HDR/Bloom, overuse of glow and "plastic" look of tex : V - Skyrim

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:20 am

Agree with OP 100%, this combined with Oblivion's fetal alcohol syndrome faces made the game, for all it's graphical capability, look like crap.

Skyrim has replaced the problem with the character models, but the lighting still seems too fake. Hope they somehow edit that in the final build. Hate it.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:33 am

Everything in Morrowind felt solid and compact. NPCs were built with very angular features, like Greek god statues. Interiors felt very cold, perhaps in part due to the reduced amount of ambient lighting usage compared to in Oblivion. I really liked this subdued, dreamy feeling. In Oblivion, buildings and NPCs seem so smushy and "inflated" compared to their rigid Morrowind counterparts. The bricks in fortress and city walls look like they're made of plastic or cake icing, whilst Morrowind's looked worn and smoothed after years of exposure to the elements. Whilst wearing armor, both the male and female characters in Oblivion have formless, almost tube-shaped bodies. The field of view must've been smaller in Oblivion or something, because everything felt bigger and closer to the screen. I'm hoping they do away with this in TES V and strive to make things look "edgier" again.

EDIT: The other issue I'm noticing is that, as with the Fallout games, everything in Skyrim still seems to have a bit of a warm ambient tint to it. The rocks in the screenshot of the giant, for example, would be far more believable if they had a bit more blue undertone to them and looked less like matte, uniformly-lit plastic.

Honestly, I can deal with some light bloom, I definitely CANT deal with the smooshy, blob people from Oblivion. Their faces were fat, and everyone just look like they needed to go to the gym. I'm happy to see that at least Skyrim has some DAMN good looking NPCs, except for their hair. Bethesda needs to get on that before release.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:33 am

I really don't see what you are talking about, i see the plastic look in oblivion but I see nothing like that in the new pics. Not even on the fire, everything looks rustic and real

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:00 am

I've gotta vote No. The Bloom effects definately helps make the game look worse. What makes it even more bad off is that I am not so sure that should be the "feel" of Skyrim. The "Ken n' Barbie" doll appearance of NPC's and plastic "He-Man" forts that were cities in OB were not the only faults. Walking into the forest was equally as bad. Glowing Trees and Flowers?? I was praying for a rabbid squirrel to attack me so that It didn't feel like I was walking around in Faerie land.

Nope. I for one don't want "My Little Pony vs. Barnie" Supposedly Skyrims combat has been reworked for a more visceral feel to match a brutal and terrifying time for Tamriel. The land and peoples of Skyrim should reflect that in a graphical sense as much as in atmosphere.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:31 pm

I imagine a conversation along the lines of:

dev1: But why doesn't it look like 'that game'?
dev2: Because that game looks unrealistic and overuses new effects just to say 'hay, look, we have all these new effects'
dev1: But that game was a major seller.
dev2: Doesn't matter, the graphics are still, obviously, wrong.
dev1: Well, people must like it. Change our game, stuff reality, I want more of this bloom stuff.

No, I don't like the overuse of bloom and HDR.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:06 am

People whine and complain about the silliest of things. :lol:

In the end you'll be loving this game to death. Not because of the textures, but because of the story,gameplay, and atmosphere.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:44 am

Well,the interior pic looks pretty fine IMO.Cannot say the same with the troll screenshot though.Still,it looks much better than Oblivion.

What disturbed me much more was that when moving the camera around,the perspective of the buildings would change!!!! Looked soooo damn weird.
Like when you looked up to a building,the angle of its walls made with the floor felt like it changed.
I'm not sure what is the problem here,but I know Morrowind didn't have it.I hope Skyrim also doesn't.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:42 pm

The SH with the skeletons is supposed to be a cave or a fort?
it looks bad for a fort but it is a horrible excuse for a cave , there are millions of caves everywhere , get inside one and see how the interior really looks like .

Overall all SH look like we have stuck with ancient technology .

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:01 am

The SH with the skeletons is supposed to be a cave or a fort?
it looks bad for a fort but it is a horrible excuse for a cave , there are millions of caves everywhere , get inside one and see how the interior really looks like .

Overall all SH look like we have stuck with ancient technology .

It's clearly not a cave. Do caves have steps and archways and carved fire-holders?

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:58 am

HDR is fine but that nasty, washed-out glow is not.

The plastic look usually comes from things having specular that shouldn't have specular, or from not having a good specular map.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:33 am

Yes, bloom REALLY is still a problem.... :facepalm:

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7555/compared.png

What are you guys talking about? I think it looks very toned down and non-plasticy compared to the Oblivion version.

