Updated benchmark

[Kanehon]

I mean this as respectfully as I can given how angry I am, especially having seen your posts get torn apart on the Japanese side of the forums from you sharing a slew of SNS links of people happy with the changes without their permission in a feedback thread just because you're happy with the update, but you do not get to police any of us who are dissatisfied by saying something as bold as 'make a new character'.

Directly from Yoshida himself:


(There is no "IF" in there. Direct quoting is your friend.)

This is the very same man who has told us between two PLLs and a Fanfest:




And in an interview with Real Sound just in March of this year:


We are allowed to be upset. We are allowed to be angry. More importantly, we are allowed to keep sharing feedback as it is what the development team wants.

Rock, hard place, I know, but they honestly could've avoided this if they've been way more upfront and transparent about the work done when making such sweeping statements to a playerbase who have characters they've played upwards of 14 years if they came over from 1.0. It was insulting to hear in the PLL the special attention paid to things like rock textures and placement of rocks when they know that there is a large number of the playerbase upset with the character side of the updates.

I made a reference in another post drawing over the shapes, and it's clear they have changed the shape of it significantly in many cases. The Updated textures are great, but the shape changes makes the characters look like different people, as well as changing the expression.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6486425

[LlymlaenGreene]

Character updates is always difficult because characters are going to look different, it's just a fact. With more polygons, better lighting, shadows and textures the characters would never look 1:1 the same as their 6.58 even if they tried.
(Like imo your new au ra looks pretty much identical to your 6.58 au ra). But to you it looks different.

At this point I think it's better to just either make a new character or just try to get use to your new look in-game where you can dress them up and see them in varied lighting.

You can tell these fairy tales to children at night. You don't need to be a graphic artist to understand that new shapes are a free interpretation of existing shapes. They don't have the task of recreating 2d graphics from the Nintendo era. They have enough of the current polygons to add better textures, polygons, lighting so that the character remains the same and at the same time looks like an improvement. To leave everything as it is and improve the details, you need to try a little. It takes a lot of effort to change ALL the current details of the face, and make them different, which we see in the benchmark. I see you are concerned about likes and this is an indicator for you. Take my gorgeous dislike for this square enix work.

[Risough]

I'd also like to note that the deepened furrows were not present in the original benchmark.



I hadn't mentioned the first benchmark in my comparisons as it had been deemed a defective product. I feel it is worth noting, however, because I had no opportunity to leave feedback until version 1.1 as opposed to some who had the chance for their feedback to be incorporated after the first benchmark.

[Loggos]

Yeah his face does look a bit older and more weary to me. In the 1.1. version he kind of reminds me of Raubahn.

[gatorbait]

I really appreciate the developers releasing a benchmark that allows the players to see the actual changes to their character. Asking for feedback shows concern for each player and their personal feelings regarding the changes.

Any modifications to the feel of the character should be made as part of a character creation update. The fantasia is an excellent gesture, but it is poor comfort to those who feel they cannot match their character with the few options provided. Many of us invest a lot of our time and ourselves in these characters and have played with them for a long time. They need to take care to match the characters as they are now, or people may feel betrayed and leave.

[SherlottaEryut]

EW:


DT:


My friend said she's turned into Anya Taylor Joy (Side note: LOVE HER but I'm after a FFXII Viera look)
I think she looks less rabbit-like...? I'll have to play around in the benchmark a bit more but at the moment not sure how I feel about this.

[Iscah]

For me the update's changes making my WoL look like a different char is a bit like your favourite character getting updated out of the game.

This is also actually a possibility, given that these changes will affect NPCs as well, either by default because they're built in the character creator or because the major characters' custom faces are presumably being updated through the same methods and by the same people who were supposedly aiming to keep the characters looking as they were before.

[Evermomo]

The truth is, all of the statements about the graphical update are PR comments. I don't say this to be negative about the development team, that's just the reality of it because SE/CBU3 is a business. They're ambiguous and leave room for interpretation. It's impossible for us to tell what counts/will count as an "issue/necessary adjustment/response to player feedback" vs what counts as "a subtle difference in nuance" except in retrospect. Since game development is such a complicated practice with so many resources and disciplines competing with each other, it's possible that answer could change day by day. So I sympathize that it's hard for SE to make specific promises.

Either way, we won't gain anything by trying to argue with each other where that line is. Making it into a player vs player issue and calling people "selfish" if they disagree with you feels unnecessary.

[LlymlaenGreene]

I can't speak for everyone, but I was expecting something like this. It's just the same shape and improved, clearer textures. With new shadows, subsurface scattering and many other modern things. *these have only upscaled textures*







I'm also messing around with the graphics editor a bit and I got my character back, hehe. I just put in my old eyes, mouth and lips. And she didn't change anything else. However, the nose has not been able to make the colors of the new skin, brightness, contrast and saturation have changed many times and this is the best option.

what i added

pictures.
old hyur

benchmark version

edit version

[Evergrey]

I'm sorry.
But when that came up while scrolling down the post I burst out laughing.
I wasn't expecting a couple of eyes, nose and a mouth floating like that.

No bad intentions.
Just looked funny.