Graphics poll 2, choose what's most important too you in terms of visuals. If nothing is, congratulations your blind! :goodjob:
Anyway, as with all my polls you have to choose one. Because those poor developers guys are overworked as it is. I hear Todd's had to switch to elephant hide whips after the normal leather ones wore out too quickly :blink: of course we'd all like it to look like http://www.futuremark.com/images/products/3dmark11/3dmark11_ss7.jpg?m=v

Oooh, faster AND better SSAO http://www.cs.utah.edu/~loos/publications/vo/
better Skin shader: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=585052

I really hope they do some sort of cool Fur shader on Khajit/Wolves/Etc. Faking it with textures never looks as cool as it could http://www.xbdev.net/directx3dx/specialX/Fur/index.php

Lighting and music by far.

I've always felt that lighting just really adds a great atmosphere to any game. The way the lighting is speaks tonnes about any scene.

I also LOVE soundtracks. I want more nostalgia, please.

Lol I like the elephant hide that is funny because it is so dumn. Before it is tanned elaphant skin is a foot think in most places. Like the new avatar finaly got a better one.

Lighting from these options. Characters nad their movement need to seemrealistic too of course, but real shadows and movable light sources are a MUST. (Thief veteran)

Then Voice Acting, even if I don't give a damn about Johnny Depp. TES4 had terrible dialogue, and not enough voice actors. Mass Effects and Dragon Age quality is what they need to aim for. I can play without music if ambient sounds are made really well.

Graphics. Roleplaying is all about character, so my answer has to be 'Character.'

Audio. After awhile I often turn music off altogether. And I would be very happy if cRPGs never ever used voice acting again. So that leaves 'Sound Effects.'

Lighting and Voice acting. Everything else can be modded.

Detail. I really don't understand why would I want soft shadows and such when I could have the game looking like Crysis or RAGE.

I voted for voice acting, but I want all of them really.

It is hard to pick just one from each.

Anyway, I picked the giant vistas option (assuming it is not just restricted to mountains). If they could make the high points and such totally awesome I think that could compensate if some minor things are on the blurry side (although details and lighting are very important to me).

And I voted for sound details. If I wanted high music quality I would just turn the volume off and listen to my own music (although again, the soundtracks are important to me)

I voted for lighting, even though I don't give a rat's ass about graphics, and sound effects, since I will change the music anyway.

Lighting. The lighting always helps add to the feel of the game tremendously. And music. Morrowind soundtrack is amazing, and I would love it if the next game had a live orchestra record it.

Detail and Music for me.

Things should look good, and detail makes things look good to me.

As far as music goes, it should be very subtle, yet still have a significant effect on gameplay. Like Morrowinds soundtrack but even more epic and subtle.

For me its Shadows/Lighting and Soundtrack. Just look at how good Fable 3 looks with shadows but svckish models and textures!

Vistas and scenery, I prefer a nice large scenic world, the small things can really help realism so thats why I also chose sound effects.

Now that I think about it this is fairly true. Animation and voice acting are the hardest things to mod, textures and music among the easiest. May as well have the hardest things be the best

True, but a moot point considering that the majority of their players are on consoles, I'm a PC player and agree, but I'm just stating the facts.

Whoo, lots of replies! Honestly I hope that they pay attention how sound is propagated as well as just recording it. Echoes, doppler effect and etc. are all important!

To me, it's vistas. That's what the game is all about. The others are important too, though.

Audio-wise, I chose voice-acting, but only because I know it's going to be in there. I'd be fine with no voice-acting (and therefore WAAAAAAY more dialog) or really good, diverse voice-acting, but I don't think I can take another poorly acted game. Even the best-acted games out there are pretty bad compared to animation. I think that the sheer volume of out-of-context dialog that gets recorded is the culprit, but I guess it would be cost-prohibitive to expect every character to be "acted" rather than simply "voiced". I doubt the actors get paid enough to bother truly getting to know their characters and the context for their dialog.

