Updated benchmark

Previous comparison:
https://i.imgur.com/YZrdAOu.png

Today's update:
https://i.imgur.com/aXhg8Ph.png

Thankyou very much devs for fixing the error with the hair highlighting! I'm thrilled, tbh!
I was worried that I had just got lucky from the first attempt and that my time was coming but my boy looks fantastic. He looks a little older and a little meaner and those are very big positives for me! I'm particularly happy about the softer realistic lighting in the second row AND MOST OF ALL the little curl of shadow the hair makes in the bottom right pic going to the corner of the mouth is a new charm point I didn't even know I needed ^^

My biggest issue was rounding up her cat-shaped eyes
I am glad that they fixed it - a tiny bit, but that make such a huge impact

ingame | first bench | new bench


Also we don't have to talk about the lighting fix - that alone makes the characters look so much better than in the first benchmark


https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...ality=losslesshttps://media.discordapp.net/attachm...ality=losslesshttps://media.discordapp.net/attachm...ality=lossless
ingame | first bench | new bench

I LOVE having back my cateyes! Very pleased! But I have no clue why the eyebrows got changed again and even more different than original

Also face marks on forehead stayed more visible like in the previous benchmark and the lips still have a slight difference even though my face model has very similar lips so the difference isn't that huge as with other)

But I'm kinda disappointed about the second-eyebrow change
Even with eyebrow shape 2 which always has the "saddest" look they look kinda mean

https://i.imgur.com/pnCFVgb.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/epLvcIt.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/g4J2IP8.png
first comparison after the first benchmark release plus the new one
https://i.imgur.com/zTJLnnn.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/Ip0yWN2.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/YCYl8Br.png
and eyebrows #2 aka the "straight" ones..

Overall I am happy because for me the eyes were the most important thing

As handsome as as ever
My only complaint is the unsaturated hair. I know it's because of the new lighting system but can the diffuse maps or other hair textures be made to be darker? Or at least let us select a darker shade of black; the darkest black is basically just grey now.

Roegadyn 10/10
Unsaturated hair colors 5/10
https://i.imgur.com/4RV10DV.png
https://i.imgur.com/ahdbekY.png
https://i.imgur.com/hxGh4m1.png

Lowering Gamma to 0 is great but the hair color is still not black; current endwalker hair colors are infinitely better.

I'm super happy with the changes they made to midlander face 5. My chracter looks like himself again.

From the new benchmark, with the excellent new lighting option in the crystal backdrop:https://i.imgur.com/6alcMf5.png

Here is the comparison if you are interested: https://i.imgur.com/F6jDUla.png

I was one of the (probably) few that was actually really happy with my character in the first benchmark, and I'm actually kinda disappointed now :(

this was my char in the 1st benchmark:

https://imgur.com/xw7uJA6

and this is her now in the 2nd benchmark:

https://imgur.com/De10Smo

look at her eyes, she had mad mascara (or whatever the makeup around the eyes is called, which got heavily reduced , and the lightning makes it look like she put makeup on 1 eye and forgot the other, her hair no longer casts shadow on her face (which looks really weird), shadows on the barrels behind her are reduced, people complained we had dead eyes, but now they look glazed over (and it looks like one of my eyes is lighter then the other, which, its not...)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by localareanetwork

Why'd female miqo'te eye 3's shape change? It just looks worse

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...c88790b669a0a&

---

Agreed i love that eyeshape and they destroyed it :(

https://i.imgur.com/Pngbvi4.png

I detest it. They ruined my boy. He looks like they took him out back, shot him in the head, and replaced him with a soulless fake they couldn't even be bothered getting right. I just want my cute catboy back.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Miemi

I love that they listened to the different eyeliner/lashline feedback and changed it. Also suprised that they darkened the eyebrows to reflect the current ones. Personally, I'll only have to change the eyebrow shape, overall I'm content with the changes

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

---

I put together a small visual feedback. Imgur for bigger picture: https://i.imgur.com/mFhtu3W.png

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

Hyur Highlander here.

While the new benchmark is immensely better than it was before, and the character was improved in the new version, still...

Comparing the original character with the benchmark 1.1 one, it's not "only" a different person altogether, it still doesn't even give the same feelings.

