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FFXIV: DAWNTRAIL Graphics Update Benchmark Trailer (Available 4/14 12 AM PT)
- Thread starter Kuro
- Start date
Eh, as someone whose character went largely unchanged, I get it.
This is a game where it's super easy to get attached to your character and how they look and if the changes make you not like how your character looks anymore, that can get unspeakably annoying.
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I'm not sure how even the first picture is a downgrade. There are definitely differences, but I definitely wouldn't say the image on the right is objectively worse in any capacity.Pretty much where i stand on it too, out of curiosity ive even taken the time to remake some of the flat faces people keep posting around online and just turning the characters in the CC to better more dynamic light sources and they always instantly pop out as way higher quality than before to me. Some stuff is a little different and hopefully they can maybe tweak the face models a little closer to what people liked before but the pure quality update is very noticeable
one example that was the biggest for me was someone posted their bunny on twitter complaining about how it just looked like a pure downgrade
and i was just like holy shit that is hella bad so i went to go see for myself
and no... it wasnt bad at all
Fair, but I still feel like the reactions are overly dramatic as the post below my original one from QisTopTier explains very perfectly about how people are just not used to seeing shadows and lights rendered in real-time as opposed to all of that stuff being "baked on" by default and not able to change. It's just not as bad as people are making it out to be and causing themselves massive amounts of undue stress.
Stuff like actual glitching and clipping issues by all means report as feedback, but I feel like a lot of people just don't turn the camera around when they're making these characters and then posting how they've been turned into abominations.
There's a couple that won one of the hairstyle contest so they will be added to the game, but when those contest winners get added is variable. Usually whenever they find a way to fit them in as some sort of reward
There's an Afro that I think you can pick up at Gold Saucer. And I think a couple of races have access to locs. But overall, XIV is still AWFUL when it comes to black hair options. That said, they showed off some player created hairstyles that they planned to officially incorporate into the game and a few of them were Afro-textured. Hopefully we see a lot more in the future.
Thanks for the replies! I googled the new ones, I'll probably try jumping in when they drop.
When new hairstyles get added to the game, they aren't folded in to the baseline selection available to new players. You have to unlock them by obtaining an item that will add it to your collection, then change your hair at the hairstylist NPC (just costs a bit of Gil). Getting them is usually easily done, but we don't know if the method for these new styles will be done by Dawntrail content (super far away from a brand new player) or found in the Gold Saucer (reached early on, but you need to spend a lot of time doing minigames for prize tickets). So if you're waiting to start the game just for the hairstyles, you won't even be able to select them when you do start up.
Right, I get that. I meant they removed the static light, which they desperately need to add back in some form because any character that had darker eye colors got wrecked by this update.
They need to look into what Baldur's Gate 3 did to fake the light in character's eyes and approximate that. There is a satisfying middle ground between a fully baked light reflection and relying purely on environmental light reflection, which ends up with the eyes looking dead in many circumstances, especially in a otherwise stylized aesthetic like this.
Eh, thanks, I think I'll give up on ever getting into it then. I've tried several times, and between technical issues and the absolutely horrible character I ended up making when I finally did get it, I was just soured. I figured I'd try again if they ever fixed that, but if it's really that much to unlock, I'll probably just peace out. Thanks for the info 👍🏿
I've been checking from all angles and lighting that's present, been testing all kinds of different features, changing the new DLSS and FSR settings, and have ran my character through the benchmark over and over. Some characters did not get their looks preserved at all, when YoshiP had promised that our character looks would be preserved, not changed and "have to get used to".
I've seen characters whose looks got preserved and look better, which their owners are happy about. My girlfriend is one of them, her character looks great, and the changes have only brought out her character's traits more. Mine though, not so much, she even agrees that mine did not end up looking like the same person. It's such a common occurrence for some faces that they've gotten entire forum threads dedicated to those faces, and how much the benchmark is changing their character away from what they've known and loved for years and years.
Given Yoshida said part of this graphics update was specifically to improve how bad dark skin tones looked before, it makes sense that they might also be working on adding more black hair styles in the not-too-distant future. Can't say for certain, but they're definitely aware of the problems there.
I think it's true that people aren't used to real-time rendering but also I think there's something to be said for the fact that a lot of these character parts weren't designed to be used with real-time rendering and so they look off.
Also a lot of people in this thread don't like how their character looks when run through the benchmark several times either. It's not just the character creator.
