Faces look weird

[....]

The more i play - the more im weirded out by the faces - especially that weird smile some NPCs oftne use - even normal Dialogues often have weird faces animations. At least now i know what the problem is:

https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-npcs-have-those-uncanny-smiles-because-theyre-not-using-every-face-muscle/


I seriously do wonder - this is an AAA game studio -they probably hire professionals and had playtesters, quality control etc.

How on earth did they produce such akward and bad faces and animations - the same applys for the dialogue - even the worst AI on the planet probably can write more human-like dialogue.



And i really dont understand it - its not like it would have been a big thing to do - just hire a few people that actually know how humans look ad move and how they talk to each other ... (i seriously dont understand whats bethesdas problem - on the other hand the same applys to the UI etc.)

Is it on purpose? Does someone ad Bethesda thinks that any of that is good? I would really like to understand who Bethesda can be that bad in some areas of game development - i mean seriously any normal person would instantlyl point those flaws out - and they exist since forever in their games ...

Its still a fun game but this is really weird and immersion breaking.

[hoot hoot]

They've never really done a game where most NPCs you'll see are nameless bodies that just wander around. In Fallout and TES, every NPC in a town has a name, purpose, and a place (guards being an exception to some of that). They all have homes, a bed, or some reason why they wouldn't.

So here, where they start having generated NPCs to wander towns and tell you about the corns on their feet, it seems like they just didn't put much focus on them.

And as for faces of NPCs we talk to and who have unique faces, I haven't really noticed a lot of awkward animations. Not saying they're not there, but they don't seem to ruin the experience. Actually, some of the animations are great.

The hate bandwagon is so strong right now. BG3 has some really derpy facial animations for the main character, but I don't recall anyone complaining about it.

[-OrLoK- Слава Україн]

I've always found their facial animations to be good.

the issue is that the more realistic, the more we notice when something is just slightly off.

even advanced AI software created specifically to copy real humans at full fidelity has a hard time being authentic.

I'd give the devs a break as although not perfect they look better than ever.

[Stone]

The faces absolutely look weird. I find this especially true on NPCs in the open world. Oddly, some look decent enough, but others are so strange looking, especially the eyes. It can be so bad at times it breaks immersion.

[....]

Originally posted by -OrLoK- Слава Україн:

I've always found their facial animations to be good.

the issue is that the more realistic, the more we notice when something is just slightly off.

even advanced AI software created specifically to copy real humans at full fidelity has a hard time being authentic.

I'd give the devs a break as although not perfect they look better than ever.

Are you serious? Sorry thats just a lame escuse - there are a million games that do it better - some are probably almost 10 years old ...

And honestly - even the standard companion - for example sarah looks weird. Are you honestly trying to tell me Sarahs standard face and her talking animations look good?


There are more than enough games with good faces and animations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6KC4SILUjM

I would expect way more from one of the biggest AAA game developers backed by one of the biggest companies.

Originally posted by Velcro Goo:

They've never really done a game where most NPCs you'll see are nameless bodies that just wander around. In Fallout and TES, every NPC in a town has a name, purpose, and a place (guards being an exception to some of that). They all have homes, a bed, or some reason why they wouldn't.

So here, where they start having generated NPCs to wander towns and tell you about the corns on their feet, it seems like they just didn't put much focus on them.

And as for faces of NPCs we talk to and who have unique faces, I haven't really noticed a lot of awkward animations. Not saying they're not there, but they don't seem to ruin the experience. Actually, some of the animations are great.

The hate bandwagon is so strong right now. BG3 has some really derpy facial animations for the main character, but I don't recall anyone complaining about it.

See above - lets pick Sarah as an example - to you seriously think her face looks good? Even her normal expression is weird and it becomes even weirder when talking to her.

Im not even talking about the awful random NPCs.

[MrSoul]

The human race was wiped out alongside earth except few desperate hold outs, your chars memory was erased so unaware wandering around the replicants all the time.

Ones that smile like that? They’ve detected you’re human and are waiting for right moment to strike so can harvest your organs for experiments and turn your remaining biomass to the machine collective to become a new replicant.

Watch your back out there, and trust no one.

totally having a laugh, but geez wouldn’t be cool if Beth acknowledged that prob with engine and least used it as a clever story telling element once by now lol

[The Hat]

Its the random npcs that need work in their generation. Variety and facial structure.

[-OrLoK- Слава Україн]

you might think they suck, I don't :)

[Schlumpsha]

Humans look weird, that's normal

[Gigawatts]

The way they eyeball me as they walk by is scary.

[....]

Btw. if you ignore random NPCs you wont notice that much - but just from time to time take a look at them its actually rather scary:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/167oww7/why_do_the_characters_look_like_that_im_scared/


I think there is something wrong with their general eye animations - it looks pretty wild at times. Maybe the guy from before is right and its actually the plot and we are the only real human on those planets and everyone is just machines pretending to be humans.

https://www.ign.com/articles/developer-explains-why-starfield-npcs-look-like-theyre-dead-inside


The good thing is - i think a lot of that is probably easy to fix - the question is why didnt they fix it before release ...


@NPCs in general
Havent thought about that yet - but its true that they changed their general direction as someone here pointed out. Most NPCs in other Bethesda games had routines etc. in this game there is a lot of probably random generated NPCs - i think thats a big step back and it also doesnt add much immersion to me especially since they are immersionbreaking themselves.

[Stone]

Originally posted by ....:

Btw. if you ignore random NPCs you wont notice that much - but just from time to time take a look at them its actually rather scary:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/167oww7/why_do_the_characters_look_like_that_im_scared/

This. This is one of my biggest pet peeves with this game. The NPCs are so odd looking at times that it completely breaks immersion and makes me forget how good the rest of the game can look. It's really bad at times.

[ShepherdOfCats]

Originally posted by Gigawatts:

The way they eyeball me as they walk by is scary.

Yeah I'd be okay with the stiff facial animations but the eyeballs really got screwed up. Half the time my character is low-lidded like he just fired off a blunt, the other half they are giving me that side-glance stare like I just told them to stop smoking weed. In certain lighting the eyeball is the same color as the skin, just bad textures for the windows to the soul.

[Zanteogo]

They have always had an issue with faces. It's a massive improvement over previous games, but it's certainly not to modern AAA standards. Cyberpunk and BG3 do faces and characters crazy good.

It's also a shame they removed any sort of sexuality from most of the characters. The female characters often hardly look female in most cases. We don't need boobs and legs everywhere, but even in places that it would be logical, like the clubs on Neon, it's not there.

[....]

Originally posted by Stone:

Originally posted by ....:

Btw. if you ignore random NPCs you wont notice that much - but just from time to time take a look at them its actually rather scary:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/167oww7/why_do_the_characters_look_like_that_im_scared/

This. This is one of my biggest pet peeves with this game. The NPCs are so odd looking at times that it completely breaks immersion and makes me forget how good the rest of the game can look. It's really bad at times.

I didnt notice it at first but after i noticed it once its actually pretty creepy since now you see it all the time ...

[PROPS]

I'm not sure if it's the same on the PC, but on the XSX, I've noticed my characters eyelids "glowing", while the rest of the face has shadows applied.

It's also kind of funny, when I'm in a room full of people having a conversation with one NPC and everyone in the room, regardless of what they're doing, have thier eyes glued on me.