Benchmark/Graphics Update - Show your WoL's before and after

Suppose ill post my Elezen here as well. Right is DT.

https://i.imgur.com/l6kbxAM.png

I find most characters here to be an improvent, especially Viera who i find to be frankly ugly currently.

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Originally Posted by faiarrow

They murdered my girl... the dark pupils combined with the hellsguard nose rhinarium/mark being so much lighter is not a winning change.

https://i.postimg.cc/rwWxf5qG/oof.png

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I had a look and noticed that while their eyes do seem more noticeable at night, it is disappointing for them to lose the coloured pupil, but the real shock is the nose detail having such a huge change. It makes no sense as to why it's now so pale and less noticeable as a feature to the Hellsguard!

Thank you for sharing!

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

I was wrong here. It's not eye tilt, it's camera tilt.

I finally got around to starting on screenshots. The extra detailing means a tiny change in camera angle is making a bigger difference than it would with the old graphics. Very noticeable with eyes and jawline, somewhat noticeable with lips.

If your look is bothering you, see if a small change to camera angle makes a difference.

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Checking the emotes in the Voice section helps too. Sometimes it's just a matter of the resting face just being ever so slightly off, but once it starts actually moving it looks right.

https://i.imgur.com/fp2KR8i.png

It does look a little more natural but in a weird way... acceptable is all I can say.

https://i.ibb.co/nr3C4pS/Lari-Old-New.png


Looks not so different. So i do not worry about it.



Cheers

I made before and after screenshots of my three main chars, mostly happy with how they turned out, but the mouth on Felezen is a bit more downturned, the eyebags on my duskwight and the soulless eyes of my lala are a bit weird
https://imgur.com/a/aHUZgUf

I took a whole bunch of pictures. A lot of what I'm seeing really bugs me. My Lily's nose is a different shape in the benchmark, her skin appears to be lighter in general, and her lips no longer has any gloss.

But I think the two that really highlight there being something wrong are these.

Before:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLHse0aa...jpg&name=large
After:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLHse04a...jpg&name=large

What the heck?

https://i.imgur.com/zKChp5d.png
Maybe I'll get used to it or change a few things around, but that lower lip bothers me.
Yoshi-P said the characters will look more alive but based on that character creation screen I look more robotic.

Common mistake i see with the updates is that the lips and noses didn't only get more polygons, but have been overall made smaller or more rounded.

Also noticed that the changes seemed significantly less noticeable in the benchmark video than in the character creator.

Not sure I'm convinced. There are a lot of changes around the eyes that severely impact his facial expression and make it look decidedly less friendly.

https://i.imgur.com/isztwft.jpg

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Originally Posted by Rosenstrauch

What the heck?

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Use always the same lighting and the same position. Your screenshots are not really comparable. ;)



Cheers

I do like some changes, like models and textures, material handling, fingers and toes! But others really do need more work for the final release. Here's my findings:

• Pale skin tones look even paler now and like others have stated the lighting has made a lot of the facial features, lips, hair look more flat.
  
• Shadows are more muted and don't create as strong contrasts for hair and other features, which leads to less readable shapes. Leading to the "flat" look.
  
• Most eyes have had the edge between pupil and iris blended, which results in a more "flat" and soulless eyes. The colour of the pupil is also more grey than black. Which reduces the contrast between the iris and the pupil and makes the eye less readable.
  
• Pupils no longer have the dot highlight.
  
• Darker skin tones especially look waxy in certain lighting conditions. The added skin gloss is just too much currently. (Visible in others examples, not mine)
  
• Some racial features like Miqote clan marks, moon cat fangs have been muted and filed down.
  
• Some features have outright been changed. Some races have larger or smaller pupils in eyes for example. In my example pictures my character should have identical features, but the eyebrows are clearly different angled and length, not reaching the superciliary arch of the brow bone.

https://i.imgur.com/0NHEsWo.png
https://i.imgur.com/Me1fKVp.png

https://i.imgur.com/Ekri2LW.png

In a way I sort of like it even though the lips are quite different.

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

Use always the same lighting and the same position. Your screenshots are not really comparable. ;)

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I don't think you understand the point I'm trying to make. There shouldn't be an angle where natural lighting turns my Viera into a pasty white wax mannequin to begin with.

