Au Ra Raen Fem Face 2 Feedback & More

I'm cross posting what I said on the "New Benchmark (June): Au Ra Feedback" thread onto this thread since it's specific to my character's face shape


I really do appreciate the developers taking the time and effort to address the player base's criticisms and release a (much needed) updated version of the benchmark; however, I feel that there are still several key concerns that I saw repeatedly brought up on both the English and Japanese forums that were not addressed. I have a lot to say, so I'm breaking my thoughts down into two posts, which will go over what I thought were major improvements and which areas I think still need to be touched up :)




Here are photos comparing how my character in the live game (6.58), the first benchmark (1), and the second benchmark (1.1) in two different environments:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/fAsLz2U.jpeg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/jlOcxjf.jpeg[/IMG]


The Improvements:

- The new shaders and textures look incredible, especially within the character creator itself! The new shaders gave my character's facial features (particularly around her eyes and nose) much more defined dimensions, which gets rid of much of the initial uncanny-valley feelings I had when I looked at my character within the first benchmark's character creator.

- The nose appears to have been slightly changed/remodeled, and it looks so much better than it did within the first character creator. In particular, it seems that the shape of the nostrils has been changed. It's a bit difficult to tell how much of this improvement is due to the nose actually being remodeled versus the new shaders adding dimension to the nose, but regardless it looks really good! The strange nose shape was one of my main concerns within the first benchmark, so I'm really glad that it has been updated.

- The limbal rings still look great! I didn't see much of a change in the limbal rings from the first benchmark to the second benchmark, which I'm really glad about because I think the first benchmark nailed their design. I love how they truly appear to be glowing now -- especially during the night!

Part 2 of my thoughts about the updated benchmark:



What Still Needs to Be Improved:

- While the lip shapes have definitely been improved upon, the updated benchmark’s new lips are still quite different from the original lip shape their characters had. For my character’s lips within benchmark, the 'descending' part of the top lip (where the top lip travels downward from the cupid's bow to meet the mouth opening) is concave instead of convex. This change in shape makes my character's lips look less plump and rounded, which takes away a lot of her original “soft” look.

- This complaint is specific to Female Au Ra Face 2 -- the dimple are way too subtle. While I am very happy that Face 2 got its dimples back in the updated benchmark, they are very difficult to see, and in some lighting, they are basically invisible. This difference in dimple visibility is probably because the dimples in the live game (6.58) are painted onto the face, whereas the dimples in the updated benchmark are modeled into the face so that they are affected by shadows and lighting. The dimples are an iconic feature of Face 2 and give the face a unique charm, so I am sad that the dimples are barely there. I think that this problem could easily be fixed by lightly shading in the dimple area so that it is still affected by lighting and shading but isn't nearly as subtle.

- Au Ra still have enlarged pupils. This was one of the most common complaints I saw within the forums (at least among Au Ra players), so I think it's very strange that the pupils were not changed back to their original, smaller size. My main problem with the larger pupils is that when they are combined with limbal rings, it really washes out your character's iris color. If you use limbal rings, then part of your character's eye color is already covered by the rings, so combining that with a much larger pupil prevents most of the original eye color from being seen. This is even worse on darker iris colors, as the pupils are relatively light in color and do not provide very much contrast against darker colors, causing the iris and the pupil to blend together into a dark gray-ish blob where it is difficult to distinguish one part from the other.

- ]The 'additional horns' that are part of certain Au Ra-exclusive hairstyles have still not had their textures updated, meaning they look very low-rez in comparison to all the new textures -- especially the updated facial horns and scales. From what I've seen, it looks like most of the hairstyles that have any type of hair accessory (additional horns, flowers, hair bands, barrettes, etc.) have not had their textures updated, which is strange since the hairstyles by themselves received updated textures. Aside from texture updates, I would also love to see the Au Ra hairstyles with additional horns get recolored versions in which the horns match the color of the Raen and Xaela facial horns and scale.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asteri

SNIP

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Spent a bit comparing again and noticed new things for FemRa Face 2 while comparing from the side!

Apologies for the use of most likely the improper terms to describe this, my vocabulary for facial terms is limited. :'D

• The natural eyeshadow is of a different shape in DT, more pointed, going past the eye and curving upwards. It used to be more rounded and stopped with the eyelid.
• The top lip was a soft curve from the corner of the lip to the middle. Now it starts thinner and has a sudden raise when close to the middle of the lip, it gives a sharper triangular effect.
• Bottom lip is the reverse, where before it started thin and became more plump and now it is generally more plump all around.
• The chin is very noticeably changed too, it used to be full and rounded outwards, now it is rounded inwards.

I understand changes needed to happen, but I chose Face 2 because of its more rounded face with Jaw 1, because of its thinner lips for Mouth 3, because of it's more "girl next door" appearance compared to the traditional "prettier" looks. I'm very worried as I don't recognize my character in the Benchmark v1.1 outside of a very few specific emotes that widen the lips such as Chuckle.

I hope there will be some changes to it before Dawntrail releases, it worries me and dampers my excitement for the expansion because I no longer see the character I absolutely fell in love with years ago now. I don't want to play MSQ with a stranger... :(

Slider for comparison: https://imgsli.com/MjcwMDU4

Current VS Benchmark

https://i.imgur.com/jwalPVy.png

This face really lost all character.