[ Graphical Update Feedback ] Examples of Darker Skinned Characters/Darker Lighting

[TheDruidOcelot]

For anyone who wants to see the new graphics all in one place.

really not a fan of how dull the new M!Miqo'te irises look. makes them really flat and matte looking which is just quite unappealing to me. the grey undertone on dark skintones is still there, and is even more noticeable with the VERY stark white highlight. there's been an improvement, but its still got a ways to go imo.

[Warchamp7]

For anyone who wants to see the new graphics all in one place.

You can't hotlink images from Discord like that. You'll have to upload them somewhere like imgur

[mercvry]

How are feeling about the new Benchmark?
I think I'm personally good with it, my boy looks fine in CC though i might change his eye shape since now they're kinda very sleepy looking, but that's not what this thread is about lol.
I feel like some of the shadows "in game" (in the Benchmark cutscene) still look a bit washed out to me and I have to yet look at him in the darker light setting the Benchmark provides now

[OgruMogru]

Really happy they seemed to take the feedback to heart - and nice confirmation that they're listening! I'm generally really pleased! I have a grumble and that's the noses; particularly the nostrils, seem a little muddy and poorly defined. The Viera noses are missing the cute little lighter patch at the tip as well. Super promising overall tho!!

[Arrius]

There's this figurine-kind of look on the edges at the noses and ears that feels quite off for me. Likely the softening and changing how the lights hits the skin makes it a bit weird.

Hopefully it's just something you spot when you are very close at light sources and not a overall thing.

[CNitsah]

At one point in time, I hope they will show us feet and hands. Hands and (especially) feet need a rework too.

[aulierre]

Echoing the sentiment that the darker skin tones aren't playing well with the highlights and shadows (the highlights are a stark white, and the shadows are a plain black), and the way the graphical update expresses the base skintone seems to desaturate the skin. Darker-skinned characters look both plasticky (due to the highlights) and ashen (due to their desaturated skin). A decent range of dark skin tones were previewed, so it seems to be an issue with the general rendering of the graphical update, rather than the developers just picking one ashy skin tone by chance.

As a result, in the previews, various dark-skinned characters seemed to have ashy skintones with desaturated undertones. The pale-skinned characters, by contrast, seemed to have warmer undertones. My suggestion: try to ensure darker skin tones have more saturated undertones (either cool or warm undertones, depending on where in the colorpicker the skin tone was chosen from) to off-set the ashy effect.

I don't know if they can change how highlights and shadows work, but, if they can, I'm sure making the shadows or lighting a little more warmer or cooler (whatever is appropriate to the environment) instead of just regular black/white might help a little bit as well.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

yooo the two feedback threads from EU Fanfest are winning congrats us

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the ashy, cold looking undertones are due to the lighting. If you look at any metallic material they've shown it's the same, everything is a lot bluer than before, and I suspect it's due to their new "physics based" rendering in an attempt to make a fantasy game more realistic for some reason : o )

(To be honest it's an issue in a lot of games recently, everything has blue shadows and undertones no matter the art style...)

I think it's something we'll easily be able to counter in gpose by placing warmer lights (or with housing items), but it will probably not be very flattering in cutscenes...

I'm not sure how they could improve it either from a technical point of view, since at the moment the character creator only lets you pick one skintone from a predetermined palette. A sheen slider would be good, instead of it being an on/off toggle depending on the skintone you pick, but being able to affect the color of it would be great as well... the problem is that if you give too much ~ creative freedom ~ to players it could start looking a little funky if they pick clashing colors on purpose. But setting a predetermined sheen value and color to EVERY skin tone on EVERY race sounds like hell for the devs too.

[Iscah]

...I suspect it's due to their new "physics based" rendering in an attempt to make a fantasy game more realistic for some reason : o )

Realism in visuals and realism in the setting are two completely separate things.

[mercvry]

Well, here we go, we got the benchmark!
How is everyone feeling about their WoL?

For my sunseeker I personally don't mind any of the changes done, HOWEVER.
The lighting in the character creator feels worse than before?
With the update of the hands, I hope we can get lighter palms and soles of the feet for dark skinned characters