FFXIV Dawntrail Graphics Update Before and After Detailed Comparison

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Early Access is here and the new graphics update looks amazing!
I recorded some character models, lighting, cities, landscapes and glamours before and after the Dawntrail patch so we can see the changes easier. We have some big upgrades to textures, lighting and models especially! Here are some detailed comparisons, my first impression and thoughts on the FF14 graphics update!
What do you think about the FFXIV Graphical update? Do you like your Warrior of Light's new look? Share your thoughts in the comments down below!
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[@buchholzphoto27]

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.

[@Person-lh5fp]

My Catboy got bags under their eyes and looks like they've not slept in days. And also more mature for some reason. It's top tier.

[@junkfolders2029]

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)!

[@CaelusTianxin]

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.

[@batboy90001]

that is one of the gayest things I've ever read BaD bOy WiTh A sOfT sIdE stfu

[@bloodmoon0746]

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.

[@Glacier_Noir]

Same~. Male miqo'te with dark skin. The lighting made his skintone more bouncy and organic as well as better muscle apparenteur. Also the lips and mouth corners became more expression-able. 😙👌👌 Ps. Our WoL's eyes slightly twitch and wiggle too~.👀👁

[@Dmyx9724]

Same ! I can finally see my back character 🤣

[@scolamiero28]

@@Glacier_Noir wth

[@mossyrocks3967]

@@scolamiero28 ?

[@Rhomagus]

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.

[@0Fyrebrand0]

I went through Halatali, and I couldn't believe how good it looks now! The new lighting system is working wonders in all sorts of areas.

[@SuperEffector]

This is also partially because Copperbell got a huge rework not long ago, so they likely remade it with the graphics update in mind. I reckon Thousand Maws is the same, that place already locked amazing after the rework.

[@starlagirls]

now time to find out how Lakshmi looks-

[@TheGameKat]

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

[@Froggsroxx]

Yes, it's actually bonkers

[@HikingFeral]

it looks terrible and costs performance

[@Xialoh]

@@HikingFeral Looks great and I'm playing at 144fps anyway.

[@mossyrocks3967]

@@HikingFeral low quality bait

[@adtsiriusstarr112]

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

[@Marinterre]

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.

[@meriwidget3474]

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

[@velvetkit69]

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.

[@natebroadus8474]

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.

[@MistyKathrine]

Wow, it finally looks better than the 1.0 graphics.

[@noOtherFs]

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

[@AlexSuns]

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.

[@markb6506]

Extra thumbs of for the very important "big cat lady

[@liliakasem6187]

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

[@ShadowFennixx]

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!

[@kurumaki7539]

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.

[@Gadgadashvara]

Type "BOB ROSS????" into wrong chat. Man disappears. Pan camera to angry face... Genius. Diamond encrusted golden morsel of comedy you gave us at 8:40ish.

[@asdsad17]

The fsr slider means. At 100, it's off. you are running at native res. At 99, fsr will kick in. you are running at 99% resolution and upscaled with fsr 1.0. which is notorious for oversharpening until you get halos around the edges. I suggest leaving it at 100 and off. The game looks softer because of the anti aliasing, TSCMAA, which is temporally based AA and usually blur everything. The new grass, metallic highlights and wet reflection shimmers a lot now, so there is no choice but to turn AA on. You can turn off camera jitter for slightly less blur. However, TSCMAA is tuned for ffxiv, the blurryness is not overly done like other TAA. The look has grown on me. Looks filmic now. I can't recommend turning off grass, the ground texture has a nasty repetitive pattern. keep at normal or high. Turning of DLSS means you will have TSCMAA + camera jitter on by default. No, DLSS doesn't upsample to AA your game. Not by default. As for characters, running around town, miqote, aura, looks dead inside. lalafell highest quality.

[@alexartiles9756]

Well said

[@zazikeldragonofchaos2765]

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.

