Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim announced

Mordrak · 2011-08-12T15:48:17.000Z

It seems to be there’s a marked improvement, if not in resolution, in texture processing (shaders) and geometry between Skyrim and Oblivion.

I don’t see how someone could look at the two and on average, not say Skyrim looks remarkably better. Anyway, I’m glad it’s not too far out there and has to be able to be run on the 360. That means I can play it too. :)

Joe_M · 2011-08-12T16:26:32.000Z

I suspect we’ll see a high res texture mod for armors less than a month after release. If this is what they had to do to get it to run on 360, I can deal with it (much like NV’s hilariously awful “Strip”).

Omniscia · 2011-08-12T16:31:03.000Z

I’m going to need a new video card, aren’t I?

Fugitive · 2011-08-12T16:35:57.000Z

nKoan:

That Argonian looks female

/I was going to say that as a joke, but then I looked at the picture again, and I think its true.

Centuries of mammalarchy have resulted in poor body image, so the Argonians have started getting implants. It’s a tragedy, really.

(Actually, that ship sailed long ago.)

Panda · 2011-08-12T16:39:25.000Z

I do believe Skyrim uses a new engine on account of the last one having a particular graphical glitch that can’t be patched out. As I understand it they’ve wanted to get rid of it for a long time and took developing Elder Scrolls V as the time to develop a new, or at least significantly re-coded engine.

Disconnected · 2011-08-12T16:42:50.000Z

Sir Digby:

Yup, female argonian, note the unnecessary/ambiguous/biologically wrong pseudo mammary glands on the chest. Also, the musculature on the male models looks pretty good, I was afraid it would look blocky but seems I was wrong.

Argonians don’t lay eggs …It would seem :p

Wonder how many titties the catwomen have?

Also, in the topic of textures, I’m not worried about armor being low res, but something is still lodged in my mind: is this the same engine as Oblivion but tweaked? If so one can assume that it will run as Oblivion + mods run right now, right?

I guessing it depends. FO3 isn’t nearly as CPU intensive as Oblivion, but it is more demanding of your graphics card. Of course FO3 has way better graphics, so that’s perhaps not entirely surprising - though Bethesda did do a poor job of optimising the geometry in Oblivion.

I predict Skyrim will be about as taxing on your graphics card as FO3 was, but even less taxing on your CPU. Which for mods means that gameplay mods will run tonnes better, but purdification mods may run worse.

As for graphics plateaus, Crysis 1 with texture & lighting mods, and to a lesser extent Twitcher 2, are very, very noticeably better looking than any console game. And in the near future there’ll be stuff like tessellation to make the up-close blurry boxiness go away. So no, I don’t think we’ve reached a plateau in the technical sense.
But I do think the industry has concluded that between consoles & most PCs being 3-6 years behind the bleeding edge, there’s not just no point in making games with bleeding edge graphics. Making games scaled for what is now 6-7 year old hardware improves sales. A conclusion I’m pretty sure is sound, though whatever the motivation a self-imposed plateau indisputably has existed since the xBox/C2D & nVidia 8800.

I’m not entirely thrilled by it personally. Upgrading every 2 years or so would suit me just fine. But on the other hand, a lot of gamers don’t want to, or can’t afford to upgrade their hardware with any frequency. And I can’t say I miss games that run like shit on the next couple of years worth of bleeding edge hardware either - which wasn’t an infrequent occurrence back in the late 90s & early 00s.

Two_Sheds · 2011-08-12T16:44:54.000Z

I think those shots look fantastic.

MrCoffee · 2011-08-12T16:47:32.000Z

Panda:

I do believe Skyrim uses a new engine on account of the last one having a particular graphical glitch that can’t be patched out. As I understand it they’ve wanted to get rid of it for a long time and took developing Elder Scrolls V as the time to develop a new, or at least significantly re-coded engine.

Diagonal running?

Disconnected · 2011-08-12T16:50:25.000Z

MrCoffee:

Diagonal running?

Nah, it does that fine. It’s the animations it can’t do. But if they really did massive re-coding because of just one thing, the lighting bug is a much more likely candidate. It didn’t/doesn’t just look wrong, it actually broke/breaks stuff.

EDIT: Honestly though, I think they’re exaggerating what they’ve done. It still has the look of Oblivion/FO3/FO:NV. And if they really aren’t exaggerating, I’m more than a little disappointed they haven’t improved the water any. Water should be sloshy, not flat like a slab of concrete.

Panda · 2011-08-12T16:51:00.000Z

Heh, nah not that. I forget what the technical term is for the issue, but it causes graphical stuttering that doesn’t have anything to do with the hardware running the game. It’s a flaw of the engine itself.