Imgsli comparison: https://imgsli.com/MjY5NDM2

Current - Bench 1.0 - Bench 1.1:
https://i.imgur.com/X3YSyKc.png
https://i.imgur.com/kLR1wuZ.png

On the one hand, I'm happy how it was improved from the last benchmark version, on the other, please don't tell me I should be okay with how radically different she feels for me...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rikizza

Agreed i love that eyeshape and they destroyed it :(

---

They "destroyed" it on purpose, right. Boohoo the evil devs, how dare they. Can we not assume it was some minor mistake?

Overall, I am happy with the changes, but I will say that in the updated benchmark, they took away the only I liked: my bunboi's lil nose fuzz. Now he just has a hyur nose and he doesn't look like my bunboy. I tried other noses, as well, but none of them (for Rava, at least) have the little dark patch of fuzz no matter the lighting or angle, and that's kind of heartbreaking to me since it's similar to au ra limbal rings and moonkeeper fangs: a unique racial feature.

https://i.ibb.co/yhZDST5/b01.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/YTjncSf/b2.png

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aelin_Ashryver

I have saved images from EW bench, DT bench and now 1.1 DT bench and it's a nice improvement.

https://i.imgur.com/0pwFQIi.jpeg


https://i.imgur.com/eLntrOT.jpeg

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Jealous that your bun still has the cute lil nose fuzz TT0TT my guy got shaved

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

for the mmmmmost part the complaints that were the top of my list were adjusted, but not all, but enough that i'm like "i can live with this version and am not as sad". the one remaining thing im upset about is that the facepaint is still wrong and no longer sits along the eyes properly, but it seems they still havent updated the facepaint textures so i'm holding out hope

Definitely a huge improvement. I had thought most of the lighting issues were in the character creation screen but it looks like in-game scenes got major improvements as well

https://i.imgur.com/7xO8hAS.png

https://i.imgur.com/Ov7SWMI.png

first of all, thanks to the devs for their efforts. ♥

Here is my before/after and feedback

Middie face1
+ better skin texture, no more weird freckles
+ better gloss effect on lips
- unsightly nose shape, the nose is way too big
- lips looks smaller
- it looks like there are dark circles under her eyes and it makes her look tired
https://i.ibb.co/YQnH9Dm/a1.jpg

Miqote seeker of the sun face 3
https://i.ibb.co/g9GpLNb/b2.jpg

Miqote keeper of the moon face 3
https://i.ibb.co/bW2z6Wy/c3.jpg

I have mixed feelings about Miqote because I really liked the first benchmark version.
-I feel like the colors have been washed out
-I'm a little disappointed that they changed the shape of the eyes 3 on face 3.
apart from that, they're still pretty imo and I'm quite happy with the changes

They look great on the boat cutscene tho :o
https://i.ibb.co/pnrgyVg/d4.jpg

characters look great, i wanna know about these graphics options like the myriad ambient occlusion options, is gtao the best?

why is the dlss/fsr setting so darn vague? is any AA actually on if the game never drops into low framerates?

wheres the technical nerds in this forum?

Also very happy that the keeper fans were fixed :)

Just a smidge frustrating that they never did anything about the botched lip fillers on face 2 vieras, especially after all the other changes they made. There's another option I can select that's 'kinda' close enough, but still changes the face.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rugno

Just a smidge frustrating that they never did anything about the botched lip fillers on face 2 vieras, especially after all the other changes they made. There's another option I can select that's 'kinda' close enough, but still changes the face.

---

Unfortunately viera is low priority for Square enix; or that's the impression I always get. Let's hope they fix it. You're gonna have to spam the change you want in some of these threads.

I'm not going to get into semantics, at the end of the day it is what it is. The newer version looks much better than the older version; however, my viera lost all of her harsh / sharp lines. She's so smoothed out she looks like a strange doll or like she's having an allergic bee reaction. No, I don't think this is - you just have to get used to it. Anatomically, the face isn't the same. They literally cut out any sharp line in the face. Everything is so smoothed out and rounded off it's not the same character. Is it worth pulling up diagrams and drawing lines anymore? Not to me.

All I have to say is, whoever redid these faces should really understand they fundamentally changed these characters and the feeling they once gave to their players. They're not the same.

I said it before, I'll say it again, lighting does not change the anatomical structure of the face. The lines are different. I'm happy for those that enjoy it. I commiserate with those that feel disappointed. Overall, really not looking forward to Dawntrail; no corsair, new taxed subscription, no game mechanic I'm looking forward to, races still totally unfinished, and a broken payment processor. Sorry for the negative post, just my initial response.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rugno

Just a smidge frustrating that they never did anything about the botched lip fillers on face 2 vieras, especially after all the other changes they made. There's another option I can select that's 'kinda' close enough, but still changes the face.