Could just be peoples PC setting? At least this post makes me think so, I'm sure not everyone is running maximum settings so it differs to everyone. My experience hasn't been so bad. This is what the standings look like to me
Improved grounds = High End PC
Medium grounds = Current FFXIV graphics
Lower grounds = worst than Medium with the new Graphics changes
So you see improvements if your PC can run it very high graphic settings but if your running the game on a low-end PC it's worst looking than what we currently have.
Improved grounds = High End PC
Medium grounds = Current FFXIV graphics
Lower grounds = worst than Medium with the new Graphics changes
So you see improvements if your PC can run it very high graphic settings but if your running the game on a low-end PC it's worst looking than what we currently have.
and i was just like holy shit that is hella bad so i went to go see for myself
and no... it wasnt bad at all
Score: 9639
Average Frame Rate: 68.74286
Minimum Frame Rate: 36
Performance: High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform well, even at higher resolutions.
Screen Size: 2560x1440
Screen Mode: Borderless Windowed
DirectX Version: 11
Graphics Presets: Maximum DLSS
System
Microsoft Windows 11 Home (ver.10.0.22631 Build 22631)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor
16309.578MB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
oof at that drop to 36 fps, feels like I need to consider a CPU upgrade.
Average Frame Rate: 68.74286
Minimum Frame Rate: 36
Performance: High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform well, even at higher resolutions.
Screen Size: 2560x1440
Screen Mode: Borderless Windowed
DirectX Version: 11
Graphics Presets: Maximum DLSS
System
Microsoft Windows 11 Home (ver.10.0.22631 Build 22631)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core Processor
16309.578MB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
oof at that drop to 36 fps, feels like I need to consider a CPU upgrade.
Keep in mind that the benchmark CC is not the final product and they've stated that several times. People keep missing this and it even states it on the website as well for the benchmark
"Ahead of the release of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, the benchmark allows players to experience a portion of the upcoming visual enhancements featured in the game's first graphical update."
"* After the release of the benchmark, we will continue to make improvements to the game's visual fidelity in the lead-up to the release of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail."
It's a portion not set in stone and things will change. People can still keep providing feedback on it, but without all of the hyperbole as that doesn't really help the developers at all when they just need the short of it.
Well, let's keep in mind that XIV is still running on 1.0 coding and reusing assets. They're working with what they can and anything close to perfection is going to mean a whole new engine in the game than one we've got to support better fidelity, in my opinion.. I'm impressed that they were able to manage anything with the textures at all honestly considering things. I'd love to see a Baldur's Gate 3 CC in XIV, but that would require a whole new game probably.
I feel its important to re-state that everyone gets a free fantasia. I'm not 100% happy with how my character converted in Dawntrail (although I felt much better after seeing her in motion during the benchmark) so I will definitely take advantage of that to fix things!
BG3's CC is aiming low tbh.
The ideal for a game like XIV is something like Dragon's Dogma 2's.
I can't comment on DD2 as I've never played it, but I'll take your word for it.
That will likely help with stuff like colors, but I don't see it helping with the smoothness of certain features now.
And I can never bring myself to change races entirely.
I love all the face upgrades this new graphics patch brings. Especially to some races more than others. Elezens having better looking noses and ears. Hopefully later on they really should add more face options. If femhroth is going to be the "last" new race, then hopefully they start implementing new faces for all races down the line. It's been 10 years so I doubt they would at this point but I can dream.
Yes, that's why I'm leaving feedback (on the official forums) and talking about it.
I've just had multiple people pulling "get used to it" and it's getting old really fast and wearing my patience down.
Understandable. Your patience is growing thin at the "get used to it" and mine is growing thin after having a whole bunch of people coming to tell me that if I don't panic about the CC I'm a sheep and traitor, lol.
As I said earlier, as someone who mostly plays on a console, I have to take a "wait and see" approach as I can't use the CC and not any offense to you or other XIV players, but I also realize that I'm part of a community that went ballistic over a billboard so I'm always taking things with a grain of salt, lol.
Managed to get a comparison where the faces are basically in the same place (FElezen)
Eye shape sliiightly different, eyebrows sliiiightly higher (i think?), same mouth, different lighting on the nose, better textures overall
but it does look like theres some sort of difference in lighting overall in the scene for both so i did another on a place where i thought lighting would be equal
same stuff but the nose looks a lot less weird on the new one. and as others have mentioned already the light going thru the elezen ears look pretty good
and people were talking about eyes before, zoomed in the difference is quite obvious
so put me in camp "changes are good" now
Eye shape sliiightly different, eyebrows sliiiightly higher (i think?), same mouth, different lighting on the nose, better textures overall
but it does look like theres some sort of difference in lighting overall in the scene for both so i did another on a place where i thought lighting would be equal
same stuff but the nose looks a lot less weird on the new one. and as others have mentioned already the light going thru the elezen ears look pretty good
and people were talking about eyes before, zoomed in the difference is quite obvious
so put me in camp "changes are good" now
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I'm shocked some people's scores higher than mine with weaker video cards. Is an rtx 4060 that bad? What came with this new computer I got a deal on.
