Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[lunartears]

[1/5]

Previous feedback
Bench 1 (Images missing): https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...38#post6436938
Bench 2: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...12#post6471912
Bench 2 (JP but more concise): https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...19#post6480219

It has been a few days since Dawntrail early access has began and I think I have spent enough time looking at my character to compile my thoughts. I have provided feedback in both April and June regarding this face type and I feel a little disappointed that I have to write about it a third time. Upon login, I noticed immediately that the anxiety I had all this time had come true. I didn't want to start the new MSQ and still haven't because I feel it would sour the entire experience for me.

I would like to apologise if my tone is misread throughout this series of posts, I only intend to get straight to the point. I will organise my feedback orderly into several sections.

For illustrated examples, left = 6.5 and right = 7.0
For gif images, refer to pupil size. 6.5 will have smaller pupils and 7.0 will have large pupils.

- 1. Eyes - Larger pupil and eyeshape, gaze is different



I immediately noticed that the eyes were much larger. A key point would be the pupil being enlarged, which gives off a totally different impression compared to 6.5. The iris has also been moved from the middle of the eyeball to a more raised point.

I would like it if the eyes would gaze in the same direction as before and for the pupil to be made smaller as it really doesn't look right on Au Ra.

- 1b. Eyelashes - Eyelash direction rotated, appears less voluminous, not possible to achieve the same sharp appearance on Eye Shape 3 anymore -



Setting: Type 3

The direction of the eyelashes has been rotated making the corner eyelash flick no longer appear sharp. They are also less voluminous as before and the upper eyelashes that cover a small portion of the iris are much more thicker and noticeable. It is only possible to see the flick again if you look at the character from below.

I traced over the first eye image to try to make it easier to see the difference in the pupil and eyelashes:



I would like it if the eyelashes could return to the direction they were before and for the appearance to go back closer to 6.5. I would like the sharp flick to appear from the forward facing angle again.

- 1c. Makeup - Eyeshadow has been lessened -



Eyeshadow makeup appears less prominent as opposed to before. It is best noticed when the eyes are closed or at certain angles.
I used this setting alongside face paint to darken it but even with the face paint still enabled, it has notably lessened.

I would like it if I could have a heavier eyeshadow like before.

[lunartears]

[2/5]

- 2. Lip Shape - Resting pose has been changed, Lips appear thicker, unable to achieve concealed lips -




Setting: Type 1

The lips have been made thicker and appear larger than 6.5. In 6.5, the top area of the lips is thinner and the bottom area is more angular and the general appearance of the lips is thinner and smaller. Also, when seen from the side in 7.0, the lip sticks out more.
The "mouth line" is no longer slightly raised at the corners giving a completely different resting expression.
The "mouth line" is too light.
The lips feel more akin to an option seen on Au Ra Face 2 lips described by another user as like a "frog", but in Face 1's case the new lips closely resemble a "duck".
Light lipstick no longer appears the same as 6.5 and is incredibly matte.

Due to changes in the graphics system it is no longer possible to conceal your lips using the colour white and the "Light" setting. This results in previously concealed lips suddenly appearing and is made worse by the modifications to the lip shape.

This has been the main thing causing my own character the most trouble ever since the benchmark as I use a very unnatural lip colour setting in an attempt to conceal having any lips. It is impossible to go below a pale pink anymore so I am forced to have lips that I didn't have before. I have fairly good perceptive skills but I am not as familiar with this lip shape with actual lipstick so I apologise for any details I may miss due to the settings I have used.

I would like the lip volume and shape to return to the way it appeared in 6.5, for the "mouth line" to return to the previous shape and to be able to conceal my lips again.

- 2a. Nose - Nostril appearance -



Nostrils appear differently now, I believe this is just a general result of the graphics update but it has given a different shape to the nose and sometimes it appears as if it's too long. It's more pronounced than before. I would like if this could be lessened slightly.

[lunartears]

[3/5]

- 3. Skin Tone - Pale characters sickly appearance -



Very pale characters are now appearing sickly in 7.0. The main reason relates to the way that the shading is handled now but I have been able to pinpoint a possible additional theory for this: the shading on the character model is no longer tinted purple. In the above image, I colour-picked the darkest shadow and then the skin tone to show this. I have spent a lot of time with my character so I can attest to the existence of a more gloomy shading on the skin.



