You... have no idea how blackheads look do you?
The one I quoted before looked the most aggressive in the waxy look compared to yours and the others I’ve seen. They straight up looked like a wax candle man and yours has that “dewy” wet and shiny look. So I was assuming it’s PC specs + whatever is happening in the CC environment.
But yeah the CC lighting is so bad and probably why when the trailer is ran characters look 10000x better. Except in that opening scene that zooms in on the face, that stays questionable lol.
But like either way I’m in the, most look fine and we’ll all get used to it camp. But I also am kinda like why did the lips and some eye shapes get adjusted that change the feeling of the character. Esp. the lips and how some had neutral expressions and now they have a slight smile, or the adjustment for some lips to be fuller than before.
As mentioned by many others, I hope Au Ra eyes can be given more sharpness and life. Also the mouth could get more look like the original.
https://i.ibb.co/WtpS15B/compare2.png
I had to run the benchmark once more to make sure I'm just not gaslighting myself lmao. Without a shadow of doubt, it's not a PC spec issue if I can score this high on maximum:
https://i.gyazo.com/c3e621bd323e133a...e984b34ab3.png
Here's how my man looked in the opening:
https://i.gyazo.com/c835d1dda7b2aded...828a9fd4a2.jpg
"Oh my man =((( What have the world done to you????"
Ahem...
Maybe slightly better? A LITTLE BIT??? I guess... Yet still, he has lost A LOT of the "Mr.Goodie two shoes/Innocent"-look character that pre-benchmark version of him exudes which was one of the main drive of my attachment to this character---he's just straight up a different character in the benchmark. Besides, if I'm going to play the game, I'm not going to be watching a CS 90% of time like visual novels, am I not? lol.
"Easiest fix" would be giving us the option to pick the current aesthetic while keeping what's been developed. I doubt their penchant of having some sort of spagghetified coding in their engine preventing them from doing just that would just go away, but since they wanted the feedback... welp, here we are. /shrug
The light male Au Ra Raen scales are too dark with the details sharpened making it all look cluttered and busy! It also doesn't match the much lighter horns.
I also miss the slight contour that helped to frame the face and scale shapes even more, though this detail I can understand not everyone will miss.
https://i.imgur.com/hQFyQdi.jpeg
Came to this thread looking for solidarity, lol. My mooncat sadly no longer looks like the same person. I think the eyes are the biggest factor, but I'm not sure.
I actually feel some texture changes could already do a lot to get the old impression back, even for the remodeled lips.
Slider 1
Slider 2
Slider 3
https://i.imgur.com/trIhp60.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/WBjOI6g.png
https://i.imgur.com/DXMlFRR.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/zfY8DnX.png
So, to sum up the things I've noticed so far;
- The texture of the eyes/eyeliner now follows the model more, and the eyes themselves have a slightly different shape. Because the eyeliners had quite a different shape in the old one, it changes the impression a lot. The old ones were less rounded, and a bit more elongated. A bit like how a cosplayer would do make-up to resemble anime characters. The new eyes also look smaller than the old ones because of this.
- because of the missing highlight and added black to the eyeliner, the eyes now look more bored/vapid in my honest opinion.
- The lips are modeled differently, so that they are slightly more pronounced and have obvious 'dimples' or shadows around the corners. This often creates the impression of a 'smirk' or at least raised corners. While some may like it, I did not want this 'cheeky' expression for my character. There is now also a much more pronounced philtrum, and with some lighting it can still be spotted from a distance. I just don't like how it looks.
- The lips are also textured/painted differently, with a more pronounced cupid's bow, possibly to meet/match the modeled philtrum. This makes the lips look a bit more pouty.
Overall the new impression feels more sultry/cheeky, as opposed to serious/stoic. Not bad if that's what you want, but it's just not the same character.
I have played this character for 10 years and I have never changed a single thing about him. Sadly a fantasia to just make a different character won't work for me. I love roleplay and this character has his own story! Making him into another character would be akin to killing the story. I appreciate that other people have other standards, but I'm overall just sad about what I'm seeing.