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

Face 3 m!duskwight reporting in!
(before on the left, after on the right)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLJ2t12X...g&name=900x900

Thankfully, as a face 3, the smoothing out of the face doesn't affect me TOO much compared to the other Elezen faces, but I still mourn for the lost angles of my face 1 and 2 brothers :( That being said:

-Lips need to be fixed big-time. Please bring back the gloss and the old shapes.

-The "dead eyes" don't bother me personally since I always had that look for my WoL anyway, but I can see why others are bothered by it!

-Why did we get the Wildwood dark eye bags? Again, not personally bothered, but this should be toggleable at the very least. It's a pretty extreme difference.

-The nose is too smoothed out now :( I really liked the little bump the one I chose used to have.

For the most part, I'm pretty happy with my character, but there definitely need to be some tweaks made. The ears are a great improvement and I like the texture of the facial scars a lot! He also looked great in the benchmark itself. Biggest change needs to be made on lips for sure (also bring back Mooncat fangs pls that's the whole reason I picked them for my alts :( ).

https://i.imgur.com/l06Vc0U.png
Not a fan.

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

my main is looking close enough, but with my alt i noticed the nose smudge is almost nonexistent in the benchmark. sucks to see a lot of sanded down unique traits like that and whats going on with aura eyes now, hopefully they address complaints

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kallistra

I searched the thread and no one mentioned Gamma Correction.

A lot of people are having issues with the lighting on their characters. While I am not very happy with the actual model details and the seemingly Alpha state of the graphical update in the benchmark, you may be able to fix the lighting in the benchmark. In game you may have adjusted your gamma correction from the default 50 to lower. The Benchmark also defaults to 50, and you have to change it manually compared to in-game. If you think the lighting is especially bad and your character seems to glow or is "washed-out," please check the gamma and post.

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Thank you for sharing, that fixes one of the issues I have! Unfortunately, my character still looks like a creepy Barbie because of how wet/plastic I look and how all of my features were rounded.

Updated slider comparison:
https://imgsli.com/MjU1NjA2

Updated base images:

https://i.imgur.com/qLcQNd2.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/LaY9EG5.jpeg

EDIT: Please jump to this post for things I was mistaken about-

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loops

After a much closer examination of my character I have found that I was wrong, and there are fewer changes than I'd thought. I am not as upset as I was previously, but there are still definitely a couple of things that I think should be changed.

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Thanks SE, my character looks like sh** now.

https://i.postimg.cc/kXfFQ6S3/DTbench-Comparison.png

i don't know how i feel about it, in cc it felt off but ine the benchmark with facial expression etc it felt same-ish

current
https://i.redd.it/udk7lsm7liuc1.png
bench
https://i.redd.it/4c326g44kiuc1.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reinha

Thanks SE, my character looks like sh** now.

https://i.postimg.cc/kXfFQ6S3/DTbench-Comparison.png

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They made everything smoother, but took away a lot of the detail in doing so. I wish they had kept the detail when making changes.

this isn't even my character and it still hurt to see it because the before is the prettiest elezen I have seen

I personally hate it. They made a few good changes (hands and feet, yay!), but they removed all the angular features of female face 4 au ra. I loved her triangle nose and lips so, so much, but now she's super rounded. They took the identity of my character that I loved and squished it.

https://imgur.com/a/M2ZIfBv

https://imgur.com/a/ow1LkcN

My WoL lost her resting bit** face and her skin color is very bright compared to the previous one + a yellow undertone in every xalea option looks very dull. Also I'm not happy with the lips and the nose. I hope they'll fix how it looks.

