Updated benchmark

[gatorbait]

I've outlined the area I'm unhappy with above. You can see the wrinkle around the brow is much deeper and darker now. The shading and contrast give the impression that he's always angrier than before. It's especially noticeable when viewed top-down as in the images from my previous post.

I was scrolling through the thread and this post stuck out to me. I feel this has aged the character without the decision of the creator. It should be offered as as option not a given.

[ThatGazzie]

I agree, the highlander face 4 looks different from the benchmark and should be reverted.

[Risough]

I've outlined the area I'm unhappy with above. You can see the wrinkle around the brow is much deeper and darker now.

I would like to expand on the bolded part of my message and properly explain how I feel face 4 Highlander changed. I have revised my previous screenshots to communicate these changes more clearly. First, however, I would like to thank the development team for their efforts on benchmark v1.1. The lighting improvements are amazing!



The furrows of the character’s brow have been made much deeper. In this view you can see that the brow has soft shadows in 6.58. In the updated benchmark there is instead a prominent wrinkle. This issue is consistent regardless of which eyebrow option is selected. I have tried to show the soft shading of the original in contrast to the graphic shape of the benchmark in my drawing.



These wrinkles are also visible from the front. The wrinkle is very subtle in the shading of the current version. In the benchmark the crease creates a harsh line between the bridge of the nose and the eye.



From the side you can see the wrinkle is again much deeper and darker. There is also an unnatural angle where the wrinkle crosses the border of the eye socket.



I have also taken a screenshot of my character without face paint for those who find it distracting. Here you can clearly see the deep brow wrinkle in contrast to the subtle shading of the current graphics. It is especially noticeable on the bridge of the nose.

Overall, I feel the impression of face 4 highlander has been significantly changed by the deepened furrows. Compared to 6.58, the character feels older and much grumpier. I feel my character has changed significantly. I would appreciate it if the brows could be adjusted to remove the prominent furrow. Could you please somehow correct the shading to be softer like in the current graphics?

I know the development team is doing their best and I am sorry to ask more of them, but please accept my feedback for consideration.

[Roda]

So far my only complaints are:

Dunesfolk nose smudge is still being eaten by what I can only assume is the translucent skin shaders
EW

DT



Whatever the hell is still going on with Fem Au Ra face 4's mouth (too puffy, too "pretty") and eyes (pupils TOO BIG, come on SE, this was mentioned to y'all since the very first Au Ra preview and y'all said that we could still retain that "dead look". Well, that "Dead look" was directly caused by them having smaller pupils.)
EW

DT



Face 3 Fem Au Ra's lips are closer than the previous benchmark, but still not quite where they were (they need a narrower cupid's bow, a more subtle transition from face meat to lip skin, and a bit more "simulated weight" on the top lip, dragging it down juuust a smidge)
EW

DT


While I LOVE most of the updates to my darling Mooncat face 4 (love the new teeth! and i'm so thankful her excess mascara has been washed off), I mourn over the loss of her charming lip gap (It looks like she's hiding cotton in her mouth now) and her more severe cat-like shape of her eyelids (the inside of her upper eyelid, near her nose, used to be vertical and leading to a point. Now it's more rounded looking more human than cat).

EW

DT



And while I don't mind that they added an actual philtrum to femroes, I do mind that they don't line up with the peaks of the cupid's bow on all but one of the faces!! D;
EW

DT



And honestly, this is just an unfortunate side effect of the shadows being correct, but I think it still warrants a second look to recapture the feel..
EW (So sweet, so full of hope) The shadows cheat the lips to look like she's smiling, almost wearing a :3 face

DT (the endsinger won with her) Since the normals are more accurate she's now wearing a full on frowny face (and also her facial feature makeup makes it look like she got punched in both eyes)



This one is just selfish really, I know this change was technically a fix but DAMN do I miss the Veena eyes from the old benchmark because it really helps me see my character's eyecolor better . I would SUPER appreciate having a smaller pupil option once y'all get around to updating the character creator.
Original Benchmark

A Benchmark Reborn



And honestly, I don't think adding in the fake eyeshines was a good move, now it just looks like the characters have a cloudy smudge directly on their eyeballs when you can actually see the fancy eyeshines working properly. It makes their eyes look painted on now.


Oh, and the hair seems to have a LoD issue or something, because whenever you zoom out just a little bit the texture turns into a muddy mess.


But honestly, aside from all that and the few bugs being reported, this new benchmark really knocked it out of the park, I definitely prefer this over the original benchmark!

[Dranyari]

I am definitely in the minority here, but I'm incredible unhappy with the new benchmark and much preferred the first version. (For the record, I had zero complaints with the first benchmark to begin with.)

The biggest and most glaring issue? How my characters, especially my dark-skinned characters, are washed out and ashy-looking.

No tweaks have been made to my characters; all benchmark images are based on their settings as imported from the main game.

