Does anyone know if indoor areas will have windows (not necessarily glass, but just openings with shutters) that let you look to the outside / outdoors? I feel this would add a lot to make houses, shops and castles more immersive. I'm sure its been talked about -- I just don't know if the engine is capable of something like this.

I heard its going to be the same as it always was.

There was a mod called 'Immersive Interiors' for Oblivion which gave the illusion of looking outside from homes. It really added to the atmosphere in my opinion and was relatively simple to set up from what I recall. It would be great if something similar would be in Skyrim but I fear we will have similar windows where you can't see anything.

Making me want a better graphics card >.<

As for the OP, I think it would be a great idea to feel cozy inside a cabin looking out at the fluffy snow..

This would be incredibly difficult to do with the current design to how a TES (or Fallout for that matter) game is made, to accurately depict the surroundings, the game would have to completely get rid of Interior Cells, which would be impossible this late in the game, plus this would more than triple load times to keep the same amount of content.

The only alternative to doing the above method would be to use the same concept with glass weapons from Oblivion. If you want, pop in Oblivion and get your hands on a Glass mace. You will see the reflections of trees and a road in it. This was humorous because wherever you were (including in Oblivion itself) this same reflection was displayed.

Have they said there would be separate interior cells for houses in towns? This is a different engine, I wasn't sure if they needed to do this. What would be the difference in having, for example, a house and a open-air blacksmith shop (i.e; no walls).

vampire bloodlines had separate interior and exterior cells and had windows that you could see outside of. they didnt show npcs but you got the meshes and basic textures. that game was released in 2005 i think. there really is no reason they cant have at least basic structures and trees visible from inside and furnituer and fireplaces visible from the outside.

No. But they likely will include window lights as that greatly boosts the livcelyness of towns and cities.

Well, for Skyrim, it's not such a big deal, because in medieval times the further north you went the smaller windows became and the fewer there was of them, simply because back then there was no way to have big windows without freezing the $#%^ out of your house. Also, in the winter, what little windows people had were completely covered by frost, thus you couldn't really see anything. So not having grand views out the window fits Skyrim's theme.
The next TES might be a different story.

While this would not be possible given the interior/exterior setup, they could simply create "fake" exteriors/backdrops outside the windows that look like the real thing. You wouldn't see people or anything like that but it'd still be convincing.

Like a 3d skybox, but for the interior cells.


If not that, then I hope they have interior windows that respond to time of day. In fallout New Vegas if you enter a motel room, the light coming in through the window changes color depending on the time of day. It really is a lot more immersive. And it's nice waking up at 6am to see orange-pink light flooding in in :3

Another good fallout new vegas example would be the Lucky 38 tower, where you can see the surrounding vegas landscape from inside the building.

Why was? It is relatively new and thriving and I personally enjoy it so much I started taking screenshots even if am quite lazy. Great mod and hope developers get the hint.


If it is incredibly difficult how comes a fan did it with a home desktop? Apparently it is not a question of resources but of ideas and time. And skills of course.


I personally think this is one of the ultimate immersive touches these incredible game series needs.