I don't buy that these are new models, even without Llamamann coming here and saying so. New models means more work, and if he was going to put in that work, he wouldn't make it
worse except by mistake. Which, maybe, it's plausible; but when I look at the shots, I see a different problem.
Mai, for example:
View attachment 4065785
Or worse:
View attachment 4065789
I resized these, but the full size version has the same detail I'm referring to. It's all around the eyes. The bottom one looks especially unfortunate, like she just got up after one hour of sleep. But all this is suggesting to me is the elevator lighting being in a bad place for that shot, possibly with a bad shader algorithm(?) not handling diffusion well enough. End result is a lot of shadow under the eyes that probably wasn't intended. If the light was further forward in the elevator roof, this would probably go away.
If the model is a problem
at all, it
might be the cheekbone not coming up high enough, based on what I'm seeing here:
View attachment 4065802
But that's all. Mostly just lighting. I'm betting that if Llamamann thought it was important enough, he could scoot the light forward, re-render this sequence, done.
If it were me, I totally would, assuming it's a few hours of rework - this is Mai's first impression in Recalibrated and I'm sure he's going for a total tease show here; given that, why have the bags? Unless it's foreshadowing? Pun not intended?
--
For that matter, the fact that this is a tech demo tells me all these images are subject to tweaking, so I'm not going to agonize over this. I'll admit I was slightly disappointed that the Hot Squad wasn't sporting all new outfits for university season (MC's outfit makes more sense), but I know there'll be new outfits later anyway.
Which reminds me of the freckles. I do miss them, but again, I suspect the lighting is just wiping them out.
The lighting isn't what I'd call a step back, either. I think shader improvements can sometimes look worse in certain shots. I remember going from Portal to Portal 2, and the sequel definitely had better environment overall, but I remember the lighting looking a bit smudged at first. I was too used to the earlier shader with its inferior diffusion. I have no idea if that's what's happening here; it's just a thought that crossed my mind.