Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Olliane]

My character lost the light in her eyes. I feel like her soul is gone. I had purposefully given her warm and kind eyes but now I feel like she has the eyes of a dead fish.
The next photo is supposed to be a /surprised expression, but she looks so unenthused.


The photo below was taken directly from cutscenes with no editing other than cropping.


Since the lighting in cutscenes can't be adjusted, every time she appears in a cutscene, her eyes have this same deadpan expression. This isn't a one-time issue, it happens in every cutscene.


Even when looking directly at the camera, her eyes feels unfocused and looks as if she looking beyond the camera like her soul has flown into the abyss.
It puts her into a perpetual daydream state.


I tried to reinact an old photo with white mage battle stance emote. Whilst the lighting is different, you can see the difference in expression

[Doopliss]

Man, sorry to complain, but I finally got my report about how weirdly some hair colors react to light now, along with how certain hair colors outright changed even between the 1.1 Benchmark and 7.0, to move to "Accepted Bugs". I felt so relieved because I've been trying to explain this forever...but then it got moved to "Working as Intended" and that relief got washed away.





Just...really? This is supposed to read as intentional? When none of the other reds literally all over my character react the same way? My Midlander's hair is straight up a cool tone instead now (the same hair color was literally lighter in the 1.1 Benchmark)? I can't even change to different colors because the other options get waaay too dark or light instead. Several others are noticing it, too, and lighting used to be way more consistent...

Black hair is constantly pointed out as being too glossy or washed out, but it's only on certain race/hairstyle combinations, when, again, it was consistent before. That's weird, right...?

I'm really trying to enjoy the game, but this did get me feeling even more down. Can't get my characters to look right, nor can I get my colors to look right. Very cool.

I've probably tried posting all I can, but, still, I hope people don't give up...this just got some (hopefully momentary) pessimism out of me...

It's hard to notice, but they did still make some changes between both Benchmarks and 7.0:

• Face 1 ♀ Au Ra's lips got a little wider, in attempt to match the previous width.
• Face 4 ♀ Au Ra's lips also got changed a little bit in attempt to be closer to their previous version.
• ♂ Au Ra's pupils thankfully got reduced significantly so you can see their main eye color with limbal rings again.
• Face 2 ♀ Highlander had the geometry of their eyes vertically widened a bit so they'd be closer to the original.
• Face 4 ♂ Miqo'te had lips adjusted slightly to make the new "smile" shape less noticeable.
• Face 4 ♀ Miqo'te had their lips edited in attempt to restore the lip gap.
• The entire disaster that was ♂ Viera in Benchmark 1.0 got corrected to be, at least, significantly less of a disaster in Benchmark 1.1
• Veena pupils were enlarged.

They're listening and trying, at least--even if their current attempts didn't quite reach the goal. So please continue giving voice to the changes you've noticed and don't let others get you down... I just needed to vent for a moment. Buh.

[Nabril]

This is my character after the update. I'm quite pleased with him. The changes are very subtle. I don't have an identical screenshot for comparison, but I know him well enough to see the very small changes in him. I can honestly say that the changes don't diminish him in my eyes. This is the "straight face" expression and it's spot on. This is the same guy I've been saving Eorzea with for so long. I seem to be one of the very few people in the world who doesn't want to stick forks in my eyes.

[Strika23]

My fem Roe's hair doesnt reflect as much (looks less 'shiny', she's lost her upper lip (which is a complaint I'm also seeing for Elezen females), and her eyeshadow isn't as dark as before. Otherwise, the skin/eyes/pupils/hair texture have all improved.
I am noticing as many people have mentioned that the colors in general seem very different than before though. (on both gear and characters).

[Doopliss]

My fem Roe's hair doesnt reflect as much (looks less 'shiny', she's lost her upper lip (which is a complaint I'm also seeing for Elezen females), and her eyeshadow isn't as dark as before. Otherwise, the skin/eyes/pupils/hair texture have all improved.
I am noticing as many people have mentioned that the colors in general seem very different than before though. (on both gear and characters).

I have that same exact hairstyle on my Seawolf alt and the issue is the same as yours. It seems like the lighting and color issues are specific to certain hairstyles for some reason. That particular hairstyle now looks even flatter with lighter colors, too, because it hardly has any shadows anymore.

[MaxL]

I have that same exact hairstyle on my Seawolf alt and the issue is the same as yours. It seems like the lighting and color issues are specific to certain hairstyles for some reason. That particular hairstyle now looks even flatter with lighter colors, too, because it hardly has any shadows anymore.

Yep, there's something seriously wrong with hair shading in general, see my earlier post:

I think I found out why hair shading seems so inconsistent from place to place. You can easily reproduce this using GPose.



Seriously, what is going on here? It's like half of its shading contribution is a uniform term.

[Print_Screen]

Female Highlander
Face: 1
Jaw: 1
Eye Shape: 3
Eyebrows: 1
Nose: 3
Mouth: 2
Lip Color: none
Facial Features: 1, 2, 3

Screenshots from PC version, max graphic settings of their respective versions. Taken inside the Innocence trial instance.





I am unhappy with the changes to my character's eyebrows, eyeshadow and upper lip. The eyebrows are smaller, and the outer edges of the eyeliner have been turned downwards. In my opinion, it changes my WoL's piercing look to one of boredom.

I'll link the full images for better comparison:
example A - 6.x
example A - 7.0
example B - 6.x
example B - 7.0

[Larirawiel]

The pizza was way too hot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ctly_with_the/



Cheers

[Eilous]

It is impossible for me to take the exact same picture with the exact same lighting and background for comparison. 7.0 Female Elezen smile is different. Her sharpness is gone. Her expression looks concerned (I used "simper" for both 6.5 and 7.0). It really feels like the developers have altered the animations and facial features so much that they do not look the same anymore, in a bad way. This is so upsetting.





Ingame Portraits

[Cai]

Just to add to the megathread, I acknowledge that plenty of characters look great, but clearly there are specific issues across multiple races where either the execution of the updated features feels off/strange or the quality that specific facial features previously conveyed is no longer there. In my case, the shared options between these face 2 F roegadyns completely lose the qualities that I chose them for. The heavy shadows on the eyelids make their eyes make them look tired or bored in cutscenes instead of like direct and commanding leaders and their lips have lost the unique interesting definition in place of their bottom-lip looking flat and over-pronounced. Recognizing that these are very small aspects of a character, together they personally change the feel of the characters significantly.