Updated benchmark

[Iscah]

I admit I've been tending to forget about the benchmark trailer itself, being basically six minutes of explosions and random NPCs to get a few glimpses of your character in action, but having looked at it I'm basically even more confused as to why my character looks so ill and dead-eyed in the basic resting pose.

The images below are both from the benchmark and yet don't look like they're using the same settings. It's no good for the character to only be looking pretty in cutscenes or when emoting. The resting face is super important because that's what the character is going to look like during gameplay and in basic conversations.



I also did a comparison of the face expressions in the benchmark to the current game:



Now, to be clear, in some of these screenshots she does look really pretty in the new version and it's possible that I haven't picked the right emotes to match every expression. But overall I am still concerned because I can see how every expression has narrower eyes and often the shadows on the eye bags. In particular, the two pairs of screenshots on the lower left -- if that is indeed her resting "straight face" now, and going by the character creator it seems likely, she looks so bored now.


Meanwhile, I've been trying to work out exactly what's going on with the eye shapes:



And the eyelid rims (I think I need to re-edit this with some clearer current images):

[Fleur]

I admit I've been tending to forget about the benchmark trailer itself, being basically six minutes of explosions and random NPCs to get a few glimpses of your character in action, but having looked at it I'm basically even more confused as to why my character looks so ill and dead-eyed in the basic resting pose.

The images below are both from the benchmark and yet don't look like they're using the same settings. It's no good for the character to only be looking pretty in cutscenes or when emoting. The resting face is super important because that's what the character is going to look like during gameplay and in basic conversations.

My Hyur female has face #5 and I noticed the same thing: she looks dead-eyed and bored with her resting face, but looks amazing in the benchmark trailer. But most of the time when we see our character's face, it is the resting face.

Now, to be clear, in some of these screenshots she does look really pretty in the new version and it's possible that I haven't picked the right emotes to match every expression. But overall I am still concerned because I can see how every expression has narrower eyes and often the shadows on the eye bags. In particular, the two pairs of screenshots on the lower left -- if that is indeed her resting "straight face" now, and going by the character creator it seems likely, she looks so bored now.

And the eyelid rims (I think I need to re-edit this with some clearer current images):

Thank you for mentioning the issue with the "eyelid rims" (those little triangle areas on the lower outer corners of the eye that you highlighted). This is also an issue on midlander female face #5 and I've seen some face #1 players complaining about it as well. If the character model was a doll, I would say that the eye wells hadn't been sculpted properly and were too thick, leading to a weird gap between the eyeball and the eye well. This isn't as bad if you choose upward tilted eyes (usually eyes #3), but it looks especially awful if you choose the downturned eyes (usually eyes #2) and isn't great for larger, rounder eyes either.

Other unrelated issues I'd mention:

1. On face #5 midlander Hyur, mouth #1 used to appear slightly upturned due to the little dark mouth corners. It does not have these any longer, which has a big impact on the character's resting expression. I miss the little smile.

2. The default eyeshadow seems lighter, and the optional eyeshadow in the facial features section is quite light as well. This is very noticeable on face #1, but also on face #5.

That said, I'm not expecting any huge changes before launch, but the fleshy looking lower eyelid rims at least really seem like something that should be fixed (rather than being a "stylistic choice").

[MrMordio]

Is this something you'd be willing to repost as a bug report, or do you mind if I use some of your assets to create a bug report? I use a very similar face and couldn't put my finger on what was wrong like you did.

[Iscah]

Is this something you'd be willing to repost as a bug report, or do you mind if I use some of your assets to create a bug report? I use a very similar face and couldn't put my finger on what was wrong like you did.

I've posted a couple of bug reports tonight, please do chime in on them while they can be replied to.