---

It's how it goes with viera, there's an incredibly old thread that still gets bumped every now and then complaining about the lack of hair styles, hats, graphical issues, etc and it's sad how few of those are ever addressed by SE.
But hey, keepers lose their fangs and that's patched in a week with multiple in-progress shots to get feedback right?

It is a huge improvement and looks alot more like my actual character. I still am not happy with the nose having shadows removed bc it makes the nose look rounder than what it is. This issue disappears as soon as I turn my character a little bit into a shadow ofc.
My miqo though looks really good! Overall alot happier with this benchmark. And excuse the difference in light but since they adjusted it I can no longer get the entire face lit up like in the other ones.
OG
https://i.imgur.com/qvdNOw1.png
Benchmark 1
https://i.imgur.com/T9Y5dKU.png
Benchmark 2
https://i.imgur.com/g5bX4Zo.png
Miqo
OG
https://i.imgur.com/SwJMtqo.png
Benchmark 1
https://i.imgur.com/5rojICl.png
Benchmark 2
https://i.imgur.com/Orqpa97.png

I'm still really disappointed with how my character turned out in the updated benchmark. It just doesn't look like the same character to me, nor does it look like an improvement. I realize Male Highlanders aren't as common as some of the other races but I would appreciate seeing them get some love with needed fixes.

https://i.imgur.com/w48y4cD.jpg

Left is Endwalker, Right is Dawntrail. Face Type 2 is being used.

Mouth Type 4 - The lips appear larger, both in width and height. This is likely because the shape of the upper lip has changed. Significant space has been added into the cupids bow, where previously nearly none existed. Mouth Type 4 is the smallest sized mouth available to male Highlanders and should remain as a small option, rather than being sized closer to the other larger options already available.

Hair - The hair, while more detailed when zoomed in extremely close, seems much less detailed when viewed from any reasonable distance. I believe this is due to the lack of shading that is now present in the hair, causing it to look very flat.

Hair - Two-tone colors no longer blend nearly as well as they used to, and for the lighter color I am using the darkest shade available. I can not make it darker without switching to a different color entirely. Again, this seems to be a problem with lost shading or variance in its color, so rather than each tone having areas that are slightly lighter and slightly darker and allowing the sections to blend together better, each section now appears separate and distinct (which is not good when it's supposed to be a blend).

I have not seen these issue on all hairstyles, so it seems to be a problem with this particular hairstyle.

Face Paint (Eyebrows) - The placement of these markings is positioned significantly higher on the brow than it was pre-Dawntrail. This makes the character look more "surprised" all the time. Please return the eyebrow face-paint to the position they currently occupy in Endwalker.

Face Paint (Eyebrows) - Even with the darkest color (black) selected, the shade appears lighter or less vibrant than it currently is on live. This makes it difficult to pass these markings off as eyebrows, as the lighter they appear the more fake they look.

Nose Type 6 - From brow to tip, the entire ridge of the nose is now more squared off and blocky, where as previously it was more smoothed/rounded. This gives the ridge the appearance of being wider.

Skin tone (RGB 169, 133, 104) - The skin tone has changed and is darker than it is on live.

Jaw Type 4 - The chin is a bit shorter than pre-Dawntrail, making the head look more squared instead of oval.

Of all of these, the most important ones to me I would like to see fixed (those with the largest impact) would be the issues with the hair, the eyebrow facepaint, and the mouth. At least then I would feel like my character is "close enough" to what I have now, although even then it still feels more like a downgrade than an upgrade (which is disappointing given the work/time that went into the graphics update).

First of all I am very satisfied with the changes and how everything has been addressed until now. As of now, however, I still have a very small nitpick for my lalafell character and i'd like to provide feedback on that since that could also be an issue for more people.

Here's my character in the new benchmark and in-game as of now (patch 6.58):

https://i.imgur.com/PdS6VTb.png

This is a female dunesfolk lalafell with the first face, type 6 eye shape and type 3 mouth.

