New Benchmark (June): Au Ra Feedback

I wanted to make a thread for Au Ra discussion in the new benchmark, seperate to the old thread, so it's easier to break down! You can see the old thread here, lots of good discussion there.

My main issues with the first benchmark, outside of general lighting/seam issues/etc. that most races encountered, were these:
- Mouth: shapes were changed, and the shading on lips had a much harsher line on the "None" lip colour option
- Eyes: At least in my experience for Female Face 1, the eye shapes were very different in a way that seemed to be an intentional stylistic choice, as opposed to simply a case of lighting. The iris was smaller, but the pupil much larger. The upper lid "eyeliner" option is also far less pronounced, which makes the eye shape itself also look a lot different. It vastly changes my WoL's overall look.

Good news is that the mouth issue seems fixed in the new benchmark, at least for Face 1! I was relieved to see it on the list of points mentioned in the Lodestone update. Likewise, new lighting also helps overall. Thumbs up from me.

On the other side, the eyes have the same issues as before. I realise the majority of updates to this benchmark were lighting-based, as opposed to stylistic changes. Comparisons:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJ6B8yX...jpg&name=large

The lighting looks good on the colour, but there is still the same issues of:
- A smaller iris, but larger pupil. The iris does not reach the bottom of the eye's waterline any more, which I think is the biggest difference. The shading means the pupil stands out more vs. before, when it was slightly more blended into the colour of the iris.
- The upper eyelid is far less dark and defined. I would even say that it looks less defined in the updated benchmark. I have the "eyeliner" option in Other Features turned on, but it makes very little difference vs. having it turned off. I believe darkening this option to make it comparable with the current game's version would help a lot!

This is the case across all eye shapes, at least on Female Face 1, so picking another one isn't an easy fix.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPJ6r-3X...pg&name=medium

Things definitely are a lot better! And I know I sound fussy with these details, but I still wanted to highlight areas that I feel a little disappointed over, since Yoshida and the developers said they'd still be listening and that it was an ongoing process. I'm really appreciative of how much they are listening.

Please do share your own comparisons, things you are happy or sad about! I'm really interested to see how Au Ra have been updated, since they had some of the more polarising changes (both Female and Male, Raen and Xaela) in the initial benchmark.

o/ Already posted in the Face 2 thread that existed since the first Benchmark, but cross-posting!

Face 2 returning to raise concerns that I had in the first iteration of the Benchmark:

• Lips are still affected, the shape is different and more compact, with the dimples not as prominent and the lip shine still mostly non-existent. This actually looks much better in movement but is still a concern for the idle poses. It feels like my character has a permanent "duck face" and no amount of Fantasia can help since it was already the thin/wide option out of the four available ones. :(
• Eyebrows have a hard dark gray line for white hair colors, they used to be softer looking.
• Scales look too flat against the skin, as if they're just a sheet covering the skin rather than scales growing over the skin. They're still very ivory and "dirty" looking because of the color choices, I miss my off-white cream scales. :< I wish they had simply given us scale color options instead of outright changing the colors.
• Minor, but the top eyelashes only point downwards now, where they used to having a small flick upwards on the outer end.

I will say the catchlights now look a LOT better and help fight the dead-eye look of the first Benchmark, I'm really happy with how my character looks in the actual benchmark when it comes to the eyes specifically! The lighting helps a ton to make my character look much better than in the first benchmark too but my worries remain that the shapes have been altered and no amount of lighting was gonna help. :')

Slider version: https://imgsli.com/MjY5Mzcw

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

Previous Benchmark V1.0 post:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Asteri

SNIP

---

The update is definitely notably better for face 4 F Au Ra. Unfortunately I still feel it is lacking attention to some of the more prominent and consistent feedback given which is a shame.

It definitely feels like a significant chunk of identity is still lost in my opinion. The face still is significantly rounder and dulled out which loses the sharpness that me and my friends have come to love, it was a big reason of why I picked face 4 to begin with. The eyes and lips are different shapes now and the chin still looks very strange. All of it kind of results in a stare that looks kind of unnatural and "frightened" almost, as if you caught my character by surprise in the way the lip is pouted and the eyes are widened- like I ate something sour by surprise. This is a large difference versus a pretty tough and sharp look from before, and a major style change that I'm personally not a big fan of at all.

Overall I'm definitely glad that it is better than before (however that bar was quite low considering how wildly different face 4 looked in the previous benchmark), but considering their lack of attention to some of the points I saw repeated a lot throughout this whole time, I can't help but feel disappointed.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...1ecf7f4f3c9d2&
Current vs benchmark 1.0 vs benchmark 1.1
1.1 is much better than 1.0; she no longer looks high and her nose is back to being basically the same as current. However, I think the mouth is still too different from how it used to be, and that her eyes being less angular + the larger pupils make her look much different from how she currently looks.

Face 4 here also coming in with continued disappointment.

Mouth shape is the biggest issue I have. The corners are even more down-turned in the 1.1 benchmark than they were in the 1.0 benchmark, in addition to the lip line still being flattened and the upper lip shape being more curved rather than straight angles. It feels like they transplanted face 2's OLD mouth onto the new F4. It's a whole new mouth and it completely changes the face.

