» Thu Apr 07, 2011 3:35 pm http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1159628-monday-gi-hub-update/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1156953-monday-update-for-gi-hub/
Game Informer Original Article Link
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/01/17/the-technology-behind-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim.aspx
NEW update delved into a lot of new info.
- New Game Engine Revealed: Bethesda rewrote every major system powering the gameplay experience. The result is the newly dubbed Creation Engine and Kit.
- Havok's Behavior Technology: Improved character and creature movements. Characters now transition more realistically between walking, jogging, and running. Combat animations are also improved as they were able to balance both first- and third-person perspective by adjusting the timing values for swings and blocks depending on your perspective. Even very detailed animations such as characters struggling to move when trapped in environmental hazards such as spider webs! :drool: “We definitely have made a significant jump in how it plays [in third person perspective],” Todd Howard proclaims.
- Greater Draw Distances: The new engine allows for a lot more stuff in the distance to appear giving a greater level of immersion.
- Shadowing Improved: The immediate surroundings now have a more believable look and feel thanks to improved shadowing. The play between light and shadow on the entire world. On everything!
- Overhauled foliage system: Bethesda new system allows their artists to build whatever kind of trees they want and even dictate how they animate.
Altering the weight of the branches to adjust how much they move in the wind, which is an effective way of, for instance, actualizing the danger of traversing steep mountain passes with howling winds violently shaking branches. - New Precipitation System!: For the first time, as far as my understanding goes, we'll have realistic precipitation effects in a video game! The new system allows artists to define how much snow will hit particular objects. The program scans the geography, then calculates where the snow should fall to make sure it accumulates properly on the trees, rocks, and bushes. :drool:
- Improved Cities: The various villages and cities now feel more alive thanks to mills, farms, and mines.
- Improved Radiant AI: In Skyrim, the NPC's have richer individual personalities and perform tasks that make sense in their environment. During Game Informer's visit to Bethesda Studios, they demoed a "forest village where most of the citizens were hard at work chopping wood, running logs through the mill, and carrying goods through the town."
- Improved Radiant AI - Reactions: NPC's now respond differently based on how they feel about you. Depending on how you treat them, good or bad, they develop feelings about you. For Example: If you're good friends with a particular NPC and barge into his house during the middle of the night, he may offer you lodging rather than demand you leave the premises. Should you swing your weapon near an NPC, knock items off their dinner table, or try to steal something of value then they'll react with an appropriate level of hostility given their prior relationship to you.
- More Example's of New Dialogue System: Players are free to look around while engaging in conversation. NPCs continue to go about their business as well when engaged in discussion. For Example: A barkeep may continue to clean cups while talking, and even move from behind the counter to a seat. A mill worker chopping wood may engage in conversation without turning away from his duties, only occasionally glancing toward you during the exchange.
- NEW INFO ON DRAGONS!: The animations are sure to make them look believable and non-mechanical, even when the dragons are speaking/shouting or doing other powerful and menacing things like when banking, flapping their wings, gaining altitude before making another strafing run, and breathing fire on their hapless victims. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1159301-dragons/
- Teases about Dragon Mounts/Mammoth Mounts: Just a rumor, not confirmed.
- Radiant Story Explained Further: Instead of the same sidequests and mundane tasks for each playthrough the game tailors side missions based on who your character is, where you're at, what you've done in the past, and what you're currently doing. Many quests are still completely crafted by Bethesda so no worries about the story. The randomized stuff is strictly side quests.
- More on Random Requests: If you're really good at a particular skill, like one-handed weapons or destruction spells, a stranger who knows of your reputation may ask for training, challenge you to a duel, or beg you for a favor that will require you to show off your skill.
- Random Encounters in the Wilderness: Random events occur while you're exploring the wilderness not just within the towns around NPCs. You might run across mammoth beset by a pack of wolves.