It's hard for me to put this in good words, but her eyes have lost it's "sharpness" and now have a more "round" feeling to it. I believe the cause of this is the shape around this highlighted region:

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

Now for this next one I am not really sure which one I preferred, but I'd like to also note the changes for the mouth shape:

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

With all that I'd be pleased if its possible to give some attention to this, specially the eyes. In the benchmark I feel like my character is way better than what she was before and I'm still very excited for the next expansion!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SquidzureDragoon

Overall, I am happy with the changes, but I will say that in the updated benchmark, they took away the only I liked: my bunboi's lil nose fuzz. Now he just has a hyur nose and he doesn't look like my bunboy. I tried other noses, as well, but none of them (for Rava, at least) have the little dark patch of fuzz no matter the lighting or angle, and that's kind of heartbreaking to me since it's similar to au ra limbal rings and moonkeeper fangs: a unique racial feature.

https://i.ibb.co/yhZDST5/b01.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/YTjncSf/b2.png

---

I think it was overfixed, as it indeed lost its unique pattern, but the benchmark face 3 nose was pretty broken for veena especially. It was never so dark as they made it in v1.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Acelyn

characters look great, i wanna know about these graphics options like the myriad ambient occlusion options, is gtao the best?

why is the dlss/fsr setting so darn vague? is any AA actually on if the game never drops into low framerates?

wheres the technical nerds in this forum?

---

Yes, antialiasing is still active. And yes, the settings are very confusing.

Antialiasing an inherent part of DLSS and cannot be disabled (while DLSS is active) even if you try. That is why the normal antialiasing options get disabled when you select DLSS. The framerate settings for the upscaler only determine when resolution is scaled down more. But even when above the target framerate, DLSS/FSR is still active. The exact values for the render resolution when above/below target framerate are unknown.

For FSR it's different because the demo is using FSR1. FSR1 doesn't include antialiasing at all, it only does upscaling. And the upscaling isn't all that great since it lacks the temporal stuff you get in DLSS/FSR2. So for FSR you still need to select your prefered antialising technique.

My character's pupils turned gray, he looks blind
1.0
https://imgur.com/0YNjAyM.png
1.1
https://imgur.com/2lIbZrT.png

Edit: The full face picture makes it look even clearer
1.0
https://imgur.com/eHz3gqV.png
1.1
https://imgur.com/t1SXhyr.png

I quite like how it turned out with the new benchmark.

The shadow below the mouth texture seems to be much higher quality, though I find it a bit much, slight reduction would be nice but I think it's the same on the live build, just lower resolution.

https://i.imgur.com/ED8eUaf.png

Hello. I guess this will be the thread for feedback. Male Midlander face 3 here.

Current / New Benchmark
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJqiiPb...jpg&name=large

Old Benchmark / New Benchmark
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJsQygb...jpg&name=large

The new lighting (or rather how it should have been from the beginning) is so so much better. Shadows are crunchy similar to the original yet look way better in dark places, no more jump scare lightings. My character eyes felt closer to the original and I am very happy. Big upgrade.

!!! However the beard still has low resolution even in the new benchmark. !!!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJ4Ytza...name=4096x4096
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJ4xwZb...png&name=small

The low res beard stands out quite a lot.
I looked at other faces/races to see if they have the same problem and I found this 3 faces:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJ0zlSa...name=4096x4096

Haven't check every face, could be more, but it's clear that this is simply a mistake, something that has been overlooked. Would appreciate it if this could be fix before Dawntrail launch.

Some updated beards for reference:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJ-o8Cb...name=4096x4096

Can't help but be disappointed. The update overall is impressive, and the new benchmark is very nice (the aetheryte on the map/party up scene catched my eyes this time, it's beautiful).
And I won't say my character was "butchered" like some people extrapolate.

But still, the feeling is still off, the problematic changes were not coming from lights (and everyone that said that before are just full of bad faith).

Mouth shape is changed (and that seems to be the case for a lot of variation), and pupils got bigger without reason (and without any way to correct that with a fantasia).

In the end, I will live with that and get used to it if I must. But that's sad. I liked the sharp mood of this face, and that feeling is lost.

https://i.imgur.com/FEKW7h8.png

Au ra F feels more samey between face than before, and that's a shame imo.
Not only face 4 lost, but overall the custom options lost.

Here's my observation: Limbal rings give off actual light now. It's subtle, but look at the way the lighting around the eyes changes with and without the rings here:

https://64.media.tumblr.com/26e66aa4...1f7b5bd72e.gif

However, it's only at night. Limbal rings in the daytime look a little brighter in shadow than direct sunlight, so that's where I've placed my character, but you can still tell there's no glow.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/5e32f867...861d5919d8.gif

I'm assuming the glow is something that gets turned on at night in game, probably at the same time the background music switches from the day version to the night version. I think the glow is lovely, and of course, it looks much closer to the way my character's limbal rings look in the game right now. If the glow was on all the time instead of just at night, or we at least had the option for it to be on all the time, I'd be satisfied.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...f40475a002484&

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...a97145a9eec6b&

Other than the eyeshadow, i'm happy.

https://i.imgur.com/KV5KfwT.png

Holo looks great, I'm really happy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rekh

Unfortunately viera is low priority for Square enix; or that's the impression I always get. Let's hope they fix it. You're gonna have to spam the change you want in some of these threads.

---

Suppose I shouldn't be surprised, given that the race was a begrudging concession to begin with. Still is frustrating to know that, though your issues are just as legitimate, the character you play is always going to be a lower priority than something like a Miqote or Au'ra. (No hate to those players, mind. I'm happy that they're getting the changes they need) But please, I beg of you, a crumb of love. I'm going to have to tell people that a run-in with temple bees went south during a qarn run.

https://imgur.com/anmhipp.png https://imgur.com/uKLmj6A.png

At first, Kacho's features seemed off and his eyes were soulless black pits. :confused:

Then, I realized that the Benchmark has a fisheye lens effect when you zoom in and the harsh lighting was casting very dark shadows over the top of his eyes. So, I zoomed out.

https://imgur.com/lknWjYw.png

There's my boy! :D

So, overlooking my brief moment of panic, I think the devs did a great job on plainsfolk lalafell and I like how Kacho looks. Anyone who knows me in game would recognize my character instantly.

The only thing I found off was the hair. Now, it looks great close up. It's a definite improvement.

But, when you zoom out, it gains this weird appearance. It's like someone opened a screenshot of my character in Photoshop and used the smudge tool to blend the hair. I'm not sure if that's caused by the Benchmark or if that's a issue with the actual hair texture CBU3 is using.

Well, I am not particularly happy about the update (I liked my characters appearance since ARR era), but at least the new benchmark is better than the version before and it is "ok" now.
I don't really like the new mouth shape and the corners of it, but I don't think that will change anymore.
It seems I have also lost some eyelashes in all those battles in Endwalker, maybe they got burned off in some fire.
Fangs are still not as I wanted them to be but I rather take those than the other ones.

front view (EW benchmark - DT benchmark)
https://imgsli.com/MjY5NDcy

fangs (EW benchmark - DT benchmark)
https://imgsli.com/MjY5NDcz

benchmark (DT benchmark old - DT benchmark new)
https://imgsli.com/MjY5NDc0

same settings have been used for the comparison except I have not uncapped the FPS for the updated benchmark

https://imgur.com/a/Hw1AkIW

Talk about lazy, do you even look at how the races look?

https://imgur.com/a/Hw1AkIW

It will take me some time to get through all my characters, so I've got two to show for tonight.

Firstly, my face 3 Midlander.

https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...ce51c41d96.jpg

There have been some fixes from the previous benchmark, but not as much as I would like.

The eyelids on the first benchmark model are lowered from their current position, making her look sleepy and losing her wide-eyed look, and this has not been reverted for the second benchmark.

However, they have fixed the very heavy eyelid line that appeared in the first benchmark, which is a welcome change even if they're not going to properly put the eye shape back how it was. The eyelashes also seem back closer to the original shape.

Other particular issues I can spot right now are shadowy bags under the eyes (this seems to be extremely recurring across many characters) and that while the makeup on the upper eyelid is dark, the lower outer eyelid has lost the mild shading that helped to define the outer edge of the eye.

The overall expression is also... something unplaceable but not quite right. She feels less confident, I think? Which is not what I want for my bold Warrior of Light off on an adventure.

All the changes add up to make her look slightly ill compared to her current appearance.

The silver clasp on her shirt also stands out and seems to be looking progressively dirty and tarnished with each update. This is what I have been fearing all along, because every time we've gotten "HQ textures" on things they're so often ugly scratched textures and it feels like we're not allowed to have nice polished things any more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iscah

The overall expression is also... something unplaceable but not quite right. She feels less confident, I think? Which is not what I want for my bold Warrior of Light off on an adventure.

---

She looks less o__o which I think is an improvement

i dont like the new benchmarkt tbh.
the shadows are a complete mess. looking at the hair shadow on the neck. left one looks so smooth and the right one almost unhealthy.
left is 1.0 and right 1.1
https://i.imgur.com/f8zPevB.jpeg