Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

[Papayatar]

Here's how my man looked in the opening:

Ah ok it’s such a weird thing cuz many others just looks dewy and then you have…sir wax figure.

I think I saw somewhere that the skin transparency + lighting is also bad with certain skin tones so I’m guessing that’s maybe part of the problem? Either way hopefully whatever issues are in the benchmark are just because it’s benchmark and not actually the final product.

"Easiest fix" would be giving us the option to pick the current aesthetic while keeping what's been developed. I doubt their penchant of having some sort of spagghetified coding in their engine preventing them from doing just that would just go away, but since they wanted the feedback... welp, here we are. /shrug

I don’t think it’s be the easiest to do a toggle. Have they ever given us a toggle for anything ever? Other than like an off/on toggle like for hats and weapons?

Also I swear in some LL or something they said the spaghetti code isn’t or is barely spaghetti by now??? And current issues are just general limitations from other resources.

[Fawkes]

Decided to check out the Japanese side of the forums and they are popping off over there. It's like the most I've ever seen them post about something and every other post has detailed descriptions and diagrams of what they don't like.

先日の新情報発表に続きベンチマーク公開ありがとうございます。
風景や装備等の質感への細かいこだわりや美しいアップグレードの数々で、新たな冒険へのわくわくがこみ上げてきます。

一方でキャラクターに関しては非常に不安という気持ちになりましたので、ベンチマークでのキャラクリエイトを見ての感想、要望を投稿させていただきます。
アウラ・ゼラ♀顔タイプ４を使用しています。


以下に、何が何故変化して見え、違和感につながっているのかに重点を置いて記します。




【目】
上の画像の四角いバーは瞳の中心部から下部までを切り取ったものです。
瞳孔の拡大＋虹彩の強さにより瞳の半分程が黒く見え、選択した色が反映される範囲が極端に狭くなっています。そのため明るくしたくて明るい色を選んでも暗く濁って見えます。
瞳孔がくっきり小さいものからぼんやり大きいものになった事で、焦点があっていない、凛とした意志を感じられない漠然とした視線に変化して見えます。

FF14のキャラメイクに限らず、瞳孔の大きさは普遍的にキャラデザの命とも言える部分で、僅かな大きさの違いがキャラクター性に重大な変化を与えます。種類が選べるようになるのであればキャラメイクの幅が広がって良いことですが、既存のものがただすげ替えられるだけならそれは改善ではなく単に改変であると感じます。

アイラインだけ環境光の影響を受けないのか、変に浮いている場合があります。


【唇】
ベタ塗りのマット感とかまぼこのような曲線のくっきりしたアウトラインは、従来の逆さ富士のシルエットとやわらかいぼかし表現からすると膨張しぼってりとしすぎて見えます。くっきりしているのにシルエットの中で色のメリハリがないため印象はぼんやり弛緩して見えます。


【鼻】
黒い線で描写されていた鼻が薄い色の大きめの穴になった事と小鼻の膨らみが顕著になった事で、すらっとした細いラインだった鼻筋がずんぐりとした団子鼻になっています。


【鱗】
顔の鱗の先が丸みを帯びた事で従来のすっきりしたシャープな印象が失われ、もたついた感じがします。



【全体】
瞳孔の拡大、鼻の拡大、唇のベタ塗り、鱗の丸々した形状。以上の影響で、全体的にずんぐりむっくりもったりした印象になりました。薄い刃のようなシャープな雰囲気や、影のある少年のような凛々しさ、神秘的な美しさを感じてアウラの顔タイプ４を愛用しているのですが、新版からはそのような鋭さは皆失われたように思います。

個々の顔パーツが拡大し顔のデフォルメ感漫画感平面感が強くなった一方で、小鼻・人中・口の端のような本来形を消したい部分にリアルめな凸凹の陰影がつくようになり、不自然さの原因になっています。

