New Benchmark (June): Au Ra Feedback

[Irishfae]

I see this as an unfortunate realignment of how limbal rings are supposed to look. An actual dev art design choice.

Specifically, in HW, the limbal rings were implemented as a ring with an octagonal border on at least 1 side. Yes, it's not even a circle. There is a very hard edge between the limbal ring and the outer bounds of the iris, and the 2 share 0 colors with each other unless the player chooses to make them the same. DT's new design doesn't have a distinct region, instead opting to blend the 2 together. The limbal ring on the outside, the iris on the inside, a mix between the two.

To me, this is likely closer to what the devs initially envisioned but lacked the ability to make. This is also why limbal rings get a lot darker overall and why the 2 get muddy. Especially if you did a hyper-contrast like black iris with white limbal.

While I am personally not sad to see this changed, as I believe it looks more authentic to how this type of eye glow would exist in the game, I am also firmly on the side of adding the option for the player to have old-style and new-style rings. If you want a hyper-glow, you should be allowed to have it. If you want mixed glow, same. The problem is mostly that people are losing an option that already existed. Not that the devs wanted to retcon how limbal rings looked.

It isn't the ring that is the issue (I actually like the update to it, though I wish the iris didn't extend past the ring - but this was an issue in the old version too.) It is the pupil now eating up more of the color than it did previously. So the actual colors seem to pop less.

[Soteira]

So there's definitely improvement compared to the first benchmark but for one - the face shape seems different. It seems that the old one is more u shaped while the new one reminds me of a v.

That I could ignore but the biggest issues to me are the eye shapes and the lips. The lips seem more squished and smaller compared to what we have now and the eyes too. Genuinely to me it looks like two SIMILAR looking characters but still two characters over one.

It's a miss for me and yes I am aware this is dramatic but... it very much dampened my hype for DT

[Lutin]

Coming back here, 1, to see everyone's beautiful lizards, and 2, updating my stance on the darker limbal ring fading at night, I don't mind it that much anymore. I mean I would like it if they kept it dark like currently but the more I look at it the more I don't mind it and even like it? Either way, whatever they decide I'll be happy in the end. I hope everyone's issues get the improvements they need <3

[Berkilak]

The dark raccoon eyeliner needs to go. This isn't present on the retail build and it really detracts from the aesthetic I'm going for.

[AvaloniaFallen]

Posted this in the updated benchmark thread a little while back but since the Au Ra specific thread is still going strong, I figured this belonged here too.

With the updated benchmark, I was thrilled to see that the lighting and shading are much improved. However, I am disappointed that the changes that were made to F!Au Ra face 4 weren't corrected with this update. The mouth change is the worst offender, where it looks like there was no effort made to preserve the original mouth changes, but the subtle changes to the eyes and nose also contribute to the feeling of this no longer being my character.


I assume the eye being more angular in the current version of the game is due to the lower poly count- however, it's a feature I think should have been better retained in the update, since face 4's more angular features are why many players pick it.


The new mouth looks like she's gotten lip fillers and is now stuck permanently smiling; the new dimples also contribute to the feeling that she's having an allergic reaction.


Please, never smile again.

[Evermomo]

I want to start with the good! Look how much better the face 4 cheek scales are in the new benchmark, this is so nice. I have no idea if the devs will hear this from the english side of the forum, but I think they did a great job.

I'm a digital artist that works in 3D software and animation for a living. With that in mind I wanted to try and demonstrate my observations as clearly as possible... but also if it doesn't happen, I get it. There are how many faces in the game? like 60?



Modeling the subtleties of forms in 3D is actually quite hard, so I sympathize with the challenge. If I could pick one thing to fix though, it would be the mouth & cheeks.



Everyone and their dog has mentioned the pupil already, and a lot of people have noticed the eyelashes moved. Comparisons are my own, however.



That last one isn't that important, and I don't really expect it to be changed, but I thought I'd show my appreciation for the old design.

That's all!

[Irishfae]

[
I'm a digital artist that works in 3D software and animation for a living. With that in mind I wanted to try and demonstrate my observations as clearly as possible... but also if it doesn't happen, I get it. There are how many faces in the game? like 60?


That last one isn't that important, and I don't really expect it to be changed, but I thought I'd show my appreciation for the old design.

That's all!

Thank you for the drawings! (also love the owl/Zenos example :-D )

I'm rubbish with art so I was having a hard time trying to draw the 'what seems to be wrong' with the mouth and I think mouth 3 has the same changes to the curves, just less full than 2.

[RhaesDaenys]

The biggest problem about the larger ones is that if you use the limbal rings, the actual color of the irises gets murky and I think increasing the iris portion isn't really an option in most cases. You can see with this eye type, the iris is already taking up most of the eye, not a lot more space available to play with.

I don't know, to me, you're using subtle colors for your limbal rings so I don't really see the difference being that crazy, especially when colors are changing ever so slightly due to lighting. You have a darker eye color on top of a dark limbal ring, so its going to blend a little.

I actually really like the blending quite a bit and am planning to turn on Limbal Rings for the first time ever because they don't look like boxy shapes in the eyes anymore and I can use it to enhance my characters eyes by making it look like a dull glow, rather than headlights.

[Rudje]

I don't know, to me, you're using subtle colors for your limbal rings so I don't really see the difference being that crazy, especially when colors are changing ever so slightly due to lighting. You have a darker eye color on top of a dark limbal ring, so its going to blend a little.

I actually really like the blending quite a bit and am planning to turn on Limbal Rings for the first time ever because they don't look like boxy shapes in the eyes anymore and I can use it to enhance my characters eyes by making it look like a dull glow, rather than headlights.

No, that effect is something I've noticed on my male Au Ra alts too and I deliberately choose very bright/clashy limbal rings--it's not as extreme as it is with the gals since their eyes are smaller, but the iris color is a bit lost even with the larger "bright" rings, and is probably eaten entirely with the darker ones. (You can also see how dulled out a formerly very bright option was with the top Au Ra, which I really dislike because there's no option to get back to that old color--the next step up on the swatches is a lot paler.)

Size is off, but the effect is clear enough since it's about relative positions.

[RhaesDaenys]

No, that effect is something I've noticed on my male Au Ra alts too and I deliberately choose very bright/clashy limbal rings--it's not as extreme as it is with the gals since their eyes are smaller, but the iris color is a bit lost even with the larger "bright" rings, and is probably eaten entirely with the darker ones. (You can also see how dulled out a formerly very bright option was with the top Au Ra, which I really dislike because there's no option to get back to that old color--the next step up on the swatches is a lot paler.)

Size is off, but the effect is clear enough since it's about relative positions.

From my perspective on both of those the new ones look better. The old ones just looks like they selected an area in MS Paint and pasted a color with no shading in that space. It looks rather awful. Its why I never, ever used it.

The new one looks like they at least tried to blend it a little better. While yes, its not as bright, perhaps that is just the trade off of better looking eyes.