http://www.desktoprating.com/wallpapers/landscape-wallpapers-pictures/waterfall-landscape-wallpaper.jpg
http://www.hickerphoto.com/data/media/65/waterfall.jpg
http://jameswoodward.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/waterfall_large.jpg
http://static.travelblog.org/Wallpaper/pix/waterfall_desktop_background-1600x1200.jpg

I think that problem is not color (as you can see from the pictures).
The problem is that it looks like plastic.

It looks decent to me...it can definitley improve as all things can, but overall it looks fine. And I'm sure Bethesda will tweak it before release

That last picture was very beautiful.
I think the problem is that the rapids got no reflections and isn't shallow (is just a 0% transparent normal texture "rolling/animating" on a mesh over and over). This causes the plastic look, imo.

What should be done instead is that they should use the "real" water (the water that we see in lakes, etc) and add a foamy-shallow-texture on top of it, along with lots of foam-steam. That's what it looks like RDR did.

Waterfalls are fickle things, rapids even more so. They will get to updating the water textures there before release. Perhaps it was merely an oversight on the textures they needed to have finished for the trailer.

I don't know why some people act like fan-boys when they see this water.
Current one is not terrible (far from that), but it can and should be better.
Also, I saw that RDR video you posted.
True, not perfect, but it looks better.

They have around 100 team members for Skyrim. They don't need someone from the forum to point out something is wrong with a certain area of the graphics. If it's as bad as you say it is, surely someone from a 100 person team will point it out right? I mean really? They've all seen the trailer probably before and after they launched it. You don't think a single person out of 100 would have noticed if it was THAT bad?

Why does everyone care so much about minor things in a game not even being released yet. I agree it does not look good and is not any better than the waterfalls in Morrowind, but Dragonborn1 really has a point saying that they surely have noticed it looks bad or they have good reasons for using it here, if only being a placeholder.

Could be 9, 19 or 29 months before release, I think that water won't be changed. Given the amount of complaints over that particular water, I think it already became a matter of professional pride. They obviously thought it was trailer material. That water made it into a 2 minutes trailer, suposedly the most interesting glimpses that could be shown, so it is surely something they aren't afraid to show.

I don't like it. It's the only scene from the trailer that bothered me at first sight I said "what the..." I don't know, it seems too artificial, too uniform, like a flowing mass of melted plastic threads. I hope it won't bother me so much in the game, now that I know it's there it should be easier.

Yes they probably have noticed it looks bad (alternatively that it can look better).
But for me the big questionmark is then why Bethesda gave us this big closeup shot of the rapids in the trailer. Didn't they notice it before? Do they think it looks great and shouldn't be improved?

To kind of answer that question myself, they probably put the waterfall scene in the trailer to show us the kind of landscape that is in Skyrim, which is really really great (I've always wanted big rapids! ). But at the same time, if I were Bethesda, I wouldn't have shown it due to how it looks, whether it's a placeholder or not.
So, the questionmark is still present for me.

I didn't say I want the streams and waterfalls clear. I said I wanted them CLEARER. I like the streams and waterfalls but at the same time I don't. I think it's well made with the fog and speed and what would fix it is some transparency. It should be fix'd.

The rest of the game looks amazing tho, it reminds me of the north wich is my home.

I think the middle looks awesome. But the bit in the front and back kinda ruin it a bit...

The rapids look really alive and powerful however the actual look of them I don't like. It almost looks like the texture has a lower resolution to the rest of the world. But if it comes down to it and there can't be a balance between the two I would prefer realistic water in the appearance of their physicality rather than aesthetic value.

everyone saying crysis is only knows for its graphics have obviously not played crysis wars ^_^

Did anyone notice that when the camera goes under the surface in the RDR trailer, it looks like utter crap?!

Anyway, I definitely don't think the rapids in Skyrim look like actual rapids, but I don't think it looks bad. I would prefer more realisic rapids, but I'd be fine if it remains as is I think, and I'm generally really critical of visuals.

Yes, I did.

No, the water does not look "amazing". It isn't so bad that I couldn't live with it, but I hope I don't have to live with it. The water is just off, it moves too uniformly for white water rapids. It betrays to whole look. It needs to look a little bit more like water and not so solid.

the water makes me cry

I know it looks that good!

Someone who knows what they're doing should re-edit that part of the trailer and put it on a loop for closer inspection if they're so inclined.

http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy297/b_harrison/skyrim/skyrim_gameplay_whitewater.jpg
http://www.hickerphoto.com/data/media/65/waterfall.jpg

Add some object motion blur and it will look just as awesome.

PS. Crysis, gameplay wise, is one of the best FPS games of all time. It doesn't have an epic storyline but it's better than Farcry's(which also had same core gameplay qualities). It has also top notch environment designs. Its graphics quality is just a bonus.

I think it looks good, and wouldn't want it changed.

Improved? Well of course. They're in Alpha at the moment, so we'll see a texture jump. Hopefully we'll also see some additional particle effects.

Still, I'll reserve my final thoughts on the visuals after I've got the PC copy in hand and maxed out. For now, with alpha textures, I'm impressed.

Bear in mind that water flow will be changed with the wind, expect it to not look as good as standard water.

If you look at the trailer part where the guy with the hood walks (After the giant) you can see in the corner, that the water looks fine. It's just FLOWING very fast.

It would be nice if we could also see this more in action, seeing only a couple seconds in the trailer doesn't do it too much justice. I also think that the distant waterfalls/rapids in the trailer look pretty good. And if those textures from the trailer end up making the rapids look "plastic" in the end, I'd assume the PC version would have better quality-textures (or they could be modded in).