Updated benchmark

[LlymlaenGreene]

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.

Yeah, I agree with you, it's really funny. I'm glad that at least in this way I make someone smile :3

[Iscah]

Cross-posting with the female Midlander specific thread.

I'm still bogged down in trying to do some more detailed diagrams and things, but I really need to get something posted as time draws short.

The graphics update hasn't captured my Midlander well at all.

Specifically this is face 3, jaw 3, eye shape 4, eyebrows 4, nose 5, mouth 3.

Some improvements were made since the first version of the benchmark - the heavy crease over the eyelid has been erased, and it helps her to look a bit better - but the eyes and the expression are still wrong. It feels like she has lost her confidence.

Comparison of all three including previous benchmark:

Comparison of current appearance and new benchmark only:


And at a wider distance:


You cannot tell me that these are the same person. The basic attributes might be the same but the details are all wrong.

---

General issues with the face:

• The eyes are vertically lower and horizontally wider, giving them a drooping appearance and making her look sleepy or ill.
• The nose seems to be bigger and dominates the face in a way it didn't previously.
• The underside of the nose is more slanted instead of being fairly flat, so you see more of it from a front angle.
• The lips are larger - it seems like the shadow under the bottom lip has been reinterpreted as part of the lip. (Someone previously pointed out this had happened on one of the Au Ra faces, and I can now see that it has happened here too.)
• There is a weird pucker on the face (see below).
• The neck is narrower where it meets the head.

The eyes are my biggest issue. You can see in this comparison gif that it goes from being a very "upwards" sort of shape with the arc of the eyelashes basically centred over the pupil, to being low over the eye and heavily weighted towards the outside corner, which has been pushed outwards and become more slanted. It drastically changes the feel of the character.





Specifically regarding the pucker on the face, it's difficult to describe but you can see it in this following picture from the benchmark. As soon as I saw the benchmark I immediately felt like she was pulling a weird face, although I couldn't say what gave the impression until I had it at the right angle for these creases to catch the light. From pulling some faces in the mirror, to get diagonal-inward lines like this to appear on my own face I had to make an exaggerated "ooh" sound with my lips sticking out. It's not a straight resting face at all.




Additionally there are some strange shadows being cast by the hair onto the face:



And some particular weird lighting on the eyelid rims of the benchmark model, so they're brightly lit high up and then have shadows lower down, where the original version has a more controlled, permanently dark outer rim that better frames the eyes.



I wrote it on the image but I'll say it again - my current character is beautiful and I don't want to lose her. She has a perfect balance of looking friendly and confident and sweet-natured, and the benchmark doesn't capture any of it. The soul isn't right.

[Irishfae]

The soul isn't right.

Exactly this!

I have 8 years and thousands of hours of screenshots and video with my character (as she is now) and this new version doesn't feel like the same one I spent those thousands of hours journeying with. It is super frustrating. I get that not everyone cares what their character looks like (my brother hits random and that is it, he's good) and I get that some people really like the changes and super stoked to try the updated races. You guys are the lucky ones.

But this is such a disappointing change for me that I'm thinking of using an alt in the beginning and hoping that they allow us to keep the original lines before using my main again.

And, related, adding some new pictures I put together. I really don't understand why the lines/shapes were changed. It feels like someone was looking at the original model, and then tried to redraw it from memory and got really close, but not quite (the new ones are lovely - they just aren't my character) and called it a day.

[Cheapshot]

I have 8 years and thousands of hours of screenshots and video with my character (as she is now) and this new version doesn't feel like the same one I spent those thousands of hours journeying with. It is super frustrating. I get that not everyone cares what their character looks like (my brother hits random and that is it, he's good) and I get that some people really like the changes and super stoked to try the updated races. You guys are the lucky ones.

But this is such a disappointing change for me that I'm thinking of using an alt in the beginning and hoping that they allow us to keep the original lines before using my main again.

And, related, adding some new pictures I put together. I really don't understand why the lines/shapes were changed. It feels like someone was looking at the original model, and then tried to redraw it from memory and got really close, but not quite (the new ones are lovely - they just aren't my character) and called it a day.