EW vs DT1.1 for comparison:
https://i.gyazo.com/0a93fe288ea24125...e5bfe47e4f.png https://i.gyazo.com/66b06aa27da1e9cf...33ef0a5d1a.png

Eyebrows are weirdly dark now? This seems most likely to be a lighting thing, but it's super noticeable to me.

EW vs DT1.1 for comparison:
https://i.gyazo.com/a7b89a3851af49fa...575b75439a.png https://i.gyazo.com/c149ee9969a437ce...60b3ceead4.png


Pupils are still way too big. If you have limbal rings, it's hard to see the actual base color of the eyes.
On that note, limbals still feel much darker/not as glowy. I think it's more because they blended them into the iris rather than having solid, hard lines to make them look more "natural". I don't mind the blending, but the "unnatural" glow was specifically why I chose to have limbal rings in the first place.

The catchlights still suck, in my opinion. They're much better than the 1.0 benchmark catchlights, but they're way too small/subtle and way too sparkly. It's like there are multiple light sources pointed at the eyes, but that's not how shine on eyes works. They still almost vanish entirely in the benchmark itself, so the soulless/dead eye look is still an issue in actual gameplay outside of the character creator.

The whole face shape (jaw 1) feels a bit weird now. The chin is more round rather than pointed, the cheek bones sit higher and rounder, while also feeling like the cheeks have been hollowed out a little. The face still looks round, just... more in the chipmunk way rather than the actually round way it was before. This feels like it could be a lighting difference issue, but I'm not entirely sure, given that there are definitely minor model changes elsewhere (as noted with the lips in particular). I honestly can't tell if it's the lighting playing tricks on me or if the model was actually changed.

Overall, this is a big improvement from before. The lighting adjustments are great and really help pull out many defining features that were missing with the previous benchmark. I'm honestly very grateful, since I know this update is such a large undertaking.

After playing around with the changes, the only issue I really have is with the eyes.
The pupils being so dilated changes their look. This seems to be the case with all four face options.

This was something that was present in the previous benchmark, and was brought up by other players, so I'm curious if this is a change the team wants to stick with?

https://i.imgur.com/gUIdne0.png

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

Adding up my voice.
Things are better than the first bench, but the result is still disappointing. As expected, the major problems doesn't come from lights but rather design choices (or mistakes ?).
Lips are simply not the same (and the others aren't good remplacement), and pupils are bigger (why tho ? there is absolutely no reason for this).
I can live with the face being a bit rounder, even if I don't really like that.
But the mouth and pupils are really big offenders.

https://i.imgur.com/FEKW7h8.png

Well i was expecting too much i guess about fixing scale on Au'ra xaela male face 3

We still have the scales (and it's really visible on the face) where it's like we put a sticker on his poor face. The outline is poorly cut. Also these scales aren't anymore on the face itself but seem to fly now. Except for that, i'm really happy of the result but really these scales are making me mad since it was already said in the feedback from the previous benchmark.

First picture the pixelated outline scales :

https://i.goopics.net/ei9wuh.png

Second picture where you can see these flying ones :

https://i.goopics.net/hm3s6z.png

I can't compare to the old benchmark as I only tried the current updated one, but I need to point out the bold outline on the face scales of my Au Ra in comparison to how it looks live in-game.

Not sure if it's because of a specific graphic setting (running on high desktop), if it's just on Xaela Au Ra... I also tried asking on Twitter if other Au Ra players were noticing the same issue but haven't received feedback yet.
Wasn't really able to compare the scales on the neck/chest area, aside from the fact that there's clear changes on the design of the scales itself.

https://i.imgur.com/Iol34s5.png

*Edit* Just saw the same issue on the post above mine, and on more posts ahead in this thread.

*Edit 2* After looking at more posts in this thread, I've noticed that the limbal rings are supposed to glow but apparently if the rings are of a darker tone they just don't glow?? During the character creation menu and all of the benchmark, the limbal rings on my character (that are dark red) just don't glow at all, and sometimes it's even hard to notice they're there in cutscenes that are darker and if we're not zoomed in. If they are supposed to glow, then the darker colors need to be fixed or just be removed? Or maybe have an option to have them glow or not.

Thank you for all the hard work on the new benchmark.

I'm very happy to see improvements made to my OC. I use a Face 1 female Au Ra, which seem to have been adjusted to be very accurate. Her lips are still not quite the same, but I think I could get used to the current version with some time. I hope my sisters of the other faces will get another pass from the development team so that they can be happy, too. Especially face 4, which seems to have gotten the least adjustment between versions.

However, I do want to point out an issue I have noticed regarding Raen scales.

From afar, they look very good.

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

Up close, the scales on her face are still good, but the neck scales look very strange to me. They have a "pasted on" sort of vibe, like they were added in as a tattoo or with image editing software. Given that we will be seeing our OCs up close quite often in cutscenes, I think this deserves to be looked at closely by the development team.

https://i.imgur.com/Tjtl8lo.png

(Since the full image is rather large, I have included the full version here as a link.)

Thank you for reading my post and good luck to my fellow Au Ra who still need adjustments on their characters. I believe in time, you will be heard!

