Skin looks flat & dull in DT graphics preview.

Hello!

I and many others personally can't wait for the graphical update (yay!) and a graphics update doesn't just mean smoother details & better textures it also means better looking skin tones.

I can't help but really feel that the skin while smooth and shiny, also looks very flat & dull in the previews given. The pale skinned characters looked very pallid, & the dark skinned character was simply all dark with no highlight or anything that would help them appear better in dim/dark lighting.

Anyone else notice this or kind of feel the same? Or perhaps has a better way or putting it?
Obviously before anyone takes all of this out of context, I am not suggesting a super HD looking skin. Just a little tone change/pigmentation & slight undertones or a fixed skin shading similar to FF XII character style, Ithink can make a world of difference.

Thanks for reading!

They could make characters look a lot more realistic now, but if they did it would take away the impression people have of their characters which they have come to love over 10 years. So if they changed it the way they could, the races would look nothing like they currently do and a lot of people would be upset that their character was changed without their approval.

The reason characters in general won't look as good as other parts of the environment is that they can't control how many there are as easily. There could just be 3 people there, or they could be entire crowd there fighting Chi, although this is still controlled to an extent with character render limits.

This is because the light setup was bad in those previews. You need to or three point lighting to make a character look good.

We just have to hope they'll rework the super bland light setups that the game have in many locations. If they only increase texture resolution an poly counts it will not improve things that much.

Everyone is made of candle wax now, look forward to it.

They should implement raytracing. Because it is way more exact and dynamic than their normal mapping and ambient occlusion.




Cheers

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

They should implement raytracing. Because it is way more exact and dynamic than their normal mapping and ambient occlusion.




Cheers

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Isn’t the average player playing on a potato

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Originally Posted by Supersnow845

Isn’t the average player playing on a potato

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True. But raytracing could be optional like in all other games. :)


Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Larirawiel

They should implement raytracing. Because it is way more exact and dynamic than their normal mapping and ambient occlusion.




Cheers

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They should implement proper anti aliasing first.

EDIT: Additionally I don't have much faith in them giving us a proper implementation of raytracing. See Elden Ring's implementation for a monkey paw example.

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Originally Posted by Fourbestintoner

Everyone is made of candle wax now, look forward to it.

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they do look a bit waxy for sure, or plastic-y in the update :C
a little roseyness to pale skin on their ears and nose and lips would go a long way, and warmer tones having some sort of low & highlight tones + warm blush tones & blue/grey skin having a mix of purple & blue for their contouring.
idk if im using the right words to describe it, sorry if im being confusing about it all
but yeah, basically some soft fixed shading to the skin i think is what i'm trying to say.
UGH words are hard!!

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Originally Posted by juicybug

I can't help but really feel that the skin while smooth and shiny, also looks very flat & dull in the previews given.

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Looks fine to me. If anything looks soulless and waxy I'd say it's the original.

https://asset.watch.impress.co.jp/im...59/160/007.jpg

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Originally Posted by juicybug

the dark skinned character was simply all dark with no highlight or anything that would help them appear better in dim/dark lighting.

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You can very clearly see the highlights on dark skin in the examples shown.

https://asset.watch.impress.co.jp/im...59/160/011.jpg

https://asset.watch.impress.co.jp/im...59/160/015.jpg


Also, one thing to keep in mind is that for whatever reason SE always insists on using very low resolution screenshots and video to show off things in the game. For instance, Hrothgar have a new fur shader but you can barely tell it exists in most of the material shown to us for that reason. Whatever your perception is of the update now, it's going to look better in-game. I'd reserve judgement until at least the benchmark.

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Originally Posted by CidHeiral

Looks fine to me. If anything looks soulless and waxy I'd say it's the original.

https://asset.watch.impress.co.jp/im...59/160/007.jpg



You can very clearly see the highlights on dark skin in the examples shown.

https://asset.watch.impress.co.jp/im...59/160/011.jpg

https://asset.watch.impress.co.jp/im...59/160/015.jpg


Also, one thing to keep in mind is that for whatever reason SE always insists on using very low resolution screenshots and video to show off things in the game. For instance, Hrothgar have a new fur shader but you can barely tell it exists in most of the material shown to us for that reason. Whatever your perception is of the update now, it's going to look better in-game. I'd reserve judgement until at least the benchmark.

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i wasn't too clear, sorry about that
when i say highlights i didn't mean oily shine, i meant some form of shading/contouring!
and thats ok if it looks ok to you. im aware that not everyone sees what i see, bc to me on the dark skin it's very smooth and plastic appearing with one tone. no skin tone is one color or tone. we have many little hues all over our skin. but that's not what I'm wanting bc obv that would be too much. but even some slight hint of life to the skin is what im pointing towards.
but you're right about them using low res, and im expecting it will be better on drop! at least i hope it does :D
and yeah, the current one looks very dull and play-doh like. but the new one looks rubbery/plastic with one tone esp the darker skin and it has me a bit concerned.
perhaps they just have the shine too high? and yeah for benchmark we will def see! i dont want to jump the gun on the issue but i want to bring it to light incase it doesn't look that great in the final result, but even if thats the case most ppl would be complacent and just accept it for what it was.
anyways, thanks for your response!

I think they're still working on tweaking them, so it most likely will look a bit different once DT hits, or when we are able to preview our characters in the benchmark with different lighting sources. (I cannot contain my excitement for the graphics update lool)

I'm nervously waiting to see what they do for characters with non-human skin tones. In particular, Sea Wolf Roegadyn have a peachy shading that overrides their greenness in places like around the eyes, ears and fingertips, making the green seem like it's painted on and not their actual colour.

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Originally Posted by EstelleCere

I think they're still working on tweaking them, so it most likely will look a bit different once DT hits, or when we are able to preview our characters in the benchmark with different lighting sources. (I cannot contain my excitement for the graphics update lool)

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Same here honestly, I'm super excited for Dawntrail to come so we can see all the old zones with updated graphics; though to be fair, that wont't be for some time.

I'm still excited to see how our characters will end up looking and some of the new zones.
Double dye channels will be wonderful too! Also viper but I'm getting off topic.

I'm less worried about the skin shaders since it's extremely hard to showcase with fixed single screenshots, and without proper lighting to boot (I think they really dropped the ball when showing the latest ones with the lighting they chose).

What really bothers me is the hair though. It just feels like a higher res version of what we have right now, which amplifies what looks off to me personally, and I'm sorry to say but it even looked better in 1.0...

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Originally Posted by Valence

I'm less worried about the skin shaders since it's extremely hard to showcase with fixed single screenshots, and without proper lighting to boot (I think they really dropped the ball when showing the latest ones with the lighting they chose).

What really bothers me is the hair though. It just feels like a higher res version of what we have right now, which amplifies what looks off to me personally, and I'm sorry to say but it even looked better in 1.0...

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mhm!
You're right.
I generally hope that the darker skins do look better & all skin tones overall, and not what we see here with all of them being 1 single tone like someone had 1 crayon to color with.