EDIT: Because I feel the need to prove it's not just that I picked a bad angle.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ioAS5is.png[/IMG] vs: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLHse04a...jpg&name=large

He looks beautiful as ever especially in the cutscenes, I'm happy <3 He's just slightly better moisturized lol

https://i.imgur.com/dvViw91.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/kjsGkUf.png

My alt wasn't as lucky however, I'm honestly kinda devastated by this change. They yassified my girl (I made a feedback thread regarding it too):

https://i.imgur.com/aLsOBvf.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/Vws2LYE.png

She does look a tiny bit different, but to me she still looks beautiful and like it's her. I might have to change her lip colour, but overall I'm pleased with the updated look :)

Current:
https://i.ibb.co/sv7JL06/Screenshot-...-14-112014.png

Benchmark:
https://i.ibb.co/xF62pY7/Screenshot-...-14-112457.png

And two of the automatically generated shots during the benchmark:
https://i.ibb.co/cxN3Gyq/ffxiv-14042024-125144-482.png

https://i.ibb.co/xYs47q2/ffxiv-14042024-125530-661.png

Edit: Sorry, don't know why the first two pics turned out so bit >.<

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Originally Posted by Aporis

[*]Pupils no longer have the dot highlight.

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They removed the static highlight, but added a dynamic one you can see appear when staring towards the sun.

Weird graphics "update" - face looks more blurry/low res than before

https://i.imgur.com/R2PJhxP.png

https://i.imgur.com/5SAHPlJ.png
Hm... I am not quite sold on the plastic doll skin texture, tbh.
Also face tatto color is way more muted for some reason. I.e. it is red currently and in the benchmark it looks very pale and washed out.

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Originally Posted by Aporis

I do like some changes, like models and textures, material handling, fingers and toes! But others really do need more work for the final release. Here's my findings:

• Most eyes have had the edge between pupil and iris blended, which results in a more "flat" and soulless eyes. The colour of the pupil is also more grey than black. Which reduces the contrast between the iris and the pupil and makes the eye less readable.
  
• Pupils no longer have the dot highlight.

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I think both of these put together are contributing to the "soulless" look. It's for a reason that the number one way to make eyes look dull and empty in anime is to remove highlights.

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I am not quite sold on the plastic doll skin texture

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The same. It's something I'm a bit worried about. The graphics are already smooth by default, but if we could avoid looking like wax dolls I'd be fine with it.

https://i.imgur.com/FqBFT6H.png

I feel like with male vieras (and female ones as well when I look at other people's pictures) it's a downgrade, from what I've seen around barely any got out "better looking". I think the eyes are flat and the lips got a big downgrade, but I also found out it's a lot to do with this particular light that is super unflattering in the character creator. He looked fine in the benchmark cutscene at least, but I still think it's a downgrade for him :(

Edit: After a bit of playing around with other races and such, I feel like mostly those were nice upgrades. The bad thing about the creator is the character does not translate well into that kind of lighting, for some reason, but in game - or at least in the benchmark trailer - they look great again. But I agree with people saying the catchlights in the eyes would be great to have back to make the eyes look a bit livelier. Again, in the benchmark itself at least my viera looked really good.

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Originally Posted by Luciel-Nyx

I feel like with male vieras (and female ones as well when I look at other people's pictures) it's a downgrade, from what I've seen around barely any got out "better looking". I think the eyes are flat and the lips got a big downgrade, but I also found out it's a lot to do with this particular light that is super unflattering in the character creator. He looked fine in the benchmark cutscene at least, but I still think it's a downgrade for him :(

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Complete downgrade. Characters look overexposed, details are gone or washed out. The mouth looks awful no matter what you do and the face 3 chin will haunt my dreams.

Sad reality hit us like a bus :c

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...4f3b053ea0967&

Utterly downgraded i hate it!

https://i.imgur.com/byjJy2i.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KwbxrlC.png
Well I'm mostly happy how my boy look like. Pretty much the same except the feeling that he looks a bit tired with the new graphics. At first I felt something odd but when I started the benchmark itself he looked like I used him to look. Also a bit concerned about fangs.
I definitely like new textures except a bit too much gloss on skin when light is intense.

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Originally Posted by Somnolence

Weird graphics "update" - face looks more blurry/low res than before

https://i.imgur.com/R2PJhxP.png

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Makes me wonder if there is some forced AA going on.

To say I'm disgusted is an understatement.
The charisma is different and the softness is gone (._.)
These don't feel like my characters at all...

Clover (now she wants to murder you in your sleep.)
https://64.media.tumblr.com/f7a575cd...b110c1a48b.pnj
https://64.media.tumblr.com/16785167...d7e701a9b4.pnj

Juliet (now goth, and also with a murderous hint of a smile.)
https://64.media.tumblr.com/9f60c108...e7996ea753.pnj
https://64.media.tumblr.com/f6c74f40...253d759045.pnj

I'm crushed right now and don't know what I'll do...

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Originally Posted by Clover_Blake

To say I'm disgusted is an understatement.
The charisma is different and the softness is gone (._.)
These don't feel like my characters at all...

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Yeah I'm kind of having the same feeling with mine. It seems like across the board they made eyebrows angle downward more, and made eyes darker and look less open, which impacts a character's neutral face expression a lot. It takes characters with a formerly open and fresh-faced expression and makes them look a lot more annoyed/aggressive/evil than they should.