I do really like all the changes but on face 4 on 1080p Res I did notice a hole in my nose and a seam. Comparing with a friend with better resolution settings, 2k and up don't have the problem/much minor.

https://i.imgur.com/nSRP8kO.png

https://imgur.com/a/Hw1AkIW

Trash Horn Shadows

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Remnance

https://imgur.com/a/Hw1AkIW

Trash Horn Shadows

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Looks pretty bad. The shadows aren't great either

Posted in the old thread, but I'll put it here too...

1. Mouth 1 & Lip Color:
   Not much to say here. The shape is still off, I also miss the upturned corners, but I might get over it eventually. I know gloss was added - but its still nearly invisible in most lighting.
2. Eye Shape 3:
   While I'm not skilled or knowledgeable enough to give a detailed drawing, or anatomical breakdown, here's a side-by-side.
   
   While subtle, the updated benchmark's eyes seem more rounded, dilated, & droopy, giving off the impression of either being drowsy or high.
   The original eyes are sharper, especially on the inner corners, & have a more ambivalent look to them. Giving her a calm & determined expression.
   
   However this could be due to the next complaint.
3. Upper Eyelid (Optional Feature):
   In the current game version, the Au'Ra's upper eyelid feature gives a strong eyeliner & soft, feathery eyeshadow effect to the eyes.
   
   The updated benchmark appears to be just a soft eyeliner - which is ironically a little weaker than that of a current Au'Ra without the feature at all.
   There isn't anything really wrong with this, however for those wishing to achieve a more dramatic makeup appearance, that only leaves us with the fairly limited face paint options.
   
   Personally, I like Face Paint 4 (Outer Eyeshadow) w/ Upper Eyelid feature. The combined appearance is both subtle & dramatic, giving a soft, two-toned eyeshadow effect to the middle & corner of her eyes. Unfortunately this option also isn't as distinct in the updated benchmark. The eyeshadow is a lot smaller, & the color drops off a lot shorter from the edge of her eye.
   
   While I understand that its possible perhaps a majority of players prefer the new look of both the Upper Eyelid Feature & Face Paint 4 - it would be nice if these were closer to the original. These features are optional, so it should be easy to justify retaining their original appearance.
   
   At the very least, with hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes being a lot lighter and less defined overall than as in the current game, it would be nice to have more options to make up for the differences. (2+ Face Paint options + more makeup variety?)

With wildly different preferences & mixed opinions across the board, perhaps one possible solution for a few of the different features could be to add an "intensity/opacity" slider. This might address most feedback regarding limbal ring, gloss, lip color, and face paint options. Or perhaps overhaul character creation entirely for 9.0.

In any case, I sincerely hope the team will continue to improve our character appearances based on feedback throughout Dawntrail.

Current Game / Updated Benchmark (v11):
https://i.gyazo.com/b604c55da8f87366...858213a25e.jpg
Forgive me for the hairstyle, this is what it changed to in the benchmark. Could've changed it for the screenshots, but eh...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Raida

Also these scales aren't anymore on the face itself but seem to fly now.

https://i.goopics.net/hm3s6z.png

---

Are you talking about the "sideburns"? They've always been like that.

Face 4 Femra and 1.0 was good, 1.1 is better! Looks amazing. My only nitpick is SE caved to people who don't understand lighting and added one fake catchlight back into the irises

I have one that I find really annoying with the improved lighting and one nit-picky one. Generally though, I like the changes and I love the new scale texture. (I spelled Limbal wrong like an idiot in the screenshots, please forgive me)
1) Lips still aren't right - but hard to explain what feels off

2) Shadows look odd around the mouth especially when looking at it from a bit of a distance. And in some of them the lighting makes the eye in shadow look strange.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

From the Bench trailer - same character. The shadow and lighting just makes her mouth look real off
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

3) Wish list item - Make it so the iris doesn't extend past the limbral ring (can be seen in first screenshot) And additionally return the pupil to the original size so we can see the color of the iris better. It sort of gets lost now.

4) HUGE Wish list - Cutscenes with really awkward shadows
WP Hard last cutscene (I have a 2.0 screenshot when my char was a lala and no weird lighting)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

Lips are consistently shadowed oddly on au ra (or at least this head type) - I have screenshots from 3.0 to current
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

I want to thank the devs for their work on the update and listening to our feedback. The lighting updates are very welcome and the eye highlights especially are a lot better, but I feel like concerns with au ra haven't been addressed and parts look outright unfinished.

On face 1 femra, there are still scales under the horns that are outright missing.
Here is current game (left) and old benchmark (right).

https://i.imgur.com/KrDqui0.png

And below is the new benchmark.

https://i.imgur.com/WlfkzC0.png

Very disappointed to see it looks identical to before. This is on the level of a bug to me. Face 3 and 4 have their under-horn scales just fine, this is purely a face 1 issue where they look cut off.

Also, the low resolution scales on the back neck, visible with a solid neck seam line, that were present in the old benchmark are also unchanged:

https://i.imgur.com/NBZKG5d.png

These are the bare minimum I feel that need to be fixed. They feel like quality control issues.

