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

[AmaliaFuma]

I think the benchmark character creator for dawntrail has (Character Lighting) turned on, because theres no way to adjust it in the benchmark settings, and the whole character lighting appearance is very similar to how it looks in the live game when turned to 100% in the graphical settings.

The first image (you can click them to make them larger) was taken in the current live game, ignore the cheek tattoo, but she looks cute right?



The second image was taken in the dawntrail benchmark. As you can see the character lighting is turned way up for some reason.



But notice the eyebrows? Their grey and look weird, like they were stuck on her face, even in other lighting conditions it still looks grey and weird, compared to the first image.

The eyes look visbly more open, if you look at the pupils (the dark bit) their shown fully, whereas in the first image it is ever so slightly cut off at the top, giving the eyes a more almond like shape, and cuter imo compared to the update.

The eyes also have a fake eyeshadow above them, and a shadow covering the top of the eye itself, it looks weird and i don't like it personally. The eyes also look dead which alot of people have complained about.

The lips have no shine to them, very matte, unlike the first image, but that could be due to the character lighting being turned up, as it washes out gloss effects i think.

These things are very noticeable, there is no way you cannot see the differences between the images, the eyebrows especially, and the weird eyeshadows. My character looks way less cute in the update compared to live and i hope it gets addressed.

[Tethan]

I think the benchmark character creator for dawntrail has (Character Lighting) turned on, because theres no way to adjust it in the benchmark settings, and the whole character lighting appearance is very similar to how it looks in the live game when turned to 100% in the graphical settings.

The first image was taken in the current live game, ignore the cheek tattoo, but she looks cute right?



The second image was taken in the dawntrail benchmark. As you can see the character lighting is turned way up for some reason.



But notice the eyebrows? Their grey and look weird, like they were stuck on her face, even in other lighting conditions it still looks grey and weird, compared to the first image.

The eyes look visbly more open, if you look at the pupils (the dark bit) their shown fully, whereas in the first image it is ever so slightly cut off at the top, giving the eyes a more almond like shape, and cuter imo compared to the update.

The eyes also have a fake eyeshadow above them, and a shadow covering the top of the eye itself, it looks weird and i don't like it personally. The eyes also look dead which alot of people have complained about.

The lips have no shine to them, very matte, unlike the first image, but that could be due to the character lighting being turned up, as it washes out gloss effects i think.

These things are very noticeable, there is no way you cannot see the differences between the images, the eyebrows especially, and the weird eyeshadows. My character looks way less cute in the update compared to live and i hope it gets addressed.

I have a little conspiracy theory they might have forced character lighting on to hide that they did not in fact fix self-shadows in stark light, but we will see. If the option to change character light disappears in 7.0 I can guess why.

[AmaliaFuma]

I have a little conspiracy theory they might have forced character lighting on to hide that they did not in fact fix self-shadows in stark light, but we will see. If the option to change character light disappears in 7.0 I can guess why.

Character lighting should be off by default, i only use it really when i want to check colours and other details in the hairdresser mode, and glam reasons. It messes with the natural lighting otherwise, so hopefully they don't force it on with the update, because that would be baaad.

[Reinha]

But notice the eyebrows? They're grey and look weird, like they were stuck on her face, even in other lighting conditions it still looks grey and weird, compared to the first image.

The eyes also have a fake eyeshadow above them, and a shadow covering the top of the eye itself, it looks weird and i don't like it personally. The eyes also look dead which a lot of people have complained about.

My duskwight has the exact same issue with her eyebrows! They now have a smudge with a fully blonde streak drawn on top, when it used to have black in the mix making the whole brow look darker and more defined. Even when the hair is blonde it doesn't look good to fill in the brows with a white line, that's why I chose a face with dark brows in the first place.

Eyes are also dead looking because the top half is darker. If luster spots / light reflections are appearing right under the top lashes, light is clearly hitting that part of the eye. So why is it so dark?

[Roda]

My duskwight has the exact same issue with her eyebrows! They now have a smudge with a fully blonde streak drawn on top, when it used to have black in the mix making the whole brow look darker and more defined. Even when the hair is blonde it doesn't look good to fill in the brows with a white line, that's why I chose a face with dark brows in the first place.

