7.0 Graphics update to SKIN

Is it just me, or is the lalafell really sweaty/ oily looking?
Was there any mentioning that in hot environments, our character would look like they were rained on or had been sweating?
Or is this going to be how they look all of the time?

Incase devs see this, the oily look is weird- it's not really a positive update and it doesn't look great.

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

We also see it here on the Male Viera's nose- the oily/ sweaty look

https://i.imgur.com/vOo3RL2.png

I'm pretty sure that first Lalafell picture was specifically showing "wet" effect textures on purpose.

Edit: yeah, you can see them flip on the wet effect. Go to 02:04:32

https://www.youtube.com/live/OxVWTkt...3enJRrX38nj_IV

Skin looks way better in every example they've shown. Skin both reflects and refracts light, and every new example has shown this. Dark skin characters particularly look leagues better than they ever have.

The Auri limbal rings and the Viera nose thing I feel are more actual racial traits that I hope have been addressed, but that has nothing to do with skin quality.
As Ruin pointed out, the "oily" Lala is just part of their wet-skin showcase, which I'll tell you: I wasn't impressed by, but that's not the default skin, and I think you should amend the original post.

Meteor's skin looks fine. That's not how plastic looks. I don't like his hairline and how few polys his eyes have, but everything else looks fine.

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Originally Posted by DiaDeem

Skin looks way better in every example they've shown. Skin both reflects and refracts light, and every new example has shown this. Dark skin characters particularly look leagues better than they ever have.

The Auri limbal rings and the Viera nose thing feel more like racial traits that I hope have been addressed, but that has nothing to do with skin quality.
As Ruin pointed out, the "oily" lala is just part of their wet-skin showcase, which I'll tell you: I wasn't impressed by, but that's not the default skin, and I think you should amed the original post.

Meteor's skin looks fine. That's not how plastic looks. I don't like his hairline and how few polys his eyes have, but everything else looks fine.

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I feel they're confusing the slight wrinkles on Meteor's forehead as it looking plastic. Which if so then um I have questions.

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Originally Posted by lunartears

I definitely have noticed that the skin is more plastic-like in the newer graphics. I feel like the skin looks less detailed and more like a barbie doll. And along with baked in character model shadows being lightened or removed, it gives off a very strange illuminated feeling compared to the original.

New Meteor is a great example of this

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLBEZDvW...jpg&name=large

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Honestly hyurs have always looked the most low quality, in terms of textures. so i'm not too surprised he still looks off.

He still looks way better than ever before, though.

His skin is fine imo I think it's just a poor lighting set up. The self shadows are great and there's a bit of subsurface scattering which gives it some life. The cool white highlights, which I've been wary of in other examples, at least fit here since he's in the middle of the ocean. I love the pore bumpmap!
If anything his skin has great depth while his sclera is incredibly flat and without any ambient reflections coloring them.

But on an unrelated note are his side burns floating off his jawline?

https://i.imgur.com/7mR8XM5.png
https://i.imgur.com/ByBCryi.png

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Originally Posted by lunartears

I definitely have noticed that the skin is more plastic-like in the newer graphics. I feel like the skin looks less detailed and more like a barbie doll. And along with baked in character model shadows being lightened or removed, it gives off a very strange illuminated feeling compared to the original.

New Meteor is a great example of this

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLBEZDvW...jpg&name=large

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I think WoL looked great in the rest of the trailer, but this shot in particular made me raise an eyebrow. I don't think he looks plastic, but I think because the light is so bright on his forehead, it's making it look flat. The lower part of his face is better, but his lips look almost too soft, which for some reason it reminds me of Vagrant Story. I also would have preferred more defined facial hair rather than a dusting of some shade, but I have to remind myself what game I'm playing.

Overall I still think it's an improvement to the facial model, it's just this initial shot with this angle and lighting that made me look twice.

Alright. I tried to match the shot as much as I could, then put it into a video, uploaded it to YouTube and then took the screenshot I'm posting, because we must remember we've not actually seen 7.0 graphics yet, only low res/low bit rate streams of what we're actually gonna see when we play.

CGI Trailer
https://imgur.com/1XHV0os.png

Benchmark Preview
https://imgur.com/tqmYpQA.png

Current Game
https://imgur.com/kkcfzXb.png

To be frank: The comparison is bad. This is the main reason why I don't wanna jump into conclusions before the benchmark is out. I wanna make more (and more proper) comparisons once that's out, but the point here is that trying to figure out how something is gonna look based on a YouTube video that we can't compare very well to current graphics I think is a bit silly. This particularly hurts how high res the actual skin texture may be.