1000% this!
Here is a side by side comparison. She feels like a different character now. And face 4 has the roundness of face 1 that I don't like and the eyes feel less defined/sever. It would be nice if we could keep the general lines of the face and with the new textures.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alice9

It definitely feels like a significant chunk of identity is still lost in my opinion. The face still is significantly rounder and dulled out which loses the sharpness that me and my friends have come to love, it was a big reason of why I picked face 4 to begin with. The eyes and lips are different shapes now and the chin still looks very strange. All of it kind of results in a stare that looks kind of unnatural and "frightened" almost, as if you caught my character by surprise in the way the lip is pouted and the eyes are widened- like I ate something sour by surprise. This is a large difference versus a pretty tough and sharp look from before, and a major style change that I'm personally not a big fan of at all.

---

Hello and Thank you for a new Thread for the Benchmark. I'd like to give some Feedback because I'm not really happy with some updates. I need to split it in two because I'm adding a lot of images, which I have resized and added links to higher quality images so they don't look as crunchy!

I also have to add that my PC has only a "Fairly High" rating. I realised that Appearances make a huge difference if you have better hardware, so maybe some of my issues are because of that.

For now, I will refer to the "old" Benchmark as "BM1" and the new as "BM2".

Lighting and Eye Reflection/Limbal Ring Issues

The overall comparison looks promising. I like the lighting updates - it gets closer to his original skincolor again, and some colors are more vibrant.

https://i.imgur.com/981CJyg.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/syheaK8)

Switching from the Character Creation ("CC") to the gameplay, the lighting starts to get weird...

https://i.imgur.com/Xftk5wS.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/cTw8Z2r)

The overall lighting looks more "blocky" to me, and less smooth. The blue/green lighting also seems odd, although it looks like that these are reflections from the ocean? But what really is obvious - and makes me really sad - is the changes to eye lighting. It looks like while being outside, some kind of 'veil' has been added to the eyes. My friend mentioned it's because of HDRI, but... idk, it just changes his expression and overall look A LOT imo. His eyes are the most pretty thing of him imo and to see it changed so much from BM1 to BM2 just makes me really sad.

https://i.imgur.com/vDPIjI1.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/sLBDDMy)

(CC is the Aetherial Sea here)

It seems to be an issue with outside lighting, since it is most prominent in the outdoor areas, while the indoor areas of Gridania and the Aetherial Sea are less veiled and greyed.

https://i.imgur.com/3FiN1oq.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/DW0emrc)

What irritates me the most is this "grey comb" - in lack of a better term - added to the eye due to the reflections. It gives the eye an overall greyish appearance and dulls the colors a lot.

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

I can hope that this effect is maybe tuned down, especially for darker eye colors or those with dark accents. His limbal rings are black and right now they look grey. I liked the lighting of BM1, since it added more realism and made the color more visible. Maybe a compromise can be found.

(continued in part 2!)

Facial Lighting (already there in 6.58)

Another lighting issue I found on the face are these lighting patches at the eyebrows - which have now also appeared on some other parts of the face.

https://i.imgur.com/HPBAA1x.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/WHGBnMq)

Especially the lighting patch on the eyebrows is very prominent in 6.58, and it seemed to be fixed in BM1. It has now returned, or is more prominent then before.

Papertowel skin texture - again

This was something I had hoped to see resolved or tuned down, since the skin looks a bit more natural in CC. Once I switched to gameplay though and the camera zoomed in, I realised that the papertowel skin texture is still there.

https://i.imgur.com/6YfAa0a.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/GbL9x8J)

It looks less grainy then before, but the dimples and effect of having 3 layers of makeup on his face still remains. I know and appeciate the efforts to give a more natural skin to characters, but the papertowel texture might be a bit too much. As mentioned it is more prominent in the gameplay state, and less in CC. So idk, maybe it will be resolved with Dawntrail release and it is a remnant of the BM1 cutscene.

Missing Lipgloss

Yeah I know, strange for a guy, but I had it on him since day 1, and honestly I miss it a bit.
The new "unglossy" version doesn't look bad though. It gives a more natural "darker" tone to the lips which I aimed for when I first added lipcolor to him.

https://i.imgur.com/aqvKkU9.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/1551ZCn)

My ultimate wish would be that in future there would be a toggle for both lip options - have a glossy darker/lighter color or a matte one. More customisation in CC would be amazing, but that is a topic for another time.

Hair Issues

This might become a Thread of his own since I fear that is not only an Au Ra issue, but I want to mention it here as well. Some hairstyles [U]do not connect to the head.[U] They seem to float in the air, and there are some hairstyles that have lighting, texture and fitting issues.

https://i.imgur.com/duJTlyf.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/Nx1EFjv)

https://i.imgur.com/45VAeyg.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/s6SPlpz)

https://i.imgur.com/K8K5gDz.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/M5SJTk2)

I found issues with 25+ hairtstyles, so it is a bigger issue - especially since many Male Au Ra only hairstyles are floating.

Neck Seam

Something that is not as prominent but still there: The Neck Seam.

https://i.imgur.com/gIPYfjN.jpeg
(https://imgur.com/CG09P0g)

I hope feedback will still be seen, and that there will be more updates once Dawntrail has released. Maybe it is also a case of "getting used to it", but knowing that there are still issues (e.g. complete different morphs of the face or lips) I hope there will be an update in the future.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...c186293ea1d8f&

I'm still disappointed that the mouth on Face 2 for female Au Ra still has upturned corners. It just doesn't look right.

