Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Reinha]

So my portrait has finally updated and I think even this tiny image shows why my character is ruined to me. Her eyebrows are just... gone. They were gone in both the first and second benchmarks and despite being gaslit by forum trolls about how my character was "better" I wanted this mistake fixed and gave feedback both times. Still they shipped it like this.

Before and after

[Visthra]

So my portrait has finally updated and I think even this tiny image shows why my character is ruined to me. Her eyebrows are just... gone. They were gone in both the first and second benchmarks and despite being gaslit by forum trolls about how my character was "better" I wanted this mistake fixed and gave feedback both times. Still they shipped it like this.

Before and after

My character uses Duskwight face 3 and he now looks like a heroin addict. People who play male Duskwight face 3 have an entirely new texture on their face (massive black bags) that was not there before. This is a facial feature of the other Elezen clan, but was not part of the Duskwight’s face graphics from 1.0 to EW. I was sure it was going to be fixed during the graphics iterations, but here we are. So, I feel your pain.

I am genuinely happy some people love their character changes. However, my character looks completely different. It’s not a contour or shape change on my character’s face, it’s an entirely new (incorrect) texture. I haven’t logged into the game since I saw it.

Devs, please fix our faces!

[LittleArrow]

I just wanted to come in and chime in how I was getting along with my updated character since I posted earlier in the expansion. I still hate it. I used to look at my character's face all the time and smile b/c she was so pretty and now she looks horrible. No offense to those that enjoy your faces, but even when I look around I think it looks like a totally different game. The artstyle is totally different.

My personal biggest issue is due to how smoothed out all of the harsher shadows that created natural outlines on her face before, my female viera's face looks so incredibly puffy. Her lips are small, the distance between her lips and chin is huge, her eyes don't take up as much space and looks like her face (cheeks, jaw, chin) are swallowing all of her features - tiny face massive head.

I went into the character creator thinking I'd just make an all new bun, and literally they all have this problem. This huge puffy face with no harsh shadows to outline their features and instead just this massive puffy smooth cheeks. The face my character uses is Viera Veena face 3.

It sucks. I don't care how dramatic I'm being, that character was a massive reason why I enjoyed this game. I looked forward to Viera since Yoshi took over, sent a survey out over 10yrs ago with Viera as an example of one of their options. I was so happy for years with her since shadowbringers and I hate it. I don't want to play any of the other races, they don't hold a candle to the viera I had.

Between this and the MSQ I'm just at a loss to play this game. There are many races that ended up with great glow-ups but my Viera wasn't one of them.

[EDIT] I just wanted to add, I really wish they had just updated the armor / environment and not touched our characters beside maybe updating skin textures / hair textures a bit. The world looks great and armor looks incredible when I can notice the difference, but gah I wish they had just left our characters alone. There's no fixing this that I can think of. No amount of adjustments. It's just going to make the people that like it mad and I don't think they could come up with something better than what I had in the previous graphics.

[Tahli]

I can't edit or add comments to this bug report about iris pattern shading issues since it's still in the Approved Bugs list and pending review, but I wanted to add that:
1. This issue still exists after the official Dawntrail release.
2. After looking at other races' eyes in direct lighting, all characters seem to have the same issue. It's just easier to notice on races with big eyes.
It's like the lines that make up the lower pattern of the iris are read wrong by lighting? The intensity of the off-color lines changes with the angle your character is turned under the light, too, so it looks like maybe those little iris patterns were given their own shadows.

In Ul'dah at daytime with shadows over eyes, with one gold and one silver (RGB: 179, 179, 179) eye


vs daytime with light shining on at least the silver eye

[Cheapshot]

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...bles-lip-gloss

This time instead of rejecting it for insufficient information, they kicked it away into “not a bug report” category. What does that even mean?!? Im so exasperated! are they saying that lip gloss being permanent and “light” looking identical to “none” isn’t a bug??? Even though “none” used to disable lip gloss? But they didn’t send it to “working as intended”? With zero feedback what am I supposed to do? What does this even mean?

I’m so sick of trying my best to be constructive and putting in days of work because I care about this game so much and I want my enjoyment of it back! I don’t want to be just another poster trashing the game without being useful, there’s more than enough of those, but this just sucks. This graphics update has been terrible.

Edit: can someone else report this bug? I just have zero clue what they want from me so maybe someone else will have better luck.

[Iscah]

can someone else report this bug? I just have zero clue what they want from me so maybe someone else will have better luck.

In general, I suspect the key thing that gets reports rejected is when people remove the sort of table at the top where you fill out date / time / character / NPC / housing stuff. Even if it's all irrelevant, just leave it there and write "n/a" or "none" in the fields before explaining yourself below. They're certainly more picky about it than about filling in the PC/console info below.

