makopowerplant

[makopowerplant]

this is urianger

[makopowerplant]

i was suddenly struck with the intense need to make an accurate pin-up piece for solus, so here he is! i don't dislike the old one, but it is 3 years old and was the first piece i ever did in this style, so it was time for a new one, haha

[makopowerplant]

Emet-Selch and Sin Eater WoL for @unlawfulroach 🕺

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this lantern area they showed in the live letter im going crazy

[makopowerplant]

Reminder that if there is stuff you dislike about the updated graphics we are witnessing in the Benchmark or feel somethings could be implemented better. You can still chime in on the forums to provide feedback. There is still a couple months left. And they've been addressing issues a step at a time with each major hurdle. These updates are still not set in stone and there is still time. So rather than just shit posting or raging at some changes make your voice heard. Be constructive in the criticism and remember they are listening particularly intently for these updates.

[makopowerplant]

paggy

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(Would be curious to see specifics in tags also like: race + if you like or dislike it, and if they've done darker skin tones any justice.)

(Also I'm so sorry in advance to anyone suffering, I don't think it helps much when you're attached to your character as they are, but soft reminder they're giving a free fantasia with DT.)

#strongly mixed feelings. he looks WRONG in character creation but ok when running the benchmark so ????? #ALSO MY FUCKING GLOWING LIMBAL RINGS THEYRE GONE #GIVE THEM BACK

[makopowerplant]

The depths of my sadness cannot be understated right now

#whoa WHAT happened there #and why is there less detail on the teeth in general...?

[makopowerplant]

Benchmark Tech Notes

Running the Benchmark

If your Benchmark isn't opening, it's an issue with the executable file, and something not completing properly on either download, or extracting the Zip file. The Benchmark is designed to run and give you scores for your potato computer, I promise.

I actually saved my Benchmark to my external drive, and it still pulls and saves data and runs as it should. Make sure you allowed the download to complete before extracting the zip.

Resolution

Check your Settings; in Display, it may be defaulting your monitor Resolution to something than you might otherwise use if you aren't on standard 1920x1080.

To check your monitor Resolution, minimize everything on your screen and right click anywhere on your Desktop. Go to Display Settings and scroll down to find Resolution and what it's set at.

You can set the Graphic Settings 1 tab to Maximum, or to Import your game settings. Display Settings tab is where you set it to be Windowed, Bordered, or Full Screen, as well as select Resolution to match your monitor in the dropdown (or customize it if needed). I speak on Resolution as some folks in my FC noted it changed how their characters looked.

The Other tab in Settings is where you can change the text output, or even check a box to disable the logo and score; I do this on subsequent plays, once I have my scores at various settings, to get the clean screenshots.

@calico-heart has a post about fixing graphics settings, with screenshots of the settings tab. Basically, change graphics upscaling from AMD to NVIDIA, and/or uncheck Enable Dynamic Resolution. Also check the Framerate Threshold dropdown.

Screenshots

The benchmark auto-saves 5 screens each playthrough. In the Benchmark folder there is a Screenshots folder to find the auto-images taken of your characters.

Character Appearance

If you want to get your current in game appearance, including non-standard hairstyles, make sure to load up the live game, right click and "Save Character Settings."

Then go to Documents/My Games/Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (this is the default in Windows 10 so mileage varies). The file will have the date you last updated their settings and be named FFXIV_CHARA_01.dat (or however many saves you have/made).

Grab those newly updated DAT files for your character(s) and copy them, then in the same base folder, go to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (Benchmark).

Paste the copied DAT files in there, and rename to FFXIV_CHARA_BENCH01.dat (the number doesn't matter, and you may have more).

When running Benchmark Character Creation, use the dropdown menu.

If you do Create a Custom Character and Load Appearance Data, it will give you default hairstyles again. Meteor's Dawntrail hairstyle is a new default.

In Char Gen I am finding that a very pale hrothgal reflects the green scenery around her, giving her white skin/fur a green tinge. The other zones do not have this problem, or at least not to the same degree.

They added a Midday vs Evening setting in outdoor areas as well to test lighting. The lighting in the Gridanian innroom is better; not as bright as outdoors, to be expected, but not completely useless.

New voice type icons to clarifying the sounds you make.

Remember we're getting a free fantasia with the expansion, so some tweaking may be needed; Iyna I felt like I needed to adjust her jaw. Other colors--skin, hair, eyes, tattoos, etc--are showing differently in the various kinds of lighting.

Uncertain if the limit on hairstyles for the Hrothgals so far is just a Benchmark thing; they do have set styles for different head options. Everyone gets Meteor's hair though, so it may be a temporary/Benchmark limit. But which clan and face you choose drastically alters what hair and facial feature options you have access to.

Check your settings, tweak them a bit, play around with chargen, and remember this is still a Benchmark; they always strike me as a little less polished than the finished game, but so far I'm actually pretty pleased with having defined fingers and toes, the irises in the eyes, scars looking cut into the skin, and other improvements.

[makopowerplant]

So about the benchmark...

Something incredibly funny that folks over on Twitter have discovered is that if you set your computer's date to 1st April, Meteor will... change somewhat.

Looking a little more gentlemanly than usual, Meteor.

Apparently he can get pretty damn blocky too, so make sure to check your hardware if you can count his polygons.

[makopowerplant]

I'm not gonna lie I almost shit myself when this first appeared I thought I was going to die

#that is by far the most cosplay ive seen on one of these streams

[makopowerplant]

Four years ago, today...

[makopowerplant]

Official Schedule of Events

Click for bigger image! Lots of events returning!

Yo-kai Watch Collab

Moogle Treasure Trove Pt. 2

Make It Rain

Dragon Quest X Collab

[makopowerplant]

Benchmark incoming!

[makopowerplant]

“From endless dreams, I awake. Something vague yet urgent calls me to action once more. To dizzying heights it rises, the gleaming spire, its tip threatening to pierce the blinding canopy. There it will all begin anew. Between Dark and Light, the pure and the corrupt–the one true struggle…”

#ffxiv spoilers

[makopowerplant]

#i assign approx. 1 year to each expansion and its patches #some are a little longer #others a little shorter #also theres a good amount of downtime #like arr+patches is a smidge more than 1 year but shadowbringers + patches is shorter

[makopowerplant]

For a FFXIV cheesy romance novel cover event over on twit, pose is a riff on Moonlight Rebel.