Your CPU can be a pretty big factor in this game, you shouldn't just compare the GPU.
Here's two example I could find
Live / Benchmark both in character creator at the same position, as I've said Hrothgar seems less affected by this / actually is much improved because the fake light in certain angles is way too noticeable.
I can show too.
Her pupils became dilated and way darker and lost their edge, the limbal rings are the only thing really keeping a semblance of a pupil and not a dead void.
Current:
Benchmark:
I can show too.
Her pupils became dilated and way darker and lost their edge, the limbal rings are the only thing really keeping a semblance of a pupil and not a dead void.
Current:
Benchmark:
Whenever you have a chance, can you take a picture of her eyes when she's looking at a light source in the Benchmark? I wondering how that would look. Maybe the pupils are more noticeable then?
Here's two example I could find
Live / Benchmark both in character creator at the same position, as I've said Hrothgar seems less affected by this / actually is much improved because the fake light in certain angles is way too noticeable.
/
/
/
/
I honestly don't see much if any difference between these. If anything the next to the last one, like where the heck is the iris in the "live" version's right (they're right) eye? It looks like they're looking up into their head.
I'm playing at 3440 x 1440 ultrawide with max settings and averaging 95 fps with a 12k to 13k "score." There are higher scores from people playing at 720p or 1080p. The score only seems to matter if someone has a similar setup as you and is somehow significantly higher because that then might mean something is wrong with your system.
Both in as much lighting as possible
Can't really get close-ups in any other benchmark shots so this is from the character creator
From what I can tell more than anything the main culprit seems to be the new version of the limbal ring. The glow bleeds into the inner part now instead of just being a solid circle atwhich ends up drowning out the color that should be there. If you turn it off it looks closer to before but then you lose the limbal ring x.x Which is weird cause that visual effect doesnt really seem to happen with super bright colorsI can show too.
Her pupils became dilated and way darker and lost their edge, the limbal rings are the only thing really keeping a semblance of a pupil and not a dead void.
Current:
Benchmark:
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It just looks even worse without the limbal rings covering it up. Nothing is going to un-dilate the eyes without actual changes by CBU3.From what I can tell more than anything the main culprit seems to be the new version of the limbal ring. The glow bleeds into the inner part now instead of just being a solid circle atwhich ends up drowning out the color that should be there. If you turn it off it looks closer to before but then you lose the limbal ring x.x Which is weird cause that visual effect doesnt really seem to happen with super bright colors
Both in as much lighting as possible
Can't really get close-ups in any other benchmark shots so this is from the character creator
Actually I meant the character creator in the Benchmark, so thank you for that. Yeah I don't see much a of difference even with light in her eyes.
Playing around with the CC some more myself, I think it's a general problem with various dark eye colours for anybody blending really hard with the pupil to the point it's hard to actually tell where it starts and ends.
It gets slightly better when in the benchmark but still troublesome enough to get added to the list of lighting/texture issues I think they can work on in the lead up to Dawntrail, I feel like it should doable to find some way to 'cheat' on this to make darker eye colours still pop a bit.
The major face sculpt changes that F!Au Ra and F!Miqo'te meanwhile got is a whole other kettle of issues - kinda feels like someone thought they could make them universally 'cute' across the board, without someone higher up pointing out the obvious issue of doing this when players have already been used to the face differences for several years when designing their characters.
It gets slightly better when in the benchmark but still troublesome enough to get added to the list of lighting/texture issues I think they can work on in the lead up to Dawntrail, I feel like it should doable to find some way to 'cheat' on this to make darker eye colours still pop a bit.
The major face sculpt changes that F!Au Ra and F!Miqo'te meanwhile got is a whole other kettle of issues - kinda feels like someone thought they could make them universally 'cute' across the board, without someone higher up pointing out the obvious issue of doing this when players have already been used to the face differences for several years when designing their characters.
Yeah, the changes are weird because it feels like they glossed over faces without any consideration of what players like about those faces, causing a huge disconnect as a result. So many other longtime Face 4 femra players I know are not happy with these changes either, it's a brand new face now with no way to replicate the current Face 4.
Is it set to Full Screen or borderless/border window?
