Updated benchmark

It's up for dowload!

Show you're updated characters! Do you like what's changed?

New character creator looks nice and I think it solves a lot of the dead-eye looks the previous one had.
Can't replicate neck seams on Au Ras anymore either so I'm happy with it.

Its a good improvement.

I have saved images from EW bench, DT bench and now 1.1 DT bench and it's a nice improvement. Lighting makes such a difference. My veena has her larger pupils back which pleases me.
That said I think I will still play with Nvidia bumping up the contrast and sharpness just a little bit, I prefer it. Turning down the gamma to zero in bench improves a lot. Below is max settings with the default gamma and no filter.

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

And if I turn gamma to zero here is what I get, much better imo!

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

I hope this one is easier to get running on the steam deck then the 1.0 benchmark, dose anyone know if saved presets copy over to the 1.1 benchmark? Or do we have to create them again?

The strange mouth formation for Elezen is now gone and fixed

Eyes seems a lot more alive

Texture feel WAY BETTER

Honestly, it's a massive improvement on every aspect !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DracotheDragon

I hope this one is easier to get running on the steam deck then the 1.0 benchmark, dose anyone know if saved presets copy over to the 1.1 benchmark? Or do we have to create them again?

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Everything you did before in 1.0 is saved and can be used immediatly

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...32b592e96a51b&

My Hyur look incredible ! I love it !

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

WOW! The new lighting makes a HUGE improvement. Skin looks less waxy even in bad lighting. Tear duct area seems to be restored as well. Excellent work!

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...44&height=1195


Just gonna leave the viera ears like this i guess? Like cmon.

Here are the comparisons for my main and main alt. Just changing the CC filter has done wonders to make your character look as they should in the game (so no more guessing). It was worth noting that I was overall happy before, but there is no denying the look of the character is overall much closer to what they would look like ingame.

Hyur:
https://imgsli.com/MjY5MjU5/1/2

Au Ra
https://imgsli.com/MjY5MjYw/1/2

As someone who had pretty negative feelings to the initial benchmark, I am very happy with the new changes. The only thing I could really comment on is that the oral commissures aren't as prominent/highlighted as the original but they're still very visible when playing around in the other environments let alone moving around in the game world when Dawntrail is released. Overall I'm really happy with the graphical update.

https://files.catbox.moe/kdle9w.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mikey_R

Au Ra
https://imgsli.com/MjY5MjYw/1/2

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I'm sorry I laughed at this one. You didn't do it on purpose but the slight blinking make her look like : "Dude, are you for real ?". Still, that help a lot to see the change, thank you !

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

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

https://i.imgur.com/tlRPm9V.png

Comparison (left= current, middle= first bench, right= new bench):
https://i.imgur.com/yb6bdS0.png

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&

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Can I make a guess ? Maybe higher number of polygon ? When I look closely to it, they look more "round" for some reason ?

THEY FIXED MY LALA NOSE SMUDGE YESSSSS

and teeth, but that was in the live letter

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&

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I use eye 3 on my miqo also, and the roundness was something I had noticed almost immediately when I was comparing them on the original benchmark. Bit of a bummer it seems to have stayed.

https://i.imgur.com/CwiHnSv.gif

My eyelashes have been slightly reduced from v1 to v1.1.

And I guess the face marks and nose smudge are a little darker maybe.

I'm too lazy to crop two screenshots together again but generally my character does look better than before. It still seems like the male viera face 1 eye makeup tattoo is still worse than it currently is, but I guess I'll just have to accept that at this point. Everyone just uses face 3 or whatever so there hasn't been a lot of complaints about it from anyone besides me and like two other people.

It's way too early/late for me to do deep comparisons but I am disappointed that the reduction in glow for Au Ra limbal rings seems to be staying. :/ One of my Au Ra came out of it okay (probably bc he has very dark skin and white irises, so the hot pink rings stand out a bit more even with reduced glow), but the other is in a bad spot; the next step up turns their limbal rings seafoam green and not the intense cyan they currently are, when the eye-searing saturation combined with the bright glow was a huge part of their face... Don't know why people who hated an optional feature they could remove are being catered to, they could always remove the limbal rings but I'm stuck with my character's eyes looking wrong because no correct options exist anymore.

