Benchmark vs. Fanfest First Look at Graphics Update - How Do They Compare?

[xirune]

I wanted to start this thread because over the past week, despite how much discussion there's been about the graphics update, I haven't seen very many people bring up the visual previews we got of the updated character faces before the benchmark. I decided to revisit the very first preview we got at the 2023 Fan Fest in Las Vegas, and it was really interesting to see the differences. I think this first preview may have been of the original face sculpts but with the updated resolution and shaders applied, because the face shape and features seem very similar, and commonly brought up issues about the benchmark models like the very different lip shapes seem to not be present? I'm not 100% sure on this, however, so I'd be interested to see comparisons between the models shown here and characters in the benchmark that have the same features.

What do you all think of the previews shown here vs. what characters look like in the benchmark?

Archive of the Fan Fest stream (character face previews start at 1:48:20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--_vb2j_qDo

[Evergrey]

I never fully trust anything shown before a release, as a lot can change and we've seen multiple times when games launch that it's nothing like the reveal trailers or images.
And I want to point out the small text to the bottom right corner of each image.
That should speak for itself.

[Rudje]

Honestly seeing the lip difference in the Viera is baffling because the current situation is a pure downgrade. Just bizarre to see effort put into glowing up the old shape only for what we currently have to exist.

The lighting in general is too different to really use these as comparisons for anything but shape, though. Not exactly a source of pure white light in the cc or the benchmark as I recall.

[Evergrey]

Yes, I'm fully aware of all that! I think you may be assuming that my intention with this post was to be like "look how much better the first preview is, they should just go exactly back to this". That's not what I was intending at all. I simply thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the overall differences are, what looks better vs. what looks worse, exactly how different these models are from the benchmark ones, etc. While there are things I like better about these previews, there are other things I don't (the texture on the Hrothgar's face looks particularly rough). Not trying to advocate for carbon copies of these models, just wanted to compare and see what people thought.

I apologize if my comment came out a little too straight forward.
What I wanted to bring forth was that a lot of people take whatever they see/read as granted and anything but is wrong.
It's great to look at new stuff and get excited and look forward for it. But some need to remember to keep that anticipation on a leesh until they can get first hand look on things so they won't get too carried away and then lash out when things isn't as they was "promised".

Personally I like the Benchmark versions more than these images.
These images looks like 3d models made in Blender and not game characters.
(I think it is Blender. Never used it but iirc it's a known 3d modeling tool.)

[Rueby]

Honestly, these really curated pictures looked really good but I don't think that's what we got in the benchmark. Subject to change can mean worse or better. I think they should've taken more time for this change and shown players the CC in a live letter, and pushed a demo for the players to use and see the changes for themselves.

When I look at those photos I feel 'okay, this looks like what we have in game but looks alot better', when I booted up the benchmark and went into CC I had a 'what happened?'.

So, I really wasn't worried about the graphical change initially now I'm abit more apprehensive.