[@martinosmera7529]

I started the game about a week ago. I log out in Ul'dan and yesterday when I log in I was like "Oh something is different... The game suddenly doesn't look so bad..." 😆 So I found your video. Thank you for comparsion. 😊

[@ocendaca]

My female Mi´qote seems to have bigger eyes/irises than before. The texture on clothes are really amazing. But I noticed that in crystarium enemies pop up in the distance instead of slowly growing larger when nearing them. Playing on PS5,

[@Naryoril]

Looking at old screenshots, you are right. I did use a fantasia because i wanted to make some minor adjustments to my female Mi'qote, like changing the eye color and voice (or the god while i was at it). While I was doing that I didn't like how big the irises were, so I changed that from large to small. It never bothered me before, but I think you are right. I'm looking at old screenshots now and i'm pretty sure the irises there are smaller than they were in the character editor, seems like they were pretty close to what they are now.

[@EmiruStar]

Characters have really bad dark circles under their eyes. It does look indeed as our WOL had no chance to sleep since we met the scions. I hope they fix this lighting because it's horrible. My male Viera looks so fuckin done with his life 😢 Other than that I do love the graphics update but it's an extreme change to my dark skinned Viera face that will take some time to get used to ngl

[@maxvieira2595]

Female au ra face 4 lost their soul with this update, I liked how they had sharp eyes in endwalker, now they just have dead fish eyes in the portraits, you can barely see the limbal ring in it. When they said that au ras would be able to keep their "dead inside" look, I didn't expect them to force it on every au ra.

[@AiroDusk]

I feel mine went through the update fine. Maybe just unlucky?

[@bluelagoon4]

I also have fem Au Ra (Xaela) and she looks so fine, she has white limbal rings and it's still catching

[@getjinxed6128]

I love the update except for the fact that I have the only female Miqo'te face bugged Moon Tribe face 4 has eyebrow color issues... I look super dumb, like my head is empty because my eyebrows does not match my hair and they blend with my skin - making me look eyebrowless... Besides that, my only other issue are facial expressions : they look weird. I had to change my portraits because the mouth is odd now, the corners looks puffy as if I was carrying food in my cheeks like a hamster or something.

[@ofanichan]

The update completely changed my hyur... Like the character I've been playing for years is no longer the same person, and I am trying to get used to it... Cuz I wanna get through MSQ with the girl whose been doing all the work. They changed her eyes completely, and nerfed her chin hard. I'd argue the change made her prettier, but it's still weird. (Midlander face 3 if anyone is curious)

[@Zadamanim]

Everyone's eyes are more marble-like now, with reflections and stuff. Before, the eye-shine was just painted on and wouldnt move if you turned your head.

[@dains6623]

Hyurs got the worst of it. My midlander was ruined so I went catgirl lol.

[@ofanichan]

@@dains6623 i was thinking of going miqote, but they changed my backup's eyes so her energy went from a brat to a trophy wife

[@ofanichan]

@@Zadamanim it's more than just the shine. Her eyes are smaller and more "droopy" and it gives her a completely different energy. I have a before and after picture, but I sadly cant post in on KZbin

[@MaraFFXIV]

The exact same thing happened to my hyur, with face 1. She was everything to me and now I can't even stand to look at her. I'm happy for the people who like their characters post-update, but it's also hard to not feel alone and left out seeing everybody talk about how great it is, meanwhile people like us are losing motivation to even play the game.

[@Naryoril]

In general i like the graphics update, but there is room for improvement. The mount tilting is great when flying, but when running on ground it seems weird when e.g. a horse tilts that much. The resolution of self shadows is still really really low. For example look at the shadows your hair casts on yourself, it's extremely pixelated. And for female characters, the breasts can still cast really strange shadows. Also, that metals and such look so much better probably isn't due to upgrades to textures, but a result of the changes in the lighting system, how the light interacts with metal surfaces.

[@AmazingLube]

Sadly I absolutely hate how my character looks after the update. Not just my character but the entire Au Ra race, so I'll have to do drastic changes

[@CrystalCatArt]

also wait what server are you on? Because I SWEAR I saw someone in an outfit similiar to yours doing that slapping and then petals in front of the fantasia guy lol. That would be really funny if I saw you XD

[@avycatte]

I play on Mateus!