I don't wanna invalidate how people feel, but I honestly think there's a lot of overreaction. Most of these comparisons look mostly same and people are acting like everything's been changed. There's def some issues like the sudden loss of glossy lips and some other things but most of your characters still look great. At least to me. I think it'll be something we just get used to.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SweetestLily

the hightlight dot made a WORLD of difference and I want it back

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLIYxi2XsAAELhJ.jpg:large

This is someone elses beautiful character that i added the highlight dot back into on the bottom image using paint and to me its night and day . Both images are 7.0 moon miqote

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hey, that's me! (thank you for the compliment)
And now I want the eye highlight back D:<!!
GIVE IT BACK TO US

To drive the point even further: before my character lookin perpetually mad, now he just look perpetually high. Not helping that the painted eyebrow is raised up to forehead
https://imgsli.com/MjU1NjEz

Although I tried to replicate the feel by changing the eyebrow to number 2 and the lip color to something lighter, it still doesnt feel right. And also somehow there is more line on the cheek, giving older impression. I would prefer smoother part of that since every changes combined makes him extra old. (left: DT, right: pre-DT)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...c2b128dc3e4af&

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Verd

I don't wanna invalidate how people feel, but I honestly think there's a lot of overreaction. Most of these comparisons look mostly same and people are acting like everything's been changed. There's def some issues like the sudden loss of glossy lips and some other things but most of your characters still look great. At least to me. I think it'll be something we just get used to.

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Face 2 fem au ra have a completely different mouth now. :/

https://i.imgur.com/8OlYqvV.gif
https://i.imgur.com/NZTVggk.png
https://i.imgur.com/XcxFhiy.png

And that means the facial expressions are all different. That's a massive change. I'd rather the difference be anything but the mouth.

she kinda looks like she got some bad lip filler
https://i.imgur.com/SR5OsuS.png
I love the little dip in her top lip so, so much and I'm so sad they removed it. While I do love my lizzer, I've been doing msq as my bunny since ShB and in my mind, my WoL is my bunny. But if they actually keep the mouth changes like this I'm probably just gonna stick to au ra :/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nebty

Face 2 fem au ra have a completely different mouth now. :/

https://i.imgur.com/8OlYqvV.gif
https://i.imgur.com/NZTVggk.png
https://i.imgur.com/XcxFhiy.png

And that means the facial expressions are all different. That's a massive change. I'd rather the difference be anything but the mouth.

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Totally understand, but it still looks good. Hopefully you can get used to it or they make changes.

mixed feelings! I definitely came out more okay than a lot of my friends. melezen especially got the short end of the stick (the cheekbones being removed has taken out a lot of charm that those models had originally. I hope they can be re-emphasized somehow.) my midlander looks okay. I don't mind that he looks a little older (face 5), and I'm glad he kept his nose shape in profile. I'm also okay with his specific features ending up a little softer. but his skin tone is a little weird (came out grayer, and some of the reflection points are off. the shiny points at the corners of his mouth??)

https://imgur.com/a/DWDbRkR
(in case that embed doesn't work, linked here https://imgur.com/a/DWDbRkR )

I'll probably take his skin a step darker to see if I like how that looks more and he definitely looked better in the actual benchmark than he did in the CC. but that fix only works because he wasn't already the darkest option available. I know lots of people who don't have that workaround, and who are stuck with characters who have completely lighter skin tones now or totally different undertones. It's not great.

I think for many of us a running theme is we want that little twinkle back in our eye and some lip gloss.

I think the options as they are now are fine, just let us have a toggle for the little eye twinkle and some tweaks for lips!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Verd

Totally understand, but it still looks good. Hopefully you can get used to it or they make changes.

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Something's clearly gone wrong with lips across the board though, based on how many other people are noticing it.

I mean, should fem elezen be expected to live with this?

https://i.imgur.com/gQaQW3o.png

https://i.imgur.com/8kl6lIA.png

So far my only complain is that her lips are a bit smaller, but I can get used to it... I also like that her eyebrows are noticeable now! Before they kinda blended with the skin color.

(Also, is it just me or the shadows/lights are kinda weird in the character creator? It looks fine in the cinematics)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nebty

Something's clearly gone wrong with lips across the board though, based on how many other people are noticing it.

