General Viera Issues and Feedback
So overall I'd say my character looks pretty ok with the new graphics however there are a few things I've noticed which I'm not too fond of and would like to address.
1. Probably my biggest issue is that the eyeliner tattoo (tattoo 1) is a lot lighter and blurry compared to before where it is darker and sharper. I'd like to hope that they will adjust this so it is more prominent like it was previously but we'll just have to see.
2. In certain lighting, typically in shadows, skin will look really bright as if it's glowing slightly which just looks odd. This is probably an issue across the board for all races. Skin also can look like plastic in some situations such as the shot on the boat at the start of the benchmark.
3. Shadows around the chin and jaw blend in a lot with the neck which gives the impression that the face is blending into the neck (visible in environment 3 of the character creation.)
4. The lips look pretty off. This might just be because they look different to what I'm used to, but it was probably the first thing I noticed when I went into the character creator. The colour of them looked a little too dark which could be adjusted by changing to a slightly lighter shade. Whether this was how they were intended to look all along or not I don't know but it threw me off a bit. They also look much less glossier. Honestly they should just add a lip gloss slider.
5. The textures on the 4th ears look really blurry and pixelated which doesn't really work well with the hair textures which are vastly improved.
I'm no expert and I'm not gonna pretend like I know how these things work but I feel like having darker shadows in places would help certain features feel more prominent, like with the chin looking fused to the neck for example. I'd also really like to see the eyeliner tattoo be improved. Having it look so blurry and the black (colour 8) looking so light really detracts from it.
I think that some sliders should be implemented in the character creator menu. I've noticed lots of people taking issue with the eyes looking lifeless. I personally don't have many problems with the eyes however a slider could be added which simply changes how lively they look.
I'd really appreciate if they made some adjustments regarding the things I've pointed out. Overall, I'm happy that SE is giving us this update I just think it could do with quite a bit of work.
Benchmark:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...4a42b978894a3&
In-game:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...b6b1f3c85ecf3&
Dawntrail Benchmark F!Viera Changes
https://i.imgur.com/AOnqSO2.png
https://i.imgur.com/dn4UliW.png
First image is current and the second image is benchmark. I don't even know where to start!! For the most part the smoothing on the hair and ears is really nice, but when it comes to the eyes and lips, which is where like ALL the expression comes from, they feel entirely flat! The lips have almost no shading, they have lost all definable shape from the OG picture and they just look painted on! The lip line on the benchmark image is literally just a completely straight line which you can clearly see is very defined and organic on the original.
The eyes come across as very blank and unfeeling. I feel like I have a little more leniency with them because I can kind of tell that the dev team was going for more dynamic reflections depending on your surroundings (?) not too sure about that one but still. To me, she feels more like a doll. Where she's all done up and pretty but lacks a lot of the life and charm the original has even in a simple neutral pose.