Sure it's a good idea to remove the static light dot from the eyes?

[DiaDeem]

They all have some form of eye glow.

[decomposer]

I think my issue isn't necessarily with the dimmed catchlights themselves, it's the inconsistency of what the graphics update has deemed "realistic." There are lighting conditions that are casting high, uniform beams of light on noses, brows, and upper lips that would (not) exist on real people unless they were wet, had just moisturized, or were using highlighter. But then the eyes being dimmer, somehow less reflective than skin, is "realism." The standard of "realism" is not uniform enough in this benchmark for me.

I, for one, don't really mind the environment based catchlights. It's fine. However, when it works in conjunction with skin reflectivity and transparency being inaccurate, as well as the eye shape on the model changing, it creates a discordant aesthetic. They aimed for improved graphics hinging on realism, missed, and landed in uncanny territory for a lot of people. Not all, maybe not even most, but a lot. Things need to be fine tuned, and I'm hoping that's likely because this is a self-admitted work in progress.

Edit: To be clear, I don't even care about realism. I think this ages games more quickly than more stylized approaches to character design. But if that's what people want, and are arguing in favor of, I'll get on board as long as it's consistent.

[CidHeiral]

Now hold on, you've chosen a very dark and moody portrait to portray what a 'real person' looks like. Let's take a look at a portrait in more neutral light.

And here you can see the catch lights are still very visible without having to be in extreme lighting conditions. There are also other parts of the eye that reflect light as well, such as the inner corner. I agree with others that the catch lights in the benchmark are far too dim and small.

That person literally has one of these shining right in his face.

I'm not arguing for a return to the dot as it was, but saying "well look humans don't have visible eye shine anyways" while showing an image of a man in a dark and moody photograph where that was clearly the goal of the photo is disingenuous.

That is not at all what I said.

And I chose that picture because the light it in was being cast from the side of his head, which is exactly what's happening in the Au Ra example and why her eyes aren't lit up like a Sailor Moon character. Unfortunately I do not have a personal archive of portraits with lighting from every conceivable angle so I have to work with what I can find, which happened to be a black and white picture. A photo being in black and white doesn't prevent you from seeing catch lights if they are present.

[StarKorg]

Big agree on what people have already said here, and after seeing pics of others' characters I'm glad I'm not the only one who's dealing with the sorta dead inside look with the alteration of the eye shiny. My roes vary but man do the eyes look better with the perma white dot! (Yea I did notice it missing during the cutscenes too! Those who I did test looked a bit.. scary)

(left is old, right is dawntrail benchmark)

[mallleable]

Yeah, I feel like the light catch on eyes is maybe behaving a little too realistically, and could be tastefully exaggerated slightly.

[Fuyume]

...
And I chose that picture because the light it in was being cast from the side of his head, which is exactly what's happening in the Au Ra example and why her eyes aren't lit up like a Sailor Moon character. Unfortunately I do not have a personal archive of portraits with lighting from every conceivable angle so I have to work with what I can find, which happened to be a black and white picture. A photo being in black and white doesn't prevent you from seeing catch lights if they are present.

It's like you didn't see the other photo I posted three posts down from my first one, or the ones from other Final Fantasies that another person posted, at least a few of which were in dark or dimly lit areas. There is a reason that most games with this kind of style make the eyes look wet or shiny even when it's dark, because it looks uncanny to just be dull.

[Tethan]

The argument that it's better without eyeshine because it's "realistic" is absolutely ridiculous. This is not a realistic looking game, it never was and it never will be. The goal with the update was never realism, Yoshi-P said as much. The goal is and should be to make the artistic decisions that suit the game best, and I for one am not sure this is it.

[Iscah]

neither of these pics are natural light, these are both photoshoots with studio lights and manacured set design.

Sure, but the second photo seems shot with the intention of mimicking natural lighting – and this entire game effectively is a photoshoot or movie set with the power to place studio lights wherever they feel like it, even in configurations that would be impossible in real life.

[CidHeiral]

It's like you didn't see the other photo I posted three posts down from my first one, or the ones from other Final Fantasies that another person posted, at least a few of which were in dark or dimly lit areas. There is a reason that most games with this kind of style make the eyes look wet or shiny even when it's dark, because it looks uncanny to just be dull.

[Rokke]

The Au Ra example looks fine to me. The lack of shine makes sense given where the light source is located. I'm struggling to see how that makes them look less alive unless your definition of alive is this:

baldurs gate is my favorite anime