Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Melichoir]

What went wrong???

I know this post is a few days old and what Im about to poitn out is a semi non-sequitur, but Ive been mulling this over in my had and had a few thoughts about this. The reason why the art work works and the 3D doesnt is hte 3D models dont adhere to the proportions given in the artwork. You can broadly look at them at tell a few things almost immediately.



The left is teh direct screen grabbed model, Middle is the concept art, and right is a photoshopped version of the in game model (**PLEASE NOTE: This edit is only an approximation, it is not perfect or 100% accurate. Just a general idea.) I am using the head as the reference point in this comparison, where I sized the current in game model's head size to the concept arts.

The ingame model is proportionally different than the concept art, instead using a completely separate set of proportions. IF I had to hazard a guess, I would say they had a baseline female model and rig, and they 'stretched' it to get the height they needed without actually reworking the proportions. I say that because if they were working from the concept art and not a previous model, the proportions should be more closely aligned but that doesnt appear to be the case. The male model I would hazard has the same proportions issue, broadly speaking.

With that in consideration, not sure youd want to use the Elezen body as the base for the Viera if theyre not even following the concept art they put out and are instead putting out models with semi weird proportions. Anyways, was just something that I was thinking about.

[Senn]

With that in consideration, not sure youd want to use the Elezen body as the base for the Viera if theyre not even following the concept art they put out and are instead putting out models with semi weird proportions. Anyways, was just something that I was thinking about.

I don't know this for certain, but don't the female viera use a modified elezen base? I think SE did a good job with the females, so if that's the case, I think the males would look good using an elezen base, too. The base model does need to be modified like with the females, though.

[Melichoir]

I don't know this for certain, but don't the female viera use a modified elezen base? I think SE did a good job with the females, so if that's the case, I think the males would look good using an elezen base, too. The base model does need to be modified like with the females, though.

They could be using it, but I would guess that a lot of modding to the models had to take place. Id have to look at the actual models we get to see, and I wont really know that till 5.0. Could be the case, but the fact is that the Elezen models do have issues so Im not quite sure they would use the pre-existing ones. It might be quicker to just redesign them from the ground up. Particularly if there is the issue with the low-poly count that they keep referencing. Since it's a new race, they may have well made new models in a high poly count that they dumb down to match everything else. This way in the future they wouldnt have to worry about making those high poly models.

But thats all speculation on my part. If anyone has more concrete words from the devs regarding that specifically, Id be interesting in seeing it.

[Lauront]

That'd be a sensible way to go about all new assets - you'd hope they were future-proofing them in such a way with the benefit of hindsight.

[Beki_Bayaqad]

I don't know this for certain, but don't the female viera use a modified elezen base? I think SE did a good job with the females, so if that's the case, I think the males would look good using an elezen base, too. The base model does need to be modified like with the females, though.

Actually since XII Zodiac Age was released as a HD re-release on the PS4 they were able to take Fran from that game and use her as a skeleton and base for the female Veira so they're not a modded in game model. It's all Veira from ear tip to toe tip.

[BillyKaplan]

Actually since XII Zodiac Age was released as a HD re-release on the PS4 they were able to take Fran from that game and use her as a skeleton and base for the female Veira so they're not a modded in game model. It's all Veira from ear tip to toe tip.

Citation required : o did they release new info about this?
And they might've just patched them up to look that good, the Rathalos model is 100% in-house but supposedly it looks good enough people thought it was ported. Granted Viera being an SE property from an SE game they'd be able to use their models and skeleton as-is, but that depends on how compatible it is with the existing engine and how easy it would be to customize within XIV.

[Beki_Bayaqad]

Citation required : o did they release new info about this?
And they might've just patched them up to look that good, the Rathalos model is 100% in-house but supposedly it looks good enough people thought it was ported. Granted Viera being an SE property from an SE game they'd be able to use their models and skeleton as-is, but that depends on how compatible it is with the existing engine and how easy it would be to customize within XIV.

I will admit I have no sources to back up what I said except for that Fran was brought over from XII ZA since it was easier then actually making a whole skeleton for her. I'm using Ocham's Razor here since Yoshi P finally got on the board of directors he does have the power to pull resources from other projects now.

[BillyKaplan]

I will admit I have no sources to back up what I said except for that Fran was brought over from XII ZA since it was easier then actually making a whole skeleton for her. I'm using Ocham's Razor here since Yoshi P finally got on the board of directors he does have the power to pull resources from other projects now.

Hm. I wonder if they didn't borrow Fran as-is to be able to push the content with her faster. There are a lot of assets and models in the game we don't have access to as players, she could very well be different from what we'd end up getting as playable - in so far how they're built, mind, not necessarily how they look. But we won't know until certain, er, researchers of the game get their hands on at least the benchmark.

[Beki_Bayaqad]

Hm. I wonder if they didn't borrow Fran as-is to be able to push the content with her faster. There are a lot of assets and models in the game we don't have access to as players, she could very well be different from what we'd end up getting as playable - in so far how they're built, mind, not necessarily how they look. But we won't know until certain, er, researchers of the game get their hands on at least the benchmark.

That is true. Those... "researchers" will be able to cast light on most of the theories people have about the base of the Veira model, though I maintain them using Fran from FFXIIZAHD would make most of their job easier, and leave them the time necessary to make the unique head and feet as well as try and remodel all the 10,000+ head and foot pieces for these women as well as letting them work on their passion project that is also making them tear out their hair, the Hrothgar.

Again I need to stress I have legitimately Zero evidence for this theory, I'm just applying Logic and deductive reasoning to the situation.

[MrKimper]

Hm. I wonder if they didn't borrow Fran as-is to be able to push the content with her faster. There are a lot of assets and models in the game we don't have access to as players, she could very well be different from what we'd end up getting as playable - in so far how they're built, mind, not necessarily how they look. But we won't know until certain, er, researchers of the game get their hands on at least the benchmark.

Kind of makes me curious on how they'll handle ripping and re-rigging 2B's model, since it seems like they did so with noctis, though I know a friends said his looked sort of like an edited male miqo model.