I'm probably betting that the PC requirements for TES-V will much more than the Recommended requirements for a fully modded Oblivion with RAEVWD installed at it's full plus AAA, MMM and OOO and Quarls textures installed all at the same time in the same game without an ounce of FPS hits going on! (and that could be for just the bare minimum spec requirements!) What's your theiry for what could be the required PC for TES-V: Skyrim? (both minimum and recommended)

Well don't forget its a multi-platform release, that means that if the game is not optimized like crap for the PC and you can run games like Assassin's Creed 2 you will most likely be able to run the game...

If it's too high they wont get many people buying their game on the PC

It should run fine on a PC that can run oblivion.

Basically, if your PC is similar in power to an Xbox 360 you should get a 360 experience.

I can play Oblivion on max with no mods, so I'm expecting to play Skyrim with graphical settings that make it look as good as Oblivion.

I find it hard to understand how they are making it look "like new generation" when it has to be able to run on an Xbox

I guarantee you skyrim will run better maxed out than oblivion with all those mods you posted.

Developers learn how to harness more of the power of the consoles as the consoles are used more. Just look at the quality of 360 launch titles compared to the ones that came out recently. I think they are exaggerating about it looking next gen, but I'm sure it will look significantly better than Oblivion, Fallout and even more recent games.

Graphics get toned down for platforms, on the PC there are some settings that can really tax a system that is not prepared for it.



People built brand new rigs to play Morrowind, did the same thing with Oblivion. I just hope we don't have to build new rigs for this game. This time the engine can be optimized to how Bethesda wants this game to work and that should make things run better. I think the issues with the earlier games has been making a generic game engine do what Bethesda wanted. Which is let people do what they want to do.

However, at some point, game developers are going to have to start leaving behind the consoles for some games, or at least make the games different for the consoles. I am not talking just graphics here, but AI and complexity. PC hardware is currently way above the curve as far as what games need to run. Folks who have mid level gaming gear from two or three years ago don't have a problem running any modern game; at playable frame rates with most or all the eye candy and AI turned on. There has not been a game, other than the odd shooter with amped up eye candy, that has really taxed a PC since Oblivion/Crysis releases. Oblivion was one of the first games where the CPU is as important, if not more so, than the GPU. Since then, CPU's have gotten to the point where they yawn at Oblivion and Fallout. Even my vintage E6750 at stock clocks has no issues with any modern games. We are what, 4, 5 generations past that chip now? Last time I checked, their not making these things any weaker. Someone is going to look at that untapped CPU potential and say, "Let's use it. We will figure out what to do about the console release later."

Example with two games using same engine http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/777/777063/grand-theft-auto-iv-screenshots-20070329032013239_640w.jpg http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100521080254/reddeadredemption/images/thumb/2/21/John_Marston1.jpg/300px-John_Marston1.jpg Not next gen looking for sure. But it is a huge improvement.

Since Skyrim will be using a different engine than Oblivion there could be a serious improvement!
Here is a bandit from http://cache.kotaku.com/gaming/OblivionShields.jpg vs say http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo360/relvain/Forumz/Garrus_Vakarian.jpg from Mass effect 2

This is very true. My rig has 4 gigs of DDR2 800, a dual core chip and SLI 8800 Ultras. Doesn't take an engineer to know this hardware is several generations old. That being said I can still play most games at high res, with most things turned up pretty high. The new stuff that is out now is sicker than sick. I wonder if game developers are gonna take full advantage.

Hah, comparing it in that way makes me think that ME2 is in a totally new generation.

I'm fully aware of that but most if not all games will have about the same settings as the console tone down somewhere in the options

At any rate, I would certainly like them to release the official requirements sooner rather than later.

My laptop is pretty good for running modern games, though this "the game will look next gen" thing has me worried.

