OXM UK - New Info & Screens : V - Skyrim

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:07 am

Just to get a sense of how good this news is, how much of Oblivion was generated terrain?

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:08 am

I just hope that telekinesis is a bit more like it was in bio shock, it seemed a bit useless in Oblivion tbh, It would be cool if you could stop an arrow mid flight, obviously you would have to have a silly-high skill level.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:48 pm

What is the bards college?

Probably a place where they teach you how to make your incredibly boring mudcrab fight sound like a face-to-face with Mehrunes Dagon... oh wait, are bards like that in TES anyways?

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:33 am

Now I want to play as a Bard :tongue:
I wonder how the new speechcraft (or whatever skill it is now under) might work with this.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:25 am

Every object in the game has a normal map. It uses the normal map to see what surfaces "point up". The areas that point up will obviously gather snow. The areas that don't won't. That's why it's "dynamic", but it's a simple 2D pixel shader. They intend this to mean "the artists didn't create the snow on these surfaces by hand" but the artists DID create the normal maps. Edit: An additional reason it's probably dynamic is the strength of the dusting. And probably the higher the strength the more of the surface it covers.

They even use the word "dusting" which essentially means "no volume". So I wouldn't expect any more than a 2D effect to be "dynamic".

I would like some hand-made snow mesh trickery like in Lost Planet 2 or Uncharted 2, though... It was good at making the snow seem deep where you were walking.

Thanks for explaining :goodjob: I'm clueless about game production.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:48 am

You already have it?
:

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:07 am

World exclusive pfft....

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:05 am

Just to get a sense of how good this news is, how much of Oblivion was generated terrain?

They never really came right out and said it, but I suspect that a very large portion was. They worked with a university to develop a program that generated the topography. I figure that the whole world was originally generated by the program, then they went back in and hand made their changes. The program took into account things like erosion and time. I don't know if it bothered with figuring out where forests would grow, or where rocks would be placed, those may have been done by them by hand.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:26 am

They never really came right out and said it, but I suspect that a very large portion was. They worked with a university to develop a program that generated the topography. I figure that the whole world was originally generated by the program, then they went back in and hand made their changes. The program took into account things like erosion and time. I don't know if it bothered with figuring out where forests would grow, or where rocks would be placed, those may have been done by them by hand.

I don't know about the rocks, but all the trees/grass/bushes/etc. were randomly generated using the toolkit SpeedTree.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:53 pm

telekinesis and staffs confirmed?

HELL YES

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:10 am

They never really came right out and said it, but I suspect that a very large portion was. They worked with a university to develop a program that generated the topography. I figure that the whole world was originally generated by the program, then they went back in and hand made their changes. The program took into account things like erosion and time. I don't know if it bothered with figuring out where forests would grow, or where rocks would be placed, those may have been done by them by hand.

I don't know about the rocks, but all the trees/grass/bushes/etc. were randomly generated using the toolkit SpeedTree.

All trees, bushes, grass were randomly generated.
Rocks were handplaced (it was said and shown in a video, I think "Making of Oblivion" or something).
That's it, if I understand it correctly.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:02 am

The wolf thing sounds effing awesome.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:31 pm

I loved the staff of worms in Oblivion and the spell from SI that allows you to reanimate dead people, I used to do that all the time then just cast an invisibility spell and watch my (small)un-dead army wreak havoc. So I hope theres some of that, and a quest line for evil twisted mages, being evil and wrong is just sooo much fun. :batman:

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:01 am

Um, are you blind..? The first thing I saw when I looked at that screenshot are the shadows. And it's an early build more than likely. You think the game is done? You're calling the game bad 1 year before release? Get real kid.

It's actually 9 months before it's release but your point is taken nonetheless.

Non-generated landscapes.
8 Dungeons designers instead of one making 120 Dungeons.
Telekinesis spell.
Uniquely hand crafted cities.
Perk that lowers the sound of your footsteps.

A bit of fresh juice in these news.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:17 am

so is the Bard's College in the northern part of the Solitude region or actually part of the city Solitude?

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:22 am

For me this is good news, I hope they keep lowering until 70-80 :biggrin: on a map the same size as Oblivion 70-80 very large, handcrafted, completely unique dungeons would be just fine.

I agree...with a couple of them just HUGE...with 10 or more levels! Just think of that! :biggrin:

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:59 am

Somebody needs to add all this information to that thread that was covering everything learned so far about the game. Onward ES soldiers!

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:33 am

Dynamic snow + Crafting = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjscH2WBWjw

Maybe they'll have a quest to find a corncob pipe.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:28 pm

Dynamic snow + Crafting = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjscH2WBWjw

Maybe they'll have a quest to find a corncob pipe.

Dynamic != Volumetric. Sorry. There has never been anything to indicate any sense of volume about the snow. Especially not dynamic volumes. Static volumes I could see, like the snowy terrain in Lost Planet 2 or Uncharted 2. It was a decent effect to make you think you were walking through snow.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:46 am

Dynamic snow + Crafting = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjscH2WBWjw

Maybe they'll have a quest to find a corncob pipe.

It's a mark of exactly how morbid my sense of humor has become that I am debating whether it would be more comical to kill Frosty with a hair dryer or flamethrower.

That said, :celebration: about the wolf AI. That sounds... there are no words to describe it's awesomeness.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:52 pm

The cover looks so sick!

http://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/02/07/oxm-uk-teases-skyrim-cover-story/

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:49 pm

The cover looks so sick!

http://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/02/07/oxm-uk-teases-skyrim-cover-story/

Yeah, it's looking awesome (dual wield all the way). I am wondering If there are any new screens in the magazine?

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:02 am

Yeah, it's looking awesome (dual wield all the way). I am wondering If there are any new screens in the magazine?

I'm not trying to be mean but... You do realize the magazine in question is what this thread is about? And the title of the thread reads:
"OXM UK - New Info & Screens"

....

It also appears that all of the screens are the same ones from Game Informer. In some cases larger or from different angles.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:54 am

I'm not trying to be mean but... You do realize the magazine in question is what this thread is about? And the title of the thread reads:
"OXM UK - New Info & Screens"

....

It also appears that all of the screens are the same ones from Game Informer. In some cases larger or from different angles.

I was a little lazy... didn't want to read through the whole thread.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:08 am

I was a little lazy... didn't want to read through the whole thread.

But the information you were curious about was right in the title... And the very first post.