The same instance can be seen in the tear duct above.

Pale skin feels more "peachy" as well but unfortunately I cannot change my skin tone using fantasia as I am on the palest option possible.

- 4. Expressions - Completely changed, not the same feeling as before, uncanny teeth -





Here are a few examples of facial expressions on my character, in each example the face appears more lifeless or less enthusiastic.



I would like to bring attention to this 4th example with the focus on the expression /fakesmile and /biggrin (pictured is /fakesmile). The expression has completely disappeared. I use this expression a lot with my character and I have it set on a few of my portraits. It looked a bit unhinged and quite scary at times but it genuinely had charm when used right.

I illustrated how each expression looks to me before and after:



The new teeth are really frightening as well, I would like if they could be made less realistic.

** I don't really want to look at any old cutscenes myself, but I know that other people have been reporting MSQ cutscenes from the past appearing differently due to the changes in the character face among all races. So please consider changing this, as it goes beyond my character.

I would like character expression animations to be adjusted closer to their original appearances or for a modification in the lip bones so that they can appear the same as before.

[lunartears]

[4/5]

- Extra concerns -

- 1. Au Ra - Scale textures -



Au Ra scales are still distorted like in the Benchmark and look worse than in 6.5, they look like they have been messily drawn or poorly cut out. I am using highest on pretty much all of the graphics settings for reference. I am unable to take a photo of it on the lower leg due to camera restrictions. They also feel flatter and more like plastic whereas they felt more defined in 6.5.

Other pictures that I unfortunately couldn't compare to 6.5:




- 2. Au Ra - Female Hair 9 flick transparency -



On Au Ra Female Hair 9 the insides of the backside hair flicks are now thin and transparent, this makes the hair feel less thick and does not match the outer side of the flick so please consider changing it back.

2a. I also forgot to mention that there's a another issue with white hair on Hair 9 right now where it looks appears really bright sometimes (especially when lit up), I noticed this same problem in both benchmarks too. I caught a screenshot of it during a cutscene.



- 3. Au Ra forehead scale using expressions -

I noticed an effect on the forehead scale raising high when using expressions like /scoff /ouch or /sneer, but I don't have any comparisons from 6.5 so I am unable to tell if this is intended or not. I would like to bring it up as I don't recall it being as noticeable in 6.5

- 4. Eye glow at night -



There is a subtle glow to the character eyes in dark lighting in both 6.5 and 7.0. In 6.5 the glow appeared gentle. In 7.0 the way that eyes are handled in dark lighting feels uncanny. I believe that this is mostly related to the way that eye colour is spread in the new eye texture, so I am unsure on how to provide a solution. But, I believe it is made worse by the previously mentioned enlarged pupil.

- 5. New fingernails appear too bright -



I would like it if the fingernails could be muted a bit or even better given the option to change the colour as they appear too bright on paler skin.

- 6. Portraits - How the character is lit and appears -


(I unfortunately forgot to take photos of my other portraits before 7.0)

Characters appear lifeless and notably darkened in portraits now, even if the lighting setting was bright before. Eyes are especially dark and are barely noticeable on Au Ra.
Please consider looking into the lighting system on portraits.

[lunartears]

[5/5]

To conclude my post I would like to share some general photos of my character to help show the changes in appearance. Thank you for reading until the end and I hope that things can improve in the near future so that I and many others can enjoy Dawntrail the way that we were hoping to. It might be impossible considering the restrictions, but I hope that things can change in a way where those affected by the update are able to be happy and have their character's personality back to the way they intended it and people who are pleased with the changes are able to equally choose to have their character the way they would like it as well.

I would also like to say that I feel that the graphics update is uncanny and that realism is not the way to go for this game, I feel that the artistic/aesthetic appeal of the game has been diminished. I think that if things returned to a more stylized appearance then many would benefit.

And an edit I made like other people have done, mixing my old features on top of a Dawntrail screenshot:

[TheDustyOne]

I'm also a fem highlander (same face and hair as yours even) who frequently uses the shorter skirts and dresses, but one thing I'll also add is that older gear has been untouched, including the body pieces attached to that gear, so it's highly unlikely that the legs are slimmer than before. It's only the skin textures that got changed, which was more of a necessity, but otherwise geometry is unchanged from what I understand. I'm sure someone who's tinkered with the game files can probably correct me if I'm wrong though.

