Viera Changes

[Kimitu]

I'm extremely conflicted with these changes to my viera. My darker skinned character here has had her bunny nose entirely removed, not to mention the big difference in eye colour? Her nose and face look blurry, and the new lipstick looks god awful. I wonder how they managed to mess things up this badly. I have been incredibly happy with my viera design for years now, and to have her face changed to something worse feels heartbreaking to me. She looks lifeless and like she's constantly frowning. I kinda understand why because look at those flat and dimensionless lips??



I am truly saddened to see my bunny nose removed like this, it's one of my favourite features of viera aside from the ears. We seriously got so shafted...

[Kurpse]

I have been incredibly happy with my viera design for years now, and to have her face changed to something worse feels heartbreaking to me. She looks lifeless and like she's constantly frowning.

I couldn't have put it better.. It's so sad!

[Masocheese]

Feel like they need to make the eyebrows stronger, the hair colors less grey and by far give me less round lips.
But I'd be happy if just the lips became less "full" these are the least full lips of face 4 and they already feel inflated.

[Rhose]

The update completely destroyed him..... Please I am begging you to fix this

[sealsick]

At first I was absolutely devastated, but now I'm more mixed. The character creator seems to have some really wonky lighting. After watching the benchmark trailer I realized it was not nearly as bad as I initially thought, but I still have some issues. Here are some side by sides with my WoL:


The biggest problem that I'm noticing across bunny players is the lips!! There's a lack of lip definition and shine that just changes the vibe of the face I chose (face 1), and many others. The detail at the outer corners of the lips being gone on faces like M Viera face 1 change the entire look of the face. They also seem a lot darker and duller, perhaps because of the lack of shine. I admit the lip shape looks better in the trailer, but there was a poutiness to the lips that just doesn't exist anymore in the update!! I chose this face because of how angry it looked, but now it looks a lot more... smooth.

As for the eyes, I don't mind the lack of eye shine as much as it's fitting for my WoL, but I know that it's not fitting for everyone's. The new catchlight is so lovely, I hope they make edits so its much more visible because it never is. I have more of a problem with the nose, and the added darkening. It's MUCH darker than the current version, which is weird because the darker nose can be an optional face feature, too. I think it can be cute, but again, it is vastly different from the current appearance of viera. Another thing I notice with the noses is how the nose bridges don't have as much of a highlight, so it falls flat against the rest of the face. I think that plays into why character creation tends to make our characters look like they have a flash shining right in their face. When the light isn't right, the definition in the texture isn't there to make up for it. Here's two examples of what I mean, in two types of lighting:



Despite my complaints, I'm a huge fan of this graphics update overall! I think things like clothes, world textures, and even character textures are really benefiting from this. I hope that they can tweak it more to make it so some of the facial features, specifically on viera, do not feel so drastically different. I look forward to Dawntrail and any changes that may come in the future!

[Spooky_Biscuits]

I feel the same way a lot of people have said so far. I love my WoL and she's always been a Viera. I don't want to have to race change her because of this but it is too blatant of an issue to just try and accept and deal with. I know this sounds like an extreme reaction but we get attached to our characters, understandably so. Even if they fixed the lighting issues that cause them to look flat and "dead inside" the changes in things that gave them character will still remain. The lip shape is my main issue. The cute and charming curves, gone and replaced with lip filler thats not even smooth line wise. Also the eyes being smaller gives an awkward uncanny valley feel. Essentially these cahracters no longer have the experesions they once did in place of what? Nicer hair textures? (which they didnt even extend to the ears btw)

Like I said, it may seem like an extreme reaction but this has killed all hype I had for DT release. Really not feelin this and I hope they listen to the feedback but I have a sinking feeling that won't be the case. Mostly because m. viera didnt get hit as hard and its mostly the lighting fixes that need to be tended to, and other races actually seem to be getting positive feedback. They didn't care about viera thus far with other limitations, why would they now. Id much rather keep old graphics and retain what they look like now then be forced to this butchered "upscale"
Original:
Benchmark:

[Rugno]

"When did the light fade from your eyes?"


But seriously. my girl went from to :[
I don't know if I can play like this.

[anzumajo]

Absolutely agreeing with my previous posters, the changes to Viera faces of both genders were absolutely horifying and I genuinely do not recognize my character again.



Just a list of things that absolutely irk me:
- Lack of dimension in lips
-> Lack of gloss in lipstick (main reason for picking lipstick in the first place)
- Pupils are WAY to contracted, used to be more dilated
- The "glow" of the eyes is too heavy and too saturated, gives the whole look a very unrealistic feel, perhaps it's just an effect because of the small size of the pupils
- Nose contouring is too dark on Veena but too light on Raava.
- The shadow cast on the upper part of the eyeball is WAY too dark, it'd need to be toned down a notch.



Went into the benchmark with the expectation of thinking that she'd look like the left but instead was left with the right. For me it'd be fixed if the pupils went back to their former size, it'd restore most of the visual appeal of face 3 for me. But a fantasia wouldn't be enough, I might have to actually switch races if this is left unadressed, it's really disappointing to see.

[Incuboy]

So overall I'd say my character looks pretty ok with the new graphics however there are a few things I've noticed which I'm not too fond of and would like to address.

1. Probably my biggest issue is that the eyeliner tattoo (tattoo 1) is a lot lighter and blurry compared to before where it is darker and sharper. I'd like to hope that they will adjust this so it is more prominent like it was previously but we'll just have to see.

2. In certain lighting, typically in shadows, skin will look really bright as if it's glowing slightly which just looks odd. This is probably an issue across the board for all races. Skin also can look like plastic in some situations such as the shot on the boat at the start of the benchmark.

3. Shadows around the chin and jaw blend in a lot with the neck which gives the impression that the face is blending into the neck (visible in environment 3 of the character creation.)

4. The lips look pretty off. This might just be because they look different to what I'm used to, but it was probably the first thing I noticed when I went into the character creator. The colour of them looked a little too dark which could be adjusted by changing to a slightly lighter shade. Whether this was how they were intended to look all along or not I don't know but it threw me off a bit. They also look much less glossier. Honestly they should just add a lip gloss slider.

5. The textures on the 4th ears look really blurry and pixelated which doesn't really work well with the hair textures which are vastly improved.

I'm no expert and I'm not gonna pretend like I know how these things work but I feel like having darker shadows in places would help certain features feel more prominent, like with the chin looking fused to the neck for example. I'd also really like to see the eyeliner tattoo be improved. Having it look so blurry and the black (colour 8) looking so light really detracts from it.

I think that some sliders should be implemented in the character creator menu. I've noticed lots of people taking issue with the eyes looking lifeless. I personally don't have many problems with the eyes however a slider could be added which simply changes how lively they look.

I'd really appreciate if they made some adjustments regarding the things I've pointed out. Overall, I'm happy that SE is giving us this update I just think it could do with quite a bit of work.

Benchmark:


In-game:

[Seliana]

These are the same data import, and I'm just... so torn about the graphics update mainly on the lips for female Viera face 4. It honestly looks like they were trying to replicate Gaia's lips on them. There is no pout or curved cupids bow on them which causes them to look like a completely different person. I may have to lower the color a bit for my character's eyes, but I can't fix the lips since there are not many options that are close to the original model... I really hope they will fix this issue at some point, because this is very disheartening to see

Current Model:






Benchmark: