Updated benchmark

[SquidzureDragoon]

Overall, I am happy with the changes, but I will say that in the updated benchmark, they took away the only I liked: my bunboi's lil nose fuzz. Now he just has a hyur nose and he doesn't look like my bunboy. I tried other noses, as well, but none of them (for Rava, at least) have the little dark patch of fuzz no matter the lighting or angle, and that's kind of heartbreaking to me since it's similar to au ra limbal rings and moonkeeper fangs: a unique racial feature.

[SongOfTheWind]

Overall, I am happy with the changes, but I will say that in the updated benchmark, they took away the only I liked: my bunboi's lil nose fuzz. Now he just has a hyur nose and he doesn't look like my bunboy. I tried other noses, as well, but none of them (for Rava, at least) have the little dark patch of fuzz no matter the lighting or angle, and that's kind of heartbreaking to me since it's similar to au ra limbal rings and moonkeeper fangs: a unique racial feature.

I think it was overfixed, as it indeed lost its unique pattern, but the benchmark face 3 nose was pretty broken for veena especially. It was never so dark as they made it in v1.

[SquidzureDragoon]

I think it was overfixed, as it indeed lost its unique pattern, but the benchmark face 3 nose was pretty broken for veena especially. It was never so dark as they made it in v1.

They waxed my poor boy's nose! For some reason, they really seem to struggle with viera noses.

[MimizuMizu]

First of all I am very satisfied with the changes and how everything has been addressed until now. As of now, however, I still have a very small nitpick for my lalafell character and i'd like to provide feedback on that since that could also be an issue for more people.

Here's my character in the new benchmark and in-game as of now (patch 6.58):



This is a female dunesfolk lalafell with the first face, type 6 eye shape and type 3 mouth.

It's hard for me to put this in good words, but her eyes have lost it's "sharpness" and now have a more "round" feeling to it. I believe the cause of this is the shape around this highlighted region:



Now for this next one I am not really sure which one I preferred, but I'd like to also note the changes for the mouth shape:



With all that I'd be pleased if its possible to give some attention to this, specially the eyes. In the benchmark I feel like my character is way better than what she was before and I'm still very excited for the next expansion!

[Chaika-Soulblaze]

Well, I am not particularly happy about the update (I liked my characters appearance since ARR era), but at least the new benchmark is better than the version before and it is "ok" now.
I don't really like the new mouth shape and the corners of it, but I don't think that will change anymore.
It seems I have also lost some eyelashes in all those battles in Endwalker, maybe they got burned off in some fire.
Fangs are still not as I wanted them to be but I rather take those than the other ones.

front view (EW benchmark - DT benchmark)
https://imgsli.com/MjY5NDcy

fangs (EW benchmark - DT benchmark)
https://imgsli.com/MjY5NDcz

benchmark (DT benchmark old - DT benchmark new)
https://imgsli.com/MjY5NDc0

same settings have been used for the comparison except I have not uncapped the FPS for the updated benchmark

[Iscah]

It will take me some time to get through all my characters, so I've got two to show for tonight.

Firstly, my face 3 Midlander.



There have been some fixes from the previous benchmark, but not as much as I would like.

The eyelids on the first benchmark model are lowered from their current position, making her look sleepy and losing her wide-eyed look, and this has not been reverted for the second benchmark.

However, they have fixed the very heavy eyelid line that appeared in the first benchmark, which is a welcome change even if they're not going to properly put the eye shape back how it was. The eyelashes also seem back closer to the original shape.

Other particular issues I can spot right now are shadowy bags under the eyes (this seems to be extremely recurring across many characters) and that while the makeup on the upper eyelid is dark, the lower outer eyelid has lost the mild shading that helped to define the outer edge of the eye.

The overall expression is also... something unplaceable but not quite right. She feels less confident, I think? Which is not what I want for my bold Warrior of Light off on an adventure.

All the changes add up to make her look slightly ill compared to her current appearance.

The silver clasp on her shirt also stands out and seems to be looking progressively dirty and tarnished with each update. This is what I have been fearing all along, because every time we've gotten "HQ textures" on things they're so often ugly scratched textures and it feels like we're not allowed to have nice polished things any more.

[Taliriah]

The overall expression is also... something unplaceable but not quite right. She feels less confident, I think? Which is not what I want for my bold Warrior of Light off on an adventure.

She looks less o__o which I think is an improvement

[FrechDax]

i dont like the new benchmarkt tbh.
the shadows are a complete mess. looking at the hair shadow on the neck. left one looks so smooth and the right one almost unhealthy.
left is 1.0 and right 1.1

[Iscah]

My other character for now is male Au Ra, which are much improved from before.



He's still not as close to the original as I would really like, but the key details are getting much closer. He's back to having well-defined makeup and a shadow on the inner eye, rather than an ugly mass of black.

Face paint is still misaligned and clashing with his cheek scales.

The chin is too pointed and the scale edges around the upper edge of the "beard" are oddly square while the original looks more rounded.

Eyebrows are not as dark as the current appearance.

The mouth is still very downturned at the corners, giving him a grumpy look that wasn't there before.

One particular omission which I have touched on before is that the current structure for this face has an interesting effect where the eye doesn't entirely fill the "window" of the eyelids and a spot of colour can be seen around the edges of the eye. While this is not currently visible when viewed from straight-on, it is visible at most other angles, and I think it would be good to put a small amount of it back in.

I assume that the restructured face can't have it only visible at an angle any more, so it would have to be permanently visible, but I think it would work. It would fill in the very pointed inner corner of the eye, and we do actually have the small exposed muscle there.

An image edit I made with a couple of possible tweaks:

[Geda]

First of all thank you devs! <3 The updated environments really make a big difference on making the characters feel more alive!

I am generally pleased with my character, though I had to make small adjustments such as slightly changing her skintone, and going for the fuller eyebrows option, since the slim ones disappear a bit too much with my hair/skin color combo.

I liked the stronger eyeliner in the outer corner of the eye in the old benchmark, but I understand the changes on the new one are going for a more realistic look, so I suppose I'll get used to it.




Not sure if anyone reported this already but I noticed these shadow lines happening consistently when my highlander has her Race outfit on, and they seem to go away on her Smallclothes. I dunno if this was on the old benchmark already but if it was it wasn't as noticeable for sure.

Benchmark v1.1 Smallclothes vs Race Outfit: