Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Azhyk]

Reporting in to add to the dissatisfaction with male miqo'te face 4. While not only the eyes have issues, the mouth seems to be messed up on some emotes now? The rigging for /smirk for example used to not have any of the teeth showing and now the right side where the mouth lifts doesn't connect the lips properly?

I don't know if this is because of rigging or if they changed the mouth shapes or if they made them smaller, etc, but it doesn't look good. Sure it's hidden from certain angles kind of but not in a good way.

The smirk expression also has a very mild, but distracting line between the lips where they might not be pressed together full too (which means the white of the teeth filter through) compared to pre-patch when it wasn't an issue.

[Alexa_Ivy]

They still didn't fix all the fucked up mouths? That's pretty funny.

So what actually did change this time?

[Daralii]

They still didn't fix all the fucked up mouths? That's pretty funny.

So what actually did change this time?

They slightly changed some lighting to look less bad and gave a few eyes their catchlights back, but not much beyond that. This was also the last patch of adjustments that they committed to.

[Roeark]

Noticed the philtrum for male highlander Face2 is now looking puffy with a visible brushed looking area under the nose. In some lighting the cupids bow is completely gone giving a swollen look. The upper lip is also oddly blurred/smudged compared to the lower lip which is completely fine, while the upper lip in cut scenes looks odd with the offset blur/smudge on it. I hope they work on fixing that area with some better blending and light interaction for the philtrum. I can't unsee the smudge under my nose.

[Doopliss]

I have more to say but for now I'm also adding to the proof of eyelid expressions being broken. It messed up my ♀ Raen's adventurer plate pretty notably. Which is...annoying, because this is a new one I made in 7.1 after expression changes already messed up her original one, lol.

7.1:


7.2:


Also, almost a year later now and they still have not fixed this simple texture bug I've reported multiple times on female Dunesfolk here.

[Rinoa_353]

Sorry to hear that. Throwing my hat in the dissatisfied ring here. I play Midlander female and I feel like the expressions were changed too much, and not for the better.

You'd expect a girl who runs like she's late for school with a piece of toast in her mouth to have cutesy facial expressions... and before the graphical "update", she did. Now, it's hard to describe and I really have no screenshots to show it, but it's like all the subtlety is gone. The expressions aren't cute anymore , they range from resting bitch face, to mild amusement, to (in the worst cases) looking like a sociopath trying to emulate an emotion they don't understand. It's very disheartening that my cute Middie doesnt' have cute expressions anymore.

They really need to bring back their devs that were pulled away from this game, the quality has suffered because of it.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

I feel like CS3 would be better off rescinding the character updates from 7.0 and beyond and starting all over again paying more attention to the details this time. Because at this point, they are trying to polish a turd and characters are looking further off than ever.

7.0 functioned better than 7.1 and 7.2 combined and think it just goes to show that Square Enix should have stuck to their guns and told us to get over it as they actually had something that works, emotes that functioned and a consistent visual style that fit with the rest of the graphical update. Even if it wasn't what people expected it wasn't this mess. We are experiencing death by a thousand cuts, your suggestion is no better than them continuing to do updates.

[Doopliss]

7.0 functioned better than 7.1 and 7.2 combined and think it just goes to show that Square Enix should have stuck to their guns and told us to get over it as they actually had something that works, emotes that functioned and a consistent visual style that fit with the rest of the graphical update. Even if it wasn't what people expected it wasn't this mess. We are experiencing death by a thousand cuts, your suggestion is no better than them continuing to do updates.

In what world was 7.0 functioning better? I had to make dozens of bug reports about expressions alone. Light shined straight through your hair like your head was a pane of glass. Philtrums were all puffy and several races were missing core clan characteristics. Characters with dark skin were shinier and it took until this patch for my female Highlander to have her baked-in makeup not look gross. Several scale textures were bumpy and misaligned and looked like they were done by AI. I understand being unhappy with some changes done post 7.0 (the limbal ring issues really screwed with my Face 2 Xaela girl as well, but at the same time the quality of her scales and face textures were way worse in 7.0) but I really struggle to take comments like this in good faith.

[Daralii]

In what world was 7.0 functioning better? I had to make dozens of bug reports about expressions alone. Light shined straight through your hair like your head was a pane of glass. Philtrums were all puffy and several races were missing core clan characteristics. Characters with dark skin were shinier and it took until this patch for my female Highlander to have her baked-in makeup not look gross. Several scale textures were bumpy and misaligned and looked like they were done by AI. I understand being unhappy with some changes done post 7.0 (the limbal ring issues really screwed with my Face 2 Xaela girl as well, but at the same time the quality of her scales and face textures were way worse in 7.0) but I really struggle to take comments like this in good faith.

The textures for scales are still pretty fucked. They got rid of the artifacting around them after only one year, but they still look like they were put through some random website's free AI-powered sharpening filter.

[Doopliss]

The textures for scales are still pretty fucked. They got rid of the artifacting around them after only one year, but they still look like they were put through some random website's free AI-powered sharpening filter.

Ugh, that doesn't surprise me. I noticed in 7.1 that some face scales on the Au Ra faces I use looked better than before and were no longer "blobby", but I know they're still riddled with issues on other faces and the body. Still, I mean to say that like...whatever problems we have now are literally no worse than 7.0. Some things only finally got a little better. And these issues all started with 7.0, lol.