New Benchmark (June): Au Ra Feedback

[Taranok]

So, in the interest of better explaining (part) of the issue, I've decided to compare face 4 to face 1 in live and in the benchmark, on the 3/4 profile (roughly.) It won't be exactly 1:1, but is close enough to really showcase the differences. To better showcase this, here's a rough 3/4 profile of live and benchmark with the tip of the horn in face 4 roughly in the same vertical line as the corner of the lip.

Live:


Benchmark:


Of note is, check the contour of the cheek and chin. In live, face 1 has a more pronounced cheek and chin than face 4. Both are flatter for face 4, overall. Moving to benchmark, the chin of face 4 is more pronounced. Not quite face 1 levels, but still pronounced. Likewise, the cheek is more pronounced. Only it's actually more pronounced than face 1 now. As in, we went from having less pronounced cheeks than F1, to more pronounced. Of note, F1's cheeks are less pronounced in the benchmark as well.

This really should help showcase exactly why F4 looks so 'wrong' now. The chin and cheeks are just flat out wrong. Lips are surprisingly not that bad, dimples aside, but the cheeks are extremely bad.

Also showcases problems with face 1, such as the cheeks and chin changing, and I can't tell exactly what's happening with the eyebrows, but they look wrong as well.

I really wish the devs didn't ruin my favorite face though. This is just amateurish.

[Alice9]

I really hope they make some adjustments, while I can only speak for my own character, it really does feel like she, along with the identity of face 4 F Au Ra was just lost in translation here. The updates are steps in the right direction, but there's just too many things that were just ignored and look way too different from the original. Might be too close to release for them to do anything, but hopefully in a patch or something- maybe I'm being idealistic, but I'd love to recognize my character again. This was absolutely my favorite face, and it does feel ruined still.

[goatkohai]

To piggy back ontop of what others have said so far, I am pretty happy with the changes since the last benchmark. The new eyebags on face 3 were definitely a surprise, but I didn't even mind it all that much- I could see myself getting used to it, I think I just wished there was a slider or something for the intensity of it. It is very pronounced in a lot of lighting, even at night.


she looks like she is a bit sleep deprived...

However, my main issue is not with that- but with how the hair (as someone else said) doesn't even seem to be attached to the head in some parts. I can see through my hair where there is no split there on the other side. I'd be fine with seeing through here if there was any split in the hair, but as you can see, it's pretty seamless from behind:



I'm unsure if this will be in the final version, but I thought I'd be helpful to share anyways. Despite this, I'm still pretty happy with adjustments in the benchmark. ♥

[Tarath]

The updated benchmark is without a doubt a much needed improvement from the previous one, but I can't deny that I'm feeling a bit disappointed that many of the concerns brought up previously weren't addressed. The new environmental lights definitely helps define the shapes of the face more, most notably the nose in my case, but it's clear that the new sculpts were left untouched for this update. EDIT: I'm blind


I'm not found the the plump lips, wider face, and the nose is especially wide between the eyes which drags the eyebrow texture down to it.

When he blinks, all the skin up to the eyebrows get dragged along which I find to be rather uncanny. This doesn't happen in the current version. In the benchmark however, it does happen to the other male Au Ra faces too, albeit not as prominent.


Aside the uncanny blinking and the eyebrow texture, I do like the changes made around the eyebrows. Toning it down a bit makes it look less swollen, and helps the eyes become more visible from certain angles. However I'm still not a fan of the new fuzzy eyes which makes him look more dozy and bored, rather than having a sharp, piercing gaze.

Neither am I a fan of the new scale texture. The skin colour I chose was done so to match with the slight tint of orange present in the scales, but the benchmark scales took a different direction making them look much more lifeless and dull. Can't say I like how the edges of the scales have been shaved off as it helped give depth. And though the edges have been cleaned up since the previous benchmark, they're still noticeable pixelated.


Additionally there seems to be a piece of scale growing underneath the spiky scales on the side of the face. I assume it's always been there and can now be seen due to the scales floating more from the face.


