[Dawntrail] Benchmark Graphics Update - Hellsguard Roegadyn (Smudgegate 2024)

[Allegor]

if you feel like things are looking too washed out, crank down the gamma correction in the benchmark settings

Both game and benchmark are at 50 (the default, as far as I'm aware) so I guess that's just how Red (will) look now, unless I start toying with the settings. I also noticed that under certain lightings, his hair color seems "dirty blonde" and blends too close to his skin tone, which is....not a favorable look at all - for the record, that's the deepest tone of brown so it can't go darker than that, except straight up black I guess.

[faiarrow]

It's taken me a day to process because I'm still quite upset about this all, but compiled here with direct match-for-match comparison caps and my thoughs as to some of the changes. A little more in-depth than my prior mood of just 'well, goodbye to my character.'

For the record:
Yes I have run the benchmark. I am aware the CC lighting is not 'the same' as the dynamic in-engine lighting. I can't get comparable side-by-side caps of Sko outside of the CC. The only thing the benchmark actually running showed me was that her skin is a touch warmer and more like her in-game and PS5 CC colouration, and that my concerns regarding other things are still quite valid.





The pros:

• Texture update generally seems to be OK - there are issues with the way hair blends into the forehead made by floating sections on certain racial styles and the new lighting engine shading under them so it makes it blatant they're floating, but that can be ironed out.
• Racial gear texture update is great.
• Hair might be OK with tweaks, the clasp at the back on this style has clearly not been updated yet as it is very poorly textured and looks flat.

The cons:

• I can live without the permanent catch light. I don't think the black pupils works on f!roegadyn after almost 10 years of seeing them with the coloured/jewel effect. Impacts lighter eyes especially.
• Rhinarium/ash/smudge being made so light in the new skin is a problem; the lighting engine will not magically make it darker. Removal of prominent racial specific traits like this erases identity and makes it hard to believe the intended PLL statement that our characters will simply 'look better.'
• Lips certainly aren't fantastic - the new facial bones have adjusted how the lips sit and they seem to be quite a bit smaller?
• Tattoos and face paints still being 256px is pretty jarring. I suspect this will be fixed in time but it's really awful in the benchmark.
• Angle of the new lashes seems to be heavily impacting the visual of the already problematic new eyes, shades them intensely and even in scenes where there should be more brightness to the eyes it makes them very dark.

The problem of streamlining the workflow for the update so that all human-like characters are stemmed from hyuran models is really starting to show, even within the hyur themselves seeing a lot of disparity between midlanders and highlanders. I know roegadyn are not exactly a beastial race compared to the likes of viera, or au'ra, but we're losing a lot of the galkan origins from the XI roots of this race with so much smoothing out.

[faiarrow]

The loss of the rhinarium definition atop the jewel eyes going (the black pupils really mess up the visual for me) makes my character of 9+ years look very much not like herself.

If I didn't care about those traits I would play a highlander, but I love them, it's the entire appeal and it feels like homogenisation to have them toned down or stripped away.

[Vuro]

Dang, one of my fav aspects of Hellsguard Roe is the ash smudge, so it's a shame to see it so washed out depending on your skintone. It would be nice if we could toggle it "light, dark, none" like we can the tattoos/lip color.

[travelerofeorzea]

Wow, they really lightened the nose on females. I thought mine looked ok? I will say the apparent saturation of black hair and nose definitely changed depending on the lighting (all taken at 0 gamma correction)





I was overall very pleased with the update for my character, but it seems like it was a bit of a dice roll because they did change a lot.

[IgnisLilly]

My poor girl without her smudge. Setting aside the darkness, it doesn't even run along the line between her nostrils. Looking very closely at the model as it is in game you can kinda see that it might be exempt, but hardly.

[chesnaught]

I agree that the nose feature is too light in the benchmark. I'd like to see at least an option to make it darker like it was previously. Mine looks kinda light brown in the benchmark instead of black like it is currently, and I prefer the black as it is in game currently.

[SeriousPan]

It's way less noticeable now for mine as well and it's the only real issue I have for Roe's with the graphics update. I'm disappointed since I think it's a very attractive and defining feature for all Hellsguard. I do hope they consider touching it up since with the new lighting it makes it even harder to see mixed with the new mapping on the skin.

[Nonou]

1. A toggle for black nose specific to Roegadyn - could be in the facial features section
2. A toggle for matte/glossy lips for all races, not just Light/Dark

Lips in Endwalker have a shine to them even when in shadow. Lips in Dawntrail only shine in light, and none in shadow. Most of the improvements are good, but some can give you that "not me" feel, such as mouth shape. And of course zoomed out a bit, everything looks fine. The textures are good, scars are improved, the hair got better, increased polygon count on the ears/chin/nose/eyes is good. Areas that could use more work: maintain the original mouth shapes of 6.58 (all races), higher polygon count hair (all races).

[Yuffah]

I came to the forums just to talk about this!
My femroe looks pretty good in everything else, but the nose spot really bothers me.

It used to cover more nose surface and it was darker. It gave them a bit of leonine look, and it was a huge charmpoint!


I think the male roes have it slightly better, but I think they both looked better before the update.

The female one is way too light not (and i also think it got too small).
I wish they could at least make it customizeable...