Viera Changes

[Silvarae]

I'm honestly kinda devastated. I absolutely loved my bun but the changes to the mouth and nose make her look like a different person :/
current ingame look:

benchmark:

I also feel like the lighting is kinda off? Looks like if you use a lighter skintone you kinda just turn into a lamp now.

[Taliriah]

People are way too fixated on details. There's a million little things that looked awful in the old characters that everyone have learned to overlook but trust me, once you're used to the new ones, when you look at old screenshots or videos you'll wonder how you ever felt it looked ok before 7.0. Some of the biggest changes on my char actually are improvements on things I didn't actually like but had gotten used to.

Perhaps they could tone down the skin reflectivity a little bit (I can see why they did it - real skin is always a little bit oily and photorealistic skin shaders usually incorporate that by adding a little amount of reflectivity, but it might be overtuned here or even unecessary given the less than realistic art direction), then again it's only a problem in some of the character creation scenes, which may not even have been reworked.

[Lyth]

...

It's not really 'fixation.' Your fusiform cortex's entire existence is built around processing facial features (see: pareidolia) so that you can actually identify who people are. It's not at all surprising that even slight variations can leave people with a subconscious sense that something feels 'off'.

While there are some issues around color lighting changes and skin 'warmth', I think the most noticeable change is in the mouth design, especially in the upper lip. There's a natural bow-shaped dip on the upper lip just below the philtrum where the lip fuses during development, but it's not preserved on the bottom aspect of the upper lip on the new models. The previous artist seems to have picked up on this anatomical feature, but whomever designed the newer model did not. I think a lot of people have independently picked up on this.

[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:

[knaveofcups]

this is pretty yikes...


this viera preset reminds me of a few years ago when people would constantly overline their lips with cakey matte lipstick. The colors are still terrible too.
also usually I don't use any dark makeup on this face because I like giving it a softer look, but the permanent eyeliner they added ruins it a bit.

for reference, the original character...

[Spooky_Biscuits]

I want the old lips back not this smudge.

Face 4, Signing off.

This is my exact issue. what the flip is this lip filler replacement

[Taliriah]

It's not really 'fixation.' Your fusiform cortex's entire existence is built around processing facial features (see: pareidolia) so that you can actually identify who people are. It's not at all surprising that even slight variations can leave people with a subconscious sense that something feels 'off'.

Having experienced character graphic updates in other games I guarantee you that anything that feels off now will not fell off anymore after a week or two post 7.0 release. And there are much more offensive defects in the current characters (for example the extremely hard lighting on the skin) that you have learned not to pay attention to anymore.

[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.

[Rudje]

People are way too fixated on details. There's a million little things that looked awful in the old characters that everyone have learned to overlook but trust me, once you're used to the new ones, when you look at old screenshots or videos you'll wonder how you ever felt it looked ok before 7.0. Some of the biggest changes on my char actually are improvements on things I didn't actually like but had gotten used to.

Perhaps they could tone down the skin reflectivity a little bit (I can see why they did it - real skin is always a little bit oily and photorealistic skin shaders usually incorporate that by adding a little amount of reflectivity, but it might be overtuned here or even unecessary given the less than realistic art direction), then again it's only a problem in some of the character creation scenes, which may not even have been reworked.

"Just get used to it" is not an acceptable answer when they explicitly stated that our WoLs would look the same but with new shading and then turn around and release faces with random changes that completely alter the character of the face. A lot of these alterations actively look worse than an upres would have, like the lip fiascos.

[Koukomo]

I am not a Viera main but the whole reason I was enamored with Viera enough to make one on my roster was the dusted bunny nose and the current changes have really.. scaled that back. He looks like he has a normal human nose now with a slight darkened bit to give a subtle bunny nose rather than BNUUY NOSE and that makes me sad.

I'm not as attuned to Viera features as Viera mains but I do agree that, of the characters I've seen for the Benchmark, the Viera were done dirty.