I mean, should fem elezen be expected to live with this?

https://i.imgur.com/gQaQW3o.png

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Posters on the English and Japanese forums have been posting about how the female lala mouth looks weird when doing the cheer emote, didn't see it on my male lala (face 4) but the lips are different: thinner upper lip and less defined lower lip. I've read that it might be connected to them changing the mouth rigging? If so I hope they find some fidelity between better rigging and lip shape.

so the only changes that were made for me was to make the lip color setting to "light" (and also made the highlights lighter, but this is not visible in my normal DRG state), and side by side at this moment I am quite surprised how not totally different they look

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...ality=lossless
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...486&height=350

...though I wouldn't mind the lip gloss back please

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nebty

Something's clearly gone wrong with lips across the board though, based on how many other people are noticing it.

I mean, should fem elezen be expected to live with this?

https://i.imgur.com/gQaQW3o.png

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I wanna say that's a bug. Something is wrong with the animation there it's not the model or texture.

https://i.imgur.com/KNOzCr9.png
https://i.imgur.com/tkgUywE.png
https://i.imgur.com/iETDvIy.png
I don't like it. Not even a little bit. I chose this face because it was less round and soft than the other faces. I chose it because I was going for a rougher, more angular, more aggressive look, because she's a Dark Knight, and now also a Reaper. Now she has a cutesy pout and dimples and a super rounded face. And I've been building on her character for ten years and already had to come up with an excuse for one cross race fantasia when Au Ra was originally added, I can't use the same trick twice and changing her to another race would make her not her anymore. I even tried other faces but not only would I have to come up with an excuse for her horns to suddenly change shape, but they're all cutesy and soft too, and that's not who Akira is.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nebty

https://i.imgur.com/gQaQW3o.png

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https://media.tenor.com/QFiUKvr46r4AAAAM/the-office.gif
Yeah... that mouth looks really weird. Unless she's about to start crying, then it's perfect..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Verd

I wanna say that's a bug. Something is wrong with the animation there it's not the model or texture.

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They didn't change the models though (as far as I can tell). Heck, in certain lighting conditions you can even still see where au ra face 2's two halves aren't quite fused right. Ditto for other model seams that have been there since 2.0. I think the changes to the mouths are tied to the new facial rigging they're doing. And it's clearly having an impact on the distinctiveness of the faces. Some au ra mouths, for example, look poutier than before, and others look thinner. There should be a way to do this graphics update without actually changing the facial features.

I have to admit that I am not feeling too good about any of my main three characters. The lighting and softening of features stole what I enjoyed most about them. I knew going in that things would be different, but not so drastically different. I did adjust gamma, and I ran each of them through the benchmark cutscenes, it doesn't change the shift in features, nor do I think they were improved much at all :(
https://jmp.sh/RGRGR2jm+

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reinha

Thanks SE, my character looks like sh** now.

https://i.postimg.cc/kXfFQ6S3/DTbench-Comparison.png

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I really hope they revert the way eyebrows and lips look so that they can properly enhance them rather than change them; looks like a complete downgrade in both departments. Eyebrows lack definition and ironically look lower quality than before, and lip coloration is way too flat. The eyebrows in particular are something that I very deliberately chose when initially making my character, so it's very much a shame to me that they're so drastically different. And of course, like everyone else has mentioned, the eyes being given that small touch of light would go a long way in reducing the uncanny, doll-like appearance.

On the positive side though, I do really like the huge hair upgrade and general face shape/look, barring the aforementioned finer details. Plus they finally fixed Elezen teeth! Which is something I've been praying for for ages. Finally, I can /biggrin. If they go back and fix up the little things I could really get behind this.

https://i.imgur.com/pjErWZ1.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nebty

They didn't change the models though (as far as I can tell). Heck, in certain lighting conditions you can even still see where au ra face 2's two halves aren't quite fused right. Ditto for other model seams that have been there since 2.0. I think the changes to the mouths are tied to the new facial rigging they're doing. And it's clearly having an impact on the distinctiveness of the faces. Some au ra mouths, for example, look poutier than before, and others look thinner. There should be a way to do this graphics update without actually changing the facial features.

