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

[Moonsprite]

I'm glad that you do! But I personally think these eyelashes are too much, I really loved the way the old lashes looked that they didn't curl up and had an almost downward sloping look to them. She had a bigger nosebridge with a bump on it that was sandfiled, I was really happy with the way she looked and I'm sad that 'flaws' that she had that to me made her charming to me got standardized. I think this is personal preference, but I think they shouldn't have gone that overboard. Alot of eyeshapes look very same-y now because all I notice is the heavy copy pasted thick eyelashes.

1. Stick to the original look
2. Add a toggle

If they really are inspired by mods then this change should be optional rather than 'this is what you get now'. I don't even have any other eye options that has sparser eyelashes because they ALL have the same copy pasted eyelash design. Don't get me wrong, I think she's pretty, but I also think alot of the old charm that I chose is gone.

I think more options are a good thing. I doubt anyone would disagree with that. It really highlights how limited the character creation in this game really is though. I don’t know which way they will decide to go with either reverting or keeping the changes they made (I really doubt it’s all shadows/lighting). Unfortunately, I doubt they will let us have options.

I don’t want to derail the thread but I want to mention that the viera/Hrothgar situation has taken years to implement hairstyles and they still can’t use a good majority of hats. I know tiny graphical fixes like eyelashes are easier to change than fitting hats, but I doubt they will actually add options for people now.

If they didn’t update character creation for DT, then it probably won’t happen until next xpan. There was a great opportunity during this graphics update to do things like unlock Au Ra horns or let Hrothgar have all their racial styles and they didn’t do it. They even made hrothgirl hairstyles locked to certain faces. I’m guessing it won’t be a priority for now.

[Evergrey]

I think more options are a good thing. I doubt anyone would disagree with that. It really highlights how limited the character creation in this game really is though. I don’t know which way they will decide to go with either reverting or keeping the changes they made (I really doubt it’s all shadows/lighting). Unfortunately, I doubt they will let us have options.

I'm thinking that considering all the cutscenes and pre-rendered animations that most likely are made using the new face skeletons and shapes, I doubt that they even can revert the changes even if they wanted to.
Because if they did, and the cutscenes being tied to the (most likely) new animations they'd have to cut all the pre-rendered cutscenes from the game, unless people want janky as hell cutscenes with weird facial expressions due to less than limited facial structures.

My 2 cents, so I personally am expecting things to stay with the changes.
Lighting, shadow and color touch ups I can see happening. But nothing drastical with how things are shaped.
But who knows, maybe they'll surprise me.

[Rueby]

I just honestly want my nose back. This is an entirely different nose shape. I like that bump give it back to me and in the process please give moon face 1 their fairly straight nose. There's no other option that looks like this on this face and it kinda sucks. Why did they add a bump to a nose that BARELY had it and while mine, I obviously have it, I got a whole new nose. I really loved that cute nose bump

Slider

I am personally moon 1 face, and they did the exact opposite on the nose straightness. It was near straight and now there's a bump, come fetch it?

[Arkdra]

I'm thinking that considering all the cutscenes and pre-rendered animations that most likely are made using the new face skeletons and shapes, I doubt that they even can revert the changes even if they wanted to.
Because if they did, and the cutscenes being tied to the (most likely) new animations they'd have to cut all the pre-rendered cutscenes from the game, unless people want janky as hell cutscenes with weird facial expressions due to less than limited facial structures.

My 2 cents, so I personally am expecting things to stay with the changes.
Lighting, shadow and color touch ups I can see happening. But nothing drastical with how things are shaped.
But who knows, maybe they'll surprise me.

Naw, they could. What they would have to do is 1 of 2 things depending on if they scrap the entire project or try to implement a toggle as asked for in the thread title. If they scrap the just the character aspect of the graphical update, then they would throw out all the animation work so far and have to redo all of it using the original bones. Certainly possible, but there's no way this would be doable without a significant delay in Dawntrails release. Don't really have any idea how long that would actually take, probably bare minimum of 2 weeks but if you told me 3-4 months I'd believe you. This gets even longer if they have to revert other aspects of the graphical update like the lighting and he new plants and such. Which, they probably would but whatever, that's more in the weeds than I want to get.

If they wanted to develop a toggle then they don't scrap anything, but they do now have to do several things. First, they have to implement the toggle in a player facing way. 2nd, they then have to redo every cutscene with the old models to make available so that people with old bodies see those cutscenes and people with new models see the new model cutscenes, while also finishing up the new model variants. Once they have old and new versions of cutscenes, they need to create a way for the game to recognize which version of model your character is using and have it play the corresponding cutscene. Then they need to QA all of this so this whole idea means an even longer delay to DT's release than with option 1. Additionally, they are now locked into doing this in perpetuity forever so now not only is dawntrail delayed but every patch and every expansion has that much more time added between releases to accomodate this.

