Shana HD for Genesis 8.1 Female Feedback

takezo_3001

Shana HD for Genesis 8.1 Female Feedback

I just bought this character and was impressed by her face, and the overall character options as the sculpting quality surpass expectations...

EXCEPT for the hard-baked in contoured/highlit diffuse texture, it's so bad that I'm even considering a refund (I really hate refunding purchases and I avoid it if I can) as the work needed to repair the diffuse map and create new spec/normal/bump maps are too much of a hassle as it defeats the purpose of me getting the character in the first place, the textures, and mat settings are the second reason for buying a character...

The problem with baked in contours/highlights is that it ruins the effect of any custom lit/HDRI scene, while completely undermining any effort for realism; the only way it fits into a realistic scene is when I have a blasting front/back facing light that matches the baked-in highlights that were originally used into making such a low-effort diffuse map!

A higher-quality diffuse map doesn't have hard contours/highlights baked into the texture, and instead are much more mat finished and uniform, (Like Mousso's previous diffuse maps) unfortunately, too many PAs use the same low-effort diffuse base (The cursed merchant resource packs) that both have hard contoured outlines for the breasts/glutes/glute creases/navel/face and/or bright baked in highlights, I wish that we could preview these textures before buying the product...

(NOTE: I bought and was satisfied by both Bella and milady, though she too was beginning to use contoured diffuse maps)

To fit into the theme of this subforum is that I wish to suggest to character PAs that aside from toon/stylized non/semi-realistic characters, that you please refrain from using baked-in contoured/highlit textures going forward, or at least repair the diffuse maps so that it has a more of a mat finish!

EDIT: Merchant resources have become much better over the years, as this is a much better diffuse map that illustrates my point! <=It's in my cart as we speak!