[Shistar]

You did an amazing job with this one, wow! I really like the look of it and how the thick eyelashes get to be in center stage. Middies suffer from a severe lack of eyelashes (looking at you, my beloved F5)

[Louhikko]

You did an amazing job with this one, wow! I really like the look of it and how the thick eyelashes get to be in center stage. Middies suffer from a severe lack of eyelashes (looking at you, my beloved F5)

Aah thank you! and agreed, I feel so envious towards many other races for getting such full lashes and yet our middies sees to barely get any.