Eyes are also dead looking because the top half is darker. If luster spots / light reflections are appearing right under the top lashes, light is clearly hitting that part of the eye. So why is it so dark?

Ah that's unfortunate... It looks like that black was supposed to suggest a shadow/3dimensionality and the color above it was supposed to be your actual eyebrow hair color :x
Now it looks like you just had the middle of your eyebrows shaved!! :x

(also, I think the top eyes look WAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the bottom eyes. They look way more alive than the cartoon "dot" shine with flat iris colors.)

[Reinha]

Now it looks like you just had the middle of your eyebrows shaved!! :x

Yes it does and honestly it's changed the character's face too much for me to enjoy it anymore. There is no gamma setting or lighting angle that will make my brows dark again and it is also not something I can toggle in the character creation menu.

[DiaDeem]

Um... barring the obvious lighter eyebrows...

I think the new eyes and make your character look very pretty, more unique, and a lot less like a cartoon. The glow in the lower part give her so much character while the top darker part makes them look deeper and more interesting... but that's just me though.

[Gemina]

I get what you're saying with the eyebrows, but the eyes in the top image are far superior to the eyes in the bottom image.

[Anarnee]

I have a thread with my complaints for Roegadyn, but I thought I'd compile it here too.

After a few days to get over how upset I was over how different my character looked in the 7.0 benchmark, I decided to gather my thoughts and put that energy to make a thread of things that I hope the devs will look at while fine-tuning the Graphics update.

I play on PS4, gamma is set to 50% by default, with the same setting on the benchmark this is the results I got.



To say I was devastated is an understatement. I have 40 characters, 37 of them are face 2 Roegadyn, and no matter how I changed the options, I could not get my character to look right. And no, looking at her in the trailer did not help. The colors were still washed out and looked bad, and a lot of the features of Female Roegadyn have changed a lot and completely changed the impression of the face.

I took the time again to try with the beta set to 25% game and 0% and it helped a lot for the colors though everything still looks like it has a yellow/green/grey hue to it.

Though the colors are almost correct, a lot of features still look wrong.

So I took the time to point out some things that I think change the face too much.



I'm sure most people are probably not seeing many differences, but I look at this face almost everyday and to me it uncanny in a bad way.



1 & 2. You can see that the upper lips shape has been drastically changed. This is mouth option 1. In the 7.0 benchmark the lip has lost a lot of shape and definition.

3. This is eye option 1. While in the current game the lashes have a gentle slope down, they now slope up. It's not just for this eye option either. Every single eye option has lashes that slope up. This gives the face a much sharper look than before. The only eye option for face 2 that slops down a little is eye option 4, and those eyes are smaller and rounder.

All of the noses on face 2 look too round, too bulbous. The noses on the other faces don't look at bad, so I'm confused as to why all of the nose options on face 2 were made to look so different. There are already threads that complain about how they've lightened our nose ash smudge, so I'll leave those here;

Benchmark Graphics Update - Hellsguard Roegadyn (Smudgegate 2024)

Benchmark Feedback for Hellsguard Roe: Bring Back The Smudge

For mouth 1 They don't look as drastically changed from the front, though the lack of lip shine makes them look thinner overall, the lack of shade in the corner also changes the impression of the lips. None of the other options fair any better.

I don't feel like the profile view looks too different, and from above looks great too... but I do not look at my characters from this angle very often...



And lastly, the cupids bow\philtrum.

This is much more noticeable on my darker skinned characters, but the philtrum ridge above the lips do not match up with the lip on any of the face options other than face 4. It looks bad in my opinion, it elongates the area between the nose and mouth and gives the impression of a chimpanzee muzzle.

I would like it if it matched the contour of the lip, I can't think of ever seeing a person where the cupids bow and lip were so mismatched.

I'd prefer none.

There is also already a thread with complaints about the change in our pupils so I'd like to point folks to that for feedback on that;

[Graphic Update Feedback] Female Roegadyn Eyes

That's all I have for now, I hope that the devs will consider these adjustments. I've been Roegadyn since 2013, I love my characters with all my heart and it's so heart-wrenching to look at them and to think that come Dawntrail I'll never get to enjoy the game with them.

Thanks for your consideration!