Well the lighting in Oblivion, Fo3, and still in FO:NV is crap. the lighting is aweful. I'd realy like to see them work on the lighting.

Lightning, for certain. It's always been a key component in the atmosphere of each game in the series. The dark, lonely feeling in Arena/Daggerfall to the earthy, stark colors of Morrowind to the lush, dreamy colors of Oblivion. At the same time, I think it's also where Bethesda needs to make the most improvements. Less excessive ambient lighting, please! I liked how "tight" things felt in Morrowind's interiors, because there weren't dramatic reflections and blue tints everywhere I went.

Music is the most important factor in audio, for me - I'm hoping we see multiple tracks, per location, time of day, and weather. The playlist system used in every game since Morrowind can only do so much.

I agree with all the comments on lighting being the most important element in a game's visuals. Crysis is well known for being a great looking game, but there was a mod called Real Lifesis that overhauled the lighting to such a realistic level, with really strong shadows, that can completely fool you into seeing photo-realistic graphics. Here's some examples:

http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/00021uz7.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/5voyvn.jpg

http://www6.incrysis.com/screenshots/realistic_forest3hm1.jpg

Low-res textures can be modded away. The lighting system is usually (Good old MGE team) there to stay.

I chose lighting and sound effects.
I'd actually prefer it if there were no music at all (except where there's some in-world source such as at a tavern), in favor of immersive sound effects.

image quality and sound effects.

There's little point to giant vistas if they all look like muddy ugly blobs with ultra-low LOD (ala vanilla Oblivion).

I like crisp, detailed textures that hold up not just for the close items, but for distant things, too. No jaggies, no sloppy/ugly bump mapping, no low-res crayon smears, obvious tiling, repetition, etc. You can get away with skimping on lighting and model complexity by just making those textures look so darn pretty.

Hey thats a realy good idea. Have the Auio change based on the weather. Sort of happy fun time songs when its sunny, dark brooding music when its stormy, and soft relaxing music when its raining. That'd be great.

I loved listening to the music at the fishing hole in Twilight Princess. esp when it rained.


No, no you cant. Not after playing Stalker.

http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/105256513-4.jpg
http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/105256508-4.jpg
http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/105256536-4.jpg
http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/106416713-4.jpg
http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/105562688-4.jpg

Hey I'm not sure about this poll. I think it would be better to either prioritise or pick top three or something. For me big vistas are important but lighting is also. One of the triumphs of Oblivion I thought, even 4 years on I come across scenery in Oblivion which makes me stop and admire it for a minute. I'd can't wait to see what an updated version will look like.

As far as the audio is concerned, voice acting has to be the priority for me. Just more voice actors and actresses, Oblivion sometimes felt like the whole realm was populated by the same 5 guys. One of them sounded like the guy out of wallace and grommet and he was everywhere! Martin Septim sounded a bit like Sean Bean, was it him? If so then whats the point in spending so much money? You don't need it! Just variety! I also love an epic score which is important to give the game a feeling of grandeur. The sound effects go without saying and have to be top notch. I don't see any reason why we can't have all three Audio choices anyway. I mean it's not like graphics where one direction would compromise another.

STALKER looks great, but I don't think TES in general much less ES:V specifically needs to go hyper-realistic with the graphics. I think it would pull me out of the "Nirnness" of the Elder Scrolls universe. I don't mind DX11 features including lighting and tessellation being implemented.

For me "Vistas" and "Image Quality" matter equally. I like a good view. I don't think I have to see as far as I did Oblivion, when I was driving upstate on vacation and looking at the landscape, I thought to myself that I wish I could see as far as the view in Oblivion... that doesn't happen in reality too often. I'd of preferred 1/2 the distance if I could of had something akin to aevwd in vanilla. The structures popping in is like one of the most awful things on my list of awful things about Oblivion. Throw in decent textures and some AA and I'm there.

Lighting and shadows are important, but it is a Pass/Fail sort of a thing.


I preferred Morrowind's score to Oblivion's as far as the soundtrack is concerned. This is more of an aesthetic judgement.