Partly it's the fact that the old one was made using a smiling picture which the software doesn't like but it was likely made by OOTP in-house with the top-of-the-line facegen ($700) software using an MLB-provided hi-res photo. This one doesn't look super hi-res based on the file size but a lot of them are. Doesn't mean they are good faces staring back at you - just that every hair in the beard is discernable.
Ideally you use that top-dollar software with the better non-smiling picture and the insane resolution of the MLB licensed photo. I'm using the $300 version of the software, a downloaded-from-the-internet, professional (Getty Images Spring Training Photo), but lower res photo... of course, I at least have something the software works well with though.
While it's not the case with Ian's old one which came in at 155KB, one of the risks of trying to use the top end software with the top end photos is that you can get fg files that are 1MB each and even when knocked down in resolution a bit using the software are still 700KB-ish each. Thankfully, there are plenty of the 22,650 MLB'ers that have poor photos to offset the larger files of modern players but at a certain point, file size is an issue as one's fg_file grows. That's why I'm building mine up from scratch - I want to trade space and lose all the old-naming-convention, small, duplicate, facegens and have just 22,650 files of larger size and better quality. The MiLB'ers I keep and file separately so I can see if I've done one if I want him.
So, sure Ian looks like just another guy with a beard at the neighborhood BBQ. Maybe your wife's friend's husband you met once and forgot his name. But put him next to that picture... it's kinda him...
Thanks for the opening line caveat too, it's appreciated... and don't worry, I know what you mean. Also, you are on a Mac, right? The Mac washes out details even after the fix. It did so in OOTP22 too. I see the Mac renderings of them in screenshots and, man, if you could ever just see a well-crafted, solid detail facegen in game and on a PC. It's pretty satisfying. ... or else I wouldn't have started my project to revisit every fg and make them available to those interested. Instead, I'd actually be playing the game... which reminds me... it's nearly draft day in my Random Debut game...
Lastly, here's a view of them in the software at about the size I'm working with them. [Checks the Getty Image]... I'll take the guy from the BBQ still... the other guy looks like he hasn't left the keg