実際のゲームプレイのライティングに関してはまだわかりませんが、パーツの形、大きさ、バランスに関してはライティングの環境如何でどうにかなることではないと思います。

肌の質感テクスチャ＋目まわりのコントラストの弱さが原因ではと思うのですが、ぱっと見たとき逆に「あれ？顔面の解像度低くない？がびがびしてるな…」という印象を受けることがあります。また、おそらくモデル自体のテクスチャへの描き込みや影・ハイライト等による立体表現が顕著に減っているせいで、色々な比較画像を見ている中ライティングが弱い状況の場合なんだかPS1かPS2のゲームのキャラクターを見ているような感覚になってくる事があります。

全体的に環境光や反射光を反映しすぎなのか、肌色が黄ばんだり緑がかって濁って見えがちです。

広角レンズで撮ったような、顔のパーツが外側に広がるような印象があります。鼻の下は間延びして見えます。目頭から瞳までの白目の幅が広くなっていて、瞳がわずかに外側を向いています。



これを踏まえ、要望を記させて頂きます。

【前提】
クオリティーアップに対して期待するのは、パーツの形や印象はそのままに、テクスチャが高解像度化したり、質感や光の表現力が向上することです。動いたら気にならないよ、ではなく、ただ普通に立っているだけでも美しく見えるようになってほしいです。

【要望】
・元に戻すために必要な措置として
　　瞳孔　70％程度の大きさに
　　リップの形　かまぼこ型から逆さ富士型に
　　リップの質感　グラデぼかしや艶感で情報量を増やす
　　鼻　ずんぐり団子鼻になっているので小さく細く
　　顔の鱗　鋭く
　　デフォルト表情の視線を鋭いニュアンスに
　　下がった目尻を上げる

・別物の表現をするなら上書きではなく新規に別の選択肢を設ける
・全体的に、モデル自体のテクスチャだけでどんなライティングでも最低限立体的に見えるように

以上です。


鋭く、凛々しく、綺麗でかっこよく、ひんやりとした透明感を持つ顔タイプ４の印象をそのまま引き継ぎいで美しくなった私の光の戦士といっしょに、新たな冒険に出られることを願っています。どうぞご検討よろしくお願いいたします。

[Luluna]

I don't visit the forums much, but wanted to post some feedback.

Midlander Females: I am very happy with the way Midlander females look, specifically face 5 (the one that was added in ARR). I was planning on fantasia'ing back to Midlander for Dawntrail, and having looked at her in the benchmark I am very excited! I really like her skin texture and the brightness of her eyes. The eyes on this face have a tendency to look like dark soulless pits or deer-in-the-headlights, and IMHO they look more alive now. I did notice that the eye colors seem lighter in general, but since a good chunk of the eye colors available range from "dark" to "staring into the void", this should be an easy fix for anyone that prefers their darker eyes.

Female Miqo'te: IMHO their normally full, rounded cheeks are especially emphasized with this update. I'm glad I'm not going to be a Miqo'te when this update hits, though objectively they are still cute and in general they got a nice glowup.

Lip feedback (general): they do seem a bit less plump (boo!) and paler in general, and I feel like the lip colors are a little more matte and opaque which I am not a fan of. When I choose the "light" option I prefer the look of a tinted lip balm or a light gloss, not a pale lipstick.

Au Ra female eyes: the pupils look larger which I feel gives a more vacant look. They are already cute and have options for larger eyes, they don't need a more "doe eyed" effect from larger pupils. Combined with the less vivid limbal rings (which I personally like), I can see why people are complaining about their eyes looking dull and dead.

I hope SE makes some minor tweaks, but overall I am happy with the changes and think they are generally positive (with many being good, and some less so). I do feel for those that were unlucky and got changes they don't like for their characters. I may have gotten lucky this time, but when we went from 1.0 --> 2.0 my character's face changed just enough that I didn't like it anymore, and I wound up remaking her completely.