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I mean, you just mentioned how the mouth is different. That's a change to the model. It just wasn't a total remake of it. There's def something off about the animation for Femezen tho, hopefully it's just a work in progress or a bug that'll be fixed.
I know someone suggested that it might be that some of the animations are still using the Hyur base or something. Maybe that's it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Verd

I mean, you just mentioned how the mouth is different. That's a change to the model. It just wasn't a total remake of it. There's def something off about the animation for Femezen tho, hopefully it's just a work in progress or a bug that'll be fixed.
I know someone suggested that it might be that some of the animations are still using the Hyur base or something. Maybe that's it.

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My point is that I'm wondering if all the mouth differences are a bug. Suddenly having them way less wide than they used to be, seemingly based on nothing, feels like the same kind of thing that might cause femelezen to look like they're dying on the inside when they're supposed to be laughing. It's not as noticeable but my au ra's smile has a definite...joker quality to it now because of the weirdly upturned corners.

In game
https://i.imgur.com/UAgHKSi.png
Benchmark
https://i.imgur.com/yOAAF1f.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alithea

I already posted this in the Viera-specific thread, but I guess I'm just not done having a sook. This isn't the same character. She looks ridiculous - waxy, pale, and like she's had lip fillers. "Just run the benchmark" doesn't fix it, either - she looks extremely uncanny in action.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...fdadb5c67d6ad&

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...ab6378dc3ac17&

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Same situation on my Au Ra, the lips almost look like a duck's beak.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...982fe815b94cf&

I'm really happy with the outcome, like really really happy. Of course, this is not the hairstyle this character usually uses as you can see to the left what the forum avatar pulled from lodestone, but I had to pick something that is available in the benchmark character creator. The only tweaks I made were that I dropped the lighter eye by 1 shade and tweaked the lip colour a shade darker and a shade more purple than the original slot.

This is probably best case scenario, compared to a lot of other people whos WoLs look more significantly different from before. Of course, there are some differences here like eye shape and size and stuff like that, but I feel like it's an improvement in my case anyway.

I have tried my best to match lighting between old and new here, and in some lightings the difference is less flattering, but the original tended to look a little iffy in certain lighting angles anyway, and I feel like there are more photogenic angles now than before even if some scenes, like the blue character select screen zone is unflattering.

I really do want to see some adjustments for all the rest of y'all who are much less satisfied. I feel for you honestly and I'm truly not here to be contrarian. I do hope they can satisfy people while not causing much of my result to change, I could foresee being disappointed if further tweaks came in and undid this for me.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...95fe68cfe9764&

Heres mine (granded its on a very low end pc)
https://imgsli.com/MjU1NjI5

https://i.imgur.com/hhWUt0G.png

https://i.imgur.com/b8rIZZA.png

Its like a different person entirely.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...299&height=702

Graphics update stole his optimism and hope for the world, now he looks very tired and kinda dead inside.

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

Original on the left, benchmark on right. While I can live with most of the changes (like rounder nose and more yellow tinged skintone), I'd appreciate if someone could return the light in his eyes and maybe get that upper eyelid go up a bit so he doesn't look mere seconds away from falling asleep. Maybe give the corners of his lips a little lift while you are at it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Verd

I don't wanna invalidate how people feel, but I honestly think there's a lot of overreaction. Most of these comparisons look mostly same and people are acting like everything's been changed. There's def some issues like the sudden loss of glossy lips and some other things but most of your characters still look great. At least to me. I think it'll be something we just get used to.

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I don't really think anyone particularly cares whether you think their character looks great or not, it just does not look like their character anymore.
I don't care how you feel about my character, i did not make my character for you. You won't be playing as my character.

While the benchmark character creator did look different and washed out, in the benchmark trailer itself my WoL looked exactly as she should to the point that I felt no discomfort. The eyes are especially improved- my only complaint on a feature that I think has been lessened by the graphic update is that my Hellsguard FemRoe's ash smudge on her nose is discernibly lighter. The lip colors are horrendous on darker skin tones- these new textures aren't 100% what I'd want but they are also more useable.

https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...72cfa70e7e.pnghttps://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...e66aaabe5b.png

https://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...6168c0dd66.pnghttps://lds-img.finalfantasyxiv.com/...d5cd8454a7.png

I love the detail of how even in shadow the face is clearer- and the bit of translucent ear.

