Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Rueby]

Anyone noticed the really unnatural way the eyeballs uh...shake?/twitch??? I just looked at my character up close again and it's absolutely awful. I know they were tooting their own horns about this 'feature' on NPCs to make them look lively....They really need to fix the eyebrow muscle spasms and this rapid eye movement lmao

I'm also noticing that objects are blurry? Is it just me? Or is there some kind of setting I'm missing.

[Cheapshot]

I'm also noticing that objects are blurry? Is it just me? Or is there some kind of setting I'm missing.

This seems to have been a problem with how they implemented DLSS and they said they’re working on a fix I believe.

[Daralii]

Anyone noticed the really unnatural way the eyeballs uh...shake?/twitch??? I just looked at my character up close again and it's absolutely awful. I know they were tooting their own horns about this 'feature' on NPCs to make them look lively....They really need to fix the eyebrow muscle spasms and this rapid eye movement lmao

I'm also noticing that objects are blurry? Is it just me? Or is there some kind of setting I'm missing.

Like Cheapshot said, it's a DLSS issue. For the time being you can either have the game be blurry or you can hyper-sharpen things by reducing the resolution scaling from 100 to 99.

[lunartears]

Anyone noticed the really unnatural way the eyeballs uh...shake?/twitch??? I just looked at my character up close again and it's absolutely awful. I know they were tooting their own horns about this 'feature' on NPCs to make them look lively....They really need to fix the eyebrow muscle spasms and this rapid eye movement lmao.

Yes, it's strange. If it was an attempt at realism, eyes in real life typically don't do that when not focused on something. The animation is too repetitive.
I think it would be fine if it was only when targeting something.

[CidHeiral]

Anyone noticed the really unnatural way the eyeballs uh...shake?/twitch???

Real people have subtle eye movements like that. What would be unnatural is for them to just vacantly stare into the void completely motionless, which was previously the case in FFXIV. Between the movement and texture upgrades the eyes look so much more alive now.

[Iscah]

Real people have subtle eye movements like that. What would be unnatural is for them to just vacantly stare into the void completely motionless, which was previously the case in FFXIV. Between the movement and texture upgrades the eyes look so much more alive now.

The thing that will make them "stare into the void" is the size and positioning of the eyes. Get that wrong and the character is going to stare into the void whether or not their eyes quiver while they do it.

[Yin]

I do see the differences and also for me, my character I had created 11 years ago, was not the Keeper she was before. I felt like, Keepers have "cataract" now, as I also mentioned in one thread, and this is a pity, for I especially loved Keeper's eyes.

I have to admit - I used one Fantasia ... (I took me 1,5 weeks of reading here, creating and deleting new characters, thinking and finally deciding)

I tried other races and had a white haired midlander preset, which I found nice - but within Dawntrail, something in her face also bugged me.

As Seeker I am quite happy - she has nicer / brighter eye colors, which are not so "greyish" and I can keep playing now (don't get me wrong, I do see and understand the complaints Seekers also have, but for ME, it was an improvement to what my poor Keeper looked like at current state and thus the best solution)

At least my heart was able to re-start - but I also do understand everyone, who would like to remain "themselves" - and/or rather quit

But yes, even though she is a "new girl" - within cutscenes sometimes I am sitting here like because her facial expression and reactions - her face sometimes looks kind of weird for some reason.

There's so much constructive feedback here - Some posts are really heartbreaking

I really hope that the “right people” also read along here from time to time. Maybe they can change something / something back

<3

[Kaziek]

I made a forum account for the first time to also voice my opinion after following these feedback threads for a while. I like several others here am not particularly happy with how the update treated midlander face 1. Now aside from things others have mentioned, one thing that has been bothering me a lot is how much more triangular and younger the face looks currently. At first I thought that they may have changed the jaw shape entirely, but after giving it some time it looks like the new lighting is doing weird things with the face shape that I'm not entirely sure is intentional.

As you can see in the pictures I linked certain lighting will really harshly affect the cheeks in a way that it never did before, which drastically changes the shape of the face. I have no idea if this is just something that is deemed an unavoidable issue with the new lighting or not, but the first picture in particular just looks completely wrong to me like there is a bug with the way the light interacts with the face.

I might try to put together some more pictures to illustrate my other issues with the face the way other people have, mainly to do with the weirdly prominent eye bags and the severely reduced makeup from the facial feature. Thank you to everyone else who has put together such comprehensive posts detailing the things that have changed! There's no guarantee that it will amount to anything but voicing our opinions in a constructive way is definitely the best way to try to get some changes.

[Eien713]

Now aside from things others have mentioned, one thing that has been bothering me a lot is how much more triangular and younger the face looks currently. At first I thought that they may have changed the jaw shape entirely, but after giving it some time it looks like the new lighting is doing weird things with the face shape that I'm not entirely sure is intentional.

There's definitely something going on with the lighting. This can't be the way my character is supposed to look in the light D:


This is a comparison in the light and in the shade:






Bonus picture of wonky lighting in Old Gridania:



P.S. I play on PS5.

[CidHeiral]

There's definitely something going on with the lighting. This can't be the way my character is supposed to look in the light D:

Looking at her facial structure the shadow location seems correct given where the light is coming from. The shadows perhaps seem a bit more dark and harsh than they realistically should be, but they were made that way after the community complained they were too soft in the first benchmark so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.