Updated benchmark

[LittleArrow]

I'm not going to get into semantics, at the end of the day it is what it is. The newer version looks much better than the older version; however, my viera lost all of her harsh / sharp lines. She's so smoothed out she looks like a strange doll or like she's having an allergic bee reaction. No, I don't think this is - you just have to get used to it. Anatomically, the face isn't the same. They literally cut out any sharp line in the face. Everything is so smoothed out and rounded off it's not the same character. Is it worth pulling up diagrams and drawing lines anymore? Not to me.

All I have to say is, whoever redid these faces should really understand they fundamentally changed these characters and the feeling they once gave to their players. They're not the same.

I said it before, I'll say it again, lighting does not change the anatomical structure of the face. The lines are different. I'm happy for those that enjoy it. I commiserate with those that feel disappointed. Overall, really not looking forward to Dawntrail; no corsair, new taxed subscription, no game mechanic I'm looking forward to, races still totally unfinished, and a broken payment processor. Sorry for the negative post, just my initial response.

[LuciaMirain]

It is a huge improvement and looks alot more like my actual character. I still am not happy with the nose having shadows removed bc it makes the nose look rounder than what it is. This issue disappears as soon as I turn my character a little bit into a shadow ofc.
My miqo though looks really good! Overall alot happier with this benchmark. And excuse the difference in light but since they adjusted it I can no longer get the entire face lit up like in the other ones.
OG

Benchmark 1

Benchmark 2

Miqo
OG

Benchmark 1

Benchmark 2

[Gyson]

I'm still really disappointed with how my character turned out in the updated benchmark. It just doesn't look like the same character to me, nor does it look like an improvement. I realize Male Highlanders aren't as common as some of the other races but I would appreciate seeing them get some love with needed fixes.



Left is Endwalker, Right is Dawntrail. Face Type 2 is being used.

Mouth Type 4 - The lips appear larger, both in width and height. This is likely because the shape of the upper lip has changed. Significant space has been added into the cupids bow, where previously nearly none existed. Mouth Type 4 is the smallest sized mouth available to male Highlanders and should remain as a small option, rather than being sized closer to the other larger options already available.

Hair - The hair, while more detailed when zoomed in extremely close, seems much less detailed when viewed from any reasonable distance. I believe this is due to the lack of shading that is now present in the hair, causing it to look very flat.

Hair - Two-tone colors no longer blend nearly as well as they used to, and for the lighter color I am using the darkest shade available. I can not make it darker without switching to a different color entirely. Again, this seems to be a problem with lost shading or variance in its color, so rather than each tone having areas that are slightly lighter and slightly darker and allowing the sections to blend together better, each section now appears separate and distinct (which is not good when it's supposed to be a blend).

I have not seen these issue on all hairstyles, so it seems to be a problem with this particular hairstyle.

Face Paint (Eyebrows) - The placement of these markings is positioned significantly higher on the brow than it was pre-Dawntrail. This makes the character look more "surprised" all the time. Please return the eyebrow face-paint to the position they currently occupy in Endwalker.

Face Paint (Eyebrows) - Even with the darkest color (black) selected, the shade appears lighter or less vibrant than it currently is on live. This makes it difficult to pass these markings off as eyebrows, as the lighter they appear the more fake they look.

Nose Type 6 - From brow to tip, the entire ridge of the nose is now more squared off and blocky, where as previously it was more smoothed/rounded. This gives the ridge the appearance of being wider.

Skin tone (RGB 169, 133, 104) - The skin tone has changed and is darker than it is on live.

Jaw Type 4 - The chin is a bit shorter than pre-Dawntrail, making the head look more squared instead of oval.

Of all of these, the most important ones to me I would like to see fixed (those with the largest impact) would be the issues with the hair, the eyebrow facepaint, and the mouth. At least then I would feel like my character is "close enough" to what I have now, although even then it still feels more like a downgrade than an upgrade (which is disappointing given the work/time that went into the graphics update).

[MoonstalkerZ]

My character's pupils turned gray, he looks blind
1.0

1.1


Edit: The full face picture makes it look even clearer
1.0

1.1

[Lyaha]

I quite like how it turned out with the new benchmark.

The shadow below the mouth texture seems to be much higher quality, though I find it a bit much, slight reduction would be nice but I think it's the same on the live build, just lower resolution.

[Isurith]

Can't help but be disappointed. The update overall is impressive, and the new benchmark is very nice (the aetheryte on the map/party up scene catched my eyes this time, it's beautiful).
And I won't say my character was "butchered" like some people extrapolate.

But still, the feeling is still off, the problematic changes were not coming from lights (and everyone that said that before are just full of bad faith).

Mouth shape is changed (and that seems to be the case for a lot of variation), and pupils got bigger without reason (and without any way to correct that with a fantasia).

In the end, I will live with that and get used to it if I must. But that's sad. I liked the sharp mood of this face, and that feeling is lost.



Au ra F feels more samey between face than before, and that's a shame imo.
Not only face 4 lost, but overall the custom options lost.

[Azalea_Forest]

Here's my observation: Limbal rings give off actual light now. It's subtle, but look at the way the lighting around the eyes changes with and without the rings here:



However, it's only at night. Limbal rings in the daytime look a little brighter in shadow than direct sunlight, so that's where I've placed my character, but you can still tell there's no glow.



I'm assuming the glow is something that gets turned on at night in game, probably at the same time the background music switches from the day version to the night version. I think the glow is lovely, and of course, it looks much closer to the way my character's limbal rings look in the game right now. If the glow was on all the time instead of just at night, or we at least had the option for it to be on all the time, I'd be satisfied.

[Larirawiel]

Pink ring of death.





Cheers

[RivenWasTaken]

Other than the eyeshadow, i'm happy.

[Sacae]

Holo looks great, I'm really happy.