FIRST BENCHMARK:

SECOND BENCHMARK:


My Highlander's skintone has lost the bronze-ish tan she had in the original benchmark, and her lipstick has also gone from a lovely true red to a much more muted tone.

FIRST BENCHMARK:

SECOND BENCHMARK:


My lalafell is the most noticeably egregrious; I didn't even remember she HAD the nose smudge, it's been so long since I created her and you can't really tell it's there in the current game, nor could you really see it in Benchmark 1.0. But here it blatantly stands out because her dark skintone suddenly looks much less saturated.

FIRST BENCHMARK:

SECOND BENCHMARK:


My Hellsguard is the most beautiful character I've ever created and I absolutely adore her ruddy skin and her blue eyes and I was taken aback by how washed out she looks in the benchmark. She looks sickly; her eyes and skin aren't anywhere near as vibrant, not even her hair.

FIRST BENCHMARK:

SECOND BENCHMARK:


And my poor, poor Xaela. Her skintone was the perfect cool-toned brown in the first benchmark, but now it looks like a brownish grey and her hair is noticeably less purple, too.

I was really excited by the first benchmark because FINALLY, my girls all looked as vibrant as I had always imagined them to be, with their skintones finally as close as possible to how I wanted them to be. And now they just...don't. It's really disheartening to see my lalafell and my au ra look so washed out, I adored how much their darker skins looked in the original benchmark. I'm really hoping that the benchmark cinematic lighting isn't indicative of the final product come Dawntrail, but just a stepping stone on the way to a full fix.

[eohippus]

There's improvements between this benchmark and the first pass! I like the lighting/shading, I'm happy that characters look less "waxy," and that the nasolabial lines were removed.

I went into this benchmark optimistic and pretty sure my issues were from textures or lighting. Unfortunately, not the case. Since Square is still asking for feedback, I thought it would be worth sharing the things that still stand out to me as worth a second look.




General comparisons: My WoL's face seems longer/his chin seems sharper. That could be because of the fisheye effect of the character creator though. Additionally, it looks like his nose (Midlander Face 5 Nose 2) maybe had its bump smoothed out between Benchmark 1 and 1.1 I am a little sad as I consider it a charm point.



More granular things! Like many, my guy got hit by changed eye and mouth shapes. The eye change is surprising. His were already a round, open shape others seem to have been changed to. He looks like his eyes are half lidded or mid-blink to me now. I liked the old shape. His mouth follows the trend I've seen on other models just less pronounced (but more noticeable than in Benchmark 1). His upper lip/cupid's bow has been elongated and thinned, but the lips overall are more pulled in and puckered. I was attached to the pouty upper lip with the mouth line extending out past both lips that he had to begin with. Echoing everyone who had an issue with lip shape changes, I'd prefer the original.

I miss the brighter colors on eyes and hair, as well as less grayed out skin. My WoL is missing the contrast he had. While it was subtle, I definitely notice the difference. I'd love if skintones could look more like how they do now. While I have the option of taking my WoL a notch darker in CC with the free fantasia, many of my friends play as characters who are already from that furthest row of skin tones, and they don't have any fix for how washed out their characters look now.

All in all, I see my issues as subtle versions of what other folks picked up on as in need of further review. Eye shapes, lip shapes, and skin/hair/eye color. I expected this graphics update to be more of an update to textures and lighting, not a remake of the models themselves. I hope that eventual fixes will bring us closer to that. I love the game and the fun I've had with my WoL so far, and I want to keep playing with him looking like the little guy I've gotten attached to haha.

While I don't expect fixes pre-DT, I'm curious if they could implement a 6.x/7.0 appearance toggle for this expac as they iron things out. I wouldn't suggest this if I didn't know the game was still going to run sans-graphics update on PS4. If the team is open to that temporary fix, I think it would be worth considering so folks who need more refinement and folks who like all the changes are good to go when DT rolls out. Cheers!

[eohippus]

Please pardon the image quality / my shoddy red lines / inconsistencies in lighting. I'm mainly talking about the changed shape of facial features, and I run the benchmark on my spouse's PC (I'm a console player)! I just wanted to get some thoughts/comparisons down while they're fresh in my mind (and sorry for the wall of text lol...jeeze)

[caffe_macchiato]

[AvaloniaFallen]

With the updated benchmark, I was thrilled to see that the lighting and shading are much improved. However, I am disappointed that the changes that were made to F!Au Ra face 4 weren't corrected with this update. The mouth change is the worst offender, where it looks like there was no effort made to preserve the original mouth changes, but the subtle changes to the eyes and nose also contribute to the feeling of this no longer being my character.


I assume the eye being more angular in the current version of the game is due to the lower poly count- however, it's a feature I think should have been better retained in the update, since face 4's more angular features are why many players pick it.


The new mouth looks like she's gotten lip fillers and is now stuck permanently smiling; the new dimples also contribute to the feeling that she's having an allergic reaction.


Please, never smile again.

[Pyshiro]

Just going to add the biggest thing I noticed that was taken from us lalafell... our belly button