The spikes attached to the jawline is also floating, creating another gap. The spike is also made much larger which I guess to match the size with the other jaw options. An odd decision in my opinion, but I personally don't mind it.


Lastly the glove is still clipping through the hand.



To me it feels that the development team underestimated the amount of work this graphic update would take, and it shows where they had to cut corners. I understand it's a tough task and a lot of what they have showed us so far is beautifully done. I'm not expecting any more changes to be made for Dawntrail release, however I do hope that all the feedback being posted here gets taken into consideration once time allows it.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

I’ve kind of given up on the state of the EN forums, but I’ll still summarize the feedback I’ve posted in the JP thread because I’m losing hope by the minute.

About the state of limbal rings

First concerns were raised in October 2023 after the tech art panel: [Graphical Update Feedback] Eyes and Limbal Rings on Au ra
(Tokyo Fanfest 2024: Yoshida acknowledges the concerns about limbal rings, and promises we would get to keep "the same look as before", even if that might mean "changing the parameters slightly")
Benchmark 1.0 feedback Part 1: アウラの目の輪郭と意外な色の変化
Benchmark 1.0 feedback Part 2: アウラの目の輪郭と意外な色の変化 Part 2
Benchmark 1.0 and 1.1 feedback Part 3: アウラの目の輪郭と意外な色の変化 Part 3


TLDR:
The color of limbal rings has drastically been affected through the graphical update. For some people this might not be an issue, or it’s something they can easily fix by swapping to another color swatch.
For others, the color they used more or less disappeared.
I fall into the second category.

I’m not going to translate the text in these images because I’ve spent enough time putting together my original posts to begin with, but I think these should speak for themselves:









Again, please check the posts I linked above if you want to know the full process behind these pictures.
In case you're curious, yes, Part 1 and Part 2 each took one week to put together, manually taking all the screenshots and color samples one by one. That's how much I care about this.

You can see that the cyan I use is just not there anymore. So I can’t even correct the color with the palette we have available. I use this cyan for a very specific reason, which I described in Part 1.

In the image below I summarized what the options I currently have are, and what I would like to be able to have instead (the same color as before), achieved through methods A and B, which would expand the color palette instead of reverting changes. Check Part 1 for a detailed explanation of those methods:



Despite the support I received in my posts, and other players voicing the same feedback and the same concerns, in the 1.1 benchmark nothing has been improved.
I think that in this specific case, you’ll all agree that I’m starting Dawntrail with a downgrade rather than an upgrade.

I have no illusion that with only a little bit more than 20 days left before early access starts, nothing will be done about this before release.

But as this is something I basically designed my entire character around, going so far as to use gear and accessories that use the same color (!!!) as my character’s eyes, and this for more than 7 years, I sincerely hope that the devs will work on improving this in the patches after Dawntrail’s release.

Also, if you're curious, I found out that the limbal ring size depends on the brightness of the color you picked.



That's one of the reasons why some players have been reporting that the iris color seems to completely disappear.

[CecMiller]

Thank you for the Benchmark changes.

Unfortunately, it seems that there are still existing issues in the design of Au Ra. It seems Au Ra changes were largely ignored.

1. The pupils are too big/dilated. They were small originally. This changes the look of the character. It also blends in too well with the base colour of the iris which is a bigger problem for male Au Ra than female. Please change this back or add an option for the pupils to be big or small.

2. The colours of the umbral ring are more darked and cannot be easily replaced. My character was directly imported, and the colour is significantly darker. This colour can no longer be replicated as there are not many colours for blue. This blue was important as it represented the colour we’ve seen come up in the story multiple times with significant story relevance.

3. The lips are no longer upturned at the corners. This makes the characters expression change from slightly happy to neutral or expressionless.

4. The eye liner is less harsh. The eye liner above the eye lids has been reduced and changes the look of the eyes for many faces.

There are more issues, but I feel these are most pressing for my own Au Ra.

