[Character Graphics Update]: Second Benchmark Worries

[CecMiller]

I'm not worried because we're getting a second benchmark. I'm actually just worried from the feedback they might add.

I made a post 2 days ago highlighting there are quite a lot of people happy with the character update.
But reading some people's feedback, specifically about female au ra had me worried SE might use their feedback to revert changes.(I'm not referring to bugs mind you)

For example; Me and my girlfriend are a huge fan of female au ra larger pupil changes.
It makes a already cute doll like race even more cute.
Writing this part on behalf of myself and my girlfriend because she's in love with the new look of the female au ra, the new look makes her excited to change race to au ra and play it (and me as well as one of my main is a female au ra) but the thought of that going away come either full release or the new benchmark makes her quite unsettled and myself.
I think in order to please as much people as possible I think major visual changes such as the eyes/pupils. I believe making it a select-able option is the best possible solution to make everybody happy if SE is planning to make huge changes like that.
That way the people that prefer the new update can enjoy their new look and the people that like the smaller tiny pupil can be happy.

I also like the lighter eyebrows as well and on the fourms I know that also haven't been popular.
Here is my other post that showcased some popular posts from other social media: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...itive-Feedback

Are their any worries you have SE might add to the new benchmark due to feedback? are you worried as well they might revert too many changes?

And as always.
Thank you FFXIV Development Team for all your hardwork and swift communication about the benchmark and showing everybody you care.
Take care of yourselves!

Prioritizing the players that currently play au ra and like their smaller pupils is the correct decision.

However, an even better decision is to allow the OPTION to have bigger pupils if we want to have them. If the devs decide to make the bigger pupils default and have no option to make them smaller, the people upset with this would be well within their right to be upset as the image of the character has clearly been altered from the original. Not everyone wants to make their au ra a cute doll character and so the change is jarring. Further, because the pupil is so big, less of the umbral rings colour can be seen.

I'm glad you like the look, but the priority should always be to please the current playerbase who play that race. The same is true for the lighter eyebrows/eyelashes etc.

I hope they revert those changes at the very least, but the best case scenario is that they make it an option and have it default to small pupils as that was the only option before.

[Plushy]

Prioritizing the players that currently player au ra and like their smaller pupils is the correct decision.

However, an even better decision is to allow the OPTION to have bigger pupils if we want to have them. If the devs decide to make the bigger pupils default and have no option to make them smaller, the people upset with this would be well within their right to be upset as the image of the character has clearly been altered from the original. Not everyone wants to make their au ra a cute doll character and so the change is jarring. Further, because the pupil is so big, less of the umbral rings colour can be seen.

I'm glad you like the look, but the priority should always be to please the current playerbase who play that race. The same is true for the lighter eyebrows/eyelashes etc.

I hope they revert those changes at the very least, but the best case scenario is that they make it an option and have it default to small pupils as that was the only option before.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.
But just for clarity. My main is a au ra female, one of them anyway but its basically my actual main and my girlfriend she's au ra majority of her playtime, she just has a fantasia addiction and swaps between viera and au ra many times, but she's mainly an au ra player. Sorry for the confusion to you and others saying they should please current au ra players as I am one and her as well basically.

[CecMiller]

Sorry for the misunderstanding.
But just for clarity. My main is a au ra female, one of them anyway but its basically my actual main and my girlfriend she's au ra majority of her playtime, she just has a fantasia addiction and swaps between viera and au ra many times, but she's mainly an au ra player. Sorry for the confusion to you and others saying they should please current au ra players as I am one and her as well basically.

Thats fair and I hope they're able to make both areas of the playerbase happy. I still think that the pupil size should closely match what is currently the default of EW (where bigger pupils are not at option). Forcing au ra players to be bigger pupils when they may have designed their characters look over a specific eye setup/eye stare is not ideal given that they want to make sure characters look as close as possible.

But for sure, my ideal world is we get to choose so we can all be happy with our choices. I just don't think it was a good idea to change the pupil size with seemingly no input from the playerbase as it does not match the current au ra look, though I do appreciate that many find the look ideal and will want to use the bigger pupil option.

[LordMcMutton]

This doesn't strike me as feasible. Admittedly, I know very little in general about this sort of thing so someone with actual experience can correct me, but they added tons of new bones to the models in the graphics update. The new bones are going to be used to animate cutscenes, emotes, etc. so if they had the old rigs and new rigs split up, they'd have to do 2 different versions of every cutscene and emote to accommodate for this difference in what can be done with the brows, eyes, face, and tongue (which previously had no bones apparently but does now).

From what I understand, they shifted to a method where they have a single basemesh for all heads, then use a technique called Shape Keys to 'morph' that base head into the races and their Face variations.

The benefit of this method is that they only have to rig the face once, and it then is present for all of said variations, meaning that all they have to do is edit the existing Shape Keys, or add new Shape Keys. And since the issue is that the new morphs don't follow the original models closely enough, all they need to do is finesse them a bit more.

[SongOfTheWind]

Thats fair and I hope they're able to make both areas of the playerbase happy. I still think that the pupil size should closely match what is currently the default of EW (where bigger pupils are not at option). Forcing au ra players to be bigger pupils when they may have designed their characters look over a specific eye setup/eye stare is not ideal given that they want to make sure characters look as close as possible.

The issue with the bigger pupils is also that they are making 2 colour option kinda nonexistent. I think devs made the pupils redesign when they were going to get rid of the limbal rings, but then based on feedback returned the rings, while also didn’t rethink the effect. As a result limbal rings plus enlarged pupils are covering “base” colour almost entirely.

[Mecia]

Im not at all worried as my Elezen came out just fine the first time so she should be even better next time.

[Araxes]

Can you stop being worried until it is out?

[Khryseis_Astra]

I’d definitely like to see more options added. The more customization the better! For my part, the only thing that really concerned me was the lips/mouth on my Lala, which sounds like one of the issues they’re going to address. But I actually liked the lips/mouth for my Hyur characters better in the benchmark. If those were also part of the same error, I guess it’ll just revert to more or less what I had originally, so I’m not upset either way. I just think more character customization options are long overdue, and if it helps people feel better about the graphics update, even better.

[smashBG]

From what I understand, they shifted to a method where they have a single basemesh for all heads, then use a technique called Shape Keys to 'morph' that base head into the races and their Face variations.

The benefit of this method is that they only have to rig the face once, and it then is present for all of said variations, meaning that all they have to do is edit the existing Shape Keys, or add new Shape Keys. And since the issue is that the new morphs don't follow the original models closely enough, all they need to do is finesse them a bit more.

This... makes a lot of sense, actually. If I'm not mistaken, this is how clothing is already handled. They don't make a separate mesh for each race, they make two or three for different body types (midlander, lalafell, sometimes highlander) and then use shape keys to tailor them to each race's specific proportions.

Makes me wonder at the possibility of face sliders if/when the character creator receives an overhaul.

[LordMcMutton]

This... makes a lot of sense, actually. If I'm not mistaken, this is how clothing is already handled. They don't make a separate mesh for each race, they make two or three for different body types (midlander, lalafell, sometimes highlander) and then use shape keys to tailor them to each race's specific proportions.

Makes me wonder at the possibility of face sliders if/when the character creator receives an overhaul.

Roegadyn, too!

Face sliders are something I really hope we get at some point- basically every game with character creation face sliders in the past has been executed with Shape Keys, so the foundation is already there now