I think some of the best looking games look so great because of all the little things that the devs put in.

For example, I think it would be cool to see a heat refraction effect over fires in the game.

nipbles.

Another one: footprints and animal tracks in the snow.

nipbles.

Preferably things that mods aren't guaranteed to add within a few days

rays of sunlight poking through the clouds
reflections in people's eyes of the character
drops of water on leaves after a storm
blood turning from bright red to black after some time
the glinting of armor in the moonlight and in firelight
coins having dents and scratches from overuse
the signs of bacterial and viral infections on disease-ridden plants and animals (eg. brown splotches on old trees, boils and pimples on sickly NPCs)
facial hair in various stages of growth
actual DIRT in the taverns and marketplaces, and litter strewn about. the imperial city in oblivion was impossibly clean, for a city that size in the middle ages there should have been so much more dirt
rats crawling along sidewalks. not huge rats either, but normal size ones.
flowers budding, blooming, falling off, rotting, being crushed under the character's feet
fingernails
eyelashes
hair that moves with the wind
body mass that moves realistically against gravity, eg. a big belly should heave up and down when running, muscles should visibly flex when pushing against a cart, etc.

My touches aren't little, they're big. More advanced lighting and shaders.

Another one: Snow is building. You can wade through it. Avalanches could occur. This is more related to physics than graphics though...
Another one: "Godrays".

This might be more gameplay related than graphics related, but I want lightning spells to actually move very quickly, and feel somewhat "realistic." Although maybe this goes against the lore, as electricity in previous games moved very slowly?

Would be nice if they added spell velocity as a stat.



For me it would be a change to the god awful glossy visual effect that every enchanted item gets.They should allow you to decide what it looks like.Like glow/shine/pulse/runic script.Or have a small fire dance along your weapon's blade etc.

Blurred vision when drunk or poisoned.
I second reaze's remarks on dirt.

No rain going through the damn roof, but I'm fairly sure they fixed that this time around.

Also godrays. Love those in Morrowind with MGE.

This + "Pulsing" blurred vision when stamina & health is low I think.

Body hair. Edit: That moves with the wind of course.

Nice list. I actually want something simple.

No need for Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys mod.

Daggerfall had windows glowing. Morrowind had chimneys with smoke. Oblivion had neither.

I saw animated windows in trailer. Not sure about chimneys with smoke though. Here an opportunity to beat previous installments. :thumbsup:

This.

Dismemberment

very simple ideas very hard to put in :

1) Please god fix the water
2) Cloth Physics

I agree that god rays would be nice and they don't add much of a performance hit either I don't think.
Trees could use some improvement I guess.
Something I would personally like is flowing blood from a fresh kill and if it reached water it would slowly spread and turn the water red.

What exactly do you mean "fix the water"...looking at the gameplay trailer and screenshots the water looks pretty amazing to me.

I think the water looks pretty good too but apparently alot of people think it looks like [censored]. I wish we could have water like in the morrowind S&G overhaul, now that's how you do water.

^ blood flowing from a wound is a great idea. add to that the ability to slowly slice a knife across an enemy's neck, and also have your wounds heal and scar.

I'd like it if everything didn't look like it was made of plastic. Even dirt in Oblivion had a high sheen on it. This isn't exclusive to TES though, a lot of games today look awful because of this.

Arms or hands in the trailer doesn't look to epic for me RAIN NOT GOING THROUGH ROOFS, I saw a mudcrab the other day. Well I saw one too but I don't gossip about the poor mudcrab :whistling:

Maybe they're talking about the river rapids, which look pretty bad imo.

Lotsa blood