Dawntrail Graphical Update - Au Ra Feedback

[PriscillaSaitou]

I put together a bunch of comparison shots just for reference, more than anything the lips are what really are bothering me, they're COMPLETELY DIFFERENT in the benchmark (red lined in the first image for a better shape comparison)


In case my writing isn't super legible, the main points are that in current 6.x the lips I use have a much wider cupid's bow, the corners are lot more upturned, and there's divot in the middle, but in the benchmark, they're very flat with a small cupids bow. It really dramatically changes how she looks and it really bothers me...(yoshi-p you said this was a summer vacation but you've made my daughter miserable ;__; )

There's some smaller things like the corner of her eyes being a different shape, the eyebrows being darker and thinner, and the makeup being a lot less colourful and dull.

The dilation of the pupils and the blending over the limbal rings isn't as bad on her as I've seen on other Au ra, probably because of the colour of her eyes, but it's still not great, I definitely prefer the current 6.x version.

[execlinca]

EDIT: Horns not connected to the scales? Oh that's very strange...



More of a personal addendum but also got lots of anxiety regarding the new mouth rig, I am attached to the weirdness of the /fakegrin emote on this race.

I didn't notice that, since my character having braids conceals the underside of the horns... that's really unfortunate and I hope that gets fixed just feels like someone missed it while working on it.

Looking at everyone's characters, while I'm uneasy about the face 1 mouth, I feel lucky that otherwise my character doesn't look so different. It feels like more striking characters look completely different now, maybe since the faces feel more homogeneous. Face 2 and 4 especially seem affected, since the mouths had such a unique look. I appreciate a significant amount of it is the more neutral expression on the lips at base, but when horns are connected to face as well we only have so many options to convey personality without changing something that's hugely noticeable (horns). With face 1 and 2 seeming to swap mouth expressions, being able to switch might make the transition a lot less jarring for some, though this is obviously a big ask...

Of course, the biggest issue is the artifacting around scales that's more visible on darker skinned characters. At bare minimum that has to be addressed because it seems unfinished, like they just didn't test with darker characters.

I can only hope that they will listen to feedback considering how concerned the devs seem about preserving people's images of their characters.

[sleepystaccato]

I actually really love the face 2 mouth change, the dimples on the corner of her mouth used to make expressions that weren't just closed mouth smiles look really weird because it created the illusion of jowls depending on the lighting. I've seen quite a few people say they don't like this change but I'd be sad to see it reverted.


(I picked an expression that I had similar screenshots of to show off what I mean by the expressions being weird, but honestly this is mild too, it's been much worse in more extreme expressions like grimaces...)

The face itself I'm very pleased with, but the scales(especially on the neck) are much worse even though theyre definitely higher res. Theyre far too flat while also not looking like they really belong on the characters skin. The texture is weirdly dark and desaturated? I'll miss the sugar cookie-like color of the old raen scales

Edit: just to reiterate, I like the face change. The expressions that are currently in the live game are what were weird to me. She's cuter now!

[execlinca]

I would encourage people to look at their characters emoting in the benchmark (on the voice selection screen, they will emote when you select one). For me, she looks good while emoting, it's just her resting face is a little different.

While I think for some the changes really are that big, it might put you at ease if you emote and it looks familiar. I do feel like I've come out better than others, but it's sad to see how many people don't recognise their characters. It's worth seeing if you do while they're in motion.

[emecsek]

Mostly disappointed with the changes. The lips look like they're more puckered, and the lack of lip gloss feels like a downgrade. It feels like such a huge change to her since I adore the way her current lips look! The eyeshadow is also much lighter and it makes the eyes feel smaller compared to how they are right now.
But on a more positive note, I was very nervous about the limbal ring changes and I'm really happy with the way they look now!

https://imgur.com/a/JtpFCy8

[Luluna]

I much prefer the lips on face 2 on my Au ra as I always found the mouth to fish like and it looked bloated. I hope they do not change that back or at least give me a toggle as I did love the fish horn face but the mouth was always too much.

I think they need gloss and some better colour options but overall Au ra look really nice to me and I am thinking of going back if my Hyur does not port as I would like.

[DekaiTsuna88]

I'm not sure how many of the Au Ra players notice this but it feels like our current eyes have a nice glow/shine to it (seems to light up a little in dark lighting), if you notice it how do you feel about the changes to this? Personally, I feel like the eyes have been made to look "too glowy" as opposed to the original subtleness. I probably sound insane saying all of this and I am not too sure if it is even exclusive to us, but I see it on my own character in the current game without using umbral rings.



Using the Black Shroud setting here, old on the left and new on the right.

I've been concerned about this in particular since they first showed the changes, but due to the other changes presented in the benchmark I've shifted focus to the general image of the character. I had actually made an admittedly poor thread just before the benchmark dropped regarding this change that included Lalafell.

They do look a lot more glowy on bright colors. My as-is model from current build shows up as if she has limbal while actually she doesn't have any. The fact that she also have bigger pupil in benchmark further enhances that faux limbal look. I had to move the color to darker shade to compensate for the glow so she doesn't look as dead.

[Solais]

Ok, I -think- I'm going insane. Was doing some fine tuning, when I noticed that in the La Noscea and Thanalan backgrounds my character resembled the og look. Then I turned her around to have light shine on her face... and it looks completely different?? I know I have prosopagnosia (face recognition disorder), but it is still weird that the change of lighting would cause the face to look completely different, which wasn't the case with the old lighting, imo. Explains why the usually very bright cutscenes of the benchmark also made her look "wrong".

[Moshimoshikami]

Face 1 is great in my opinion. Just had to fine tune skin color and lips to get something very satisfying.

I think that face 2 is a lot better than before. I don't like the 6.58 version but the 7.0 version is very beautiful. If I was not so attached to my character, I would have changed to face 2

[LamiaR]

First time posting in the community, please forgive me if English isn't good. I was really looking forward to it, but the result was very disappointing.
The essence of my Xaela Au Ra male1 has completely disappeared, it doesn't look anything like the character I originally loved.
I hope SE can allow players to freely choose between the new changes or maintain the original settings...