Updated 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.

[caffe_macchiato]

[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)

[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

[Sui-Kune]

I originally posted this here (#35).

I have permission from faiarrow to repost their translated post regarding Hellsguard Roegadyn from the JP megathread.

(Original post in Japanese here [#1229]).

Thank you for posting the updated benchmark.

Even though f!roe face 2 has been updated, I still have some feedback I'd like to give.
Here (#989) [Japanese; related to Benchmark 1.0] is a link to my initial feedback. Save for the shape of the nose all other issues have been ignored.



①The f!roe pupils are now black. Black pupils change the impression of the eyes and that affects the whole face.

② The shape of the nose has been corrected, but the nose ash does not look nice at all even on the lightest skintone. It's odd that a very beloved feature of the hellsguard has changed. I think it would be more acceptable if this was an option in the character maker (to change it light/dark) instead. This image is my face 3 character. She's the lightest skintone you can get on a hellsguard and her mark is practically invisible.



③There are still issues with the eyebrows. The following post is a great example:

However. Femroe face 2 brow creases are still. completely and utterly painted on. There is NO data on the normal map, so the brow creases just look plasticy and wierd.



The complete and utter lack of any shadows on the brow give the impression of the forehead, brow ridge and bridge of the nose being a completely different shape - smooth and airbrushy.

Here's a screenshot of the eyebrows from the benchmark. It looks like my character has filled in the outline of their eyebrows, making them look too long.



④ The philtrum is in an awkward position. From the side it looks OK but front on it's just two straight lines. That is not how a philtrum anatomically works, it should angle outward to meet the cupids bow of the lips.


I understand that female roegadyn is the smallest playerbase... but these are things that can't be fixed with a Fantasia.

[PomPon]

Some thoughts here:

Hair textures are incredibly improved.

As a moon miqo:
Eyes actually appear duller and milky (?) in some lighting environments like she is going blind in the new 1.1 benchmark.
The highlight itself, is actually blurrier and less sparkly in bench2 than in bench1 as if a smudge tool was taken to it.
order: Live | Bench1 | Bench2



Milky eyes does carry over into the actual accompanying cinematic as seen in benchmark freezeframe shot at the end:
order: Bench2 | Bench1


The texture of the iris is... weird, but in the cinematic it is fine. The lines in the iris (idk what they are called) are too uniform, like a stuffed animals plastic eye, but its only noticeable in the character creator.

order: Bench2 | Live


The mouth shape is pretty different especially in regard to the top lip. She has less heart shaped lip type than before and the neutral curve is more of a slight frown. She looks annoyed/unimpressed/mad compared to before.

Order: Live | Bench2

[Fjarrisky]

My female miqo's eyes look... less pronounced due to the milkiness of the pupil, which in turn muddles the color contrast so the eye color feels wrong too.

Lowering contrast helps with the milkiness and other overly bright entities but going below 30 will definitely make the image weird.

[mixu]

Will post pics later but as a male viera main this is so much better! There are small things like brow fullness/richness, black hair issues, but overall I’m very happy with the viera changes and looking forward to DT like I was before the OG benchmark. The initial one was so rough on my boys (mostly face 3’s) but they have been resurrected lol

*Lash fullness returned for the most part, (brows better but not as good as current)
*Lip shine and shadow adjustment is closer to current
*Dirty nose mostly gone - with a bit of the previous sharpness actually restored as well, thankfully, so they didn’t seem so wide, dark, and flat (ideally would’ve liked to see a toggle or slider or leave it untouched for variety.)
*Awful shadowing on lower faces fixed
*Eyeshine is much improved which is so helpful in making them look more similar to their usual selves (i.e. alive).

Once again beautiful bun faces reign supreme \(^ - ^)/

If only my middies got this treatment as well lol. My fem face 1 looks like she hasn’t slept since arr. I’d love to see longer lashes, mouth fixes, and those weirdly enhanced under eye bags gone forever. My male face one needs his brows back and a bit more face fullness or something... but they weren’t hit as hard as my viera to begin with.