MrCoffee · 2011-08-12T16:51:34.000Z

Heh i’m just kidding because they actually did animations for diagonal running, atleast from what i saw in that 40 min preview.

mkozlows · 2011-08-12T17:08:46.000Z

Sir Digby:

I hate to be “that guy” but don’t those armor/gear textures look a bit bland? I reckon these are console screenshots and the PC version has much better textures.

As I look at those, it seems to me that the mohawk dude is a console screenshot and the rest are PC.

Teiman · 2011-08-12T17:13:46.000Z

Maybe is this:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1525127

Note: There is another type of stuttering which can occur, often referred to as micro-stuttering, juddering or skipping. It usually appears as tiny skips, like missing frames in a movie. This is not the same as the normal type of stuttering mentioned above, it is not caused by loading new data, it appears to be an actual bug related to graphics synchronization in the Gamebryo engine, possibly made more noticeable by certain graphics drivers. To confirm the problem, use the iFPSClamp=60 setting as covered in the Advanced Tweaking section - if that removes the skipping then you are experiencing this issue. It’s an issue that’s been present in the Gamebryo engine at least since Oblivion so it is not new, and so far there is no real solution.

???

en.wikipedia.org

Micro stuttering

Micro stuttering is a term used in computing to describe a quality defect that manifests as irregular delays between frames rendered by the GPU(s), causing the instantaneous frame rate of the longest delay to be significantly lower than the frame rate reported by benchmarking applications, such as 3DMark, as they usually calculate the average frame rate over a longer time interval. In lower frame rates[note 1] when this effect may be apparent the moving video appears to stutter, resulting in a d...

PC Games Hardware

Video proof: Micro stuttering may destroy the performance gains from current...

For several months, the IT forums have a new buzzword: Micro stuttering. It describes a serious shortcoming with current multiple GPUs technolgies. We explain the symptoms.

Love the german name: MIKRORUCKELN!, sounds like a tiresome gnome.

Nesrie · 2011-08-12T17:56:00.000Z

nKoan:

That Argonian looks female

/I was going to say that as a joke, but then I looked at the picture again, and I think its true.

I thought the same thing but just assumed I was wrong. I never played Oblivion or Morrowind, and I just thought that lizard’s, either sex, would not have breasts. Okay… I can handle being wrong on that even if it is… weird. I am just hoping the female characters don’t look like men with breasts or hookers… maybe a possibility of something in between those two would be nice.

squirrel · 2011-08-12T17:59:08.000Z

Nesrie:

I thought the same thing but just assumed I was wrong. I never played Oblivion or Morrowind, and I just thought that lizard’s, either sex, would not have breasts. Okay… I can handle being wrong on that even if it is… weird. I am just hoping the female characters don’t look like men with breasts or hookers… maybe a possibility of something in between those two would be nice.

In would think that’s a safe assumption. After all - what is a lizard going to do with those breasts?

Disconnected · 2011-08-12T17:59:58.000Z

mkozlows:

As I look at those, it seems to me that the mohawk dude is a console screenshot and the rest are PC.

Based on what?

I’m guessing they’re all drastically downscaled PC shots. Easiest way I can think of, of getting maximum visual quality. Like the absence of teh dred jaggies & such.

Mike_O_Malley · 2011-08-12T18:05:38.000Z

squirrel:

In would think that’s a safe assumption. After all - what is a lizard going to do with those breasts?

Get lots of free drinks at the lizard bar, of course.

Teiman · 2011-08-12T18:09:28.000Z

Well, Crantius Colto made some books about the topic.

Elder Scrolls

The Lusty Argonian Maid

Act IV, Scene III, continued Lifts-Her-Tail

Lifts-Her-Tail: Certainly not, kind sir! I am here but to clean your chambers.
Crantius Colto: Is that all you have come here for, little one? My chambers?
Lifts-Her-Tail: I have no idea what it is you imply, master. I am but a poor Argonian maid.
Crantius Colto: So you are, my dumpling. And a good one at that. Such strong legs and shapely tail.
Lifts-Her-Tail: You embarrass me, sir!
Crantius Colto: Fear not. You are safe here with me.
Lifts-Her-Tail: I must finish my cleaning, sir. The mistress will have my head if I do not!
…

Scrax · 2011-08-12T18:11:27.000Z

lizard_breast_cancer_big.png1600×1116

Omniscia · 2011-08-12T18:28:50.000Z

Nesrie:

I thought the same thing but just assumed I was wrong. I never played Oblivion or Morrowind, and I just thought that lizard’s, either sex, would not have breasts. Okay… I can handle being wrong on that even if it is… weird. I am just hoping the female characters don’t look like men with breasts or hookers… maybe a possibility of something in between those two would be nice.

You never played Daggerfall, did you?