u/FREEDOM55SIMS

Meet Victor — the fifth Zoi in my Sophisticated Realism series.

Victor leans into classic dark elegance and an Old Hollywood sensibility, with mature architectural bone structure, deep-set eyes, natural asymmetry, and a prominent yet grounded Roman nose.

I built his facial structure around the animation rig and play-tested him a lot in-game. The second he relaxes or smiles, there’s a completely different warmth to him.

And apparently Natasha brings that side out of him pretty quickly. I originally wasn’t going to include this, but they got together on their own. Natasha is usually really picky, so I was surprised — but I think they’re pretty cute together! See for yourself.

This is an official FREEDOM_55 × TheGentleCorner collab. TGC created Victor’s classic menswear look for this release and also took the seated Victor + Natasha shot in the gallery. We were going for dark elegance vibes. ✨

IMHO, Victor also ages like fine wine 🤌

Thoughts?

Victor https://canvas.playinzoi.com/en-US/creation/gal-260817-115518-5450000

Natasha https://canvas.playinzoi.com/en-US/creation/gal-260525-091353-3530000

**EDIT / CLARIFICATION:** I first noticed these issues on July 26, but that does not confirm that the changes were introduced that day. They may have been unpublished changes included in the July 15 v0.9.5 hotfix that only became noticeable later, or they may be connected to a subsequent game-side or Canvas backend change.

SteamDB records a change to the inZOI app entry on July 23. However, an app-record change does not by itself prove that a new public Windows build was downloaded, and SteamDB does not currently list a separately documented July 26 patch.

After further testing, the underlying facial sculpts of my older Zois appear to remain mostly intact. The visual differences instead appear to involve undocumented changes to CAZ shaders, materials, and Zoi rendering. I have amended the post below accordingly.

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Several major issues and changes have started appearing, and I wanted to spread awareness so the community has one place to document everything connected to them.

The most obvious sign is that mods that were previously working are now marked as unverified or require updating. This strongly suggests that an undocumented game-side or Canvas change has occurred.

As of July 27, I checked and tested this across Canvas. Newly uploaded creations in every category show their mods as disabled. Older listings may still display the mods originally included, but in my testing, those mods did not download or function with the creation. This appears to affect both new and older uploads across all of Canvas.

Another player’s bug report about the Canvas issue:

https://forum.playinzoi.com/t/topic/15419

This thread here on reddit is not limited to mods, Canvas, or CAZ. I am creating it as a central place for players to document any changes they notice across the game as more information emerges.

The visual changes I have identified include:

• Noticeably smaller irises
• Removal of the wet tear line around the eyes
• Significant differences in the colours and rendering of skin, hair, eyes, and makeup

If the facial structure of an older saved Zoi suddenly appears different, I found a solution:

An older saved Zoi may initially display apparent nose and upper-bridge changes. Re-saving a copy or downloading the Zoi again appears to apply the updated shaders, after which the original nose proportions return.

There may be additional changes to the game that I have not identified yet.

To be fair, the developers are more transparent than many studios about ongoing development, particularly through Kjun’s weekly updates. However, the official patch and update notes do not always document every player-facing change.

This is the first time, to my knowledge, that I have encountered changes of this extent without clear documentation or advance notice. The developers should publish complete notes for every patch, hotfix, or background build that changes player-facing content, systems, assets, or visuals, and notify players in advance when existing saves, characters, creations, or gameplay may be affected.

Players should not have to discover changes only because their mods stopped working, their characters suddenly rendered differently, or parts of the game began behaving differently.

Please use this thread to document:

- What changed and when you first noticed it

- Which part of the game is affected

- Whether it affects older saves, Zois, Canvas uploads, mods, performance, graphics, or gameplay

- Whether you have screenshots, videos, logs, or before-and-after comparisons

- Any new information or official response

Has anyone else noticed undocumented changes since the latest official hotfix?

Meet Ryu 🖤

He is the fourth release in my Sophisticated Realism series.

This started as a funny thought experiment: what if Preset 8, aka Ruyu Okamoto, became a K-pop star?

But it soon turned into a serious reconstruction once I realized how challenging it was to transform this borked default preset from a caricatured delinquent-style character into something more grounded in reality.

It was really hard, guys 😭 but it was worth it. The only consequence is that he became a whole new person entirely.

The original had a much louder, more cartoonish rebellious energy. I tried to keep the bad-boy aura of the original, but changed it into something quieter, more controlled, darker, and more editorial. Then I play-tested him thoroughly in Dowon through the K-pop idol career.

What do you think of his makeover? Has anyone else tried this preset?

No mods. You can download Ryu here:

https://canvas.playinzoi.com/en-US/creation/gal-260707-174900-9040000

Meet Elara 🖤

She’s the third Zoi in my Sophisticated Realism series. As with all my Zois, I’m always trying to balance beauty with realism — but Elara leans into a quieter kind of real-world presence.

She feels grounded and human in a way I really like: red hair, minimal makeup, natural facial structure, and a clean portrait mood.

She’s different from the usual Canvas beauty style, but that became part of her charm for me. I’m curious if anyone else is drawn to Zois that feel a little more understated or less conventionally polished.

No mods, you can download Elara here: https://canvas.playinzoi.com/en-US/creation/gal-260617-152145-3050000

It is always visible live in CAZ and still shows up when recording video with NVIDIA panel overlay. My final captured screenshots can look much cleaner, but the live/video view keeps the bloom and makes the lighting warmer than intended and colors harder to see accurately while in CAZ.

Has anyone found a workaround?

Meet Alden — my second Canvas upload and the second Zoi in my Sophisticated Realism series.

He was sculpted with: no mods and minimal makeup.

I sculpted his facial structure around the animation rig so his expressions look natural in poses and animations.

I also tested how he ages after the v.0.8.0 update, and for him in paticular and he holds up surprisingly well across life stages.

What you see here is what you get out of the box.

Canvas link:https://canvas.playinzoi.com/en-US/creation/gal-260604-151640-6190000

As always let me know what you think 🖤

Meet Natasha — my first Canvas upload and the start of my Sophisticated Realism Zois.

She’s no-mod, minimal makeup, and sculpted after v0.8.0 update with inZOI’s native engine. I built her facial structure around the animation rig so her eyes, mouth, smile, and expressions hold up as naturally as possible in motion — not just in still screenshots.

Minimal makeup means most of her detail is built into the sculpt, not carried by removable cosmetics or heavy textures. If you take the makeup off or play on different graphics settings, her face should still stay close to what you see here.

I tryto work within the game’s own limits first for player convenience: no external mods, no required extras, and no “downloaded her but she looks different” surprise. What you see is what you get.

Canvas link:
https://canvas.playinzoi.com/en-US/creation/gal-260525-091353-3530000

Feedback is welcome, especially from other CAZ/realism creators. 🖤