As much as I like the idea of authentic shadows, having the horns cast shadows has the potential to ruin screenshots and overall enjoyment of your character (at least it would for me) with having an ever present dark spot on your face.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Remnance

https://imgur.com/a/Hw1AkIW

Trash Horn Shadows

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Hello, new Au Ra thread. As opposed to complete distain in the initial benchmark, I now have some mixed feelings on the way my WoL is presented in the new graphics engine - but still not enough to warrant positive feelings over negative ones. I will highlight both my good and bad points and draw attention to some points in particular.

I will have to split this reply into two posts as I have hit the character limit.

A few photos for reference points, as usual following the Old vs New layout:

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

https://i.imgur.com/UzQb1um.png

https://i.imgur.com/ravW2d7.png

Comparisons onward are between 6.5 and Benchmark 1.1

The good:

- The way the lips blend with the skin is notably better than the original Benchmark, but only in the lighting settings shown in character creation.
- The mouth line is more prominent
- The facial structure is triangular and defined again instead of looking more like a round potato
- The benchmark felt a lot more "right" or "at home" as opposed to the half-baked version.

The bad:

Lips/Hair/Body

- The lips still appear too duck-like and plump (specifically the bottom lip)
- The lips are still too matte, but this is a point that refers to my WoL in particular (who is using light lips with white lipstick) - something that I stressed in the first benchmark threads was that my character heavily relies upon the gloss - I feel like the addition of some gloss is good, but it's still too natural looking - appearing pinkish in the entire benchmark test.
- White hair is still illuminous on certain hairstyles in aether screen and certain lighting. I have not researched fully but noticed the same problem on my Lalafell character who is using a similarly "thick face covering bangs" hairstyle.

- Au Ra scales still feel "distorted" and "simplified" as opposed to the sharp appearance in current game, this seems to be a result of an attempt to upscale the texture but has left us with messy lines and placement of shapes/patterns outright appearing differently to the current version. Notably, in the face on Face 1 (have also seen it on Face 4) the cheek and forehead scales are egregious.

https://i.imgur.com/B2S6ZLh.png

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

https://i.imgur.com/2aubRl4.png

* Also a good photo to show the lip changes

Eyes/Eyebrows/Eyelashes

- Eyebrows are unchanged and still too dark for my character's white hair (appearing more gray than white) - Reminds me of an attempt at turning them white as opposed to being white. This looks to be a result of eyebrows becoming visually thicker, there is no way to thin them out as all eyebrow options appear solidified.

https://i.imgur.com/g7U8UL0.png

(1/2)

- Eyes generally feel too shiny and reflective, extending outside of the iris/pupil
- The new iris texture feels too "solid" and glowy as opposed to the current texture (I prefer the way eyes are "lit up" in the current game, the new one looks too bright)
- Eye colours are notably different to their appearance in 6.5, I consider this to be a downgrade.
- Like other people have said, the pupil is much larger than the current game's, this is on the "small" setting as well.

https://i.imgur.com/L9yCRsX.png

- Eyes appear to be rounded or shaped differently (extends beyond Au Ra), more noticeable on the sharper settings - to me this sticks out like a sore thumb on my WoL because I like the slight angular look of the current ones, it appears to look "squished down" in my case.
*I am using the sharpest eyes possible for Face 1, so if I wanted a rounder appearance I would choose something else. Of course, this is most likely caused by the polygon increase like most of the criticism.
- Eyelashes are shortened in some places giving off the feeling that something "isn't quite right" - noticed this on my own WoL as the eyelash flick feels much longer than it should be and the eyelid feels different in a way I can't find the words to describe.
You can however see that the angle of the upper eyelashes is upwards in 6.5 and going downwards in the Benchmark.

https://i.imgur.com/8jGdS5z.png

- To add onto the eyelashes/eyes, I also feel that the eyeliner/shadow(?) settings are not making as much as a visual difference as before - the ashy fade on the eyelid is notably missing.

(These settings)

https://i.imgur.com/iWNHXU3.png

I have also observed that my character still looks worse in the Benchmark test than in the character creation screen, if the benchmark is a representation of what to expect our character models looking like in the new zones then I can't say I am particularly excited.

https://i.imgur.com/WSH4TEG.png

https://i.imgur.com/3yuvc0k.png

Again, one of my main points of contention like the original Benchmark - is the lips in the test. I don't know if this is a result of creating animations that are more suited to Hyur rigs and therefore come off looking strange on more stylized races, but it's unfortunate.

I would like to iterate that I fully understand the hard work and sleepless nights that have gone into adjusting the benchmark as necessary, but as things stand right now I can see a wave 2 of issues (some of which that are seemingly not touched at all) like in the April benchmark. With Dawntrail on the horizon, I cannot imagine all of the dissatisfaction that people are still experiencing is going to be resolved in time to enjoy the new MSQ on release day - where our character is going to be seen quite a lot. I felt a bit of hope restored seeing the new benchmark but my overall feelings don't feel too heavily swayed and I continue to hope that somehow, some way - we can get closer to what we have right now in 6.5.

(2/2)

My main issue is the larger pupil size. While some may like it, I'd prefer the at least the option for the smaller size as you lose so much of the eye color. This becomes even worse with night lighting as the limbal rings now glow, and while a neat effect, I'd really prefer having that extra 'blend space' between the limbal ring color and the pupil where it's the actual eye color. What was a soft, light color eye now looks like it's a dark one with a ring. Screencaps aren't one to one, but current game to 1.1 benchmark.

