FFXIV Dawntrail Graphics Update Before and After Detailed Comparison

My middie Hyur looked like I hadn't slept in three days and had been crying. Puffy bags under the eyes. As long as the Fantasia has caffeine in it, I should be fine.

Like many others, I believe that the facial adjustments still need some work. But I have faith that the team will deliver. The environmental updates were a breath of fresh air, especially the work on the shadows (no more 10 fps shadow movement)!

The graphical update made my male Xaela go from scary Yakuza boss to how my wife describes it, "Bad Boy with a soft side Daddy vibes" and she wont stop simping. It made her Raen a trillion times more adorable and protectable though so its only fair. Its insane how much better the update made our characters look.

This update gave me a huge glow up. I play as a dark skinned midlander, and I can attest to square giving dark complexions some love, and it really toned my muscles. I almost look hot for a middy.

I ran Copperbell Mines yesterday and it was gorgeous. After doing that dungeon I've seriously considered doing another run through the story in New Game +. The shine on the rocks, especially in the wet areas, was phenomenal.

The first thing i noticed was now my avatar has eye bags. Eye bags perhaps were already there at least since Shb/ew, but in DT more visible

That setting switch from 100-->99 makes a surprisingly large difference! tysm

What surprised me is how subtle changes can make a huge difference with this update. My old Highlander was perfect, but he didn't feel right in Dawntrail and I couldn't figure out why. I realized the old eyes I chose were just slightly smaller in the update. The result: his face looked chunkier. I used my Fantasia, colored his eyes more of blue steel, sorted through the options and switched from #1 eyes to #6 eyes--suddenly, my boy looked like my boy again.:eyes-purple-crying:

I am very attached to my female midlander and honestly I was a bit sad after I logged in the first day of early access. While before the update she looked youthful but not childish, now she looks like she is 40 or smth. She has these weird shadows close to the bridge of her nose (between the corners of the eyes and the nose) and the bags under the eyes in 60% of lighting types is depressing. In tavern lighting she looks sweet though. I used the fantasia to alter her jaw and make her eyes brighter, but I don't want to change her race and face (because the other midlander faces are absolutely not my cup of tea) The texture update is very pleasing, on the other hand

Update messed up my character's face, probably gonna fanta. The environment textures /lighting/ shadow updates are really nice. However, i feel like there is something wrong with the anti aliasing. Seems to be more jagged edges than before. Also, i can't understand how some armor pieces that got texture updates have low and high res textures on the same piece of armor. it makes the low res texture part stick out like a sore thumb. looks so bad.

My elezen man’s face changed and some small details are off. The previously flat eyebrows have an arch now. It seems insignificant but it really alters his look and makes him look expressive. The old brows gave him a very fae and unaffected look. Overall I’m satisfied with the update but I wish we could have the old brow option.

I loved the upgrades. I know they did say that it's gonna take them some time to upgrade literally everything and they mention some things take priority over others, but I am kinda disappointed when I found out that apparently the Exarch isn't one of that priority list considering that 1) he's an important MSQ character which they mentioned would be high in priority, 2) he has crystalline textures all over his body that would look just stunning if it matches the update the aetheryte crystals get. Heck when I checked the cutscenes with him in it, his staff actually got an update and not a single pixel on him did

I love how my lala looks now! The small shine added to their eyes is so nice looking.

I was wondering what the name of the song you use for the intros of your ffxiv videos?

The mounts leaning/rolling when turning applies on the ground as well as in the air. Regarding my character, I've noticed something odd with the update: limbal rings sometimes appear dark, and sometimes appear to be practically glowing. I don't know yet if the difference is determined by the angle the light hits them at or what, but I've seen both effects in and out of cutscenes. Edit: It's definitely lighting.

My au'ra's face looks very off, I've seen a lot of my friends' characters just look absolutely phenomenal without any fantasia since the update, and my au'ra now has a knife blade for a nose bridge.. I've compared before and after, it was not this bad previously.

As soon i loged in It was raining in Limsa. I was like holy crap the cobble stones when it rains was freaking pleasing to see!

Wow, it finally looks better than the 1.0 graphics.

Most of my characters came through alright but my Duskwight Elezen got hit a bit hard. He went from being very dark skinned to be almost weirdly glowing blue. xD I have no idea what went wrong there. I'm working on fixing him.

I ADORE the new graphics update, it looks so good !! Honestly the fact that they didn't really change the original models (we can still recognise our character) but put excellent lighting on them AWAWAWAWAWWAAWWAA my miq'ote looks so pretty Also etherites and new zones are so.... crispy it scratches my brain real nice