Are people remembering to disable their shaders before leaving graphic feedback?

[CinaedhVik]

Disclaimer: I'm not picking on YOU here

I think your pictures are great example though of why people need to take this "Gamma 0" advice with critical suspect. Look at the background. This isn't a 1:1 comparison regardless of what that other user (or whomever started the Gamma 0 line of thinking) says. It's changing the gamma curve, so you'll see shadows crushed with less detail, a lot more contrast (this is not necessarily a good thing. Mid tones will be destroyed) and playing the game this way would not look good, even if it allows you to match skin tones from the benchmark.

I caution people to save their choices but don't fantasia right away, make a temporary character and load in with that to see how it looks in the real 7.0 with the real lighting, backgrounds, and character model. I don't think the benchmark creator has updated lighting or background - you can tell just looking at the grass and the ground. They are identical. I think SE just updated the character models and how they react to the stock environments, without adjusting those environments.

EDIT: That was meant to quote Zhav's before/after images but the phpbb screwed it up somehow.

[decomposer]

Disclaimer: I'm not picking on YOU here

I think your pictures are great example though of why people need to take this "Gamma 0" advice with critical suspect. Look at the background. This isn't a 1:1 comparison regardless of what that other user (or whomever started the Gamma 0 line of thinking) says. It's changing the gamma curve, so you'll see shadows crushed with less detail, a lot more contrast (this is not necessarily a good thing. Mid tones will be destroyed) and playing the game this way would not look good, even if it allows you to match skin tones from the benchmark.

I caution people to save their choices but don't fantasia right away, make a temporary character and load in with that to see how it looks in the real 7.0 with the real lighting, backgrounds, and character model. I don't think the benchmark creator has updated lighting or background - you can tell just looking at the grass and the ground. They are identical. I think SE just updated the character models and how they react to the stock environments, without adjusting those environments.

EDIT: That was meant to quote Zhav's before/after images but the phpbb screwed it up somehow.

To be completely honest, the "set the gamma to 0" was started by people trying to discredit (or, in the effort of speaking in good faith, help) those of us with dark skinned characters saying the game washes characters out. I made my skintone chart and have been vocal about how the "gamma 0" suggestion should be treated as a last ditch effort, because it (still) washes out the skintone and does as you say with midtones, shadows, etc. I just think a lot of us are desperate to salvage our character's skintones (which are just as washed out in the cutscene, for me, sadly.)

[Zhav]

To be completely honest, the "set the gamma to 0" was started by people trying to discredit (or, in the effort of speaking in good faith, help) those of us with dark skinned characters saying the game washes characters out. I made my skintone chart and have been vocal about how the "gamma 0" suggestion should be treated as a last ditch effort, because it (still) washes out the skintone and does as you say with midtones, shadows, etc. I just think a lot of us are desperate to salvage our character's skintones (which are just as washed out in the cutscene, for me, sadly.)

People insisting that the colors looked faded and gray due to the gamma settings whenever someone would post their dark-skinned character was the reason why I decided to try out the settings that you'd mentioned. Doing that was the only way I could even come close to matching her original coloration and it still doesn't quite make it. I wouldn't dream of playing the game, itself, with the gamma set to zero (for reasons that have already been mentioned by you as well as CinaedhVik).

Besides the lightening of the skintones, I'm also concerned about some other things, including the color of the scleras (whites) in the eyes, as they are currently far too bright and look especially jarring on darker characters in particular. I, like many others, also miss having the more pronounced glint in her eyes, regardless of whether or not it's "more realistic", because it's one of the only things that really makes her "pop" in some of the more poorly lit scenes.