I am really amazed at these graphics thus far revealed to the community. There is however, one thing I truly hope for. That is for really good hair graphics. Silly as it sounds, the quality of hair graphics really makes the world seem more alive. For example, the hair graphics for the character creation screen on Eve Online is like nothing I've ever seen. If you haven't seen them it would be worth installing the free 15 day trial account just to check out the character creation screen. On the other hand, the stiff hair graphics in Dragon Age really are distracting (to me).

Skyrim looks very beautiful. I really hope I can see hair flowing back in the mountain wind or the roar of a dragon. Or the flow of a woman's hair at the tavern as she turns her head to give me a pint of ale Hair just seems like such an important feature to make appear as real as possible.

Anybody have any thoughts?

So long as they don't look like plastic caps glued to the top of your head I'll be happy.

Vsions said hair is really hard to do with everything else they are doing. He did say hair has been improved upon quite a bit though.

Or like easter basket grass glued to your head and then torched with an open flame LOL

Don't get your hopes up. Hair physics is extremely hard to do, and very intensive on game development. This is why many developers generally stick with shorter hair, and styles that don't require as much work and effort. There won't be any cloth physics in Skyrim, and likely hair will follow the same trend. Not a huge deal, as hair physics is more for eye candy than anything else.

Personally, I found Oblivion had better hair than Fallout 3, just because it had more shine and less clipping issues. It also looked less illustrated than fallout 3.

So long as they go back to doing shiny looking hair, i think i'll be fine.

From what we saw of the bar screenshot though, this is not the case, and i'm left completely confused on why anyone would ever want to render hair with such a matte finish. Theres nothing mods can't fix though.

My hopes aren't too high, I just feel the topic should be one presented more often. Beautiful scenery is easily thwarted by bad hair graphics Skyrim appears to be delving deep into culture and graphical beauty. Eye candy embellishes the poetic fantasy feel. Especially when hair is blowing in the wind or hanging loose in the tavern over a drink!!!

It certainly won't be DX11 hair physics so if your thinking it will I would accept it won't happen now and move on

But from looking at some of the Screens its a bit better.

It's too bad. As with everything else, hair looks better than it did in Oblivion. I don't like the super greasy shine that Oblivion hair has. Here's hoping we have LOTS of variety.

OK, can someone splain me what the facination is with hair manipulation in a game?

Maybe it's because I lack much hair, or I'm from an old pnp/Apple II background, or I'm not a teen, but what is it about hair that gets folks so worked up? I've seen threads for barber shops, coiffure changes in mid-campaign, hair physics, etc. I just don't get why hair is such a big deal :shrug:

Please enlighten me, because to me, hair seems like one of least import featuers to make as real as possible

DirectX 11 Hair (first 15 seconds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzjsTt_DzCw

Seriously, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has better hair than Oblivion did.

You mean that big plastic molded helmet that gets placed on top of the head of every single NPC and humanoid creature you interact with in a game that you will be playing for hundreds of hours, drawing your attention away from everything else as you laugh and smirk at the absurdity of the unmoving jagged edges that clip through the beautifully rendered and textured bodies and armors put into the game as your fourth wall comes crashing down as your mind zooms in on the stark contrasts in quality?

Yeah I can't see why anyone would be worried about that either. :teehee:



Wow, that looks awesome. Too bad the consoles would explode just thinking about DX11. :pinch:

When it comes to character design, I'm hard pressed to think of any one thing that will change a character's appearance and feel more than their hair.

As for hair physics, it could be done with cloth physics. It wouldn't be as nice, but it certainly could be passable.

My fascination is strictly to uphold the suspension of disbelief. Character modeling is equally important in beautifying a game world. Having a stiff-haired, non-streamlined character on a wonderfully crafted world is too abstract. Hair is a defining quality for many people. In a game like Skyrim, you will notice hair more than you will notice eyes or nose shape. It seems better to invest time into hair than into lesser features. Plus, if hair is streamlined on a character model, it makes that model more visually streamlined with the game world.

On a side note: Direct X 11 isn't implemented thus far?

Interesting, thanks for the insights. :thumbsup:

I've always been happy with a minor selection of character designs and never spend more than eh, 10 minutes on appearances whereas I'll ponder character build in relation to skills and equipment for a long time. Guess I'm ore into the number cruching than the RPG of cRPG's.

Thanks guys :foodndrink:

I don't believe you. There is no way any video game could look that amazing.

Nevermind. People covered why hair is a highlight.

Not this generation. That's next-gen hair. Stuff for the next Xbox and Playstation.

I want beard.

Hard to believe Skyrim won't have swishy hair. I mean, come on, the first Fatal Frame game on the PS2 had swishy hair - TEN years ago. There must be a way Beth can do it without leaving GPU's gasping and CPU's frying, surely?

At this point I think I would even settle for well rigged and animated hair. Not holding my breath though.

And that's about how long it's been since the Japanese Game Industry innovated anything except terrible fashion trends. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Don't get your hopes up. It's already been well established that only Asians and small studios can make RPGs with hair that doesn't look terrible. Bethesda and Bioware are strictly opposed to non-plastic hair. There's some kind of international treaty about it.

JRPG's are about as RPG as the Monopoly Bored game. Linear games with no branching stories and fixed character development. Awesome.


Anyway, they also have the luxury of using the exact same hair with the exact same character model. You don't have to worry about someone changing the head shape and causing everything to clip or destroy the universe. It's a lot more difficult than it seems.