If it's on par with say, Dragon Age (which has pretty gorgeous visuals), then I should be in the clear. But if it's really graphics-intensive, I'll have to buy the PS3 version, which i'd rather not. I want me some mods!

i pretty sure if you run Oblivion on top-quality you will run Skyrim on low quality

This is how I would like to see it. Something even entry level hardware can do today. Something that would not alienate most of the user base but still allow Bethesda to take advantage of the newer tech. Id love to see a DX10+ based game. Have the PC version built from the ground up for DX10. Give us complicated shaders, incredible lighting and physics. Then for DX11 users add a little extra as well as a huge boost in geometry via tessellation. Its really what I expect from a late 2011 game engine.
Physics and cloth simulation could totally be achieved on todays CPU's. Quad cores are pretty much the standard and as I said in another thread 6 core CPU's are coming into market. By late 2011 we will have 8 core desktop CPU's. Even entry range affordable graphics cards like the Nvidia Geforce GTS450 or ATi HD5750 can handle DX11 and tessellation pretty well. With High end cards like the GTX580 and HD6970 able to handle incredible work loads of complicated shaders, GPU driven physics,and MASSIVE amounts of detailed geometry, a perfect solution to pop in and making incredible looking armor.

I hope they do too.

I can't imagine Skyrim being too graphically intensive. As people have mentioned, it's been developed for consoles as well, so they need to design the game based on the PS3/Xbox 360 tech. That said, I'm hoping they'll utilize DX10/DX11 features for the PC release.

If you can run Oblivion on top quality, wouldn't that mean your computer is similar to that of an Xbox?

So in theory, if it's optimised to run on Xbox hardware levels, shouldn't such a PC be able to run Skyrim at 360 quality?

That's how I like to see it anyway.

Also, if your running Oblivion at the very highest settings on PC, you're actually out doing the Xbox, especially in draw distance.

I imagine that unlike Oblivion, multi-threading will be handled properly, so multi-core processors will be used efficiently. I'm also hoping that CrossfireX/SLI will also be properly supported (although as I understand it, that's more of a driver issue than anything on the manufacturer's side of things).

Largely, running a 2.4 Ghz dual core has been very limiting for me to play either Morrowind or Oblivion (post-mods). I do plan to move to a Phenom II quad (or equivalent) pretty soon, and with more and more people on higher powered dual cores (even my girlfriend has a 2.8 Ghz dual), I imagine that everything will run fine.

Graphically? Well, if you think, Crysis 2 is supposed to be easier to run than Crysis 1, and look better on max visuals, then I'm going to hope that TES V will run on minimum on similar hardware to Oblivion at its high end.

Having said that, we're guessing completely, and I'd love to hear a proper answer from the developers, but I doubt they know for sure just yet.

I know that by the time it comes out I will have Sandy Bridge and possibly either a GTX 580 or an even newer card...Maybe even SLI. But I am willing to bet my current set up would be able to run it on max, with mods.

It has to scale well with the consoles as well, but remember Metro 2033 is on Xbox 360 and PC, and to run it on max on the PC takes some top end hardware.

You won't need an über PC to run the game at reasonable settings.

Basically: since the consoles haven't had hardware upgrades and those do still need to be able to play the game at reasonable settings, you can expect a PC that has been able to play contemporary games at comparable settings to do the same for TESV. The game engine is very likely to be highly optimized at lower settings for less capable hardware due to some hardware limitations on the consoles, while still bringing some very nice eye candy at those lower settings.

Now as for settings above and way above the level that the consoles can handle, plus graphics enhancing mods: those will be taxing.

I would change that to a mix of Medium and High, especially if you are running MTAEVWD or whatever and some high res texture mods. And remember, if you have a quad, Oblivion only uses two cores. If it really is a new engine, it should be capable of quad core utilization as writing a new engine that only uses two cores is just sad.


I will also refer you to a post of mine on another thread concerning PC requirements for a broader explanation.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1148315-pc-requirement-guesses/page__st__20__p__16821429#entry16821429

I think the big question regarding the PC requirements is whether it will work with DirectX9 or require DirectX10, and not the actual hardware requirements. Because the gaming PCs of today are a fair bit more powerful than the 4-5 year old consoles which the game is also released for.

That would be a daft decision anyhow. There's still many gamers who run on XP. And the 360 is basically stuck with DX9("+"), so the engine should at least have a DX9 mode.

Yeah, I really should upgrade to Windows 7 one of these days.
Not Vista though. Vista is smelly :rolleyes:

Actually Skyrim is the only reason why I'm currantly looking for a job even though I'm still in university. It's gonna be tough, but getting a new laptop by the time Skyrim is released will make it all worth the trouble.

Yeah. But Just Cause 2 is a DX10 game even though it was released for the consoles.