Need more iris color to blend between limbal ring and pupil. (I.e. smaller pupil.)
https://ibb.co/SyW7wsm

Again, just pupil size, but in daylight instead.
https://ibb.co/3W7WpX1

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lunartears

I would like to iterate that I fully understand the hard work and sleepless nights that have gone into adjusting the benchmark as necessary, but as things stand right now I can see a wave 2 of issues (some of which that are seemingly not touched at all) like in the April benchmark. With Dawntrail on the horizon, I cannot imagine all of the dissatisfaction that people are still experiencing is going to be resolved in time to enjoy the new MSQ on release day - where our character is going to be seen quite a lot. I felt a bit of hope restored seeing the new benchmark but my overall feelings don't feel too heavily swayed and I continue to hope that somehow, some way - we can get closer to what we have right now in 6.5.

(2/2)

---

At this point, I've already decided to change my character. The update to dawntrail is more or less killing the identity of my old face and it's just not worth it to me to accept the changes. So, out with the old, time to swap to some of the new. There's not enough time to fix the core underlying issues of the new face, and it feels like the devs want the retcon to the new face, either due to tech issues or just plain not understanding the problem we consumers might have. In the absence of knowing, it's better to just plan for something I'll enjoy more.

Hi again my fellow Au Ra! Have a slidey image between Vanilla and the new Benchmark
Link

It isn't lighting, its the shape of everything. It's all been rounded and smoothed out way too much. The eyes went from quite angular to being more almond shape, the cheeks are way puffier and almost like jowls where they connect to the corners of the mouth. And the mouth... it's been way too plumped out and the bottom line of the upper lip reduced to a straight line instead of the more realistic peaked shape? This goes for every mouth option on face 4.

Admittedly, the cheek scales are much better defined and pointed than the first benchmark! Though the forehead scales are still very blunt?

Vanilla
https://i.imgur.com/3GfeXUG.png

Benchmark 1
https://i.imgur.com/9xmG8sC.png

Benchmark 1.1
https://i.imgur.com/ZRwnUMP.png

Zzzz time to main my Hyur alt ig since she got all the love apparently.

I noticed that for Face 3 Female Au Ra, the new lighting techniques have introduced "bags" under the eyes. Now that I noticed it though, I can't unsee even during low light situations.

https://imgsli.com/MjY5NjUy

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...1937a9a71bfec&

I was planning to switch from Viera to AuRa Face 3 but they apparently decided to add eyebags to that face out of nowhere. The eyebags didnt exist in Endwalker and didnt exist in the first Benchmark either, at least it was not that noticeable :(

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...594&height=669
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...624&height=669
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...469&height=669
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...510&height=669

So, in the interest of better explaining (part) of the issue, I've decided to compare face 4 to face 1 in live and in the benchmark, on the 3/4 profile (roughly.) It won't be exactly 1:1, but is close enough to really showcase the differences. To better showcase this, here's a rough 3/4 profile of live and benchmark with the tip of the horn in face 4 roughly in the same vertical line as the corner of the lip.

Live:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...04cbbe585f7b7&

Benchmark:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...5058630be93e0&

Of note is, check the contour of the cheek and chin. In live, face 1 has a more pronounced cheek and chin than face 4. Both are flatter for face 4, overall. Moving to benchmark, the chin of face 4 is more pronounced. Not quite face 1 levels, but still pronounced. Likewise, the cheek is more pronounced. Only it's actually more pronounced than face 1 now. As in, we went from having less pronounced cheeks than F1, to more pronounced. Of note, F1's cheeks are less pronounced in the benchmark as well.

This really should help showcase exactly why F4 looks so 'wrong' now. The chin and cheeks are just flat out wrong. Lips are surprisingly not that bad, dimples aside, but the cheeks are extremely bad.

Also showcases problems with face 1, such as the cheeks and chin changing, and I can't tell exactly what's happening with the eyebrows, but they look wrong as well.

I really wish the devs didn't ruin my favorite face though. This is just amateurish.

I really hope they make some adjustments, while I can only speak for my own character, it really does feel like she, along with the identity of face 4 F Au Ra was just lost in translation here. The updates are steps in the right direction, but there's just too many things that were just ignored and look way too different from the original. Might be too close to release for them to do anything, but hopefully in a patch or something- maybe I'm being idealistic, but I'd love to recognize my character again. This was absolutely my favorite face, and it does feel ruined still.

To piggy back ontop of what others have said so far, I am pretty happy with the changes since the last benchmark. The new eyebags on face 3 were definitely a surprise, but I didn't even mind it all that much- I could see myself getting used to it, I think I just wished there was a slider or something for the intensity of it. It is very pronounced in a lot of lighting, even at night.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...7b84a4611b0f8&
she looks like she is a bit sleep deprived...