[@CrystalCatArt]

@@avycatte haha ok so wasn’t you but very funny I saw something similar!

[@thomasheller4629]

I don't think my Rava Viera has changed much, except... with the graphics update some hair styles, especially those with "long straight lines" look like paint on the head. It's hard to explain but those don't look natural, but like "one solid block". And the mount tili feels... odd...

[@bluelagoon4]

Perhaps because it's smoother and polished?

[@codsamanta]

Not a big fan of what they did to midlander ladies to be honest. My character looks different in a way that completely shifted her vibe. I tried to make her look more like herself but it's impossible with the features we currently have. Also, very disappointed that we got 2 new hairstyles and both are short. :

[@lyletaylor3728]

My character looked good both before and after the update, except for the eyes. The lower eye lid is too thick. I didn't like looking at her eyes after the update - they just looked wrong. I switched to an Au Ra (because my Viera couldn't show most headwear), and that one looks ok. Just a few tweaks from my saved character data from before. The eyes still aren't perfect, but not as bad (or at least not as noticeable) as before.

[@nicolefrench2968]

I dont like my character and some things are looking grainy to me. Haven’t figured out what setting to change. Love the areas though - old a new, instanced and open world - all look amazing. Overall what a great improvement.

[@Ednaxx]

Hi! Can someone tell me what chest piece is that at 6:05?

[@TheSindara]

Its the reward from the FF16 crossover event (now ended) - specifically the Metian Vest.

[@Ednaxx]

@@TheSindara noo I missed it D: Ty anyways!

[@lorekeepermeerah]

my husband's catboy was massacred. He fantasia-ed to a viera and has been really depressed about it. My mooncat looks very different too and its kind of upsetting to look at her. they totally messed up mooncat face 4 v_v I’ve been a mooncat on on my main the entire time, and I don’t want to switch… v_v just sad

[@grizzlybear6377]

I'm to hear that you and your husband are going through this. I'd feel the same if I were in your shoes

[@RoadkillRemii]

Hm really? I love my face 4 moon cat! Sorry to hear ); I did make a sun cat with face 3 for my alt and it's gorgeous. Maybe..switch to a sun kitty? The eyes are amazing!

[@KurosakiRuka]

agreed. I was so proud of my Mooncat, she was perfect and i often got compliments for she looked. Not only my glamour, but how her face and color pallete were beautiful. But after DW the colors changed, her hair color is way more lighter andi have no other option to get the old hair color and her face looks odd, as well as most of the facial expression emotes. I am disappointed and miss my old Mooncat. On the contrarary, my alt character, a female Au Ra with wich i was not really satisfied became now somehow prettier. And the changed the lighting which messes with with my house as the object do not cast the same shadows and now i have to change it. (i think the enviroment looks great though)

[@dbpx12]

This is such a rude comment

[@OjiOtaku]

You can fantasia all you want but that won't help if you had slanted eye as a lala. none of the eyes look like the ones i had before and all of the faces are fatter. just my take on Lala.

[@guidoblok]

But the real question is: how do the grapes in labyrinthos look has anyone checked those out yet?! 😬

[@JadonTheEternal]

I can report, they have not changed, or if they did it's unnoticeable

[@villa_art]

They should be the same. If I'm not wrong, they did an interview a few months ago and were talking about the update and mentioned the grapes. They said that the overall geometry of their environment will stay the same, so the angular grapes stay the same

[@bean2122]

I hope they don't change the grapes 😂 they prob will but the laughs and memories 😂.

[@grizzlybear6377]

Wait! We're looking at _fruit?_ 🍇

[@Dreded100]

I wasn't all that excited about the graphics update from the benchmark. It looked nice, but not OMG this is a HUGE difference to me. Then I saw a cutscene very early in DT where the sun was shining on my Au Ra through a window, and her horn was glowing from the sun shining through it. That was my "A Ha" moment for this update. That and I love how her umbral eye rings glow at night now.

[@Klaudiuszeg]

My aura, hyur, elezen were ruined by this update tbh. Miqo survived it but they changed actual eyebrow shape on her and made her angry. Luckily found viera i could play on which looks better than chars i had before, female viera got the best rework lol

[@ToMiBriX]

This comparison shots are crazy good.

