Following weeks of feedback from players about the updated character models, Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida responded with a plan that would take place over several content patches. Yoshida also provided a non-exhaustive list of examples that Final Fantasy 14 players had provided feedback on, such as the updated bone structures, new lighting effects, and some issues specific to races like the Au Ra and the Viera.

One of the major features of Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail was the game's first major graphical update since A Realm Reborn. This update provided updated lighting and textures for character models and various environments and included upscaling support via AMD's FSR and Nvidia's DLSS technologies. To ensure players could provide feedback, Final Fantasy 14 released two different benchmarks before Dawntrail's release. The benchmarks provided a way for players to not only ensure their PCs could run the game but also offered a glimpse of how their characters would look with the updated graphics.

After gathering some feedback on the official Final Fantasy 14 forums, Yoshida gave players an idea of what would be changed, and what may remain as is. According to a Lodestone post, Yoshida said that some changes to player character models would be prioritized for release alongside Patch 7.1 in the coming months. Yoshida said some of the top issues players provided feedback on included Au Ra scales having rough silhouettes, Viera noses having darker tips than normal, and character hair floating in certain circumstances. Yoshida also touched upon some special processing effect problems, such as Au Ra horns glowing red under sunlight, and said that these would be addressed in Patch 7.2 or later due to the time needed to properly test and implement fixes.

Naoki Yoshida said that some changes to player character models will continue in response to ongoing feedback.

Patch 7.1 may see changes to immediate issues, such as Au Ra scale textures, Viera noses, and certain hairstyle problems.

Other problems that will take time to fix, like Au Ra horns glowing red, may arrive in Patch 7.2 or later.

Certain lighting changes that were implemented in Dawntrail will remain as is.

Specific problems that were given no timeframe for a fix included issues with character jawlines and inconsistent orientation of character eyelashes in Dawntrail. Yoshida also added that some character lighting implementations would remain as is, including eye highlights that would result in unnatural glows if any further changes were made. Other items such as nasal cavity lighting under specific camera angles would also be left alone. Yoshida closed his response by stating some quality-of-life updates to Final Fantasy 14's character creator would be considered for a future update, despite some technical challenges.

Yoshida thanked Final Fantasy 14 players for their patience and their continued feedback. With Final Fantasy 14 unveiling more details about Patch 7.1 at the 2024 Tokyo Game Show, it remains to be seen when more graphical adjustments will be implemented.

Posted: Sep 10, 2024 1:25 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/final-fantasy-14-director-player-character-model-feedback-update/