I really hate the plastic glow that is seen in many todays games, especially in Oblivion. But I think those screen shots I've seen so far from Skyrim looks pretty neat and don't suffer from that problem.
:celebration:

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:24 pm

Well, it can't hurt if I repeat it again: Beth, learn to use normal maps better! ^_^

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:29 am

Doesn't bother me at all.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:09 pm

It's good as it is in Skyrim. It was terrible in Oblivion, all that shininess. :yuck:

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:01 am

Yes, the less plastic the better. Oblivion's hair looks awful, even with the best models, and dat lighting looks awful in all but the minority of conditions.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:04 am

Oblivion was quite... dazzling in places lol but the pics I've seen of Skyrim look much much better. If I'm honest, when I first played Oblivion I didn't notice it at all - it was only when I went back after a while and without the initial infatuation that it seemed to stick out. It will probably be the same for me with Skyrim - it will seem great on release, but give it a couple of years and the announcement of a new TES game and I'll go back and begin viewing it more critically (this goes for most things concerning the look of it).

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:37 am

Nope don't see it.. Again I think your talking about the artistic style of the game.. not the graphics. Not every game is going to look as realistic as possible.. It takes the fun away. We live in reality already (supposedly).. why would we want our games to represent what we see every day? It's also like comparing Van Gogh's style of painting with Rafael.. neither style is better than the other.. they just have different ways of viewing the world and interpreting it onto canvas. With games these days some want more realism in what they see.. others are looking for escapism. It comes down to what you like aesthetically. And rarely any more has anything to do with the actual graphic capabilities of the game.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:18 am

Nope don't see it.. Again I think your talking about the artistic style of the game.. not the graphics. Not every game is going to look as realistic as possible.. It takes the fun away. We live in reality already (supposedly).. why would we want our games to represent what we see every day? It's also like comparing Van Gogh's style of painting with Rafael.. neither style is better than the other.. they just have different ways of viewing the world and interpreting it onto canvas. With games these days some want more realism in what they see.. others are looking for escapism. It comes down to what you like aesthetically. And rarely any more has anything to do with the actual graphic capabilities of the game.

Uh ya, those are artists works are NOT acceptable. Don't you know anything?

:lol:

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:07 am

Yes, bloom REALLY is still a problem.... :facepalm:

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7555/compared.png

looks fine

and honestly it ain't a problem for me just don't care about graphix :shrug:

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:23 pm

I hate the plastic look, it makes my eyes bleed. It really does bother me, especially since the textures usually aren't very intricate and complex (i.e. the devs try to use glow and plastic to replace details formerly located in the texture itself).

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:23 am

Nope don't see it.. Again I think your talking about the artistic style of the game.. not the graphics. Not every game is going to look as realistic as possible.. It takes the fun away. We live in reality already (supposedly).. why would we want our games to represent what we see every day? It's also like comparing Van Gogh's style of painting with Rafael.. neither style is better than the other.. they just have different ways of viewing the world and interpreting it onto canvas. With games these days some want more realism in what they see.. others are looking for escapism. It comes down to what you like aesthetically. And rarely any more has anything to do with the actual graphic capabilities of the game.

Has nothing to do with the artstic style. Using "glow" on objects which shouldn't glow (IE the rocks/skeletons bones), the plastic look to characters flesh and textures of things.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:47 am

I remember when WoW came out it had the bloom set on as default as well.... the glow distorts everything and combined with glare it kills my eyes. 1 second outside of the intro sewers I almost went blind, then turned off the bloom.

EDIT: I do have light sensitive eyes though. My pupils are always pretty dilated, even in direct light.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:13 am

I adore HDR, shiny and glowy graphics! (all the way back in 2004 when I first saw that Half-Life 2 Lost Coast demo that used HDR, and since then it's a must have). :celebration:

I modded my Morrowind to look exactly like Oblivion with lots of HDR and glowy (textures were hard to change though since all the texture packs only tend to increase the pixelated grainy look).

I refuse to play games with graphics that look pixelated and grainy, and "flat and dry". :banghead:

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:40 pm

It looks to me like they're overusing these glowy, blurry effects to hide the fact that the game is running on terrible, generations-outdated hardware with a very small amount of texture memory that can only afford low-resolution mud. Oh wait ...

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:08 am

I remember turning both Bloom and HDR off when I was playing Oblivion. :hubbahubba:

HDR/Bloom, overuse of glow and &#34;plastic&#34; look of tex

HDR/Bloom, overuse of glow and "plastic" look of tex