[@Brykun777]

Thank you SO much for making these side-by-side comparison videos! They help my bad eyes appreciate the changes more xD

[@JoseSoulitario]

I had a small weird look with my miqo'te but now with each cutscene I look on amazement haha it vastly made my WoL look much better. Currently about halfway through shadowbringers so gots a LOT to look forward to besides msq now haha

[@clemi5051]

I love your video, you can really see the differences of the textures ^^ I just recently started playin FF XIV and found all the helpful videos on your channel. Please keep up the great work!

[@Zephhi]

It would look better if they fixed FSR and DLSS. Of course the update looks good, but I have legitimately struggled trying to find the right look I like lol

[@canderia]

It feels like they smoothed out the fem roe faces. Less jagged edges. But the mount leaning looks ridiculous when you're on the ground.

[@foxdavion6865]

the leaning is fine when it's a bike. But if it is a 4 legged cat or monster, they shouldn't lean and chocobos shouldn't lean at all.

[@AlleluiaElizabeth]

@@foxdavion6865 Well, chocobos should lean a bit. They should also ruffle their wings for balance. But as it is now, yeah, way too much lean on the birds on the ground.

[@komododragons4553]

​@@foxdavion6865it looks amazing on clouds bike

[@z0h33y]

The leaning looks so strange, maybe ill get used to it.

[@Shikori_Tsuru]

Yeah, for flying mounts leaning is perfect, but when it comes to grounded ones it's kind of hit and miss, depends on a mount.

[@octapusxft]

did they just fix the flickering on the folliage?

[@williek08472]

The biggest change I noticed for my mooncat was that the irises are particularly well-defined and have little lines in them. Also, her fangs are thankfully not as short as I was fearing.

[@jayr7613]

Without even watching the video, I can honestly say the game looks like the right side of the thumbnail. It's NEVER looked like the lest side in the least bit.

[@RyldsGirl]

As a dark Elezen duskwight I’m so happy. My boy was always cute but capturing him because of the lighting was so hard! The before/after of him is incredible. Not only that but my WoL wears glasses… and now I can have hats and glasses. I’m so happy!

[@AlphaXXI]

What's with thumbnails about this subject making either the old graphics look a lot worse or showing the same picture with filters though.

[@villa_art]

Finaly, someone that actually did a good comparison video. Im curious to see more areas from a realm reborn, since those would be the biggest visual changes. Especially since the said the graphical update will start from the outside in, starting woth A realm reborn and dawntrail.

[@pres002]

How does your game not have that yellow hue? I use shaders to get rid of it but the default colors are so dull

[@WGSXFrank]

If you have an Nvidia card, you could swap to dlss, then use the Nvidia overlay to apply sharpness. You can even adjust the sharpness to your liking. I personally have mine set to 45%

[@NPDStudio]

Delighted with how my Au'ra looks! She's grown up so much ❤ Love the graphics update so far - anytime I think that it was underwhelming, I find something that makes me say "Damn, I can't remember this game ever looking this good!" Love how every basic NPC now looks totally on point 👌 Hoping for more improvements down the line. I love going back to old dungeons and seeing the differences :)

[@Bingus_Jamz]

Does anyone know if they reduced pop in?

[@MauricioPlaza]

most things pre 7.0 looks outdated AF, the twins gear is updated but thancred looks pixelated.

[@S0ulC41ib3r]

for some reason when I set the res scaling to 99 it actually causes an overlay of circles across my screen that makes it hard to look at

[@MyndZero]

I don't know if it counts as a detailed comparison if you couldn't line up the lighting and what not. Like.. that's when you be patient and wait it out if you want a detailed comparison, otherwise it's a surface level comparison.

[@JayBigDadyCy]

the @235 comparison, look at the background. That looks amazing. That's the changes I was more interest in. I've played a little so far, but the ques kept me away so Elden Ring it was most of the weekend lol.

[@yanoamustamu2390]

This is probably one of the better comparison videos I've found out there; splendid work!! o/

[@AngelTerri]

Thumbnail is a bit disingenuous with the apparent blurring of the before side ...