Just a quick follow-up from this; I put together a couple of comparisons between the Eastern Errant Skirt and the Faire Kohakama. I did my best to line up as close to my original screenshots as possible, you'll have to forgive the use of reshade in the older comparisons as well, but the primary concern is over geometry, which I'm very certain remains unchanged. Also forgive the heavy colour crunch in the second comparison.

[HyoMinPark]

Personally, I’m very happy with the graphical update to my character. My complaints are very mild, and I’ve gotten used to the changes since early access started.

The biggest changes I’ve noticed are the eyes and the mouth. My character’s eye color looks a bit darker, but I’m considering using the free Fantasia to lighten the color a shade to see if that fixes it. The pupils are also a little bit large, so I was going to see what she would look like with the small iris size versus the large. The mouth is just, in general, a different shape (Moon Miqo’te, Face 3, Mouth 4) — but I don’t dislike it. I originally chose this face 1.) because of the cheek whiskers, and 2.) it looked like my character’s resting face was a subtle smile/upturned lips, which I felt suited her. I still have this with the new graphical update, just the upper lip is slightly different in shape. But not jarringly so.

Lastly, I worried that not every hairstyle would get some kind of upscale, and I wondered if the Lightning hair would fall into that category. The old graphics were poor, pixelated, and blurry — but I loved the style enough that I dealt with it. However, the developers upscaled the hair and redrew the texture of it; and I honestly couldn’t be happier that my character did not go into Dawntrail with an upscaled model but a pixelated JPEG mess on her head.

I will need to tweak my male Midlander alt — I couldn’t get him to a state I preferred with the benchmarks, but maybe I can seeing him in-game during the Fantasia grace period. If I cannot, it will be disappointing; but I also liked the male Viera style I had for him, so I will just change to that if I cannot be satisfied with his male Hyur appearance.

My Seeker of the Sun looked fine as is, in my opinion.

[Plushy]

[1/5]snip

Going to be honest with you luna...outside some minor changes..Your au ra looks pretty much identical to the 6.58 only better and cleaned up; your 4th example...yeah I don't know how you can say the 7.0 looks more creepy than the 6.58. The endwalker one looks so much worse.
This is going to sound harsh but I have no idea why you're complaining.
Your au ra pretty much looks almost 1:1. Your complaints are extremely minor and not sure why you're so detailed when its the basically the same picture only more HD. The only thing that I'll say needs improvement is the scales but that's it. Other than that...yeah harsh but I think your au ra looks pretty much the same, its odd youre so upset...I'll even say your au ra made it out looking the same more than others.

[Anneliese_Lev]

I will upload a screenshot later, but I really dislike the emotes where my character shows her teeth. It's the most trollish grin I've ever seen. I can't compare right now, but I don't remember this being the case before. She's way better when she smiles without showing her teeth.

Oh, and sometimes the lighting plays really bad around her mouth. Sometimes it looks like she's harelipped or has a dumb expression (although in this case it's an optical illusion casted by the light and shadows)

[3/5]

The new teeth are really frightening as well, I would like if they could be made less realistic.

Ok, so I'm not the only one who noticed. Yes, the new teeth create very uncomfortable smiles and other expressions. Also, they look less detailed somehow (in my case, it was as if she only had a solid mass of bright white color)

[noumen0nn]

Going to be honest with you luna...outside some minor changes..Your au ra looks pretty much identical to the 6.58 only better and cleaned up; your 4th example...yeah I don't know how you can say the 7.0 looks more creepy than the 6.58. The endwalker one looks so much worse.
This is going to sound harsh but I have no idea why you're complaining.
Your au ra pretty much looks almost 1:1. Your complaints are extremely minor and not sure why you're so detailed when its the basically the same picture only more HD. The only thing that I'll say needs improvement is the scales but that's it. Other than that...yeah harsh but I think your au ra looks pretty much the same, its odd youre so upset...I'll even say your au ra made it out looking the same more than others.

How are you still doing this. None of us are going to agree with you. Lunar's feedback was incredibly detailed and well thought out, and the things she pointed out are plain if you give them more than a cursory glance. Stop making it our problem that you don't have an eye for detail.