At times, I am appalled by the graphics. This game is a little more than two years old?

It is clear that various artists did the textures, and some were more talented (or harder-working) than others. The landscape textures are largely adequate, but most structural textures are no better than those of Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Some look even worse, like graphics out of one of the old Doom games (check the blue tents at Tribal Village). Moreover, far too many character faces are sloppy and out of place for such a high-profile game.

But what really gets me is the lighting. While "cartoon" shadows are produced in the vicinity of some light sources, such as campfires, the sun itself isn't an actual light source. The game uses an ambient light model, with illuminates nearly all surfaces evenly and completely unrealistically. There is the illusion of solar luminosity with god-rays and bloom, but that's all it is: an illusion. With a rising or setting sun, the opposing faces of natural and man-made structures remain equally as illuminated as those exposed to "sun light." There are no shadows in the absence of sunlight. It's what makes the game look so grotesquely flat and poorly animated in broad daylight. The shadows that give the real world visual depth aren't part of this game.

I'm wondering if anyone has made a game that does sunlight right? Anyone?

There may be mods that replace the game's poor shaders with something more modern, but they're likely unoptimized and cripple frame rates. Having just enabled http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/35262, I'm enjoying the boost in visual clarity and frame rates too much to sacrifice it for slide show frame rates that make great screen shots but poor game play.