Updated benchmark

[Vertin]

She looks way too good now! ❤️ I love it!!

[Doozer]

As an aside from the career whiner that's always in these threads....

My sun cat is looking great imo!

I really like the colours you gave your character. It's really cute.

[Kathryn]

Most of you all saying 'something feels off' are saying that because thats the biggest difference the lighting makes. The current games lighting is /very/ bad. Now we have proper lighting. Shadows are more accurate and look a lot better. Shadows make things look different.

Its the age old shine a flashlight under your chin to look scary thing.

I also don't get the 'duck lips' complaint on the Au Ra pictures from that one person. Duck lips stick out. Au Ra lips are practically flat against their face in all four options on Face 1.

Some of yall will literally never be happy unless they give up on the graphics update and leave us with old models forever.

My character looks completely washed out in the upgrade also her jawline appears completely different, I had both characters face the light as thats the best way to get the most accurate look for your character but bar the hair being more details the upgrade looks like a downgrade to me and it was no where near this bad in the first itiration of the benchmark as I was content with the changes.

[huntor]

Lalafell face 4 Benchmark/Current

They stole my nose! I'm disappointed this wasn't something that was fixed with the update, the nose smudge is barely visible now.

Edit: this seems to only be an issue with Dunesfolk, Plainsfolk have their nose back...

[more_donuts]

Overall I think the updated benchmark is a huge improvement and the lighting in the different zones looks so much better. (Thank you devs for all your hard work!)

There are a couple things that still bug me, though...

- It seems like in making the eyebrows softer and higher res, they also thinned and lightened them on some face models. I would really like it if they reconsidered that, eyebrows are one of the really distinct parts of a face design, and I liked the stronger brows the way they were...


(...also the shadows from the headband on that hairstyle are awkward. I know they're still tuning that, so, uh, please reconsider that one too >_>)
- It also seems like the darkest hair shades have been lightened. In particular black hair is just kind of charcoal grey now, and the hair has lost its shine. I could probably get used to hair being less shiny, I'm on the fence about that, but I do really want the actual color to stay the same.


(...my god, you can see her face so much better at night now though. I'm so pleased about that part.)
So yeah please don't nerf dark hair/brows D:

[RhaesDaenys]

My character looks completely washed out in the upgrade also her jawline appears completely different, I had both characters face the light as thats the best way to get the most accurate look for your character but bar the hair being more details the upgrade looks like a downgrade to me and it was no where near this bad in the first itiration of the benchmark as I was content with the changes.

Based on your avatar, it looks like you're using Au Ra face 1 like me. I looked at all the jaw types and compared side by side on two monitors... they're the exact same shape, just more rounded instead of boxy. The thing you're noticing is now instead of a weird glow around the edges, shadows are more soft, giving the illusion that the face is more full or thinner than it is.

[Minali]

I really want to like the new changes, everything is better than the old look, but I really can't get over how much my face 3 Miqo'te looks like she had a bad face lift in the lower half of her face as soon as she isn't in shadow. It looks like her mouth is squished inwards or something and the lighting react with a high contrast in light and shadow to make it more obvious.
It's similar in face 2, although a little bit less bad. Face 1 and 4 seem fine in comparison.
That issue was already visible in the last benchmark but there it seemed to be limited to heavy high contrast light. Her mouth still looks a bit awkwardly "pinched" in the shadows now, too. (Also checked the benchmark trailer, it's similar there.)

Here is a screenshot from the new Benchmark in two different light situations. Will edit in a screenshot from the current game in a few minutes for comparison.





I know the lighting situation at the lower half of her face was always not exactly ideal, but this is, uh, harder to ignore.

I don't know how this could be fixed, I suppose it would require more adjustments to these super soft pinched corners of her mouth and who knows what else this might effect in terms of emotes and stuff, but if there is anything that can be done about this, I'd appreciate it. Switching faces wouldn't help because this issue exists on almost all other faces, and it would also come at the loss of her face markings and all. I'd prefer avoiding this.

Edit: Added new screenshot. All screenshots (benchmark and game) were made at a gamma rate around 20-ish.

[whitep]

I think people have the right to complain, since the game is really very old and many players have gotten used to their characters.
As artist, I know that sometimes a person wants really small edits in a portrait, so that they say "yes, this is my face".

And it's not about the updated lighting, but about how many details of the characters have really changed in a game where a small shadow under the eyes or a barely noticeable choice of iris size is considered as Fantasia-worthy character edit.

They still have time to fix some things, it's mostly about texture edits and shapes edits.

[Garruss]

There seems to be an issue with the hair on the Miqo'te, the hairstyle 1 here you can see, it looks like someone has not made the shading look natural like the other hairstyles in the picture, it looks more like grey streaks rather than the light on the hair making it look lighter.

I would gather this seems to be a bug with the lighting not working correctly

[Shikiseki]

I'm crying lmao ;;

I mean... I guess that is exactly the reason behind their design choice. After all, when 6.0 came out conceiving face 7 middie, talks revolving around "why they just won't give face 5 the stubble option" wasn't uncommon. Which is... reasonable imho, considering today's face 7 is just "face 5 but stubble turned on"-face.

But I really really, REALLY wish if this is the choice they're sticking with, at the very least, make that stubble from face 7 an option on one of face 5 facial feature. Lo behold, you get to have stubble as a 20-30 y.o AND 50 y.o.

See the thing is, they basically "fixed" the cheeks on face 5 now which makes him look even younger. Funnily enough, the face 5 in the og bench was the closest to the current which is gone now lol. I honestly cannot even tell why he looks like his personality changed... I feel like it's the eyes but I cannot point it out. Maybe it's the added realism to the style.

It's especially visible on the wide shot


Current --> Bench OG --> Bench v11





current --> bench v11



I get that it looks like an upgrade to most people so it's fine as it is but I'll just take the opportunity to start a new character arc with 7.0 (unless I feel like going back in time to look like a brand new adventurer again with face 5 haha)