Characters looking different :/
15 pages • Page 3
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Personaly I'm liking ALL of these face changes. (Well except that vampire ranger one, but all they need to do to that is mess with the alphas)
The characters are looking more real, and one of the rits has a constant open mouth (looks more detalied now), I guess face animations are comming then.
The characters are looking more real, and one of the rits has a constant open mouth (looks more detalied now), I guess face animations are comming then.
While I really never approve of changing an existing character's appearance- even slightly- I think I can shed some light on some of these questions.
Not to brag, but simply to state a relevant fact, I build character models for a living. (Unreal Tournament 2003/4, Hellgate:London, etc., etc.) It's a living. ^_^
The post-update models have new, higher-resolution textures. In some cases, these seem to have been actually edited, slightly, but the ones that I looked at were essentially the same. Some things like lips and eyes looked darker or crisper, just because they aren't being blurred by the low res anymore.
My Ranger, for instance, has more distinct lines under her eyes. It's a noticable difference, but they were always there, just softened by the low res map.
As for the oddities that people like Rafal have noticed, that seems to be because the head models are all-new, higher resolution (In polygons, not pixels, like the textures) versions. I would assume, as has been stated, that this is due to upcoming facial animation.
Unfortunately, lighting artifacts like these are just unavoidable, sometimes. In many game engines (which are all perfectly lovely), a low-res model will actually light smoother and better than a higher detailed one. It's a very complex trick to build a higher poly model with all the polys perfectly arranged so as not to form any artifacts under ANY lighting conditions, and it's different for every game engine out there.
As a modeler, I don't like it either, but I think Anet has done quite a good job, from what I've looked at so far. Unfortunately, it's a tradeoff you have to live with, for moving mouths.
The "vampire/werewolf" Ranger is very poorly lighted in that shot, and really doesn't look as bad as people are making out. Now, I'm certainly not going to defend the change, and I'm 100% behind the player if they don't appreciate the edit to their character, but the screenshot is still misleading. Go into the character creation and see for yourself. Bottom face, far right column, I believe.
Now, about the Mesmer's neck gap, I have NO excuses or reasons. Take the modeler outside, whip him with a stout green switch a few times, then sit him in a corner and make him fix it. ^-^
Not to brag, but simply to state a relevant fact, I build character models for a living. (Unreal Tournament 2003/4, Hellgate:London, etc., etc.) It's a living. ^_^
The post-update models have new, higher-resolution textures. In some cases, these seem to have been actually edited, slightly, but the ones that I looked at were essentially the same. Some things like lips and eyes looked darker or crisper, just because they aren't being blurred by the low res anymore.
My Ranger, for instance, has more distinct lines under her eyes. It's a noticable difference, but they were always there, just softened by the low res map.
As for the oddities that people like Rafal have noticed, that seems to be because the head models are all-new, higher resolution (In polygons, not pixels, like the textures) versions. I would assume, as has been stated, that this is due to upcoming facial animation.
Unfortunately, lighting artifacts like these are just unavoidable, sometimes. In many game engines (which are all perfectly lovely), a low-res model will actually light smoother and better than a higher detailed one. It's a very complex trick to build a higher poly model with all the polys perfectly arranged so as not to form any artifacts under ANY lighting conditions, and it's different for every game engine out there.
As a modeler, I don't like it either, but I think Anet has done quite a good job, from what I've looked at so far. Unfortunately, it's a tradeoff you have to live with, for moving mouths.
The "vampire/werewolf" Ranger is very poorly lighted in that shot, and really doesn't look as bad as people are making out. Now, I'm certainly not going to defend the change, and I'm 100% behind the player if they don't appreciate the edit to their character, but the screenshot is still misleading. Go into the character creation and see for yourself. Bottom face, far right column, I believe.
Now, about the Mesmer's neck gap, I have NO excuses or reasons. Take the modeler outside, whip him with a stout green switch a few times, then sit him in a corner and make him fix it. ^-^
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Bad lighting or not, anyone mind telling me where the arm of my monk is going?
This one is even more annoying as it occurs with every fricking step my monk does in that armor combo (used for 605 ing). It's actually going even further up, like the whole arm is floating at the height of the monk's ears and is only kept by an overstretched skintexture. It's hard to capture it though due to fast movement.
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And this one DOES have FOW - no way i'm going to remake him.
This one is even more annoying as it occurs with every fricking step my monk does in that armor combo (used for 605 ing). It's actually going even further up, like the whole arm is floating at the height of the monk's ears and is only kept by an overstretched skintexture. It's hard to capture it though due to fast movement.
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And this one DOES have FOW - no way i'm going to remake him.
Rhedd is spot on. I'm not a character modeller, but I do 3d modelling for a living and higher poly models do tend to gather more smoothing errors than lower ones.
My female ele now has a five o'clock shadow... which is a bit disturbing.
Not hugely bothered though my other toons (all darker skinned) look much, much better.
My female ele now has a five o'clock shadow... which is a bit disturbing.
Not hugely bothered though my other toons (all darker skinned) look much, much better.
But hey, they look very pretty.