Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[zeylos]

Honestly I think all races bodies are made from the same two base models (male/female). We know the devs use ZBrush as a staple tool in their development. The beauty of ZBrush is that it allows you to alter models you have created on a separate new layer without affecting the base model beneath. A common development trend in modelling high poly assets, is to just use a base model that already has all the integral topology and geometry in place and then simply just alter it on a separate layer to then save off as a new asset. This is why we tend to see very similar details in the races body types.

A new variant of the base male mesh for Viera would of course cause clipping issues with current gear assets...those assets would need to be altered in places where a clipping anomaly has appeared with the new body proportions. However this does not mean creating a whole new asset for the gear. Just like with the body models it would be a case of editing the base gear asset on a new layer to match that of the male Viera. This would most likely just be resizing certain parts of the asset to remove clipping issues and possibly re-skinning certain vertices that may not work correctly with the new racial animations.

Your idea of simply just taking an existing races variant of the base mesh and just replacing the head would indeed work....however that means the male Viera would have bodies identical to what ever races body type they were "cloned" from. Personally I would much rather wit for the devs to develop a new body variant for the male Viera. Even if that means waiting till 6.0

Well, female viera are elezen body with hyur chest, and hrotgar are reskinned roegadyns.
Also I didnt mean exact same as elezen but something like with female viera (elezen body and slightly altered) which wouldn't cause that many clipping issues.
I don't really think that we shouldn't care about waiting 2 years to get something that was promised to us in the first place but that's just my personal opinion, and I do get your point but I wouldn't mind having them look like elezen personally

[Duskane]

it is true everyone is built on mid landers you can tell sometimes if you have some massive lag or DC that you'll will just go into default mid lander stance
here i am just doing mid landers default stance as au ra

[zeylos]

it is true everyone is built on mid landers you can tell sometimes if you have some massive lag or DC that you'll will just go into default mid lander stance
here i am just doing mid landers default stance as au ra

Yeah I think they use it as a base for every model just like you'd use a ball as a starting material maybe they use the midlander body and they change it arround

[SoloWingMetatron]

Well, female viera are elezen body with hyur chest, and hrotgar are reskinned roegadyns.
Also I didnt mean exact same as elezen but something like with female viera (elezen body and slightly altered) which wouldn't cause that many clipping issues.
I don't really think that we shouldn't care about waiting 2 years to get something that was promised to us in the first place but that's just my personal opinion, and I do get your point but I wouldn't mind having them look like elezen personally

The female Viera body is a new variation on the female base mesh. Although they are of similar stature to Elezen, their proportions are different (Elezen have noticeably longer arms and necks) so it's not like they straight up took the Hyur/Elezan body types and just spliced them together (that would break the topology and geometry of the mesh) So it would have been a fresh edit on the base mesh.

Hrothgar are the same. They do appear very similar to Roe's in proportions. However the Hrothgar have a thinner waistline creating a more triangle look rather than a barrel or column that the Roe's sport. Hroth also have slight variations in muscle mass. Their calves appear more sculpted creating more shape to the legs.

[zeylos]

The female Viera body is anew variation on the female base mesh. Although they are of similar stature to Elezen, their proportion are different (Elezen have noticeably longer arms and necks) so it's not like they straight up took the Hyur/Elezan body types and just spliced them together (that would break the topology and geometry if the mesh. So it would have been a fresh edit on the base mesh.

Hrothgar are the same. They do appear very similar to Roe's in proportions. However the Hrothgar have a thinner waistline creating a more triangle look rather than a barrel or column that the Roe's sport. Hroth also have slight variations in muscle mass. Their calves appear more sculpted created more shape to the legs.

Sorry I forgot to mention that I would certainly change the neck from elezen body, which would be as much of a change as that of hrotgar (which was probably done in 2-3 months lets be honest here)

[zeylos]

Also guys im curious to know why do u all seem to be fine with waiting 2 years for male viera (really, I wanna see your prespective on the subject)
since I think its exremely unfair that they now tell us to wait for 2 hole years (which is a LOT, lets be honest lol) to give us something that they had already promised us on 1.0, so why would you be okay with waiting?

[Lauront]

Lore can't be a valid reason for genderlocks for four reasons.