A lot of what you have stated is how I also feel about the new update. I really like the look of most of the things they have changed. Like yourself I enjoy a pale gloss and I am not a fan of the matte effect on the lips. I also know how you feel when I logged my first ever character who I loved so much into ARR my heart sank as she ported badly and I never played that face again and I used the fantasia...since then I tend to change here and there as I really did miss my Cat from 1.0 and nothing ever clicked since. I can understand player's feeling how they do over it but it was the same for us my Husband changed race also and a few others who I know from 1.0 because of it.

But I do love how my Hyur looks her eyes are a little paler but I will have to get in the game and have a play around.

[Shiro-Marusu]

I... am speechless. He's like a totally different character.

Oh man, the differences are quite noticeable indeed!

Maybe I am weird for thinking this, but the new one reminds me a little bit of David Bowie, lol

[Hejligan]

I might be the oddball here, but some people's characters in the benchmark actually looks so much better compared to what we have currently. However, I get the sentimental value of the "identity" of our characters.

I would say that identity is more or less 70% of what fuels or arguments. Some characters look good, some might even say better, but they don't look like the players' characters. And that is extremely important, as Yoshi P himself said. Their stated philosophy for this change is to maintain the identity of the characters.

That is why I feel so upset when they change the actual structure of eyebrows and eyelashes, which in turn changes the entire feel of the eyes. I expected fundamental changes to graphics affect the way characters look, and was somewhat ready for it, but I was not ready for actual assets being seemingly deliberately made different for no discernable reason.

[MisterNublet]

My Elezen looks nearly identical. The lack of deep shadows in the benchmark makes the face look smoother and rounder, but the shape looks exactly the same. The eye color seems dull giving that "dead-inside" appearance.

https://i.imgur.com/xCWAxFe.png

My Hrothgar on the other hand has some notable changes. The ears look like its a lower resolution, appearing with less fur and texture. The eyebrows and eyes seem to have changed shape. The eye brows were pulled up and the eyes were opened wider giving him a more "surprised" expression, the larger eyes created white spots on the inner corner of the eyes and the bottom of the eyes now sit over the facial markings. The purple markings also look faded and dull, which could be gamma related, but easily fixed by selecting a darker color.

https://i.imgur.com/njv5Gbo.png

Overall, it isn't bad, they definitely are going to need to do some touch ups before release.

Edit: Added direct links for larger images.

[Isurith]

Decided to check out the Japanese side of the forums and they are popping off over there. It's like the most I've ever seen them post about something and every other post has detailed descriptions and diagrams of what they don't like.

Man, i registered on the forum just for this, this is so spot on. I need my smug and thin faced xaela back please.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Ah ok it’s such a weird thing cuz many others just looks dewy and then you have…sir wax figure.

I think I saw somewhere that the skin transparency + lighting is also bad with certain skin tones so I’m guessing that’s maybe part of the problem?[...]

I'm almost sure it's something that's more prominent on M Midlander Face 7 with darker skin tones. I gave the benchmark another go to play with his skin tone a bit.

Try 1:


He looks okay.

Try 2 with warmer skin tone:


Still looks okay! So how about I bring that shade down to my man's tone?

From my own character's:


............................... 'nuff said lol.

[LansEvernovice]

Skin gets a soft rubbery look when in strong light, it look like the inside is hollow and you can easily cave in the face model if applying pressure.
The skin and eyes also have a green tint but I'm switching between PS5 and the PC benchmark so I dunno if that does it.

Some droopy charm of eye shape no.1 was lost, maybe it's just the more prominent eyelids messing things up?

The loss of the permanent lipgloss is truly tragic, but if anything there needs to be built in dark shade for middle of mouth line so it pops more?



Really way too green compare to my warm gray.......

[EstelleCere]

I just want to know how this:


Turned to this:


Like idk, I was excited for the stuff they were showing us in the LL previews because at least things still *looked* the same like the before and after. Now things look completely different from what they originally showed us and I don't understand what happened. I know they said things were subjected to change, but even in the fan fest in japan they had, the previews still looked like how they were before. Idk what they gave us now