On the bright side, a lot of the lip problems are massively improved which is nice.

I feel bad saying this knowing how hard the devs have been working on improvements - especially close to Dawntrail's release date - but I'm still pretty dissatisfied to be honest... mainly with the eyes, limbals and lips. If a feedback thread pops up later on I'll elaborate further there.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPInDWvX...g&name=900x900https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPInEgeW...g&name=900x900

Quoting from my thread, I didn't notice that somebody else had made a similar thread until I was done writing (it's too long to fully post, so please refer to the thread for my full post

Too big to quote, I wrote up my thoughts more concretely here: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...12#post6471912

Default gamma correction of 50 is awful. Moon miqo'te irises look gray with this. Need to change to 0.

I don't really want to be someone who complains, but I feel like the updated benchmark was actually a downgrade for my Keeper miqo'te. I was looking forward to it, but now I'm disappointed and more than a little confused. I wouldn't normally make a post about it, but I feel like the change was pretty drastic :confused:

Current In-Game/First Benchmark/Second Benchmark
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...01b452db93717&

With the change to his lips, it feels like his resting expression has completely changed, and instead of a neutral/resting grumpy face, he's now constantly smiling? I tried looking at the other lip options, but it seems like they've also gained upturned edges.

Additionally, it feels like with every benchmark that Face 4 Miqo'tes become softer and rounder, and I wish I understood why. Face 4 was the only real sharp/angular face option for miqos, which is the entire reason I chose it, and I feel like it's losing its identity with every subsequent update. It was the perfect fit for a stoic, no-nonsense character, and now it just feels... well, a bit out of character. Overall, it seems like a pretty noticeable change between the first and second benchmarks, especially when I didn't think male miqos in particular were getting a lot of complaints when compared with Viera or Elezen.

As an added bonus, he's also gained a neck seam now!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...0d6b471eaf441&

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2550294242099&

Its still an entirely different face. Seems they fixed the lighting but not much else. Could be worse though. Femroe chins are still polygonal and viera ears are still low res. Meh.

Okay I stopped being lazy and put them all together.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/84bb8a10...9cb5930d9f.pnj

*Some minor settings like makeup colour are probably different between screenshots, I honestly can't remember. I know the eyeshadow was full black in the 1.0 screenshot because I was trying to fix it. Might be the normal purple in the new one. And too lazy to get a new screenshot of the current version without the bangs.

I'm definitely generally starting to like the new version over the current one now that he doesn't look like one of the victims from House of Wax. I still miss having the eyeshadow being more opaque for darker colours, and I think it's weirdly opaque for those who chose lighter colours for a more subtle look. I have no idea what happened to it, but I can accept it the way it is, I guess.

Don't have the motivation nor energy to do full comparison pics for today. But brief glance thru the new benchmark, I see that they've addressed aplenty of Male Middie Face 7 issues for the most part (kudos to them!). I am however still disappointed that they insisted on keeping the profound nasolabial folds on face 7 when from its inception since 6.0 it's been barely noticeable.

I'm considering to switch back to face 5 now since apparently the new benchmark has toned down their nasolabial folds... but then I won't get to enjoy face 7's stubble :/

Ugh... :smh:

https://imgur.com/nU0V7JU
In Dawntrail, several character(especially Lalafell and Mi'qote female)'s eye glow and lip gloss are too much. They must reduce unnecessary light effect.

https://i.imgur.com/gJrJari.jpeg
EW > DT v1 > DT v1.1 > DT v1.1 with lighting on

Much improved, eyebrows fixed, lip gloss fixed

Open image in new tab and can zoom in easier.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

Don't have the motivation nor energy to do full comparison pics for today. But brief glance thru the new benchmark, I see that they've addressed aplenty of Male Middie Face 7 issues for the most part (kudos to them!). I am however still disappointed that they insisted on keeping the profound nasolabial folds on face 7 when from its inception since 6.0 it's been barely noticeable.

