The edge. Skyrim's is very sharp, blocky and abrupt. The mod's hair looks more like it thins out at the ends. It fades. It makes the hair look much more natural to me. I suppose part of it may, in fact, the limitations of current gen consoles. I know they don't have AA, but can they not handle graduated transparencies?

these screens were probably taken almost a year before release, they will almost certainly make changes to the character models before november, but even if they dont, it woudn't make a difference, its just hair...

It's just the thing you're going to be staring at the whole time in 3rd person if you don't have a helmet on.

I'm afraid I'd have to plead ignorance on that issue. I know what looks good though, and I've simply given up on console games having beautiful flowing locks unfortunately. A good example of why would be both Mass Effect games for instance. If you're a PC player though, you don't have much to worry about do you? Are you a PC player?

I am a PC player, but after hearing Todd make multiple statements about keeping all three versions looking similar, I feel I do have reason to be concerned.

The sneaking hunter's hair looks awful. 90 degree angle for hair, really? Of course bad hair is not a game breaker, especially when you use a helmet, but it's one of the small details that would surely help the overall quality if done right.

I see your point, but it does look like a resolution issue to me. I also don't think I missed your other point as I agree that the Skyrim screen didn't look as good (although I assumed incorrectly apparently that the other screen was a pre-rendered movie). I just felt that based on my experience of console games that I shouldn't expect much better. As I said though, it does look like a resolution issue to me at least partially which should at least be somewhat less worrying to you I'd think. The hair still may not flow realistically though which is why I say only partially fixing your concerns.

I rarely use helmets. I like to see my character's face and hair. I've long considered hair to be one of the most defining features of a character. Not just in games, but also in art. It frames the face and has a major impact on the look and feel of a person. Change the hair and you can change the entire look and feel. That makes it important to me.

Skyrim hair is superior to Vanilla Morrowind and Oblivion hair. Neither of those were distracting in 3rd person

yeah but to compare it to n64 you must be seeing the world through [censored] stained lenses.

"I rarely use helmets. I like to see my character's face and hair. I've long considered hair to be one of the most defining features of a character. Not just in games, but also in art. It frames the face and has a major impact on the look and feel of a person. Change the hair and you can change the entire look and feel. That makes it important to me."

I agree. I'm not demeaning your concerns in any way. I was just looking at it from a practical point of view that also happened to be colored by being a console player. Believe me, I feel visuals are FAAAR more important to gaming than people give them credit. They help set a scene, a tone or mood. The more technically impressive the visuals, the more freedom you have with art direction which adds so much to a gaming experience. Obviously it's not all that's important, but I don't think anyone who contends visuals are super important is making that claim. Basically what I'm saying is, I get why it's important to you. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, Mass Effect has UGLY hair. Always was a pet peeve of mine since it somewhat hurt the character creation and role play process. I mean, why would you want your character to walk around with a mop on their head? Although I think that's giving it too much credit as even mops have individually flowing strands.

That comment wasn't directed at you, Bloody-TSI. You're not one of the ones coming into the thread saying, "I don't care about graphics" or "It looks good" or "it's only hair," or completely ignoring the point trying to be made.

Oh. My mistake.

No worries ^^

but the style was somthing not very tes-like, and her hairs were not scaleable and had mesh conflicts up the yinyang with stock heads. i would never say they looked better, i would say that only if they were as functional as they were "pretty" and actually fit the game.

But its just hair....I really don't care to much really. I bet alot of people really don't care if its top notch hair physics. :shrug:

well hair showing under the helm is also new to ES

it does not bother me, although if they "enhanced" it I would not mind either

If you had paid attention, style had never been a part of the point I was trying to make.

rens hairs dont look like they are apart of the mesh, find me two COMPARABLE screens.

Apart of the mesh? I don't even understand what that means. Both images have a hair mesh on top of a head. What's not comparable about them?

Rens hair looks like it belongs in a Japanese kids wet dream.

:facepalm: You still fail to grasp it...

im so glad you made a point after the fact, im just telling you that you picked a bad example.


you were complaining about the edges of the hair mesh and how choppy they looked, and you compared 2 screens, one from a mod [one that i use frequently i might add] that is being rendered in max resolution, aa and bloom, and the other from a PRE-ALPHA SCREENSHOT of an unreleased game...i dont get where your [point] comes into play. now if you chose one of the hair mods that actually work well with stock bethesda heads i would be less inclined to reply to this stupid comment.

now throttlekitty or soya...thats some good work. even if its not the right style. eh, works well for companions.
also...not related too much but speaking of hair mods
i hate oblivion mods right now...can we swear not to make porm/hentai mods anymore? its getting worse every day.

A mod, made back in early 2006, is still superior. Doesn't that strike you as odd?

I'm also not sure I buy the argument that it's just "pre-alpha" hair. Not when you consider the level to which everything else has been brought up to. What? They did everything but the hair? Then decided to release screenshots with that one unfinished element?

I agree with the OP - I just think it was rather overstated. "Hideous" is certainly too strong a word.

We need Final Fantasy hair. Beauty -- or at least, the potential for beauty -- is vastly more important to me than the vague and little-understood "realism," which is too often thrown at the fantasy genre by those who have opinions they can't explain, for reasons they don't know. Characters in Skyrim are dirty, ergo hair should look bad? If that's your view of fantasy, you have my sympathy.

Since hair is such a significant feature of a typical character's appearance, and considering the nordic theme -- and its heroes' inevitable array of golden locks, impractical braids and mighty beards -- I'm disappointed that more effort hasn't been expended to make hair look, and even move in an appealing way. That said, we've only seen a few shots of a few characters, so my fears could still be laid to rest somewhat before release.