[Graphical Update Feedback] Eyes and Limbal Rings on Au ra

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

stealth bump

I've been rethinking about my last post and what's been said in the thread on future gear and dyeability, and I think you could argue that the change of hue of the metal material on the armor is also a stylistic change that has its share of problems... It looks more detailed in how it reflects light, sure, but it is very blue compared to the current model and the artwork I linked, and that might cause problems when matched with metallic pieces from other sets.

It would be nice to have it shown in another environment, with a different lighting, and a different sky (a Thavnairian sunset could work well), to see how the material behaves under different conditions, or if it's really going to be this blue all the time.

[CidHeiral]

It would be nice to have it shown in another environment, with a different lighting, and a different sky (a Thavnairian sunset could work well), to see how the material behaves under different conditions, or if it's really going to be this blue all the time.

They did that. Watch the technical panel from the last fan fest.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

They did that. Watch the technical panel from the last fan fest.

You mean the video I've been regularly referencing throughout this thread? They only show a night preview, in the same environment and the same weather conditions. The video that shows a full day/night cycle doesn't feature any metallic parts. It's not really what I'm asking for.

[Evergrey]

You mean the video I've been regularly referencing throughout this thread? They only show a night preview, in the same environment and the same weather conditions. The video that shows a full day/night cycle doesn't feature any metallic parts. It's not really what I'm asking for.

Not sure which you're refering too, haven't bothered reading through all of this thread.
But I think this is what CidHeiral's refering to.



Regarding this thread tho.
My take on it is mixed.
As a former AuRa player (Heavensward up to Shadowbringer) I sure did enjoy the uniqueness of the limbal rings.
However, after some time after seeing the London stuff I'm not as against it.
I think that after the update the AuRa have less on an "owl" stare with the intensity the limbal rings gave a lot of them.
They look more natural after the update, more lifelike and not as fabricated.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

Oh, I missed that slide when I was skimming through the video before writing my post, my bad my bad.

[Lunaxia]

I've seen the same rhetoric used in the feedback thread on Roegadyn eyes and I find it quite low to call what was the norm for all of us until recently "poor graphics", "mistakes" or "issues", just because we have something to compare it to now, and because it is different and new, it must mean previously established graphics must be "wrong" somehow.

It's not low, it's reality. They weren't wrong, they were just a result of low-quality graphics, and it's been kind of obvious to everyone else who isn't as intimately attached to the character design.

The game established an art direction within the technical limitations of its time and its engine, and regardless of how much things have improved on a technical level, they have stated themselves that they want to "preserve the existing style".

That's exactly what they are doing, and I think you've misinterpreted what they mean by that. The fundamental style of the characters hasn't changed at all, it's the textures and palettes that are changing to create more realistic, detailed-looking characters and in their current iteration, unfortunately a lot of the technical flaws fans are now citing as "design choices" would stand in the way of that. They don't look good or natural.

armor

I don't really see how this contradicts what I'm saying. The plain, bright silver has been toned down into a more muted, natural-looking material, which is essentially what they're doing across the board and what they are doing here. That to me is no different to the change between the current limbal ring and the new limbal ring, honestly. It's removing the bland, flat textures and replacing them with something much richer and more lifelike.

Now look at how Magnai is designed. Now imagine him if the light in his eyes went out. Would you still call him the same character, with the same design, the same feel?

Yes, if anything, he'd look a lot better, his eyes would match hair hair more, and he'd look less like a Naruto supervillain, lol. His hair isn't bright yellow.

The goofy neon actually detracts from his design, if I'm being honest. Like I said before, they look cheap and flat, they date the look of the character, and make him appear dead-eyed like 90% of Au Ra with the same features do.

Looking at the picture Evergrey posted, the "After" looks infinitely better than what we have now. Their eyes look much more natural and alive, while still maintaining their bright, piercing effect in a way that doesn't make the graphics look fifteen years old and the characters like they fell out of an cheesy graphic novel.

They look more natural after the update, more lifelike and not as fabricated.

That's my biggest gripe with them - the rings don't look organic or an innate part of the character at all, but more artificial, like they're wearing contact lenses or they've been added in as some sort of modification feature, and that's why I think the devs have chosen to mute them in the first place. I don't think the unnaturalness of their appearance was intended.

[Anzaman]

That's my biggest gripe with them - the rings don't look organic or an innate part of the character at all, but more artificial, like they're wearing contact lenses or they've been added in as some sort of modification feature, and that's why I think the devs have chosen to mute them in the first place. I don't think the unnaturalness of their appearance was intended.

Well, according to Reddit post.

"As revealed in a recent-ish Korean fanmeet, where the lore devs revealed those rings are magically implanted within their tribes/families for rituals."

So, if that's true, then they were intended to be artificial to begin with.

[sindriiisgaming]

for me personally i prefer the new limabls. i only had my limbal rings dyed black because they make the eyes pop. now i will be able to make them green

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F68itJmW...png&name=small

[Doopliss]

Some of the arguments about the art direction here are so bizarre to me. "It's more realistic" and "it's more natural looking" have come up several times and for what reason? For a feature that is inherently unrealistic in a game that, regardless of how they ever update it, keeps a fundamentally anime/anime-adjacent art direction? Of course everyone is subject to their own opinion, but I gotta say, saying the dude who's nigh seven feet tall with dark sclera and horns protruding from his head is suddenly too goofy when his fantasy-colored limbal rings glow is...lol, you know.

Anyway, more to the point, the female Au Ra shown in the preview image doesn't look more alive because they changed that specific bright shade of yellow to suddenly be conveniently complementary to her pink eye color. She looks more 'alive' because they increased her pupil size by like, a billion, (a shortcut effect often used to, you know, make animals and babies look "cuter"), smoothed out the shape of the limbal ring, and gave the eyes proper light reflection.

As well, I really do feel like this feature is way less likely to be an oversight than anything in the other thread about eyes. It was literally just a texture placed over their eyes before; they could have chosen a range of saturation for something like that. You see the same thing done to tattoos in CC. And again, the main issue is that they are just fundamentally changing the color wheel here (which isn't truly the case for anything else they've focused on showcasing so far, as it has just been mostly lighting). Regardless of how people feel, this does directly go against the "we don't want to change how your character looks" claim most of all, since it poses the risk of being unable to recreate your characters' original color scheme. Which, IMO, is probably the thing they want to be most careful with preserving in this update, considering the limits of customization in this game.

[ConantSivrha]

The graphics update is definitely going to make characters look different. I think it's an improvement overall, though---the characters, though they look different, also look more like living beings. The best thing they can do, in my opinion, is give everyone a fantasia with the update.

On the limbal rings, specifically: my prediction is that limbal rings that are white or almost white (on the color selector) will stay mostly the same (on the character) before and after the graphics update. Meanwhile, limbal rings of darker and more saturated colors (on the color selector) will change (on the character) to look more like the color shown on the color selector. Right now, a lot of limbal ring colors look near-white on the character (especially yellows and oranges) even if they look saturated on the color selector. Effectively, players have been without the option to give their au ra characters rich yellow and orange limbal rings, and now we might finally be getting that option. Admittedly, it's an optimistic prediction, but it's the choice that makes the most sense to me.

In general, it seems like characters' eyes are getting the riskiest changes. It's most obvious with au ra, but the eyes of other races look different too. They look good, when considered on their own, but they all seem to have changed color (compared to the before picture) in some noticeable way. Some that look light in the "before" pictures look dark in the "after" pictures, and some seem to have changed the other way, going from dark to light. Some seem more muted and others seem to have more intense colors. Even I think it's a bit concerning...the apparent randomness is what bugs me, more than anything.