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Hey folks,
I’m here with a follow up on the modernization changes that you may have seen on the PTS. While this post talks about content currently on the PTS, it does cover a pretty broad topic hence why this is being posted in General Discussion.
As we talked about in last week’s livestream, planet and character modernization would be hitting the PTS in last week’s build. In that build we saw a shader bug which caused unintended texture changes to character models, and we’re looking to have a fix applied in a PTS build that we’ll be pushing out this week (exact date and time TBD). When that build goes out, we’ll make a character modernization feedback thread in the PTS forums and assess further feedback that comes in.
Relevant to character modernization as a whole, we did see several common sentiments (outside of the reports of the contrast issue) from feedback received the last few days I wanted to address.
When is character modernization coming to Cathars, Twi’leks, Nautolans, and Sith Purebloods?
In short, texture changes to those species are coming in future updates. However, players with keen eyes have noted that the above character models have seen some updates as the lighting and shader improvements affect all player character models across the board. More to come!
There were slight changes to the shapes of eyes, noses, and lips noticed on character models.
We didn’t actually make any updates to the character models themselves, so the actual shapes of these facial features should not be different. It is possible the updated textures could wrap slightly differently, but overall the geo (or shape) should be identical. That said, if you are seeing noticeable changes in the shapes of things, they could be bugs and we will want to find them. When the next PTS build goes out, we ask that you include your character sliders when submitting before and after comparisons in the feedback thread so we can make sure that everything is as intended.
Can you add a texture detail (or age) slider?
We’ve definitely seen your comments and feedback regarding having this type of feature available, something that will allow you more agency over character customization. I can tell you that giving you more choice in how you look is always something we are interested in and so this is something we are talking about. No promises as we need to understand the scope of adding that type of functionality.
Also, an important note. The nature of modernization is that it is going to change the way things look. Whether it’s the environment, props, or even characters. Our top line goal as we spelled out on the stream was that we wanted to ensure your character still felt like yours, but we were going to be adding texture and detail where there was very little before. Adding a slider is not going to be the same thing as adding a check box that says “don’t do this”. However, as noted we are going to talk about the possibility of adding more customization to that texture detail in the future and I will let you know once we have any updates on that front.
For next steps, Jackie will let you know when the next PTS build goes up with the aforementioned character shader changes. We will also post a new character modernization feedback thread at that time so be sure to hop on PTS, check it out, and let us know your thoughts.
Thanks all!
-eric