[@meyatetana2973]

So was FFXIV's goal to make Miqote have a blank stare like the Au'Ra have? Why is their expression so badin this graphical update?

[@O3.Studios]

Completely off topic, but if I may ask, if your accent Brazilian Portuguese?

[@TheNerd]

Great Video but uploading in 1080P on KZbin is suicide to the video quality. If you can't record in a higher resolution, upscale your videos to 1440P or 4K before you upload and KZbin will grant you a WAY HIGHER bitrate.

[@Gwydion_Wolf]

I love how with the quest in Uldah for the free Fantasia, they basically cannonized that potion as being an actual thing in-game XD

[@MrAxelyeager]

Idk why but the eyebrows on miqo hurts to look at in cutscenes sometimes supper jarring over all I like the new looks of everything but I need that free Fanta

[@Sk8trgod420]

Love your videos♥. Also i must mention that Female Miqo'te Face 3 + Mouth 4 makes me sad after the DT update. I now have an ugly under-bite if you look at me straight on. (Side profile is still cute but not same). you can check many facial expressions and they all look ABSOULTELY HORRIBLE. They gave me plastic surgery to my lips and "Philtrum" that i didn't ask for. Idk if i want to play msq anymore at this rate. I lost motivation today.

[@samus20018]

I didn't spend much time as male Elezen I found I had a fantasia in my chocobo bags and used it to become female Hrothgar. Stumbled on the quest for the free fantasia in Ul'dah later in the day while doing stuff in the markets so I can change race again when I feel like it without spending real world money on one.

[@Rasayon]

Just amazing Video and amazing graphic Update :3 ❤

[@DICEBOY22]

maybe its cause my current graphics card is a 710 ti and can somehow run the game although at 40 fps... but I don't notice to big a difference on my end.

[@kmeanxneth]

with the new crystal textures/light system, Crystal Tower look like is kinda not the same game anymore. XD

[@samifranco5541]

oh thanks for the info i was wondering where i can get fantasia

[@ZansoT]

The last time i played this game was on my ps4 2 years ago...can i just log back in on my ps5 without doing any additional steps?!

[@Kumire_921]

I expected a complete overhaul to make it look like a 2024 game instead it's just a very minor texture improvement.. looks basically the same

[@TheNerd]

On the FSR thing: 99 Percent means that FSR upscaling and AMD CAS is actually turned on. At 100 upscaling is off. Or in other words: Your GPU is rendering at "XY percent of your set resolution and upscaling it to your set resolution". But you should use DLSS anyway if you have Nvidia GPU since it looks A LOT better. The difference especially in areas like foliage is INSANE.

[@bluelagoon4]

I personnally loved these changes, I already noticed significant improvements on my character when I logged in, especially the hair texture being smoother and more polished, as well as lighting (knowing that I'm not running on full high settings), and honestly my character looked so good that I didn't want to use fantasia (well... I used it to create another appearance and race lol). For the environment, the changes are subtile but more stunning and lively, the aetherite (crystals and metals in general) being the most noticeable change compared to the rest.

[@shiftar1153]

Honestly.... I like the update but im also disappointed as i expected a much better ovehual considering mobile games look better than this but still, better something than nothing at all, crystals look dope tho.

[@SeiaiAnkoku]

I had a great time seeing all sorts of new graphic updates, even in the oldest maps due to the lighting and universal material/texture changes. Thanks for the video! This is very handy for my friends that have difficulty noticing the changes.

[@hybridpsycho]

It's a nice polish but given the first images they showed of characters it feels underwhelming. I'd be ok with if they just said "HEY WE'RE GONNA JUST POLISH THE GAMES GRAPHICS SLIGHTLY, DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH". But they called it a "Graphics update". :( I'm not too upset, just a little.

[@u45uify]

as a dark skinned bnuuy lady, i was already hot, this update just made me even hotter, my lipstick was made darker and more like lipstick instead of lip gloss, and i now have TOES

[@raveneyes5507]

Quick question, any clue when the congestion is going to go away, I am a new player and the only server world's are the accelerated ones and I feel like I am being rushed and am not learning all I should as a fresh tool would

[@avycatte]

They haven't officially said anything about it yet but I'm guessing servers would reopen at the end of June when they release the Savage raids!

[@The_Lesser_Evil]

Are you happy with the moisture now?

[@jayr7613]

There's next to no noticeable difference really.

[@sam.246]

great video comparison, thanks!

[@2sigi]

Thank you so much for the comparisons. It's wild how subtle changes can improve how an area or a character looks so much. The point where i realized the update did a lot of work was when I ran the Crystal Tower raids on an alt and saw Syrcus Tower. The crystals, the gold, and the lighting combined made me actually catch my breath for a moment. I was like "oh... oh, the Allagans really did have something going here with the Crystal Tower's design" lol

[@DigitalW1zard]

not very diff which i like but skin and textures look smoother fs

[@danielferrell3838]

I thought it was super cool when i noticed some mounts like the horses also tilt when you take turns even when on the ground

[@TachyKusanagi]

Oh, looks like you forgot to raise one setting: The shadow softness. That one can now go to "Softest", which makes shadows have proper shadow-fuzziness effects applied to them. Especially at 3:31 you can see that setting missing, as the sun-shadows appear rather crisp and aliased; they flicker a little bit. Oh, and give DLSS a try! Just keep the frame rate threshold to under 30 and it will look pretty good.

[@FelixS.]

I am still on endwalker content and didn’t notice any difference. I already bought the Dawntrail CE and started the game yesterday. Was a huge letdown I don’t see any difference at all (playing on PS5). Does the update not affect previous content? The characters look the same too imo. As if nothing changed at all -.-

[@AdesGamingHere]

Game evolved visually from 2013 to 2013 :|

[@_Magnuss_]

I think the graphics upgrade looks decent but the performance cost they are pushing is seriously stupid. It looks like the changes of a Skyrim mod but it needs the performance of a last of us and that game looks 1000 times better.

[@bebekkurus]

I hate my Au’ra face after update, but thanks god they give us free Fantasia. I tweak it a little and somehow get my old Au’ra face from using other parts of her face. I love her now!

[@GroovyDean]

To enjoy the graphical updates more, and to see what's what, I choose to WALK most of the time. Seeing the texture on the ground, on the grasses, on the wall, on everything, the best way is to do just that... when you pass by so fast, you can hardly see anything in detail. for me who have played since ShB, the changes are very visible to me, and like you, Avy, I cant help but feeling excited about it.

[@Sucying]

the only thing im disappointed with the graphical update is how garbage all my portraits look now... i loved them...

[@rkat]

The lines look worse on my PlayStation. There is no anti aliasing at all and when you look at line work close up, the lines look jagged. It's terrible. They need to fix it soon because if I was a new player I would not be impressed. Some of those graphics settings you show are not available to console.

[@christafart4202]

I feel u. And honestly I've been considering getting a PC cause we are missing out on so much from so many games graphically. I saw a streamer that had a 1440p res and it looks so much better then my ps5 😢

[@ShallieDragon]

My WoL (a lala) looked a little off when I got in the game for the first time. Like, just looking at her standing there, she looked... strange. Like, something felt wrong. But when I started seeing her moving around and doing stuff more, especially in cutscenes, it started to grow on me. This was further helped by a trip to the Aesthetician to update the colors on the hair and makeup. Overall I'm pretty happy with it, and I feel like I'm only going to like it more with time. I guess the thing that's throwing me is how much of a difference lighting makes now. Like, the ambient light levels make a MUCH bigger difference, in terms of color perception and saturation. The new system is much more responsive and dynamic, which feels unusual at first when you're used to very flat static colors. But I'll get used to it. I'm too enamored with ALL THE INCREASED DETAILS NOW. Like holy crap everything looks so sharp and crisp!

[@Sparksol]

I had to do a little touch-up with a Fantasia for face reasons, but it's all fine now.

[@FreakStyled]

Hmm many things looks better and some tings looks aweful now xD

[@CCKaraoke]

It's mind blowing.