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Originally Posted by SpiritMuse

Yeah I'm kind of having the same feeling with mine. It seems like across the board they made eyebrows angle downward more, and made eyes darker and look less open, which impacts a character's neutral face expression a lot. It takes characters with a formerly open and fresh-faced expression and makes them look a lot more annoyed/aggressive/evil than they should.

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They also changed the mouth's shape and forced all the characters to smile slightly. And gave them a default lipstick texture that I really, really dislike. These are not our characters, I'm very sad about this ;_;

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

Outside a couple of tweaks, I'm probably going to keep my character as is.

The biggest thing that seems to cause the biggest upset (outside the skin being too wax-like) is the unflattering lighting which you can see in the middle comparison. The skin in the shade looks worse in comparison to the current game I feel. The lack of the static highlight on eyes is also throwing some off, and it threw me off as well in certain lights.

https://i.imgur.com/EAFiRhe.jpg

She still looks fine in the benchmark proper though, so I can't complain too much, it's just a few angles and lights that throw me off.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/73c615a9...8dd8a078b1.pnj

I'm not going back to get perfect lighting so people who will disagree can be satisfied. This is such a downgrade. His 'tattoo' (or winged eyeshadow, as I call it) is almost nothing now, his eyes are dead and sunken in. The benchmark itself doesn't make it any better.

How did some races come out looking exactly the same and others make people want to change their face or race entirely? I liked my character before. Now I don't know what to do. I constantly had mixed feelings about my au ra back in the day and after changing to male viera I was really happy. I don't want his appearance to change.

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Originally Posted by Turtledeluxe

These are all going to be "I hate all change" threads aren't they?

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Yes. If you were here for the stat squish discourse - this will be worse.

The only thing that people on the fourms/reddit/discord hate more than FF14 the way it is is FF14 changing in any way.

My bunboy UwU
(had to use an in-benchmark screenshot because the character creator does not keep my current hairstyle)

current version vs benchmark:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...31391f7ed2cd0&

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Originally Posted by GrizzlyTank

Makes me wonder if there is some forced AA going on.

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My screenshots are with forced DLAA, but obviously its not the culprit given screenshots by other people.

I bet for this graphics update they upscaled all textures with AI. And since face texture has little variations the details were smoothed out so it looks flatter now.

Also the character creator has terrible lightning, it looks better in actual benchmark:

https://i.imgur.com/MqH6Jru.png

It seems when zoomed-in we can see skin has pores now ;) ?

Too bad the characters seem to have same amount of polygons.

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

Yes. If you were here for the stat squish discourse - this will be worse.

The only thing that people on the fourms/reddit/discord hate more than FF14 the way it is is FF14 changing in any way.

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I'd normally be right there with you - stat squish? Stuff like that is necessary. Ability squish? Yea, we're getting button bloat again. Bring it on. Rotation changes? Looking at that old 300-or-whatever-step summoner rotation could literally trigger seizures.

But this? Some of these changes are really strange. Why are all the WoL EXCEPT their "canon" guy changed to look like children? And it's not just some of them, it's like all the female models have been aged down to teen, pre-teen years and the lalafell look more like plastic dolls than ever. Something isn't right with this design direction.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...f271d2be5caf1&

The eyelash shadow or whatever needs to go or be optional, the old face 2 sculpt needs to be reverted. It literally took the life outta my highlander. Going to need a tremendous amount of cope to get through Dawnwalker looking like this.

Before/after
https://i.imgur.com/ggoHxws.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/M4VH9OY.png
https://i.imgur.com/aa5Zg6L.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/L8xZHFB.png

I think my viera came out more intact than my miqo'te tbh.

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Originally Posted by Snowroark

My bunboy UwU
(had to use an in-benchmark screenshot because the character creator does not keep my current hairstyle)

current version vs benchmark:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...31391f7ed2cd0&

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How do you even get Styled for Hire in the benchmark? That's what my highlander uses lol.

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Originally Posted by faiarrow

They murdered my girl... the dark pupils combined with the hellsguard nose rhinarium/mark being so much lighter is not a winning change.

https://i.postimg.cc/rwWxf5qG/oof.png

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Yeah, it's so incredibly upsetting to look at my Femroe. I've only done three of them but they all look off. The skin colors are desaturated, the lip shapes are very different. The way they did the eyelashes on a lot of the eyes make the faces look sharper... It looks like my girls have permanent /sneer on and completely changes the impression of them.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/3d409c1d...1a492e7540.png

Skin color is LIGHTER and washed out and while I can make her a little darker to kinda correct it, I can't do that with my girl who is already on the darkest setting.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/579681ff...f830422d61.png

She looks ashy, greener and washed out and I can't make her darker. Her upper lip is thinner too.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/1e3db72e...f1d6039bae.png

It's so baffling that they lightened the ash on the noses so much, and the black eye shadow/liner. It's barely there at all.