Updated benchmark

[Nairat_Flammvor]

First of all I want to say thank you to development team for all their hard work and that they hear us, players. All of you did an amazing work and I really really like the graphics update!

I was pretty happy with previous benchmark but this one is even better. I was really concerned that time about the miqo'te fangs, now we have them back and for me they are in the state they should be.
Also I definitely love darker shading that we have in new benchmark, now game looks amazing. In my opinion this is the perfect amount of it.
Also I can recognize my boys even more than it was in first benchmark!



Lighting in character creation really looks way better now, still can be a bit missleading on some point (for me inside the game character still looks better) but I think that it's a normal thing to happen? Also found a seam on miqo'te neck as people already reported.
On top of that I really like how limbal rings are glowing in the night. Can't really remember if it was in first benchmark but I just noticed it and it's a nice thing to have.

Only thing that concerns me is state of lips of viera female face 4

Left is current, right benchmark. All lip options for face 4 are kind of weird and lost their character so to speak. At first I thought that maybe it's somehow connected with the fact that we will have more polygons on character faces now but taking in consideration that other viera faces have their lip shapes mostly untouched, it's a bit... weird?

[CidHeiral]

Here's my 2 bits of observations i guess, i'm generally fine with what they've done.


Cons:

• Global illumination decreased and more natural looking soft shadows replaced with harder more EW type shadows because people were complaining about flat looking scenes.
• Certain hairstyles that used to have a self casted shadow, no longer have it as a byproduct of the above change
• Visible neck seams on some race/face combos

I'm sure stuff will get finetuned until the end, so again thank you dev team for your efforts.

I agree, hair in your face mysteriously not casting a shadow looks very strange. I was confused what the dev post meant by saying character faces looked "mottled" when hair shadows are cast on them. That's just how light works.

[Lorefiend]

The new benchmark is strictly superior to the old one in many ways, so I'm glad the update happened and we get a chance to give feedback again for a hopefully smooth Dawntrail launch. I personally feel like the ambient occlusion on characters is great, but a bit too strong right now, it could use some toning down.
I'm also a fan of the drawn-on catchlights returning. I'm pretty sure not all zones were going to get updated right away, if the very first ones a new player will see weren't in time for the benchmark, so they were going to be badly needed (not that they're not a benefit in the new zones either, the lighting was rough even there in the first benchmark).
The lips have also regained a texture, when the first benchmark's looked so flat that 2.0's were better, so net positive change there too.

They fixed elezen facial animations being broken too, which is great, but... they didn't change the actual 3D model at all. All my old complaints in the elezen-specific thread for the first benchmark still stand; features are smoother than before, and different enough to not be because of a higher poly count model, the smiles are generally different enough to change the impression a character gives, and the skin still is too glossy.

I'm slowly losing hope of this changing, and I don't think we'll get a word on it either. I'm going to make enemies here, but I think the dev team has been the opposite of transparent about the graphics update; most preview images were before/afters with different angles and lighting, sometimes entirely different character options, down to those shown in the latest live letter. The current benchmark was announced by drowning us in exact dates of the QA process while having very little detail about what was changing.

This updated benchmark still gives me a little bit of hope, along with the latest announcement actually trying to be more accurate with its previews, and giving us the following message;

"As always, we will remain open to feedback even after the updated benchmark update and Dawntrail have been released, and will also continue to address any issues or necessary adjustments in future patches!"

Hopefully they stick to that, as we've had very limited opportunities to provide feedback so far. The second benchmark wasn't going to fix everything in a month and half, and the likely three weeks until patch 7.0 has to be ready to ship are not going to see much change either, but I sincerely hope the dev team won't freeze it there because of the free fantasia being given out either, and get back to us as early as possible with what they do plan on doing.

[Rudje]

Yeah I've been very disappointed with the state of communications with the character end of the graphics update. Threeish weeks is very, very little time according to what they've said previously about their process, especially for a full expansion, but I do hope that a post-7.0 patch actually properly addresses the complaints people have--and more importantly, that we actually have more accurate comms about it this time.

[HawkeScream]

Adding to the hyur pile. Benchmark on the left, 6.5 on the right.

1. The change in eyeliner shape is really affecting the shape of her eyes. It had a very thick gradient before (like a cat eye without the wing), but it's now the same size from inner to outer corner and much thinner.
2. The lips are very off. The top lip is thin and has no shape, where the current is very defined and has a bow-shaped cupid's bow.
3. Her nose looks a lot bigger. The shadows and highlights around her nose are very harsh and make it look much wider along the bridge, and septum is thicker/rounded out more
4. I cannot for the life of me fix her skintone. Even the palest shade doesn't match at all and I'm not really sure what's going on there to change that.
5. Darker eyebrows
6. The hairline on a good number of the hairstyles is extremely harsh and need to blended/softened a bit. Some of them look like straight lines across the forehead.

[Lomosma]

I'm happy with the lighting changes, looks great!
but can we PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE have the option to have the original lips, eyeshape and etc.
The change was good for most, I totally understand that some of those were not natural to many's eye,
we cannot ignore that it IS NOT THE SAME, what seems to be little differnce can change a person's look a lot,
just give us an extra option, it won't hurt people who aleady like the change, and it won't make us to fell so distanted with our characters.

Just saying, i'm a hyur player 80% of the time, they really look bad right now...and i don't want to stuck with lala forever

[Taliriah]

I agree, hair in your face mysteriously not casting a shadow looks very strange. I was confused what the dev post meant by saying character faces looked "mottled" when hair shadows are cast on them. That's just how light works.

A hair strand is far from being completely opaque so not casting a shadow at all is a better approximation of reality in most cases

[DarkRider7th]

So far I'm happy with the improvements from the previous benchmark as i briefly checked my characters except for my main. My midlander hyur (face 1) as such dark circles under her eyes it looks like she hasn't slept for a few days. I have tried different angles, different lighting, even darkening her skin tone a few shades but it doesn't remove it. I'll post screens later when I get the time.

[Remish]

Left is Current, then 1.0 Benchmark, and on the right it is the 1.1 New Benchmark.
I'm not great at this comparison stuff. The new benchmark updated so much lighting and other junk that angling in the same camera spot had Shadows not previously there.

[Coerced]

I prefer what was shown in the previous benchmark outside of the lighting. At least the changes to the shape of the eyes were obscured partially by the lashes.



Otherwise, none of the issues I have were altered in any positive way.