Alright i've finally gotten around to making a comparison sheet of all my characters!
https://i.imgur.com/FpJZ8ZU.jpeg

Hyur: This one is actually great. No notes. (ok one note, underneath that lipstick is THE CRUNCHIEST lip texture i've ever seen.)

Elezen: :( the nose is less defined and the lips are way less plump. that's a whole different face! Love the backlight scattering though! (also fix whatever's happening when she opens her mouth wide)

Lalafell: :( The skin tone is too light (I can bump it one square darker, but RIP those who were originally the darkest skin tone) and the nose patch IS ON here, just not at all visible. Not sure how I feel about the lips. they seem tense? Love that the ear tips are darker though, and the eyes look great!

Miqo'te: The lips feel different, they are pinched together now instead of allowing a tiny gap between them that I miss. The nose smudge is less prominent in direct light which is disappointing, and the nose itself has weaker geometry along the ridge. :T There is a lack of shading as the lips approach the inside of the mouth which makes them look a lot more flat than they really are. The waterline is MUCH smaller, and the shape of the eye corners seem less stylized to be feline (In the original the inside dips down more dramatically while the outside tilts up a bit) ALSO GIVE ME BACK MY BIG POINTY FANGS!!!

Roegadyn: Missing the gradient on the lipstick so it looks less detailed, and the nose smudge is faded/washed out :( Otherwise pretty faithful!

Au Ra: Put her back in the oven y'all, she's not done cooking. What are those lips? Who do those belong to? Where's the lipstick's transparency? Why is the skin so light and washed out? The pupils are too big. There's artifacting on the neck scales. The horns look good! But the hair horns are lighter now. I could deal with the eyes being softened, but those lips NEED a second pass.

Viera: Nose smudge is darker, which i VERY much appreciate. The lips are different which I do not appreciate. They're missing shading to accent the pointy middle bit of the upper lip. The bottom lip's border does not flow well and makes it look bulbous. In the original it didn't seem like the pigmented part of the lips extended out to the corners of the mouth, and instead had a more fleshy part of the face skin acting as those farther parts of that structure, now the lip line stretches all the way to that point which gives them a different feel. The divots between the inner corner of the eye and the nose are also less highlighted but that might be a lighting issue. (Why do all these lighting scenes default to being fully backlit with no front facing light?!) And the skin feels overall less grey and more lifelike, which WOULD be great... if I hadn't specifically chosen the most grey option to try and get that colorless and ash-like tone :P. I do appreciate the eye change!! ♥

Over all my characters didn't get hit TOO hard by any major changes which I'm thankful for, but the Au Ra and Elezen are my two biggest cases of "what happened here??" >.<

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...fcb9bce0066e5&
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...1fa80a55fb994&


Looking pretty good I think

Wasn't happy with my original screenshots, so I went and made a new set this time having one in each lighting and area. Left = old, right = new.

Character Blue Screen.
https://i.imgur.com/R2PkGmV.jpg

Limsa Day.
https://i.imgur.com/HdWrHAv.jpg

Limsa Night.
https://i.imgur.com/Ir0BRrN.jpg

Grid Day.
https://i.imgur.com/e810qN5.jpg

Grid Night.
https://i.imgur.com/kRVdHl7.jpg

Ul'dah Day.
https://i.imgur.com/5TNqLLa.jpg

Ul'Dah Night.
https://i.imgur.com/5hdXiUR.jpg

Indoors. top old, bottom new.
https://i.imgur.com/Ztz3cOf.png
https://i.imgur.com/xjKoOdE.png

Overall I'm very happy with how she turned out. I always hated how her lips seemed to always turn shades of purple in most lighting, namely blue lights like the character screen or any allagan places. So I'm very glad to see the new lighting at least leaves them red shades at all times. Only thing I'd want changed is better lip shine, aside from that, though, I'm very happy and ready for DT to land.