[ Graphical Update Feedback ] Male Viera are too shiny

I understand that they're trying to update the highlights and shadows and on most races they look incredible, but male viera are far too shiny. It's like they're covered in a permanent sheen of sweat or lube or the wet status or something. The graphical updates are trending in the right direction, but some of the changes are a step too far. Please tone back the shine on male viera, devs!

They look very sweaty or like plastic, it doesn't help that they have no natural flush and are basically just 1-2 tones throughout

The shine on the skin in general is a lot higher, especially with darker skin tones. I don't think this is something uniquely affecting male Viera.

Agree. The shine gives them a pretty plastic-y look that I'm not a big fan of and I hope it gets toned down.

It's ALL darker skin not just viera, the dark roe,highlander,miqo'te and au ra they showed had overly shiny skin.

I think it's definitely a good thing they're trying to address the historical issue of darker skinned characters not looking as good in all environments, but I do wish they wouldn't swing the pendulum too far in the other direction and just straight up make them look plastic so that they show up in dark lighting.

A lot of races seem to have this, a greasy look to the skin

All of the skin looks natural. I know you're gamers but you
should be able to distinguish hydrated skin from dull skin.

The constant complaining about the visuals isn't going to stop it from happening. Lots of you aren't even giving it a chance before crying. Please go outside.

And if that is harsh, I'm sorry. The comments about the dark skin looking sweaty are particularly problematic imo. Broaden your horizons and I'll leave it at that.

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Originally Posted by Turtledeluxe

All of the skin looks natural. I know you're gamers but you
should be able to distinguish hydrated skin from dull skin.

The constant complaining about the visuals isn't going to stop it from happening. Lots of you aren't even giving it a chance before crying. Please go outside.

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I mean, there is an actual issue with what they've shown of dark skin (as talked about recently here), where the lighting saps the warmth from the skin and gives it an ashy tone, and that should be brought up as early as possible so it can be fixed. Giving things a chance when something is already clearly off early on in development means complaints will come too late to easily fix the problems later.

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Originally Posted by Rudje

I mean, there is an actual issue with what they've shown of dark skin (as talked about recently here), where the lighting saps the warmth from the skin and gives it an ashy tone, and that should be brought up as early as possible so it can be fixed. Giving things a chance when something is already clearly off early on in development means complaints will come too late to easily fix the problems later.

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So people are saying these characters look sweaty because in some random person's opinion the color of the shadows makes them look desaturated and ashy?

That isn't what is being said. People see shine and think they immediately think "sweaty". And that's ridiculous. Dark skin humans can have a reflective quality to their skin.

Would be a good idea to have a slider as a graphical setting, imo

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Originally Posted by Turtledeluxe

So people are saying these characters look sweaty because in some random person's opinion the color of the shadows makes them look desaturated and ashy?

That isn't what is being said. People see shine and think they immediately think "sweaty". And that's ridiculous. Dark skin humans can have a reflective quality to their skin.

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I'm not saying I agree with this thread, I'm saying there's an actual issue with the lighting engine being picked up on that people are missing the actual cause of because they aren't familiar enough with art.

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Originally Posted by Rudje

I'm not saying I agree with this thread, I'm saying there's an actual issue with the lighting engine being picked up on that people are missing the actual cause of because they aren't familiar enough with art.

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Respectfully, I do not want to hear random XIV players lecturing about dark skin looking ashy with respect to this update either. I'm not exactly sure who is saying that or why they are employing these terms-- are they trying to say some of the skin looks more neutral or cool toned? That would be a more appropriate way to describe that. I'm not sure the person in that thread even knows what ashy or desaturated means.

And it is still jumping the gun. The lighting in those environments may skew more neutral. Let's see how they look in warm lighting in the actual game before launching campaigns. Also let's see what the character creation offers.

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Originally Posted by Turtledeluxe

Respectfully, I do not want to hear random XIV players lecturing about dark skin looking ashy with respect to this update either. I'm not exactly sure who is saying that or why they are employing these terms-- are they trying to say some of the skin looks more neutral or cool toned? That would be a more appropriate way to describe that. I'm not sure the person in that thread even knows what ashy or desaturated means.

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There is a pretty clear desaturation seen across the darker skin tones when you compare them to the before and after of the lighter tones. It's not just in that thread, I've seen several people comment independently on twitter that the lighting on darker tones was off and that they hoped it was just that they chose stark white light because most of them were already using the darkest options they had, so a Fantasia wouldn't help.

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And it is still jumping the gun. The lighting in those environments may skew more neutral. Let's see how they look in warm lighting in the actual game before launching campaigns.

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At which point it will be too late to change. It is extraordinarily difficult to make changes to the engine late in dev, and unless the benchmark drops with 6.55 it will come out far too late to pivot. That is why they even showed incomplete previews before now (remember how the EU preview had an obviously incomplete body with a wip head on Au Ra?), so they could get feedback.

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Originally Posted by Rudje

There is a pretty clear desaturation seen across the darker skin tones when you compare them to the before and after of the lighter tones. It's not just in that thread, I've seen several people comment independently on twitter that the lighting on darker tones was off and that they hoped it was just that they chose stark white light because most of them were already using the darkest options they had, so a Fantasia wouldn't help.



At which point it will be too late to change. It is extraordinarily difficult to make changes to the engine late in dev, and unless the benchmark drops with 6.55 it will come out far too late to pivot. That is why they even showed incomplete previews before now (remember how the EU preview had an obviously incomplete body with a wip head on Au Ra?), so they could get feedback.

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Imo it's very strange to call this "desaturated" simply because we are in a new engine with new lighting and the a couple of skin tones appear, in this particular environment, to lean more neutral (or in one case even cooler toned) than before. That's how lighting is in reality too. Not all lighting is going to complement a subject's natural undertones perfectly.

It isn't "stark white light" stuck to their face. It's neutral lighting coming from a light source.

None of the lighter characters look super warm either.