I'm considering to switch back to face 5 now since apparently the new benchmark has toned down their nasolabial folds... but then I won't get to enjoy face 7's stubble :/

Ugh... :smh:

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you get to choose between looking like 20 or 50 years lol

Hi! I have some complaints, I would like the verts to move a little, so that the face shapes remain the same.
1) Nose is very square compared to old one. And nose bridge shape is very rough. (It's type 3 nose)
2) I would also like the shape of the lips to be close to what it was before - change shapekeys a bit, I think polycount allows it.
3) Black hair color is not black + new hair lighting distorts some strands due to excessive shine.
4) Not an issue but feels odd - eyes are too shiny now. Would be great to have something 50/50 from both Benchmarks.

Skintone feels better now, tho I'd like to have "turn off SSS" option anyway.
Thank you!

https://i.imgur.com/cs7TlyS.png
https://imgur.com/a/Un3RD7e

After remembering to turn the gamma to zero in bench I don't feel I even need filters from nvidia. I checked my Miqo'te, Au'ra, Highlander and Hrothgal selves and I would say I am loving all of them! Much improved for me personally. I haven't spotted any glaring bugs but I see a few of you have. Hopefully we can get further bugfixes and in the case of some faces their original look returned, that male miqo face turning smiley is a shame for example.

The bottom lip issue was fixed which is great but as I thought would happen the monkey paw curled and something I liked was changed for the worse. The makeup around the eye looked perfect and very badass in the first benchmark, but now the inner part has largely been removed in this new version and turned into a thin little smudge. I can live with it but that really sucks, I loved how it looked before. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shikiseki

you get to choose between looking like 20 or 50 years lol

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I'm crying lmao ;;

I mean... I guess that is exactly the reason behind their design choice. After all, when 6.0 came out conceiving face 7 middie, talks revolving around "why they just won't give face 5 the stubble option" wasn't uncommon. Which is... reasonable imho, considering today's face 7 is just "face 5 but stubble turned on"-face.

But I really really, REALLY wish if this is the choice they're sticking with, at the very least, make that stubble from face 7 an option on one of face 5 facial feature. Lo behold, you get to have stubble as a 20-30 y.o AND 50 y.o.

Significantly better than first benchmark XD He still doesn't feel "right" to me but it's much better. Mixed feelings right now, cuz I'm sad about the things that are still off (they aren't things I can adjust in Character Creator), but I'm also very happy about the improvements.

I think they need to adjust the lighting a bit on black hair so it looks a little richer (maybe tone down highlights?), and to either thicken or darken eyebrows a good bit.
Edit: I saw a couple comments talking about adjusting the gamma down, and that made a huge difference for fixing the black hair looking washed out. Fixable issue. Eyebrows however, please make them thicker!

Something about the eye shape is still off, they look a little wider/more open than previous, and the tattoo liner isn't as dark/thick. Hopefully someone else who notices the same thing on eyes 3 can articulate it better.

Skintone looked a bit too tan in character creator but in the benchmark looked good, so I think that might just a difference in how the lighting is hitting the face. It kind of varies from being about right to too tan (he's shade 1,1 so I don't have an option to keep his undertones and go lighter) in Character Creator. In the cutscenes it looked pretty good though and didn't make me go "oh that's super off" like it did last time.

Lip shape and nose is close but still off. Lips aren't as pouty due to the more natural skintone fade out and need the lip color to spread out just a smidge more to match the old shape better. Nose is a lot more human-shaped in the nostril area with the way the light currently shines on it and the thickness of the septum. I like my bunny nose and would like to see adjustments there.