[Cheapshot]

In general, I suspect the key thing that gets reports rejected is when people remove the sort of table at the top where you fill out date / time / character / NPC / housing stuff. Even if it's all irrelevant, just leave it there and write "n/a" or "none" in the fields before explaining yourself below. They're certainly more picky about it than about filling in the PC/console info below.

I mean I looked through all the accepted reports and I have just as much of that form filled out as most of those. More than some of them even! I don’t know what leaving in “retainer:” would change. And plus it wasn’t rejected for missing information this time, it was sent to “not a bug report”, which I don’t even understand why or what that means instead of “working as intended”. I checked the description of the section and I’m still confused.

[miqomiqobeam]

Hello and happy Dawntrail! I've been having so much fun in game with all the new characters and cultures - I'm in love! Unfortunately, my miqote is still a major distraction when it comes to cutscenes and just general walking around. Sorry if this is a little disorganized!


Eye 3
Still too round. The sharpness of eyes 3 has been rounded out and lost it's personality.
The color is dull, and while I changed my settings to be more saturated, they still are a lot darker than pre Dawntrail. They lack life in a lot of scenes, and are so dark most of the time. I tried to show the colors interacting with each other in my graphic and how there is a lack of high contrast in comparison to before.
Not only that, but I noticed that the pupil is slightly shorter than it was before and more round. This causes my miqote eyes to not look very cat-like anymore - they look almost similar to a Keeper of the Moon or just any eye without a fierce look. Due to the dullness, the lack of contrast, and shading, the eyes are a huge distraction to me.
The eye whites being so bright and blue toned are also unnatural.

Eyebrow 4: Too thin, I picked this eyebrow for it's thickness and angle and both of those are gone. Especially in cut scenes, it's very noticeable. I miss my cat's thick eyebrows!

Lips: The color is too unnatural. I have to put on a brown/orange lipstick on my character so it isn't distracting during cut scenes. I still would prefer if there wasn't such a smile in comparison to the other faces, but it looks much better than benchmark.

Edited Photo:
Eyebrows, Eye Shape, Eye Lashes, and Lips reverted.
More natural and cohesive colors on lips + less shine.
Eye pupil is thinner and longer.
Eye Color is brightened and lighter (as it was before.)
Shading on upper iris is darkened.
Hair darkened/desaturated.

[SummerSplendor]

A small collage of my midlander face 3. She used to have a babyface, glossy pouty lips and doe eyes. The update removed : my round upper lip, the lip liner who got with it, my thick black eyelashes, and the single white dot light reflection in my eyes. All my signature presets got erased. They removed the anime touch in favor of more realism and it ruined my girl.

I tried to be cool about it and gave it time, but I'm still deeply disappointed. I hate how marked her eyesockets(?) are, how prominent her nose look like, and how far apart her eyes seems to be now. Plus, I have mixed feelings about her skin. I like how vibrant it is on her body, but don't like how it operates on her face, since I prefer matte finish. I wish they had given us the option via a cursor to choose a more matte or glossy finish. Heck, i wish they had simply added those "improved" presets plus a finish cursor in the create-a-character and offer us a free fantasia to try them.

ps: im french, but posted it here in hope to be noticed by SE. Im a new player, and dont know if european voices are often heard or not.

[Doopliss]

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...bles-lip-gloss

This time instead of rejecting it for insufficient information, they kicked it away into “not a bug report” category. What does that even mean?!? Im so exasperated! are they saying that lip gloss being permanent and “light” looking identical to “none” isn’t a bug??? Even though “none” used to disable lip gloss? But they didn’t send it to “working as intended”? With zero feedback what am I supposed to do? What does this even mean?

I’m so sick of trying my best to be constructive and putting in days of work because I care about this game so much and I want my enjoyment of it back! I don’t want to be just another poster trashing the game without being useful, there’s more than enough of those, but this just sucks. This graphics update has been terrible.

Edit: can someone else report this bug? I just have zero clue what they want from me so maybe someone else will have better luck.

This got lost in the sauce due to how much discussion's around this topic, but it was mentioned in here and in the JP thread before: the Lalafell "dolphin teeth" issue was categorized as "Not a Bug Report" in the JP forums before getting fixed, too.

If you look at the stickied thread on the "Not a Bug Report" section, it'll explain that it holds reports that are also other types of issues...though, admittedly, not in a very in-depth or helpful way.

I assume that it's at least better than going into "Working as Intended," which feels like more of a death sentence, given what the stickied thread there explains, lol.

I've been speculating that certain changes that go into "Not a Bug Report" were done intentionally, but didn't have the intended result, if that makes sense. They did mention in the NA fanfest, after all, that they did add more shine to everyone's lips on purpose, but now more and more people are finding out it looks off.

The issue I reported with female Highlander makeup and dark hair against dark skin went to "Not a Bug Report" too, but it looks so bad compared to before that even my friends with less care for detail think it looks like a downgrade. So I'm hoping these are things they'll still readjust, like the Lalafell teeth issue.