Bear model comparison

[Vephriel]

I'm really hoping if we keep these discussions going and make enough noise *someone* will listen.

[Qraljar]

Chimed in as well. I never really enjoyed bears much, but that is because graphics are really important to me, and the old models never really satisfied me for that reason.

But this is a good opportunity for me to want to get a bear, but the horribly deformed back is really holding me back, there (no pun intended)

[Kalliope]

omg SB! xD That's too perfect!

[SpiritBinder]

omg SB! xD That's too perfect!

It's was quite a segue, but I couldn't help but see the whole "You Can't Sit With US!!!" with the poor brown black bear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VF06kEKGUk

[Quiv]

Ha! Mean Pets.

[TygerDarkstorm]

So perfect

[zedxrgal]

Buhwhahaahhahahahahah

Oh man. I had a HORRIBLE day at the hospital and this just made my whole day!! I <3 you SB Turned my day around.

[13thmaiden]

XD SB, omg, so cruel and yet so true. Everyone knows you can't put brown with black, it will clash (except nature but Nature is all like 'PFT! I can put a duck face on a beaver, you can't touch me!')

Buhwhahaahhahahahahah

Oh man. I had a HORRIBLE day at the hospital and this just made my whole day!! I <3 you SB Turned my day around.

Zed you work at the hospital?? What do you do? I'm currently training for medical coding myself.

[Wain]

The bear2 model has had some work done. It's not radically different, but some changes have occurred along the lines we were critical of. I'll post the changes as soon as I can get good comparison images

[Vephriel]

The bear2 model has had some work done. It's not radically different, but some changes have occurred along the lines we were critical of. I'll post the changes as soon as I can get good comparison images

!!!
I'm so pleasantly surprised, I wasn't sure if they were going to trouble themselves with tweaking it at all. Crossing my fingers that this is a good sign!

[Kalliope]

Aaahhh, I'm so glad! Thank you for keeping us posted, Wain.

[Wain]

Changes to the new bear2 model.

I'm comparing the changes to the shots I took in the original page. Unfortunately I can't get them in identical positions, because their skeletons have changed and I didn't record the coords for their original positions anyway. But hopefully they're close enough for a good comparison.

The back is radically better! This was by far the issue of greatest concern. It's not only lifted, the texturing on the back no longer stretches noticeably. This alone makes the model 1000% better

Old back :



New back :



Animated comparison of the backs:



A huge improvement

Note also the tail seems a bit thicker and stumpier. I think it looks better like that too


The goatee still exists but is smaller. But only by a tiny bit. It seems like they were reluctant to compromise their artistic integrity on this one. But at least it's no longer so strangely protruding.

Old goatee :



New goatee :



You can see the spattered eye colour around the eyelids hasn't been changed. It's a shame, I think. They would look FAR less "hangover makeup face the morning after" / "Courtney Love" if they fixed that


The black (including diseased black) is now a bit darker. This I'm a little cynical of, as it's still nothing like the skin it replaces. They didn't change it much, just darkened and desaturated the entire image a little, which means the brown is now darker and greyer, but so are the lighter areas, meaning there's even less contrast when there should have been more. It's a job a non-professional like me could have done (and have done in the past) in about one minute. Compare with the old bear model at the bottom. Also, unfortunately they didn't up the contrast on the white, it still looks dull in the game.

Old black :



New black :



Original black:




Overall, I think a big improvement. The back alone makes it worth it. Since this is replacing the in-game bears I'd still hope to see the colours improved. Or better, fork the models. Remove the goatee entirely on one and fix the colours to look like the old colours and it'll make a great replacement for the old bears. For the other model, keep the existing skin colour, and make the goatee as big as you damned well please and use that for Broken Isles

But maybe we also caught this mid-fix. I guess we'll wait for the next build to see if this is it or if there's more to it

[SpiritBinder]

OMGOMGOMGOMG Wohoooooooo, today is the holy grail of good news for hunters!

And this 100% confirms, that feedback, plays a MASSIVE role.... they DO listen peoples

[Shade]

Those fixes are amazing! I wasn't horribly bothered by the origional new bear model-as I only have one bear and rarely use him unless I am soloing content (which is more rare now than it used to be).

BUT, that said, the changes between the old-new-bear and the new-new-bear are wonderful. Seeing the difference between the back makes it much more obvious and shows how nice the new back is.

[Kalliope]

*quietly waits for black to be the new black*

A+ catch Wain! And excellent commentary. Getting ever closer to a proper bear update. The backs getting fixed was the biggest thing for me, gosh.

[TygerDarkstorm]

You know what, I'll take the way they did the black and the smaller goatee thanks to the fix in the back. <3 I like these improvements a lot; thank you to those who made their voices heard!

[Wain]

Yes, thanks for all who put in feedback. It's definitely been worth it Must go thank them on the Twitter and forum threads.

[Vephriel]

This is such a big step in the right direction! I'll admit I'm still not fond of the face overall, and it's a shame the beard is still there, but the back looks SO much better, and I'm glad they're fixing the colours! I agree the new black isn't, uh, perfect, but it's better than what it was before and I can only hope they'll continue to fix that a little. The fact that they're doing it at all means they're looking into and listening and I am so appreciative of that.

[SpiritBinder]

*quietly waits for black to be the new black*

The "NEW" black bear is just in!



Sorry, couldn't help myself

[TygerDarkstorm]

*snickers uncontrollably*