However, my main issue is not with that- but with how the hair (as someone else said) doesn't even seem to be attached to the head in some parts. I can see through my hair where there is no split there on the other side. I'd be fine with seeing through here if there was any split in the hair, but as you can see, it's pretty seamless from behind:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...bff3375221aeb&

I'm unsure if this will be in the final version, but I thought I'd be helpful to share anyways. Despite this, I'm still pretty happy with adjustments in the benchmark. ♥

The updated benchmark is without a doubt a much needed improvement from the previous one, but I can't deny that I'm feeling a bit disappointed that many of the concerns brought up previously weren't addressed. The new environmental lights definitely helps define the shapes of the face more, most notably the nose in my case, but it's clear that the new sculpts were left untouched for this update. EDIT: I'm blind
https://i.imgur.com/u7SwwO0.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/kUekqtK.jpeg
I'm not found the the plump lips, wider face, and the nose is especially wide between the eyes which drags the eyebrow texture down to it.

When he blinks, all the skin up to the eyebrows get dragged along which I find to be rather uncanny. This doesn't happen in the current version. In the benchmark however, it does happen to the other male Au Ra faces too, albeit not as prominent.
https://i.imgur.com/FebMgDK.png
https://i.imgur.com/lIw8fvi.gif
Aside the uncanny blinking and the eyebrow texture, I do like the changes made around the eyebrows. Toning it down a bit makes it look less swollen, and helps the eyes become more visible from certain angles. However I'm still not a fan of the new fuzzy eyes which makes him look more dozy and bored, rather than having a sharp, piercing gaze.

Neither am I a fan of the new scale texture. The skin colour I chose was done so to match with the slight tint of orange present in the scales, but the benchmark scales took a different direction making them look much more lifeless and dull. Can't say I like how the edges of the scales have been shaved off as it helped give depth. And though the edges have been cleaned up since the previous benchmark, they're still noticeable pixelated.
https://i.imgur.com/GNHzbwL.png

Additionally there seems to be a piece of scale growing underneath the spiky scales on the side of the face. I assume it's always been there and can now be seen due to the scales floating more from the face.
https://i.imgur.com/jmdpZ3s.png

The spikes attached to the jawline is also floating, creating another gap. The spike is also made much larger which I guess to match the size with the other jaw options. An odd decision in my opinion, but I personally don't mind it.
https://i.imgur.com/0UMkqJf.png

Lastly the glove is still clipping through the hand.
https://i.imgur.com/8n7Vn5W.png


To me it feels that the development team underestimated the amount of work this graphic update would take, and it shows where they had to cut corners. I understand it's a tough task and a lot of what they have showed us so far is beautifully done. I'm not expecting any more changes to be made for Dawntrail release, however I do hope that all the feedback being posted here gets taken into consideration once time allows it.

I’ve kind of given up on the state of the EN forums, but I’ll still summarize the feedback I’ve posted in the JP thread because I’m losing hope by the minute.

About the state of limbal rings

First concerns were raised in October 2023 after the tech art panel: [Graphical Update Feedback] Eyes and Limbal Rings on Au ra
(Tokyo Fanfest 2024: Yoshida acknowledges the concerns about limbal rings, and promises we would get to keep "the same look as before", even if that might mean "changing the parameters slightly")
Benchmark 1.0 feedback Part 1: アウラの目の輪郭と意外な色の変化
Benchmark 1.0 feedback Part 2: アウラの目の輪郭と意外な色の変化 Part 2
Benchmark 1.0 and 1.1 feedback Part 3: アウラの目の輪郭と意外な色の変化 Part 3


TLDR:
The color of limbal rings has drastically been affected through the graphical update. For some people this might not be an issue, or it’s something they can easily fix by swapping to another color swatch.
For others, the color they used more or less disappeared.
I fall into the second category.

I’m not going to translate the text in these images because I’ve spent enough time putting together my original posts to begin with, but I think these should speak for themselves:

https://i.imgur.com/WhfJ0TZ.png

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

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

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

Again, please check the posts I linked above if you want to know the full process behind these pictures.
In case you're curious, yes, Part 1 and Part 2 each took one week to put together, manually taking all the screenshots and color samples one by one. That's how much I care about this.

You can see that the cyan I use is just not there anymore. So I can’t even correct the color with the palette we have available. I use this cyan for a very specific reason, which I described in Part 1.

In the image below I summarized what the options I currently have are, and what I would like to be able to have instead (the same color as before), achieved through methods A and B, which would expand the color palette instead of reverting changes. Check Part 1 for a detailed explanation of those methods:

https://i.imgur.com/u6CRnNA.png

Despite the support I received in my posts, and other players voicing the same feedback and the same concerns, in the 1.1 benchmark nothing has been improved.
I think that in this specific case, you’ll all agree that I’m starting Dawntrail with a downgrade rather than an upgrade.

I have no illusion that with only a little bit more than 20 days left before early access starts, nothing will be done about this before release.

But as this is something I basically designed my entire character around, going so far as to use gear and accessories that use the same color (!!!) as my character’s eyes, and this for more than 7 years, I sincerely hope that the devs will work on improving this in the patches after Dawntrail’s release.

Also, if you're curious, I found out that the limbal ring size depends on the brightness of the color you picked.

https://i.imgur.com/7HlMLjo.png

That's one of the reasons why some players have been reporting that the iris color seems to completely disappear.

Thank you for the Benchmark changes.

Unfortunately, it seems that there are still existing issues in the design of Au Ra. It seems Au Ra changes were largely ignored.

