Updated benchmark

[Reinha]

I went over some of my alts and retainers, and this is them in the new benchmark:




They have been greatly improved and I have much less to say about them than my main because their resemblance to their current forms is so much higher. On the Vieras I changed the eye color and skin tone to better match the colors in the live game. I also lightened the Elezen's eyes and added light gray eye shadow to try and mask the dark eye bag texture that wasn't there before, and those additions made him look like the same character again. The Femroe and Hroth didn't need any kind of tweaks at all.

[MeraHarch]

Hyurgoth face 1, black hair and eyebrows
I simply don't recognise my character anymore...



The difference is really disturbing..


Don't get me wrong the character is pretty, the lights and textures are definitely better.
But the general look is completely different.

The dark hair and eyebrows colors seem to be washed out by the lighting compared to before. The black hair doesn't show as dark, more like dark grey or dark blue, which is a common issue in video games that I always struggle with as I always put black hair on my characters, but this was never an issue with FFXIV before... And it can really mess up the eyebrows as well, and thus the expression of the character.

Eyebrows are less full (even if you add the stronger eyebrows facial feature they still have holes like the regular eyebrows, the facial feature that you can toggle was specifically supposed to fix that by giving you strong eyebrows but now even with this feature activated the eyebrows are still not full...)



The eye shape was modified, Eye 3 is supposed to be the only "fox" type eyes for all races, that's the reason why they're my favorite eye shape and why I pick those eyes for all of my WoL, but now the shape isn't as "foxy" anymore as the tip of the eyes now falls downward like all other eye shapes of the game...

The 2nd facial feature that is a sort of liner/black eyeshadow is almost completely useless now, there's barely any difference when you toggle it. The fact that we lost some of the strength of the black/dark shades makes the eyelashes more discreet and thus makes the eyes feel smaller. Even if you activate this facial feature that is supposed to make the eyelashes and eyes pop up a bit more doesn't help at all as the difference is absurdly small. It could've been a solution to this "smaller eyes" feelings but no, it doesn't change anything...

BUT my biggest issue is still the mouth/lips.
They're completely different from before.
I don't mind the new texture at all but the way they changed the line/shape and completely removed the lip corners shades is a big issue to me. The lips suddenly feel fake and doll-like, definitely less realistic than before so for me this is the only real downgrade so far. They also give a more "pokerface" expression to the character while the expression was more neutral and natural before, now she feels a bit haughty...



The face looks more round and young generally speaking, the chin's shape was definitely smoothed for all races, that's not a big issue to me but if you add it to the rest it really makes my character feel like a complete different character...

[CidHeiral]

Eyebrows are less full (even if you add the stronger eyebrows facial feature they still have holes like the regular eyebrows, the facial feature that you can toggle was specifically supposed to fix that by giving you strong eyebrows but now even with this feature activated the eyebrows are still not full...)

I thought the same thing at first and was surprised at the gaps, but if you zoom WAY in it's actually a very accurate reproduction of the original. The difference is that the original is so incredibly low resolution that the gaps mush together and appear more full.

So the artistic dilemma here is do you keep the current 7.0 eyebrows which are technically accurate, or do you make them look thicker which is actually a deviation from the original but closer to the impression of the original. I wouldn't mind if they thickened them up a touch, but my concern would be if they did so and they end up looking worse than they do now, since that would require an artistic judgement call and may not turn out how you and I would prefer. They're not going to change them again after the fact.

The 2nd facial feature that is a sort of liner/black eyeshadow is almost completely useless now, there's barely any difference when you toggle it. The fact that we lost some of the strength of the black/dark shades makes the eyelashes more discreet and thus makes the eyes feel smaller. Even if you activate this facial feature that is supposed to make the eyelashes and eyes pop up a bit more doesn't help at all as the difference is absurdly small. It could've been a solution to this "smaller eyes" feelings but no, it doesn't change anything...

This was more pronounced in the previous benchmark but changed after feedback because it was different from the original. I liked it a lot too.

BUT my biggest issue is still the mouth/lips.
They're completely different from before.
I don't mind the new texture at all but the way they changed the line/shape and completely removed the lip corners shades is a big issue to me. The lips suddenly feel fake and doll-like, definitely less realistic than before so for me this is the only real downgrade so far. They also give a more "pokerface" expression to the character while the expression was more neutral and natural before, now she feels a bit haughty...

I use that same mouth and it's pretty much identical to the original. The reason that little corner shadow looks more pronounced in the original, which creates the illusion that the mouth shape is different, is a combination of much worse lighting bouncing off of much more rudimentary geometry. It's actually still there in the new version if you zoom way in, it's just much more subtle because it's behaving as light on a real face actually should. If the devs were to "fix" this they would probably give the mouth a little smirk which personally I would really hate.

Anyway, not saying you're wrong for posting any of that. I just use many of the same options and thought a lot of the same things at first glance so I'm sharing what I learned upon further inspection.

I agree to some degree. There was valid criticism and by all means, outright mistakes should be corrected but as for purely aesthetic choices, they should have stuck with their decisions and simply should have given people the time to get used to it. They can't please everyone anyways and and they already went back from improvements like natural light and reflections to artificial light sources (e.g. the catchlight in the eyes that shouldn't be there in a totally dark room) and hardened shadows inestead of the previous soft ones because people couldn't handle the upgrade and needed their low poly flaws back, claiming they had emotional value... We're lost. I'm unhappy. But what can I say, the masses have spoken.

I don't mind the lighting change so much but I definitely agree on the new catchlights looking awful. After the actual expansion release people probably wouldn't have cared about the old ones, but oh well.

Your post reminds me of when Blizzard was adding female Worgen to World of Warcraft. They originally looked awesome and just as fierce as the males, but then they were player feedbacked into looking like derpy chihuahuas with mascara.