I would like to propose a few graphical changes that can/hopefully will be implemented into Skyrim.

1. Global Illumination- Having all light and lighting sources based off this principle. I believe UMBRA provides an excellent example of how Global Illumination works.
2. Shadows- Having Dynamic static shadows is a must! Oblivion's E3 demo had them, why take them out for Skyrim?
3. Atmospheric Scattering/Dynamic Sky planes- Maybe something along the lines of Red Dead Redemption's sky boxes?
4. Reintroduce Bump Maps/Environment mapping- Morrowind had both and Fallout only had Bump Mapping. Skyrim needs them!
5. A new Fog system- Oblivion's Fog looked like a large wall just coming at you. Fog in real life does not look anything like that.
6. Performance Friendly SSAO- Fallout 3 was able to make use of this through the graphics card display settings.
7. Weather Effects
8. DX11 Support
9. Realistic Water System

Just a few of the many ideas out there. What are some of your graphic wishlists?

There is not much I want from graphics improvements, but I want optimization.

A big one for me is better weather effects. Rain and snow that can actually obscure vision and look like real rain and snow. Precipitation that blows with the wind and foliage that reacts accordingly. Improved fog would fall in here too.

Crossfire/SLI and DX11 support for the PC.

If it has that, I am confident I'll be pleased with what they provide.

I would be the most satisfied if the graphics were WORSE than oblivion, which is compensated by awesome story/gameplay

Not gonna happen, but physics enabled moving clothes and hair would be awesome. Valve developed something called "jiggle bones" that makes it possible to have parts of a skeleton Havok-enabled, such as clothing, hair and :hubbahubba:

The only thing I care about, if the ENTIRE game's graphics were the exact same but one think, is lighting. The lighting as ATROCIOUS in Fo3/NV and Oblivion. If they added a much more recent lighting engine like in Unreal or Source, I would love them forever. Realistic lighting is just something any game must have now in our day and age, and if they dont have it, they are FAR behind.

Heh, everytime I hear that I laugh.

I play on the PC and having DX11 support would be a cool feature but really i'd be fine with DX9 or DX10.

dx11
weather
water effects
seasons
high res textures
different filters ie blood on screen, blurry vision, inebriation effects, other magic effects like nighteye.
depth of field done right
motion blur

Thats about it ontop of the usual stuff (like AA AF ect) heres to hoping for pc specific settings.

This and realistic interior lighting and All of the above.

Global Illumination would fall under that. Having windows as the source of light to display sunlight/moonlight shining through.

Realistic weather and water.

I care more about the animation than the shaders and lighting, I already thought that was pretty fantastic in Oblivion. Sure, dynamic soft shadows would be nice. Also Oblivion did have bump mapping, it was a more advanced type called parallax mapping which gives a much better effect anyway.

Parallax Relief Mapping would be awesome to see!

I would mainly like to see an over all improvement (kinda obvious that someone would want that ) but what I hope to see is something similar to the crazy facial animation that they have in L.A. Noire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQOhNidEyqo

no major changes are likely to be made at this point on the engine but....


terrain changes- texture 45 could be grassy, but snow after a snowstorm/during winter. this would make skyrim apear to be several places at once

a REALY cool material system...

- fur/hair should get wet, get snow in it, get soot in it, get muddy- and change in hue when on an animal
- cloth should be flamable and get damp/muddy. blood and snow should stick on it
- iron/steel should show water droplets on them when wet. it should be conductive to electricity. it should be able to get snow speckled on it


charecter models need an overlay system
this is to do

- visual damage such as gashes, burn marks and show signs of diseases with horrrible spots on a face for example
- could make tattoos for charecters to give more personality/look cool/ identify someone as part of a group
- add features such as freckles, creases, body hair, scars, the pattern on a khajits fur.....



and i want realistic/ varied stuff given to creatures from this engine like

wall walking spiders
skeletons that fight with there limbs falling of
animals biting and holding on
realistic flying/swiming animals. ( that dont hover in the air staticly and attack you, i want mosters that zoom past you and bite along the way. or mosters that zoom above firing range attacks

Optimize optimize optimize! Games are at a level where any graphical increases are subtle at best. Rather than focusing on making things look prettier, focus on making it all run fast and smooth. I would even be all for graphical decreases if it meant more characters on screen, open cities, better animation, etc.

I'd like to see some tracks, maybe they only last a couple of minutes, but i'd like to see them. it would make hunting in the game so much more immersive

Lighting like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLZU-JC6Hqc

Environments like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKqnVrtyKYw&feature=related

Water like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBh4HQBoE_Q

Weather like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yxnETZ6RZk


Unreal and Source use lightmaps (static lighting). It wouldn't work with day/night cycles, but yeah, I completely agree with you. Bethesda has been behind on the lighting for a long time.


Another thing that has been way behind for far too long are the animations. They should really try to excel with the animations and use Euphoria (GTA 4) for their animations. You may have noticed that in GTA 4, if you run into someone with your car going slow enough, they will still walk as you're bumping them in the ass. I think it would go well with the sword fighting in Skyrim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae3fgj2x1aI

I want a longer draw distance and plants that move when you walk in to them (like in crysis).

Skyrim would be amazing if it looked as good as Two Worlds II. That game is amazing, and it should look even better when the North American version comes out. They'll have had three extra months to polish it up ( that's actually the reason they delayed the NA release).

Eh, really the graphics in the game dont make too much of a difference to me. As long as they are as good as Oblivion, I am fine with them. I doubt it would have DX11 support, or even DX10, since it needs to be made on the consoles too and adding those features to the PC side isnt worth the extra time and money to implement them. (Although I would love DX11 with my new 6970).

The graphics arent the most important part to the actual game design IMO. Making the game as bug-free as possible before release is priority for me. Then, the next largest thing, is the loading time from HDD when walking around. Fixed very much in FONV and even FO3, but since Its on a new engine, I assume it wont be a huge issue. Then graphics are next. Of course it has to have a good story too.

Black and white. Cell Shaded. Film Noir.

For the love of God, please dont do shiny rocks again. or shiny much of anything. RL is a pretty matte place, I mean i don't recall a huge bloom effect coming of my cast iron frying pan, or the wood in the basemant reflecting back at me. keep it real

I need only one thing to be happy:

When it rains, and I step under something that rain should not go through, as in a rock overhang or a porch...please, don't let the rain come through it. I love thunderstorms almost as much as life itself, and it kills me to see rain pouring through solid objects.