7.0 Graphic Update - Elezen feedback

[elezenelezenelezen]

Some of the most egregious changes seem to be to the actual facial features, not the lighting. After looking at these before/after sliders, it becomes way more apparent. Biggest changes include shape of the nose and how it now looks perfectly straight and thicker on the top, lips are now upturned, eyes have been reshaped and more lidded, brow has been lifted and reshaped, and overall face shape has changed. It's easy to see if you run the slider back and forth to look at what's different. Combined, this is a LOT of changes to introduce for seemingly no reason. Texture and lighting, great, but why were the faces re-touched this much? Before and after sliders found here:

imgsli.com/MjU1ODgx
imgsli.com/MjU1ODg3
imgsli.com/MjU1ODg4
imgsli.com/MjU1ODkw
imgsli.com/MjU1ODkx

That doesn't even look like the same character, in any lighting. I think less re-touching on the actual face shapes and features would have been better. I get needing to update the textures, but this goes way beyond that.

[decomposer]

Returning to this thread because apparently I take this elf business very seriously.

I did a more in-depth comparison of how the features changed. Not lighting, the features. I've already vented my frustrations about the lighting, but these changes I find egregious.

Not to mention, they look technically worse (mouth line and waterlines are now very, very pixelated. I know this is due to added mouth and eye bones for animations, but it looks really, really bad.)

Anyway, here's my Duskwight being subjected to the horrors. Again. I took his makeup and his lipstick off. So this is just bare, au naturel Ishgardian.



& here is the high resolution.

[StrangerMiracles]

Throwing my girl in the ring.




Benchmark is first, my real girl is second (Face 1 Duskwight). My current grievances with the Benchmark changes:

1) The ears (shape 3) are smaller than they used to be. These ears are at 100 length, I feel like they should not be this short
2) the eye makeup is lighter. I'm sure this is great on lighter skin characters, however Face Paint 3 is on Dark and Black and you can't even see it on the Benchmark. You can see it on my girl in 6.0 much more clearly. This also brings up my grievance with the lip colors, as at this level of skin depth there aren't many colors that are darker than her skin tone, so ou end up only having two choices out of how many colors? 30? More if you split between Dark/Light?
3) the eyebrows are lighter, again changing the look of her face.
4) the mouth is a completely diff shape, it's wider than before and all of the lip options have this same width except for Lip 4, which's narrower BUT it's also a lot thinner, so it again completely changes the look. The smile is off on these lips too.
5) the eyes are a diff shape, which is probably my biggest grievance in all of this. The eyes are lower and heavier on her face, and they completely change the vibe coming from my character.
6) the cheekbones are a lot less prominent than before. She's just visually less pointy and I miss her pointyness.
7) the eyelashes are just a solid black line in the benchmark, when in 6.0 they have definition and you can actually *see* them.
8) I don't know if it's the lighting, but the hair feels much less saturated and it got rid of the only true ginger hair option that the elezen had.

All and all, I've messed with all of the face shapes and options and my WoL has apparently been lost to the nether. I don't know who this new 7.0 character is. This is not my Duskwight.

[StrangerMiracles]

Also, the mouth rigging lmao:

[Fangoria]

Posting mine. The eyes are bigger and the eyebags are way more pronounced.
Like he literally looks 30 years older.

Current Game


Benchmark


I think the changes are not that noticable when you zoom in but from afar he looks horrid.

Current Game


Benchmark

[Liamont]

Well I don't think "play this race for dark circles" makes any sense. I'm sorry you guys are mad but I think a better solution is letting people decide if they want their variation to have them or not. Maybe they should make some faces have them and some not, or diminish the shadow with a slider. Or both. I don't think "just keep it the same" is productive. It sounds like whining. And I hate to be that guy but a lot of the feedback seems like this. It's just unilateral "noop"

Your suggestion of having some faces have them or not is exactly what we had in 6.58: Wildwood had dark circles, and Duskwight did not. The 7.0 benchmark removed that feature. Is it that difficult to understand that we are complaining about a feature that now has been removed?

I'm also assuming you do not play an elezen? Coming in here to call our legitimate complaints 'whining' does not do anything but make you look like someone who is unable to emphasize with the attachment people have with their characters. Would you be saying the same thing if your character was changed in a way that you did not like?

The option would be nice, but we're not getting new options. At least not for a while. When we get to 8.0 and they announce the character creator overhaul, then they can add the dark circle slider. For now, remove them.

It's better to please the current players of the race than maybe appealing to other people who don't play it.

Well said.

[Nihiru__]

I don't know, I feel like they made objectively a good job with the upgrade, but character fidelity is just not there for me. I love the way light diffuses now on faces, which will avoid weird shapes appearing on my elezen in extreme lighting situations, but at the same time I can't be 100% happy with how I feel like my character got completely sanded. Feels like he lost 10 years, and now in a good way. Like, the big pic shows how good the lighting diffusing on the face is, but if you look at the small one, honestly, I see almost two completely different characters. Hard to be happy...

Also, having a couple duskwight, why do we have dark circles now.................
Also, why race gear on the neck is a flat line and everything else is updated

[Spellweaver]

throwing my hat into the ring!


(new | old | bigger image)

overall, I think I came out of this relatively unscathed, though his mouth/nose region looks weirdly Emet-Selch-esque now that I'm comparing the two side-by-side

I don't think I like the light diffusions very much, it makes it look like the characters are glowing from the inside in a very weird way

since the ear clasp nerf was already commented on, I'll hit on something else that I noticed immediately & bothers me distinctly: highlights??????????????????????




lighter-toned highlights appear elsewhere in the hairstyle in a way that looks glitchy/splotchy and overall Very Not Good aesthetically (here are some larger images)

here's 6.0 to compare (and its larger image)

[aili_]

before and after. I'm heartbroken...the shadow around mandibular just disappears, makes my girl looks chubbier than current version, i don't like it at all!

[Feelynn]

Aight, first time using these forums.
Not gonna lie, I like the update a ton. Apart from the mouth movements and it showing me the cold hard truth that some hairstyles are not fitting our heads with and without the graphical update.
And i mean they are quite literally not connected correctly, thought they might get fixed with the update, but alas, doesn't seem so.

Got no clue how to insert images, hope this worked O:
You know, unlike these hairstyles.
https://i.imgur.com/DuigYCf.png
https://i.imgur.com/n8IO3If.png
https://i.imgur.com/UYT1fX2.png
https://i.imgur.com/P5h25Po.png