Up to now I have played nearly 100 hours of Oblivion on the PS3 and while that game is a fantastic RPG. It certainly has it's flaws and something that concerns me regarding Skyrim is the following: In Oblivion I could be wandering the countryside looking for Nirnroot along riverbanks or looking for dungeons to loot etc and the ugly draw distance would often break my immersion with the game world. Often by popping up buildings/ruins within a short distance of my character. Will the draw distance be as poor in Skyrim? Will it be improved with the new engine? Or is this just a common problem for consoles?

I've yet to play Oblivion/Fallout on a PC so I'm in the dark on pop-up issues for these systems. Certainly is a bit of an immersion killer imo and I just hope it's been improved for Skyrim.

Draw distances are an 'immersion killer' for you? How immersed do you have to be?

-Mr. Maric

buy the pc version then

Seriously, it's not the flaw of the game, but the limitations of the machine with which you use to play it.

Poor draw distance is due to the consoles being outdated
I had around 300 hours on oblivion and i never had those issues ( i played on PC)
Infact if i remember well,when i was on frostcrag spire i could see all of Cyrodil and i would see 80% of the ruins,forests etc.

For the most part yes but don't expect the grass to ever be drawn farther than the transition between the terrain mesh and the LOD mesh.

That's the problem with playing the game on consoles, if you want the best graphics then you'll have to get the PC version.

Everything kills immersion if you believe the QQ on the forum.

http://memegenerator.net/instance/10648661

Since you could see one of the cities from dive rock it coulsn't have been that bad.

This^ I hate short draw distances for actors, its a big immersion killer for me. I love being able to look out over a field and seeing animals wander around or going to a high place in a city and looking down on the population going about its business. The draw distance is what really sets apart pc from consoles graphically for me. I always cracked up the distances pass max in the ini. In Fallout New Vegas for example I set ugrid to 7 and actor distance 50% or so beyond normal max. I am planing on buying a new graphic card for SR just so I am really cracked up the draw distance.

Remember the first demo video, the one they put out on 360? Remember the point of view of the character looking down the path and seeing the dragon perched up on the ruins, way, way off in the distance? I think it was Bleak Falls Barrow or something, and you were seeing it well before you got anywhere close. I don't think draw distance is going to be a major issue. I mean the character hadn't really gotten close to Riverwood yet and you can clearly see the dragon up on the barrow.

So PC is the way to go, thought that might be the answer, thanks for the advice people. Shame about some of the trolls waiting to pounce on any negative subject in this forum though, god forbid someone who has a valid question regarding TES I guess. :down:

Well, it will depend on what's being "drawn". They might have assigned a much further draw distance to dragons, but we know that ground flora has a much shorter draw distance (on consoles anyway). I'm sure villages and cities have huge distances, but trees and NPCs will be much shorter.

My point: Just because you can see a dragon from a mile away, that doesn't mean everything will be drawn from that far away.

And to ape the other "PC elitists", we will get to enjoy a much higher draw distance.

Good for you.

Yeah...that svcks...


pc rules!

I had no problem being immersed in Morrowind, even though it looked like Vvardenfell was covered in constant fog.

Don't forget the sandstorms.

take a bath then u will fully immersed!

Thinking: I wonder if I should choose this moment to reveal I also play on pc? Nah, I don't have a fragile superiority complex that's treatened by the words "Xbox 360". Oh well, tomorrow is another day. :thumbsup:

^^^ This is the exact reason. However, I agree with you thata poor draw distance with tons of pop-ups,
is a really nasty immersion killer. Especially when you have half a fortress popping up from nowhere 30
yards ahead of you. There are some excellent mods out for the PC to remedy this, but they come with
a somewhat hefty performance hit. I was not able to run them back when they first came out, or my
game would come to snails pace fps-wise. Today I can run them with no major hit and to be able to
stand up just south of Bruma on a sunny day, look out between the trees, and see every ruin/fort etc.
all the way to the horizon is a sight to behold.

No, the draw distance won't be as bad as they were in Oblivion. The Elder Scrolls IV was released just 4 months after the Xbox 360, so of course it was going to look terrible.

This alone makes me want to invest in a decent gaming desktop, great post, thank you. :foodndrink:

Just a shame I'm skint and will have to make do with my PS3 for Skyrim. :swear:

I can't believe people are even still using the word "immersion" seriously in this forum. It's such a running gag now that if you use it, you're automatically turning your OP into a joke, even if you're not trying.