For whatever reason, full screen locks my display to 60hz (despite being a 4k120hz supported display). Borderless Window gives the full 120hz
After fiddling with settings between DLSS and FSR, I was able to reach a Very High rating in the benchmark, which was about what I was expecting. Will absolutely be able to max everything out still.
What's funny is that I get a slightly higher score on FSR with the AA set to FXAA (the other options either look the same or worse imo) and set to 100% resolution scale. I already didn't want to use DLSS and upscale from under 1080p when I can already max it out and maintain 60+ FPS, but FSR just so happens to be better anyways.
What's funny is that I get a slightly higher score on FSR with the AA set to FXAA (the other options either look the same or worse imo) and set to 100% resolution scale. I already didn't want to use DLSS and upscale from under 1080p when I can already max it out and maintain 60+ FPS, but FSR just so happens to be better anyways.
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail Benchmark
Tested on: 4/16/2024 18:13:18
Score: 12274
Average Frame Rate: 88.65204
Minimum Frame Rate: 50
Performance: Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
Loading Times by Scene
Scene #1 0.388 sec
Scene #2 2.63 sec
Scene #3 3.184 sec
Scene #4 3.304 sec
Scene #5 1.805 sec
Total Loading Time 11.311 sec
DAT:s20240416181318.dat
Screen Size: 1920x1080
Screen Mode: Borderless Windowed
DirectX Version: 11
Graphics Presets: Custom
Resolution
-Graphics Upscaling: AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution)
-Enable dynamic resolution.: Disabled
-Frame Rate Threshold: Activate when frame rate drops below 30fps.
-3D Resolution Scaling: 100
General
-LOD on Distant Objects: Disabled
-Enable dynamic grass interaction.: Enabled
-Real-time Reflections: Maximum
-Edge Smoothing (Anti-aliasing): FXAA
-Transparent Lighting Quality: High
-Grass Quality: High
-Parallax Occlusion: High
-Tessellation: High
-Glare: Standard
Shadows
-Self: Display
-Other NPCs: Display
Shadow Quality
-LOD on Character Shadows: Disabled
-LOD on Distant Object Shadows: Disabled
-Shadow Resolution: High - 2048p
-Shadow Cascading: Best
-Shadow Softening: Strongest
-Cast Shadows: Maximum
Texture Detail
-Texture Resolution: High
-Texture Filtering: Anisotropic
-Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Movement Physics
-Self: Full
-Other NPCs: Full
Effects
-Limb Darkening: Disabled
-Radial Blur: Enabled
-Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: GTAO: Quality
-Glare: Normal
-Water Refraction: Normal
Cinematic Cutscenes
-Depth of Field: Disabled
System
Microsoft Windows 10 Home (ver.10.0.19045 Build 19045)
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics
16212.285MB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
Tested on: 4/16/2024 18:13:18
Score: 12274
Average Frame Rate: 88.65204
Minimum Frame Rate: 50
Performance: Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
Loading Times by Scene
Scene #1 0.388 sec
Scene #2 2.63 sec
Scene #3 3.184 sec
Scene #4 3.304 sec
Scene #5 1.805 sec
Total Loading Time 11.311 sec
DAT:s20240416181318.dat
Screen Size: 1920x1080
Screen Mode: Borderless Windowed
DirectX Version: 11
Graphics Presets: Custom
Resolution
-Graphics Upscaling: AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution)
-Enable dynamic resolution.: Disabled
-Frame Rate Threshold: Activate when frame rate drops below 30fps.
-3D Resolution Scaling: 100
General
-LOD on Distant Objects: Disabled
-Enable dynamic grass interaction.: Enabled
-Real-time Reflections: Maximum
-Edge Smoothing (Anti-aliasing): FXAA
-Transparent Lighting Quality: High
-Grass Quality: High
-Parallax Occlusion: High
-Tessellation: High
-Glare: Standard
Shadows
-Self: Display
-Other NPCs: Display
Shadow Quality
-LOD on Character Shadows: Disabled
-LOD on Distant Object Shadows: Disabled
-Shadow Resolution: High - 2048p
-Shadow Cascading: Best
-Shadow Softening: Strongest
-Cast Shadows: Maximum
Texture Detail
-Texture Resolution: High
-Texture Filtering: Anisotropic
-Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Movement Physics
-Self: Full
-Other NPCs: Full
Effects
-Limb Darkening: Disabled
-Radial Blur: Enabled
-Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: GTAO: Quality
-Glare: Normal
-Water Refraction: Normal
Cinematic Cutscenes
-Depth of Field: Disabled
System
Microsoft Windows 10 Home (ver.10.0.19045 Build 19045)
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics
16212.285MB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060