1. WHM - You're literally supposed to be the ONLY ONE outside of Padjal
2. SMN - You're lliterally supposed to be the only one.
3. BLM - There's only like... 2 of you at best.
4. SCH - You're supposed to be the only one that's not a Tonberry.

All of these classes are far rarer than Male Viera or Female Hrothgar could ever hope to be. But you can have an Alliance with 6 WHM and like.. all BLM/SMN if you want. Why is this race thing the hill to die on? The multitude of people playing these classes alone should kill immersion.

I believe DRG is also quite rare. Although some of those jobs are becoming a bit less exclusive now, as you say they're rarer than male Viera would ever be, and particularly WHM. It's really not the issue people make it out to be, and male mooncats have similar lore anyway. When pushed, Yoshi mentioned it was a resource issue, so the lore thing is pretty much beside the point at this stage.

[SoloWingMetatron]

Sorry I forgot to mention that I would certainly change the neck from elezen body, which would be as much of a change as that of hrotgar (which was probably done in 2-3 months lets be honest here)

2-3 months dev time would be accurate if that was the artists sole project. However all artists in the dev team will have a number of projects on the go. Another common trend in the dev pipeline is to provide artists with a comprehensive list of all the assets they will need to create. The info on this list would include the type of asset, tri/poly limit (10% leeway usually), diffuse/specular/normal/displacement/height map size limit, as well as a deadline for each asset to be completed.

So when an artist has to work through this list they will have to prioritize, which unfortunately means male Viera would likely fall lower on their list. So with that being said, I believe it is unrealistic to put faith into seeing male Viera being implemented early in the 5.x cycle.

As much as I would love for them to appear on launch or by 5.1, I would much rather they took their time and made an asset that's of top quality and worthy to be a male Viera. I'm happy to wait till 6.0 if that's how long it would take to keep that level of quality. All I would like from the devs at this point is simply just confirmation that they are coming.

[Lauront]

Also guys im curious to know why do u all seem to be fine with waiting 2 years for male viera (really, I wanna see your prespective on the subject)
since I think its exremely unfair that they now tell us to wait for 2 hole years (which is a LOT, lets be honest lol) to give us something that they had already promised us on 1.0, so why would you be okay with waiting?

I'd rather wait than get a model with the most basic of edits, which could be replicated by just playing Elezen or Midlander with bunny ears.

2-3 months dev time would be accurate if that was the artists sole project. However all artists in the dev team will have a number of projects on the go. Another common trend in the dev pipeline is to provide artists with a comprehensive list of the all the assets they will need to create. The info on this list would include the type of asset, tri/poly limit (10% leeway usually), diffuse/specular/normal/displacement/height map size limit, as well as a deadline for each asset to be completed.

So when an artist has to work through this list they will have to prioritize, which unfortunately means male Viera would likely fall lower on their list. So with that being said, I believe it is unrealistic to put faith into seeing male Viera being implemented early in the 5.x cycle.

As much as I would love for them to appear on launch or by 5.1, I would much rather they took their time and made an asset that's of top quality and worthy to be a male Viera. I'm happy to wait till 6.0 if that's how long it would take to keep that level of quality. All I would like from the devs at this point is simply just confirmation that they are coming.

We also have to consider that they want to see through more comprehensive graphics updates, particularly regarding their existing assets which need to be converted to high res textures - they've yet to commit to it or confirm they're doing it but it's something they would like to do alongside improvements to the graphics system. 6.0 is likely when the spec will go up, and it would make for a big selling point for a game that has yet to peak. The last thing I'd want them to do is put aside overall improvements to the textures and graphics engine in order to rush out male Viera and female Hrothgar. I'd rather wait for a more comprehensive upgrade, if one is in the cards.

[Duskane]

Also guys im curious to know why do u all seem to be fine with waiting 2 years for male viera (really, I wanna see your prespective on the subject)
since I think its exremely unfair that they now tell us to wait for 2 hole years (which is a LOT, lets be honest lol) to give us something that they had already promised us on 1.0, so why would you be okay with waiting?

It takes alot of effort to make a race and no sense rushing it ,
I really dont expect them till 7.0 and if they are not in by then really when ill questions "where are they" or "whats the deal".

They were never promised to us and there reasoning is fine viera and beast race to please as much people as they could.

It's better to support the devs and the inclusion of M viera and F hroth instead of demand for them right away.