The CG image is just to get an idea of how light should behave, and not a direct comparison. That said, the light has actual variance on the preview. Current game doesn't know what to do. I tried to match the shadows and level of light but the current graphics can't handle contrast very well. Lighting in the game right now is horrible, and it's the other big thing (alongside with AA) that I'm looking forward to seeing in the actual game.

It's so hard for me to see people calling the new skin worse. I just don't understand it, but I guess we can see for sure tomorrow with the benchmark.

People are nuts if they think the new skin looks worse. It looks a lot better. Not current gen graphics, but it was never going to be that. Leagues better than the completely flat skin we have now.

Honestly something feels weirdly uncanny about it?

I would say it looks more like rubber than plastic, if anything, but could really just be the lighting.

What I honestly think, is that people are too used to how the game has been looking for the last 10 years, so I think it's understandable that things look a bit off, even though technologically everything about the new characters is better.

This is separate from the Auri limbal rings and Viera noses. Racial traits have to remain.

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Originally Posted by Darkstride

I'm pretty sure that first Lalafell picture was specifically showing "wet" effect textures on purpose.

Edit: yeah, you can see them flip on the wet effect. Go to 02:04:32

https://www.youtube.com/live/OxVWTkt...3enJRrX38nj_IV

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Thank you!

I think it looks fine, but then I dont spend all my time looking at faces. I am usually playing and most I do see up close, are fairly brief.

some of those images that have been used in this thread are far closer than I care to get, or can zoom in.

I'll wait until it releases before forming an opinion

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Originally Posted by Tsumdere

People are nuts if they think the new skin looks worse. It looks a lot better. Not current gen graphics, but it was never going to be that. Leagues better than the completely flat skin we have now.

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Youtube compression aside, there also seems to be an issue with the upscaling tech in the benchmark. At 1440p the skin does have a vaseline like smeared look to it, but I used DLDSR to downscale from 4k and it looked leagues better. I guess at 1080p and 1440p, it's upscaling from a much lower resolution akin to Performance mode?

It seems to be very depended on race and skin tone. In general, skin seems to have gotten lighter, which leaves darker skin tones looking mostly fine and lighter ones looking waxy. My friend's pale-skinned Duskwight lady has been hit especially hard while my dark skinned character looks OK when it comes to skin texture.

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Originally Posted by lunartears

I definitely have noticed that the skin is more plastic-like in the newer graphics. I feel like the skin looks less detailed and more like a barbie doll. And along with baked in character model shadows being lightened or removed, it gives off a very strange illuminated feeling compared to the original.

New Meteor is a great example of this

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLBEZDvW...jpg&name=large

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You can see from this

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

that the skin has pores. However it is very uniform. Overall its not that bad.

The issue is that with barely any lightning it looks overly exposed. Maybe tweaking the shaders would fix this somewhat.

Subsurface scattering would reduce the plastic look as well.

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Originally Posted by Somnolence

You can see from this

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

that the skin has pores. However it is very uniform. Overall its not that bad.

The issue is that with barely any lightning it looks overly exposed. Maybe tweaking the shaders would fix this somewhat.

Subsurface scattering would reduce the plastic look as well.

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the cheeks are a little flushed, but that's in game now. I don't see pores.

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Originally Posted by MsQi

the cheeks are a little flushed, but that's in game now. I don't see pores.

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The lighting in that shot definitely overexposes it to the point you can barely see it, but adjusting the contrast makes it more obvious that the skin has (more?) texture now.

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

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Originally Posted by MsQi

the cheeks are a little flushed, but that's in game now. I don't see pores.

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Open image in new tab to see it at 100% zoom

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Originally Posted by Somnolence

Open image in new tab to see it at 100% zoom

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I did

/10char

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Originally Posted by Yencat

The lighting in that shot definitely overexposes it to the point you can barely see it, but adjusting the contrast makes it more obvious that the skin has (more?) texture now.

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

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That's a different picture of a different character. There may be a little more texture in that model, but the is no next to no texture on the Miqo'te nose, where pores should be obvious. There is some shadow distortion. Those are still kinda bad. But saying just turn up the contrast is not really legitimate. That can bring out things that aren't really intentional.

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Originally Posted by MsQi

That's a different picture of a different character. There may be a little more texture in that model, but the is no next to no texture on the Miqo'te nose, where pores should be obvious. There is some shadow distortion. Those are still kinda bad. But saying just turn up the contrast is not really legitimate. That can bring out things that aren't really intentional.

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I'm not suggesting everyone should turn up the contrast to be able to see it at all, just that that particular shot on the boat is very overexposed and not indicative of how it looks otherwise.

While the Miqo'te does look somewhat smoother, it's still visible to me even without any editing, particularly on the characters right side of the nose where the light ends.