In my extremely unprofressional opinion, there is 0% chance they ever do 2. With enough blowback they might be talked into doing 1, but we aren't remotely close to that level.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I've made my post some days ago here, but then I figured it would be nicer to elaborate further with more comparison pics. Taken in the Aetherial Sea instead:

Figure 1


My prev post already covers most of my likes and dislikes. But I really would like to reiterate that I severely dislike the new nasolabial folds as it destroys his youthful look. I would be fine if those only become prominent when doing certain emotes. Alternatively, add an age slider.

The ear looking less jagged in DT quite possibly the result of more poly being added, which is lovely.

Figure 2


Face paint is applied to make it easier to see his eyelids on one side. I only did the tracing on right eye but left eye also suffers from similar issue of "having its poly upped but failure to keep the old eye shape". I'd really like to keep his old eye shape.

Additionally, they did make the eyelid less thicker & his sclera is also brighter in benchmark, but I'm indifferent to that.

Figure 3


The tracing shows that his lips are re-sculpted from heart shaped to bow shaped. Additionally, his upper lips and the tips also look less defined. I severely dislike this change. I hope this will be addressed in the 2nd launch of benchmark as promised, though.

Figure 4


There it is again, nose bridge is thinner in benchmark. Nose trills are also shrunk. That being said, I do like the new, better shadows. I'd like to keep the old shape and the new shadows.

Overall, I think it'd be great if they would add more options.

[SweetestLily]

Just leaving a personal request here since they are responding to feedback. I understand they are redoing the benchmark to reflect the correct lighting, but lighting is not the cause for ALL of the problems people have seen. I would like to see Auras smaller pupils brought back, I will attach an image, both are 7.0 auras. In the top image I used paint to edit the eyes to bring back the smaller pupil and put the light back into the eye, the bottom image is what we have in the benchmark now. I VASTLY prefer the top image. The character looks so much more full of life. Forgot to mention I also attempted to give the lips a bit more shape but im not an image editing pro.

[savagetas]

I'd like to add that they for some reason changed the shape of the eyes on male miqo'te face 4 and rounded them and made them smaller. They also need to do something about the black line that takes up half the eyeball. My main concern though is that the eyebrows have zero definition and completely blend into my skin from most lighting, even in the actual benchmark. The lack of a darker texture underneath the eyebrow makes the eyebrow thinner with darker hair colour, and non-existant with lighter hair colours. They even made the eyebrows less straight as they seem to curve into the nose at the inner part. I'm not sure why they felt the need to change such small features. Other than that, I'm happy with the update.

[1313]

i am also concerned because i like my character a lot i spent like an hour making her and i find her to be really cute but i got the benchmark and copied my appearance but it looks entirely different now and a lot younger too. she looks like a teenage girl now instead of a girl in her 20s and everything seems so dull
one good thing tho was i like the way the iris looks now its pretty when zoomed in

[LittleArrow]

I just wanted to add, it was pointed out in a thread that I can't seem to find (please point it to me if you know and have the time!), that there was a change between the Veena live and update. They have adjusted the pupils to be the same size as the Rava Viera.

Please change the Veena pupil back to being larger than the Rava.

I know it may seem like a very small change, but it completely changes the feel of many Veena characters. The larger pupil denotes a softer / cuter look than the Rava which has the smaller pupil and a more savage / bosslady feel. The eyes of a character is a huge determining factor in how they feel to the player, and this drastically changed the feel of mine. Please, change it back to a larger pupil.

[Dragondancer]

Benchmark feedback

Please let my catboy be the same as he is!! Male moonkeeper miqo'te, mouth and eyes WRONG in Benchmark

Here he is now, perfect the way I want to keep him




Here are the images from the Benchmark




In the Benchmark his MOUTH IS BADLY PORTIONED and EYES DEAD WITHOUT THEIR SPARKLE OR CATCHLIGHT and LIDS TOO HEAVY and SCAR TOO PROMINENT, COLOR LOOKS BAD ON GREY SKIN and he's MISSING his long KEEPER FANGS

Please, please, I spend half my time in game staring at how cute he is and I don't want him to be completely ruined!!! This is supposed to update the graphics on the game, not turn my beautiful, gorgeous, adorable pointy-fanged, cute-lipped, sparkly-eyed moonkeeper into something I can barely stand to look at. Please help. ;-;