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

[Araxes]

My character(s) can't even be adjusted to look the way he used to. The options are just completely gone. Absolutely fucked over.

I am sorry for you and everybody who "lost" their original character. I still do not understand why they changed so many things and as i said: My Wife also switched cause she thinks that her character looks completely different in the graphics update.

I guess i got lucky with my character creation choices. Even got my Fangs back.

[TheVegetable]

I am sorry for you and everybody who "lost" their original character. I still do not understand why they changed so many things and as i said: My Wife also switched cause she thinks that her character looks completely different in the graphics update.

I guess i got lucky with my character creation choices. Even got my Fangs back.

I assume it's not intended, just a failure to capture the original look. Having done art myself, I know how difficult it can be to capture the finer details when recreating something. But I wish they'd be more dilligent with it and put in the effort to fix it.

[PaulusHamsteru]

I posted this in the other thread as well, but here's a comparison photo of my character. They completely changed his eyes, nose and shape of his face/head. I just want my old character back.
L.E : His face is a lot more rounder in the cutscenes, it almost looks bloated.

[Kuro_Matsu]

There a some changes made that I knew I would just have to get used to since they are artistic changes and not the fault of lighting or broken textures.

The skin in direct lighting is much, much better. In shadow, it reverts to the waxy look I'm not fond of. With the updated lighting, my character now has a slimming effect on her cheeks and chin, eye bags, and a more youthful look. Not happy about her looking younger, but it is what it is.

For things that weren't a lighting issue such as the corners of the lips being straightened instead of a small smile, larger pupils, droopy eyelashes (outer corners of the eyes are "pinched in"), and dimmed limbal rings in bright lighting (in night lighting they glow)—I had hoped this would be changed since, although small differences, it changes the expression of the character.

There is also the separate issue of missing scales on face#1:



And another issue when zoomed out the head base can be seen through the hair:



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Overall, I'm not completely dissatisfied, but also not as happy as I hoped to be. I know I'm probably just being nip-picky, but I've been staring at this character for 8 years, so it'll take me a bit to adjust to her updated look.

[Shiro-Marusu]

In light of the release of benchmark 1.1 I've come back to share new comparisons;

Admittedly I initially had no motivation to do this because I'd distanced myself a little since I just don't want to keep thinking about things I don't like, but I probably can't rest easy until I feel I've done all I can do on my end to highlight the differences. The rest will be up to the devs and majority vote, I suppose.

Not much has changed, so my feedback in my earlier posts here and here still largely stands.

So compared to benchmark 1.0, they have made the eyeliner less dark;


The good thing about this is that it visually makes the eyes appear less small, though I still would like for them to try and have it resemble the old shape more as described in my post on the japanese forum:


Aside from this, I have actually noticed two new things that are, in my opinion, worse than they were before.

Firstly, there is now a visible seam alongside the rims of the eyes;


Secondly, they seem to have removed the texture or normal map (whichever it could be) that originally created the double eyelid. In benchmark 1.0 the eyelid still resembled the patch 6.58 one, though because it has been removed the existing eye-socket now seems to function as the eyelid instead. It makes the eyes look much more prominent and round, and it looks a little odd from up close as it is more of a dent than a fold.

Here is a comparison of the eyelid shape;


The new eyelid fold either does not exist or is close to the eye-socket now, which already existed in benchmark 1.0. However, the new lighting makes it more noticeable;


The stronger shadows from the improved lighting now also make the fake smile effect from the lips more noticeable;


I don't want to be a pain in the butt about it. I respect the devs a lot and I know they're trying their best. But I hope they can fix some things even if it's after release of 7.0.

But to end this post on a more positive note; I did in fact notice the improved highlight in the eyes, as well as dynamic highlights on the hair. The fangs, due to their changed position, are more noticeable with various emotes, which is nice

[Jijifli]

Gonna copy paste from another thread.

I do wish to share that I do notice the awkward neckline on my character now, which for some might be difficult to notice, but is something I've seen before with specific gear pieces, only now it's part of the model itself (no gear impacting it).



I'm adding a second image to line where I see it, to help. It's 100% easier to see on the right side of the neck vs the left due to my lighting.

[Fjarrisky]

My biggest issue is the contrast changes due to the lighting implementation, especially the eyes, which also have the murky catch lights; I noticed slight form changes on the eyes (and lips) but my poor miqo eyes look wrong even when I change colors, they're dull marbles! (also the hair shading looks weird to me now!) She looks like a bit of her soul has been sucked out ;_;

I think the art team and the lighting people aren't working well together on the overall issues, that's why we are getting lighting based artifacts and seams (normal maps can be a pain!) Hopefully fixes will be implemented, at least for the glaring hair/seam issues and the catch lights in the eyes!

1.1 Bench with color change for hair+eyes || Live

[Edfrick]

I want to give the developers some credit and say that the recent benchmark release is so much better than its initial release. Overall, I feel as though I don't have many complaints in relation to other races. My biggest issue is still just with Face 2 Au Ra.

My favorite thing about Face 2 Au Ra is how silly it looks. It sets itself apart from the other Au Ra faces in that regard. I feel the change on the new benchmark is an improvement from the first; but its a massive departure from the original face seen in the endwalker. I think that the new face Two Au Ra could be a unique face option in its entirety; if the developer's goals are to be as faithful to the original, the mouth size should return to how it was in the endwalker. The face looks like it's trying too hard to come off as an "improvement" but doesn't seem to understand or capture what made the original face so unique.

[PaulusHamsteru]

Going to repost this and hope that they see it and fix my Hyur's face.

[Bloodrayne2452]

After looking into my character in detail, I noticed a few differences from the update. I don’t have any photos to show. Nor do I know how to share from my mobile if i did. But, for the most part my character is fine. I can live with it. Things like skin color being a bit different can be fixed with the free Fantasia I guess. And the lip color needing to be changed at the crystal bell. However I noticed for Face 2 of the keeper of the moon miqote, her cheeks have very noticeable redness/pink tone that wasn’t noticeable before, and it’s not in any of the other faces. I picked a very very light skin tone originally to look pale and kind of ethereal. And now she looks “alive” I guess you can say, due to the noticeable cheek coloring in face 2 and the skin color change in general. Playing in character creation with her loaded appearance and changing the skin color, really shows how pink/red it was when I switched to go more pale, and then flip back and forth.

Also noticed the face paint for outer eye shadow hardly does anything except making bottom lashes look thicker now. Where as before it actually looked like eyeshadow and covered the waterline on bottom and part of the lid on top, now I can barely see a difference even with picking dark vs light for the same color. And after looking closer, it really makes the waterline look really thick for some reason. Unnaturally so with all eye options. The face paint would help that empty space if it was actually in the water line like it used to be. Also, I have always used the brightest white color for her eyes. They used to be so bright they almost glowed a bit, and now it’s more dull. But not too much to make me absolutely hate it. But I did notice it from looking at old pictures on my phone.