Guild Wars 2

https://i.imgur.com/p5a2rg5.jpg

I noticed that my human character is glowing and ever since i did that i have not been able to immerse myself in the world as i could before. I asked on reddit and they lead me to believe it was a consious decision from arena nets side to make the character models skin glow. NPC’s seem to suffer from this aswell, atleast norn and humans.

While the above picture was taken in a pitch blakc area, this is taken in a somewhat murky forest. It is clear that the humans skin is glowing faintly. This is very disturbing to me.

https://i.imgur.com/j9TDeAX.jpg

Since this is apparently a deliberate decision, is there a way to turn it off? It looks kitten at best and disturbing at worst. All time in game since i discovered this has just been me thinking WHY THE HELL AM I GLOWING?!

As shown only the skin is glowing making it even more awkward as if it was a deliberate decision surely the whole character model would glow right?

I’m not seeing any glow. You can always do a makeover into a darker-skinned version if it bothers you.

I’m not seeing any ‘glow’ — I’m seeing the difference between a skin that’s contrasting with black and one that isn’t. To be sure, I cut the heads out of both your images and places them side-by-side using MS Paint. There’s no substantive difference between the skin tone. I’m sure someone can use better imaging tools to measure how closely they match.

edit: it occurs to me that the OP is saying this is different from how our characters looked before. If the OP wants to illustrate that, it would be better to show a before and after.

Or maybe the OP is saying it’s always been like that, in which case I’d argue that immersion requires us to accept that Tyrian skin is slightly illuminated compared to our world.

Both pictures were taken on the same character on the same day. On the first you can see that in complete pitch black darkness, the skin is not affected. It is still visible despite every single other piece of equipment and surroundings are not. This is what i mean by glow. Skin does not care of there is no light, it will still be seen. If there is no light there can be no visibility. Skin cares not for realistic lighting.

On the second i wished to highlight that even if dark and shadowy conditions, the skin still has a very subtle “glow”. it still doesnt care that much for the surrounding lighting.

You do know this is a game, right? Not reality?

Could it be your graphics settings? Low-high-whatever?

There does seem to be something odd going on with your character is very dark areas.

Here are screenshots of:
1) My ranger standing in daylight in Divinity’s Reach, in the dark room in Obsidian Sanctum with the exact same equipment and then in the dark room with nothing equipped except the Monk’s Outfit (which is dyed black and purple, exactly like the first screenshot).

2 & 3) Two examples of the dark room with ambient lighting, one holding a torch (Zenith Flame) and Caladbolg, which I’ve only just noticed glows in the dark and one standing in a bonfire because Tyria doesn’t do health & safety.

4) A normal ‘dark’ room – inside the (strangely empty) entrance lobby of a house in Divinity’s Reach at night. The only light sources are the lamps outside.

5) My graphics settings, used for all these screenshots. I did try switching to ‘best performance’, ‘recommended (slightly higher than average) and then ’best appearance’ but it didn’t make any difference.

It seems like certain things aren’t affected by the surrounding lighting. It sort-of makes sense for the holographic wings, and I’ve just noticed the glass panels and rainbow bow string on the Dreamer aren’t affected either. But it seems odd that my characters skin isn’t affected.

Ok, here’s another interesting one I just spotted. This is my pet stalker and mini Jackalope next to each other in the dark room.