The release of Starfield has taken the world of gaming by storm, being the only thing talked about on every single social media platform ever since its launch on September 6th.
Despite being a commercial and critical success, Starfield is facing criticism from many players.
However, ever since the game was made public, like any other AAA title these days, Starfield has come under a lot of fire as players have often been encountering bugs and glitches in the game.
Also Read:Despite the Starfield Hype, PlayStation Sales Jumped a HUGE 42% in August
Fans Encounter Creepy NPC Smiles In Starfield
One of the most noticed as well as humorous bugs that have been happening in Starfield is how characters in the game often lack the feel of a genuine smile whenever they are prompted to do one, which can often cause them to come off as creepy.
This is also something that has been pointed out by and discussed by none other than a Bethesda developer themselves. Delaney King, a member of the Character and Tech team, took the effort to explain what went wrong with the development of characters and their smiles in the games, even going to the extent of pointing out how it is similar to a meme everybody knows and loves.
Also Read: With Microsoft Laser-Focused on Starfield, Major Xbox Feature Facing Platform-Breaking Issues: Thousands of Fans Outraged
More on King explaining the development process below:
Starfield Developer Explains What Went Wrong With Smiles Of NPCs
The character and tech artist of Bethesda took the time and effort to explain why players were facing this particular glitch in Starfield on a thread created on Twitter.
King started off by terming the phenomenon as the “Duchenne smile“, something which is fairly common to witness in the modern world, especially in the entertainment side of the industry, with Homelander doing it in the famous The Boys series being the most recent one.
He explained the science between the smile and how it works in real life, telling the viewers how when a particular muscle called the “orbicularis oculi” does not contract, it results in the Duchenne smile, delivering the creepy effect of not having a real smile but a fake one instead.
This muscle here has to contract for a smile to read as a genuine smile. The cheek apples should also rise, otherwise you look like you are actively resisting the smile, giving a constipated look. pic.twitter.com/1UXkXHSUHT
— Delaney King (@delaneykingrox) September 10, 2023
The developer also revealed how developing faces accurately is hard when it comes to making video games, explaining further how it is highly unlikely that many different artists and developers across many different departments would know about the human face anatomy when working on the game.
King also revealed that the creepy NPC look can be fixed with a simple manual tweak pass.
Also Read: After Some Research it does Seem that 60FPS is Possible for Starfield
Source: IGN
