Hello Frontier,
I've seen the new images of the striped hyena for the upcoming Grasslands Animal Pack DLC. Overall, it is decent- however, there is lots of room for improvement.
I understand that similarly to the base game's spotted hyena, the striped hyena has been placed on the canine rig with only slight modifications. While it may look "good" in-game, I definitely feel that the hyenas need their own rig and set of animations. Why? Well, if we look at real footage of hyenas walking around and compare it to that of canines, we can see that there are some very significant differences. Hyenas have homolateral leg movement, kind of like camels and giraffes in real life, whereas with canines there is a clear pause between ground contact points. While canines have plenty of movement in the rear, hyenas' hips stay mostly still and the torso movement is more so in the chest and shoulders (frontal areas). Here are some slow-motion video examples:
How canids move
How hyenas move, skip to 0:16
While they might look similar at first glance, these are indeed two very different animals with very different styles of movement and behaviors which should be represented in-game. I understand that these changes could take quite a bit of time to do, so perhaps they could be released in one of the minor updates after the DLC releases.
Also, as many others have pointed out, the model could use improvements too. While the striped hyena's fur looks excellent, there is certainly room for improvement with the head. Overall, hyenas have more robust and box-like muzzles than what is represented in the model. Also, while the eyes look nice from a quality standpoint, hyenas have very different eyes from what is currently on the model. Generally, they are a chocolatey brown color with very small, fading pupils- kind of like a binturong. AMAZING fan edit I found! This really highlights the problems with the head and eyes.
Here is a comparison between the Planet Zoo striped hyena and a real Indian Striped Hyena which seems to be the subspecies they were aiming for. As we can see, the head's overall structure is very different and the animal's stripes are darker with sharp edges. These changes need to come to the in-game model and texture so that it looks more like its real life counterpart and can be on par with the quality of the other animals in DLCs.
Here is a more similar individual, but it still showcases the same issues with the head structure, stripes, and ear size.
While I do respect the appreciation of this animal, I feel that it should be represented in a more accurate manner than what has been shown thus far. Hyenas are very misunderstood and often disrespected animals, so the best thing to do is to raise awareness by depicting them the way they are in reality.
I've seen the new images of the striped hyena for the upcoming Grasslands Animal Pack DLC. Overall, it is decent- however, there is lots of room for improvement.
I understand that similarly to the base game's spotted hyena, the striped hyena has been placed on the canine rig with only slight modifications. While it may look "good" in-game, I definitely feel that the hyenas need their own rig and set of animations. Why? Well, if we look at real footage of hyenas walking around and compare it to that of canines, we can see that there are some very significant differences. Hyenas have homolateral leg movement, kind of like camels and giraffes in real life, whereas with canines there is a clear pause between ground contact points. While canines have plenty of movement in the rear, hyenas' hips stay mostly still and the torso movement is more so in the chest and shoulders (frontal areas). Here are some slow-motion video examples:
How canids move
How hyenas move, skip to 0:16
While they might look similar at first glance, these are indeed two very different animals with very different styles of movement and behaviors which should be represented in-game. I understand that these changes could take quite a bit of time to do, so perhaps they could be released in one of the minor updates after the DLC releases.
Also, as many others have pointed out, the model could use improvements too. While the striped hyena's fur looks excellent, there is certainly room for improvement with the head. Overall, hyenas have more robust and box-like muzzles than what is represented in the model. Also, while the eyes look nice from a quality standpoint, hyenas have very different eyes from what is currently on the model. Generally, they are a chocolatey brown color with very small, fading pupils- kind of like a binturong. AMAZING fan edit I found! This really highlights the problems with the head and eyes.
Here is a comparison between the Planet Zoo striped hyena and a real Indian Striped Hyena which seems to be the subspecies they were aiming for. As we can see, the head's overall structure is very different and the animal's stripes are darker with sharp edges. These changes need to come to the in-game model and texture so that it looks more like its real life counterpart and can be on par with the quality of the other animals in DLCs.
Here is a more similar individual, but it still showcases the same issues with the head structure, stripes, and ear size.
While I do respect the appreciation of this animal, I feel that it should be represented in a more accurate manner than what has been shown thus far. Hyenas are very misunderstood and often disrespected animals, so the best thing to do is to raise awareness by depicting them the way they are in reality.
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