Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Doopliss]

Honest to god the picture makes me feel physically ill. Every second I spend looking at it I feel a psychic damage over time effect on me. :')
It is irrefutable proof that the changes go beyond lighting. Proof that they did not fulfill their promise of maintaining the coherence of the characters. Dealing with that betrayal, and then also three weeks of silence, is especially upsetting given how quickly they resolved the housing issue. Even a simple "we are still currently investigating and reviewing feedback" announcement would be good.

I'm sorry for ranting, I've been trying really hard to offer constructive criticism and comparisons and keep ranting on a low, but just... holy f*ck. I knew it was bad, but somehow it's actually even worse. I could cry, but it's been three weeks. I'm all spent.

I can't blame you, it really does suck and I've felt straight up "queasy" (it's more that that's just how my anxiety forms...) looking at several of my characters and have felt equally bad for several of my unhappy friends. Even JP users are asking for just a simple comment of acknowledgement... I miss it when they used to actually respond on the forums pre-SHB.

As much as others will try to argue against those unhappy, though, they did say in the final benchmark lodestone post verbatim: "As always, we will remain open to feedback even after the updated benchmark update and Dawntrail have been released, and will also continue to address any issues or necessary adjustments in future patches!"

This is not vague language. They didn't fulfill what they told us twice before implementing the graphics update, so don't give up. It took them a full month just to fix up male Viera to be in a significantly better state between the first and second benchmarks, so hopefully time is all they need. I'm really hoping for 7.1 at the worst, since that offers several months. I'd like to know the details more clearly from them, however, instead of pretending all of these are just "subtle differences in nuance".

[Tahli]

Face 4
Literally all three other faces

I use face 2, and have an Accepted bug report on it too but the eyebrows are NOT supposed to look that thin and angular.
They honestly looked great in the first benchmark, even if the tail needed to be less sharply upturned, but benchmark 2 and beyond compressed them so angrily...

[Cheapshot]

This issue is currently in 'Accepted bugs' in the English forums and it's listed as "fixed" in the JP bug area (was marked fixed a week or so post-Dawntrail launch), but the fix definitely isn't in game yet. For Miqote face 4, eyebrows are now super dark and look really not great on darker skin
No idea what the shchedule for the fixes are but it's definitely not looking any better in game.

Endwalker
Benchmark 1
Benchmark 2
Current

So fwiw I expect it was labeled as “fixed” because they were intentionally darkened. They were darker than hair shade before, lightened in the benchmark, and then redarkened in either the benchmark v2 or the DT release (Incan’t remember which). I think it’s a little overcorrected perhaps though, and especially more noticeable on darker skin. On my character, darker eyebrows looks better, but man do we ever need an updated CC. They should let you pick eyebrow colour separately from hair colour!

[smitten_miquitten]

I'm sorry but they were NOT this dark before. In my Endwalker photos they're very clearly white, and in the first benchmark they are the same white, and now they are definitely grey. They were NOT grey in Endwalker. This is an extreme overcorrection, and the bug that was marked 'fixed' called this out, not the supposed lightening.

[Doopliss]

I'm sorry but they were NOT this dark before. In my Endwalker photos they're very clearly white, and in the first benchmark they are the same white, and now they are definitely grey. They were NOT grey in Endwalker. This is an extreme overcorrection, and the bug that was marked 'fixed' called this out, not the supposed lightening.

They are really bad at checking these changes with dark skin tones and it's painfully obvious. There's also the huge problem with female Highlander's makeup looking weirdly gross on really dark skin tones now when it didn't at all before. They need to stop making these changes haphazardly.

[Cheapshot]

I'm sorry but they were NOT this dark before. In my Endwalker photos they're very clearly white, and in the first benchmark they are the same white, and now they are definitely grey. They were NOT grey in Endwalker. This is an extreme overcorrection, and the bug that was marked 'fixed' called this out, not the supposed lightening.

Um, yes, that’s what I said? They overcorrected. I’m telling you why I suspect they marked it as fixed, not why I would. I think they need to spend more time checking these fixes to make sure they’re correct, especially on different skintones. It seems like they didn’t. I’m also not happy with their fix with mouthes. Instead of making my mouth closer to the original shape to reintroduce face 4s lip gap, they just punched a hole through the middle and made the lips thinner. I think the face update should have received the most work and attention to detail of anything in the graphics update. I also think they should be revamping the character creator with more control and options as well. I appreciate that they showed us they’re willing to take feedback and make changes, but going forward I would like more effort and care put into those changes. Character faces are important.

[smitten_miquitten]

Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to come across so abrasively.

[Cheapshot]

Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to come across so abrasively.

It’s ok. It’s important and meaningful to both of us, so I understand the stress of it. I’ve been feeling worse than awful since they changed my characters face so much. I haven't touched the game since early access, despite having 3 months left on my sub.

[Moonfallen]

I've gone through the entire MSQ and new raid. The NPC's animations and overall look are so much better than our actual characters. I don't understand how they could drop the ball on player characters especially since players are what pay for their game.

[roseychan]

God, I've been trying to not get upset about the current state of the graphical update because I'm choosing to believe they're going to fix it due to the language they used on the second benchmark lodestone post, but it's so hard to not feel that way every time I see ♀ Au Ra Face 2.

All the faces have weird decision making, but this one straight up just feels like a new face entirely. I've seen nobody argue against this specific one--even my friends who struggle to see detail differences are like "holy shit, that should be a Face 5 or something".

The theory about letting a developer's personal taste get in the way of the design updates feels the most true for female Au Ra, while the other races feel like they were sort of haphazardly done instead. The lighter scales, the insistence on making their pupils way larger (they actually decreased the size for male Au Ra on release to be closer to their original size, but not female Au Ra lol), the narrower mouths all around...

"As close as possible" is a blatant lie here. Ugh, sorry.

I normally lurk, and have never really posted anything before, but i just had to come on here and say that i agree with you completely. When i first logged into the game during early access, i took one look at my character at the log in screen and my heart sank. None of my friends believed me when i told them that my character (Face 2 raen au'ra) had plastic surgery done, and now looked like an emotionless, dead, AI doll. A close friend told me to try the aesthetician, and then a fanta without seeing me in person, then finally asked to see me when i told him nothing worked. At the time, i hadn't known anything about the forums, and honestly thought i was alone in having lost the motivation to log in, let alone play the game after seeing what had happened to my beloved character.

When my friend and i met in person, he took one look at me and responded with "WTF!!" He couldn't believe what happened. Since that day, i have lost the will to play, and have stopped logging in. Every time i take a look at her, she looks completely devoid of emotion, and like a dead doll. Whereas before DT, i loved logging in every single day, and looked forward to seeing her every chance i got. She was the entire reason i fell in love with the game, and also why i never fanta'd or changed how she looked. She was *my* beloved character that i created and fell in love with, the one i looked at every chance i got. The kind, caring, and gentle looking soul who loved to help people while going about her day. She was pretty much me in a nutshell. Now she just looks stiff, and emotionless, with all the light and life gone from her eyes.

I unfortunately have no exact comparison screenshots, nor many screenshots of my character's face, and never did download the benchmark, but here are a before and after.
EW
DT