I feel exactly the way you do. It's 5 or 6 years for me, and a screenshots folder that's 30GB. I still have the original fantasia I was given but I love my character so much I've never used it. Another free fantasia isn't going to fix this for me, especially when there's only two or three extremely similar options per facial feature to switch to. I've honestly felt depressed about this whole thing. My character doesn't feel like my character anymore to me either. You inspired me to make a split screen comparison. I made mine a video. Hopefully this works. I also made one to show the missing lip gap as well as the change in face profile.

Video of front on comparison: https://i.imgur.com/f2crDvz.mp4



I really want them to spend more time making things closer. Faces is how most of us recognize others. It's too uncomfortable for me to see these changes.

[Irishfae]

Another free fantasia isn't going to fix this for me

I wish they would, but same for me, no amount of fantasia is going to fix her.

Hopefully this works. I also made one to show the missing lip gap as well as the change in face profile.

Nicely done! The beginning with the EW part first and the profile view seems to make the change more striking.
I think is also nicely showcases the bizarre change in the color palette too. Fair skin is now even fairer (easier to fix, but I'm wondering what sort of technical thing causes that to happen, unless it was an artistic choice. (And before anyone wants to fuss at me for this, yes, lighting does affect how the color is perceived, but this goes beyond changes to the atmospheric lighting - as others have also pointed out.)

I really want them to spend more time making things closer. Faces is how most of us recognize others. It's too uncomfortable for me to see these changes.

Exactly.

(Fun little story: One of kids came in while I was typing this up and I still had your video up and he looked at it a moment and said "the eyes are wrong, it doesn't look right" about the DT version. And this coming from someone who doesn't play the game. Just an interesting observation.)

[noumen0nn]

It feels like a countdown to doomsday where our characters just get deleted and replaced with some alpha build that got slapped together before a lunchbreak and forgotten about. It feels like they're saying "eh, this is close enough".

Just checking in as one more person who shares this sentiment. I want to be excited about a new expansion coming out, but instead I'm dreading DT as an oncoming deadline where I'm going to lose my character. As was said above, the graphics update, whether you like your character or not, is not release ready. I just can't understand why they gave us the first look only 2 months before release. Or how the first benchmark made it through QA despite the myriad glaring bugs and nonfunctioning lighting.

I've had my WoL for 4 years, never fantasia'd, and have taken well over 1000 gposes with her. I'm angry at the dev team for effectively taking her away by forcing this low-effort "upgrade" on us.

[Dazedu]

5 years, and 8 thousand hours. One "fantasy" to change the color of the eyes at the very beginning of the journey. 70 gigabytes of screenshots. I really don't like what I saw in the 2nd benchmark, it's like I lost my character. I don't recognize my favorite miqo'te in the new benchmark, and I don't understand why they made it worse, even in such small things as the detail and shine of the eyes, which now look more like the eyes of a rotten fish. I'm afraid of you, Dawntrail.

[CidHeiral]

and I don't understand why they made it worse

That's the double edged sword of player feedback unfortunately. Some things I liked from the first benchmark were changed for the worse in my view as well. Addressing feedback from one group is always going to piss off some other group.

[Dazedu]

That's the double edged sword of player feedback unfortunately. Some things I liked from the first benchmark were changed for the worse in my view as well. Addressing feedback from one group is always going to piss off some other group.

In this case, I'm talking about eyes, comparing them to my miqo'te. They've gotten a lot worse. The quality and quantity of parts suffered. As for other controversial issues on a global scale, I liked what was in the 1st version of the benchmark. I've heard about his problems, and I don't deny them. They were worked on, but something else was broken. What for? It hurts me to look at it, I don't want to look at it.

[Odstarva]

Everyone is so excited about the upgrade characters we are getting across the board, just talking to anyone in-game. Everyone I know feels that way, but I visit the forums and it's like I am in a parallel universe!
I'd really hate if they went back on the Elezen changes, I genuinely hope the dev team won't go back on this.

I empathize with folks feeling betrayed with the character changes, I really do, but some of us have been waiting for something like this forever... Don't take it away from us!