1. The pupils are too big/dilated. They were small originally. This changes the look of the character. It also blends in too well with the base colour of the iris which is a bigger problem for male Au Ra than female. Please change this back or add an option for the pupils to be big or small.

2. The colours of the umbral ring are more darked and cannot be easily replaced. My character was directly imported, and the colour is significantly darker. This colour can no longer be replicated as there are not many colours for blue. This blue was important as it represented the colour we’ve seen come up in the story multiple times with significant story relevance.

3. The lips are no longer upturned at the corners. This makes the characters expression change from slightly happy to neutral or expressionless.

4. The eye liner is less harsh. The eye liner above the eye lids has been reduced and changes the look of the eyes for many faces.

There are more issues, but I feel these are most pressing for my own Au Ra.

Before and after Slider: https://imgsli.com/MjY5Mzcx

https://i.imgur.com/K9GCWP6.png https://i.imgur.com/J2MfzES.png

If you're interested in the story relevance I'm pointing at in point #2 (posted in another thread by SchwarzwaelderTorte):

https://i.imgur.com/D03eWSX.png

There's something odd about the way they made the shadows, there's a quite noticeable seam on the back of the shoulder that the shadows make very obvious, and it also gives the appearance of baggy eyes for some reason, maybe they've added shadows to the eyelashes? who knows.

I also agree with the others about the Femra 4 head, looks off..

Hope this isn't the final product, because there needs a bit more tuning on this.

First things first, I'm really grateful that the benchmark was updated! I think it was a huge upgrade and I'm really happy with how bright colors are now. Backgrounds look gorgeous now.

I play a female Au Ra, face 3. I'm very happy that her eyes don't look lifeless any longer.

That said, I personally don't like how big and blurry the new pupils look. It makes her eyes look less focused, in a way, and hides a large part of the iris.
https://i.imgur.com/loT3HnK.png

She has also gained some pretty intense eyebags, though this change doesn't bother me.

My main issue is with my character's mouth. The corners of her mouth got turned down, so she has lost her permanent smile. As I picked this face + mouth shape specifically because I wanted her to look warm and friendly, I'm disappointed with this change.
Here is a neutral expression in live vs a neutral expression in CC/Benchmark.
And a detailed look:
https://i.imgur.com/kJQixJ7.png


A further issue is how the light makes the mouth look at times.
Here is a screenshot from the April benchmark. The lips look fine here.
In comparison, here is a screenshot from the new Benchmark. The lower lip looks bigger on her left/our right and almost like it extends past her upper lip.
This issue is not exclusive to the Benchmark trailer. It happens in several light conditions in the new character creator, too. Examples here:
https://imgur.com/xo6Ulpx.png

https://imgur.com/ADIhTQK.png

https://imgur.com/aDbnuM6.png

It leads to a very odd-looking shape, as if her lower lip were significantly wider than her upper lip.


To me, the mouth shape changing so that her slight smile is lost is the biggest issue. It's one of the reasons why I picked that specific face so losing that is disappointing.

Overall, I am thankful for this new Benchmark because it did address a lot of issues present in the last one (lifeless eyes, skin looking like plastic, strange lighting and colors, etc). Unfortunately, it seems like most model changes, apart from things that were actually broken (like Elezen and Lalafell mouth rigs), are here to stay. I am still very much looking forward to Dawntrail and the graphics update but I am sad that my character will lose part of what defined her.

Thank you for all your hard work, and thanks for reading.

I should really leave it with what I've already posted, but I just seem to keep going back.
So to add to what Taranok has pictures of. I snipped Kal's hair and tried to do some overlays. It isn't completely perfect, but I tried to get it as close as possible. I to get a head on comparison, but I just couldn't get it right, so hopefully these do.
((As a note, this rounding of the face occurred in my Viera alt too, really not sure why this decision was made))

You can see the different outlines around the cheeks and chin. DT is the transparent overlay.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taranok

So, in the interest of better explaining (part) of the issue, I've decided to compare face 4 to face 1 in live and in the benchmark, on the 3/4 profile (roughly.) It won't be exactly 1:1, but is close enough to really showcase the differences. To better showcase this, here's a rough 3/4 profile of live and benchmark with the tip of the horn in face 4 roughly in the same vertical line as the corner of the lip


Of note is, check the contour of the cheek and chin. In live, face 1 has a more pronounced cheek and chin than face 4. Both are flatter for face 4, overall. Moving to benchmark, the chin of face 4 is more pronounced. Not quite face 1 levels, but still pronounced. Likewise, the cheek is more pronounced. Only it's actually more pronounced than face 1 now. As in, we went from having less pronounced cheeks than F1, to more pronounced. Of note, F1's cheeks are less pronounced in the benchmark as well.

This really should help showcase exactly why F4 looks so 'wrong' now. The chin and cheeks are just flat out wrong. Lips are surprisingly not that bad, dimples aside, but the cheeks are extremely bad.

Also showcases problems with face 1, such as the cheeks and chin changing, and I can't tell exactly what's happening with the eyebrows, but they look wrong as well.

---

Unrelated to my main character - but there appears to be a texture issue with Xaela face 2
It looks like the texture of the preset scales are a lower resolution than the optional and then there are two points that look like something is missing. (just repeating what I wrote in the pic in case it doesn't show correctly)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0