Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

[Vvera_Fhar]

In case this thread makes a difference, I'm going to leave my case here as well.

I'm not as good as other people at identifying what specifically changed. However, I just did a side by side of the live character creation and the Dawntrail benchmark, and my WoL also feels different in a way that I don't like.





Here's also a video of the first set, tabbing between the character creators.

First picture is live, second is benchmark.

I feel like the current look is more natural, like your average person who cares about their image and puts some work into it but knows how not to overdo it. Meanwhile in the benchmark she looks like one of those girls on social media who try to look like a doll.

I'm stoked about a lot of things from the graphical update, but changing the fundamental feel of characters is really not one of those things. I hope some of this gets reverted or they work to align it closer to the look these facial and hair features had for years. Many of these things are not simply an improvement to the graphical quality, but a change in style altogether, and one that frankly I'm not behind.

[Iscah]

I feel like the current look is more natural, like your average person who cares about their image and puts some work into it but knows how not to overdo it. Meanwhile in the benchmark she looks like one of those girls on social media who try to look like a doll.

That's my feeling on particularly my Midlander girl as well. I quite deliberately picked the face that didn't look too dolled up, but now she does. The increased effect of the ambient colour scheme also makes her look sickly, while every other lighting gives her the awful illuminated effect that can be seen on some other images other people's images.



The list of issues is long but the biggest one is that the eyes have totally changed – the eyelashes and lids are lowered and she now has a strong crease in the upper eyelid, which some of the other Midlander faces have but she previously did not, or possibly had but was totally concealed behind her eyelashes.

The nose is larger, the mouth shape has changed and I think her jaw is less rounded.

Meanwhile from a profile view, it can be seen that the new model has a more deliberate smiling expression instead of actually having quite a neutral mouth position that somehow gives the feeling of a friendly expression regardless – while still serious enough to not look inappropriate.

I really don't want my character to be smiling when she shouldn't be.




Meanwhile I'm generally having issues in the opposite direction with my male characters looking angrier, except for my Miqo'te who looks spaced out. I've been posting those pictures on other threads but will bring them in here as well later.


Edit: On another look, I don't think the moth has changed position much and yet the expression has changed. I think it's the shadows around the mouth look changed in a way that happens when you draw back your cheek muscles to smile? I've never had to think about the technicalities of expressions so much before as I have in the last few weeks.

[riani]

I've just arrived to compare my character and I'm posting my highlander here as well to bump this thread.

I am disappointed. Just like Iscah before me, I've deliberately selected this face to look more sharp. And will get a dull doll in Dawntrail.
These don't look the same to me...

before/after

[Taranok]

I've just arrived to compare my character and I'm posting my highlander here as well to bump this thread.

I am disappointed. Just like Iscah before me, I've deliberately selected this face to look more sharp. And will get a dull doll in Dawntrail.
These don't look the same to me...

You have functionally the same problem face 4 au ra have. A face chosen for looking hawkish, that got rounded off. I found by comparing face 4 au ra to face 1, both in live and the benchmark, that in live, face 4 is narrower with less pronounced cheeks (than face 1,) but it's the inverse in the benchmark. It's slightly wider with much more pronounced cheeks. Unfortunately, we don't have the same characters anymore.

I'm kind of willing to bet the devs finalized the faces back in April, and just weren't willing to fix anything that wasn't blatantly a bug or otherwise unintended, such as cat fangs. It's just such a disappointment.

[Loggos]

You have functionally the same problem face 4 au ra have. A face chosen for looking hawkish, that got rounded off. I found by comparing face 4 au ra to face 1, both in live and the benchmark, that in live, face 4 is narrower with less pronounced cheeks (than face 1,) but it's the inverse in the benchmark. It's slightly wider with much more pronounced cheeks. Unfortunately, we don't have the same characters anymore.

I'm kind of willing to bet the devs finalized the faces back in April, and just weren't willing to fix anything that wasn't blatantly a bug or otherwise unintended, such as cat fangs. It's just such a disappointment.

It feels like many faces with harsher features got smoothed out and lost their "edge". I'm looking at my male viera, face 3, and in 6.58 his features still have a certain sharpness to them, even though I have chosen the "roundest" and "softest" options for that face. He still has a certain sternness about him, esp. with his very pronounced mouth shape.
Now all of that subtle sharpness is gone and he just looks so... There's no definition, his features evoke no strong feelings or any kind of characterisation.
I wish they would have stuck with some edges and sharp shapes.