If anyone else is a fan of the peachy lip color (Light; 2nd column, 6 down. RGB 207, 134, 127) and find the new one too dark, moving to 1,6 RGB 224, 178, 174 did the trick. "None" also looks a bit closer as another option.

https://i.imgur.com/cYP8BUA.jpg

https://imgur.com/oTw1KpV.png

My glubby nooo :(

While I love the improvements in general, I feel some faces have changed drastically in feel. I can't speak of many other races, but I really miss the wider lips on face 2 Au Ra as they were part of what defined my character.

The lighting and eye shader was improved, which is great. But the overall shape of midlander #1 is still a big downgrade in my opinion. Nose looks worse, lips look worse, lots of other small differences that end up with an overall worse face.

https://i.postimg.cc/HsnWCh2m/new-benchmark.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adaire99

I don't really want to be someone who complains, but I feel like the updated benchmark was actually a downgrade for my Keeper miqo'te. I was looking forward to it, but now I'm disappointed and more than a little confused. I wouldn't normally make a post about it, but I feel like the change was pretty drastic :confused:

Current In-Game/First Benchmark/Second Benchmark
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...01b452db93717&

With the change to his lips, it feels like his resting expression has completely changed, and instead of a neutral/resting grumpy face, he's now constantly smiling? I tried looking at the other lip options, but it seems like they've also gained upturned edges.

Additionally, it feels like with every benchmark that Face 4 Miqo'tes become softer and rounder, and I wish I understood why. Face 4 was the only real sharp/angular face option for miqos, which is the entire reason I chose it, and I feel like it's losing its identity with every subsequent update. It was the perfect fit for a stoic, no-nonsense character, and now it just feels... well, a bit out of character. Overall, it seems like a pretty noticeable change between the first and second benchmarks, especially when I didn't think male miqos in particular were getting a lot of complaints when compared with Viera or Elezen.

As an added bonus, he's also gained a neck seam now!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...0d6b471eaf441&

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+1 to this... that was exactly my reaction. the change to the default expression and the mouth itself (also it seems like the eye shape 3 is smaller as well?) really is messing up the whole vibe of face 4. my character looks completely different to me now :confused:

So from a quick glance before I need to sleep, they've improved the "dead eye" look and added some gloss to the lips of my characters back, but that's about it. None of the other issues I had were fixed at all.
Male Miqo'te face 4 now has a resting smile and softer eyes, when I purposely chose it for a more harsh, no-nonsense look. The vacant stoned look the first benchmark gave him is still there.
Female au ra face 3 still lost all of her lip shape and her smile, and something is off about the shape of her eyes too.
It's a step in the right direction in regards to the lighting, but everyone who previously said "it's just the lighting!" uh, no, clearly it is not.

Hmmm I've been a Xaela Au ra for years (since they were released) but I'm aactually thinking of changing race come 7.0 because she just does not look like my character anymore.. something really feels off.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...720&height=297

Most of you all saying 'something feels off' are saying that because thats the biggest difference the lighting makes. The current games lighting is /very/ bad. Now we have proper lighting. Shadows are more accurate and look a lot better. Shadows make things look different.

Its the age old shine a flashlight under your chin to look scary thing.

I also don't get the 'duck lips' complaint on the Au Ra pictures from that one person. Duck lips stick out. Au Ra lips are practically flat against their face in all four options on Face 1.

Some of yall will literally never be happy unless they give up on the graphics update and leave us with old models forever.

I am really appreciative of all the hard work the devs put into the benchmark, and the lighting changes look fantastic! I'm really happy to see that a lot of people are pleased with the changes too, and it's definitely such a big step forward from what we had last time.

From my point of view on my WoL, I don't think they made any changes to Face 2 Au Ra from the last benchmark that I can see. The lighting is definitely better throughout, but otherwise she seems unchanged.

I'm just so upset about the lips. Face 2 Au Ra has such a lovely wide mouth with dimples and this mouth is not the same. :( I'll do my best to get used to it, and I've already found an eye shape that seems to match my current one better.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPIvrXmWkAAiiz-?format=jpg