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Final Fantasy 14's Naoki Yoshida promises fix to "lifeless eyes" in graphical update

New benchmark tool on the way.

Lalafell Krile as a Pictomancer from FF14 Dawntrail trailer
Image credit: Square Enix

Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida has promised the forthcoming graphical update will fix a number of issues spotted in the recent Dawntrail benchmark tool.

The tool was released last week and allows players to create a character and test out how the game will run on their PC once the graphical update arrives alongside next expansion Dawntrail this summer.

However, not everyone was happy with the changes as various issues were pointed out on social media. In a new blog post, Yoshida explained the character creator is over 10 years old and a number of issues will be resolved once the graphical update arrives.

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail - Full TrailerWatch on YouTube

The character creation environment includes certain elements (like weather) made to "present the texture resolutions and shaders at their best based on the quality standards at the time", when the game was released on PS3.

"The character creation environment should have been updated, but was overlooked as we prioritised the development of Dawntrail and tuning the graphical update in the actual game, for which I would like to apologise," said Yoshida.

As such, Square Enix is reworking these elements and will replace the current benchmark tool to give a more accurate representation of the graphical update.

Three major points to be resolved are: "lifeless" eyes due to lack of highlights in the pupils; facial contours appearing flattened; and either a lack of gloss or excessive appearance of gloss.

Other issues have been spotted by the developers relating to data and processes, including certain unimplemented textures and uncorrected scaling of features.

It's unclear when the new benchmark tool will be released, though Yoshida added the team requires "some time to investigate the issues and reconstruct the benchmark environment".

Dawntrail - and the accompanying graphical update - are due for release on 2nd July. Here's everything you need to know, including system requirements.

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