Before and after Slider: https://imgsli.com/MjY5Mzcx



If you're interested in the story relevance I'm pointing at in point #2 (posted in another thread by SchwarzwaelderTorte):

[Civea]

There's something odd about the way they made the shadows, there's a quite noticeable seam on the back of the shoulder that the shadows make very obvious, and it also gives the appearance of baggy eyes for some reason, maybe they've added shadows to the eyelashes? who knows.

I also agree with the others about the Femra 4 head, looks off..

Hope this isn't the final product, because there needs a bit more tuning on this.

[mk-sein]

First things first, I'm really grateful that the benchmark was updated! I think it was a huge upgrade and I'm really happy with how bright colors are now. Backgrounds look gorgeous now.

I play a female Au Ra, face 3. I'm very happy that her eyes don't look lifeless any longer.

That said, I personally don't like how big and blurry the new pupils look. It makes her eyes look less focused, in a way, and hides a large part of the iris.


She has also gained some pretty intense eyebags, though this change doesn't bother me.

My main issue is with my character's mouth. The corners of her mouth got turned down, so she has lost her permanent smile. As I picked this face + mouth shape specifically because I wanted her to look warm and friendly, I'm disappointed with this change.
Here is a neutral expression in live vs a neutral expression in CC/Benchmark.
And a detailed look:



A further issue is how the light makes the mouth look at times.
Here is a screenshot from the April benchmark. The lips look fine here.
In comparison, here is a screenshot from the new Benchmark. The lower lip looks bigger on her left/our right and almost like it extends past her upper lip.
This issue is not exclusive to the Benchmark trailer. It happens in several light conditions in the new character creator, too. Examples here:






It leads to a very odd-looking shape, as if her lower lip were significantly wider than her upper lip.


To me, the mouth shape changing so that her slight smile is lost is the biggest issue. It's one of the reasons why I picked that specific face so losing that is disappointing.

Overall, I am thankful for this new Benchmark because it did address a lot of issues present in the last one (lifeless eyes, skin looking like plastic, strange lighting and colors, etc). Unfortunately, it seems like most model changes, apart from things that were actually broken (like Elezen and Lalafell mouth rigs), are here to stay. I am still very much looking forward to Dawntrail and the graphics update but I am sad that my character will lose part of what defined her.

Thank you for all your hard work, and thanks for reading.

[Irishfae]

I should really leave it with what I've already posted, but I just seem to keep going back.
So to add to what Taranok has pictures of. I snipped Kal's hair and tried to do some overlays. It isn't completely perfect, but I tried to get it as close as possible. I to get a head on comparison, but I just couldn't get it right, so hopefully these do.
((As a note, this rounding of the face occurred in my Viera alt too, really not sure why this decision was made))

You can see the different outlines around the cheeks and chin. DT is the transparent overlay.

So, in the interest of better explaining (part) of the issue, I've decided to compare face 4 to face 1 in live and in the benchmark, on the 3/4 profile (roughly.) It won't be exactly 1:1, but is close enough to really showcase the differences. To better showcase this, here's a rough 3/4 profile of live and benchmark with the tip of the horn in face 4 roughly in the same vertical line as the corner of the lip


Of note is, check the contour of the cheek and chin. In live, face 1 has a more pronounced cheek and chin than face 4. Both are flatter for face 4, overall. Moving to benchmark, the chin of face 4 is more pronounced. Not quite face 1 levels, but still pronounced. Likewise, the cheek is more pronounced. Only it's actually more pronounced than face 1 now. As in, we went from having less pronounced cheeks than F1, to more pronounced. Of note, F1's cheeks are less pronounced in the benchmark as well.

This really should help showcase exactly why F4 looks so 'wrong' now. The chin and cheeks are just flat out wrong. Lips are surprisingly not that bad, dimples aside, but the cheeks are extremely bad.

Also showcases problems with face 1, such as the cheeks and chin changing, and I can't tell exactly what's happening with the eyebrows, but they look wrong as well.

[Irishfae]

Unrelated to my main character - but there appears to be a texture issue with Xaela face 2
It looks like the texture of the preset scales are a lower resolution than the optional and then there are two points that look like something is missing. (just repeating what I wrote in the pic in case it doesn't show correctly)