I'd say it more has to do with lighting than with the textures themselves.
Perhaps it's also because Bethesda has too strong specular maps or something.
I'm not sure though, definitely not.

Also, we have to keep in mind that we're looking at console textures. To be 100% honest, the texture detail/resolution is pretty good for being on consoles.

I must say that, when I saw the first picture, I thought about Fallout... because the quality is more or less the same. But you can't judge the game based on that picture! The other two look insanely good, quite better than Fallout!

I see nothing to complain about.

I know that Todd Howard said maxing out graphics is the last thing they focus on in game development. Who knows when these screenshots were taken. They look fine IMHO.

You don't recognize game engines by the looks, especially the ones which use full dynamic lighting. It is art direction that creates the illusion here. Same assets would look almost the same in Crysis and even in Morrowind with MGE.

Also better textures? I think majority of these textures are of 256x256 resolution.

I don't wanna talk abut this. XBOX is really PROBLEMATIC with texture quality. I wish I was a console gamer so I could become enthusiastic about these screens.

I become such a spoiled PC gamer. Sorry for this, I'm sure Skyrim will look amazing for everyone's preferred platform upon release. But these screens for the time being only amaze me for their detail and level designs, not for graphics quality. Although, I always say better graphics mean more details.

Some more screenshots:
http://i.imgur.com/Xcy9r.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/qcqqy.jpg

:P

Perfect example of poor art direction. I'm glad Skyrim got this right, and that's why I think the graphics look awesome in the game.

Those... Those are Skyrim?

I like how the blood on the floor in the Draugr pic is brown. ;D

Is it just me, or does the lighting look different in these screenshots... Everything just seems a bit brighter and more washed-out.

They just seem a little lower-quality than what we've already seen, overall. Especially apparent with the Draugr one.

Yup you're correct.
Comparison:
http://cdnstatic.gamesas.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/DraugrHero_wLegal.jpg
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/879/skyrim04.jpg

I know what you mean, especially in the first screenshot. It works well with the crypt, but you know I've drawn plenty of rocks and it's easy to get a little carried away with the texture, cracks, and shapes. I like them though, they're interesting to look at, but some of them just feel wrong. The amount of detail is fantastic, but a little overwhelming in some areas.

I love how the light is working in the crypt with the draugr. It's a bit bright, but what the light is doing, and with the shadows, it is very pleasing. I love the blood stain next to the dead one on the ground, it just feels so natural. Again, the amount of detail is great.

The wonders of gamma correction.
http://i.imgur.com/PGq8y.jpg

Looks better for sure, but not quite as good as the first ones. Probably just differences in the capture method settings. Contrast, brightness, etc. The actual detail doesn't look very different, just a lot of the details aren't brought out because of the high gamma.

Dark enough? LOL
http://i.imgur.com/DwPSz.jpg

Likewise. There's lots of games out there that, whilst visually spectacular as far as the raw number of texels and shader effects used are concerned, suffer from that amateurish look where everything is made out of stock textures and has no uniqueness about it at all. You know what I mean, that look lots of those early 2000's RPGs had, http://resources1.mynewsdesk.com/files/da5d46af79b44c48e04a5a466c510cc1/resources/ResourceWebImage/thumbnails/virtualmarketplace_new_large.jpg.

That's one of my concerns about games that wish to strive towards realism, personally - once near photorealistic graphics are attained, there's not going to be a lot of diversity in the industry over how people make their textures and models anymore. One nice thing about low poly games is everybody has a different sense of prioritisation as to how details are handled (i.e. double resolution texture on faces), but some day it's going to just boil down to who has the better digital camera for taking photographs. :shakehead:

Ewww lol

I just noticed something about http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/879/skyrim04.jpg If you look on the lower left strap on the guy's back, you can see that it's slightly not touching the skin. There is a distinct line in between his back and his arm, which you can see through the strap.

These straps compare to what we've seen on other characters, although they had the shirt underneath. So what does the gap in between the strap and the back of the guy have to do with this? The gap is the space for which the shirt can fit underneath. Therefore, there is indeed clothing under armor.

My god! You're right! Lets hope they have some proper clothing choices.

Ha. I actually finally found the screenshots in the Digital Magazine, and they look a lot better. So I'm not so concerned anymore. Not that I was concerned necessarily, just curious as to why the sudden change, but it seems that change was only from OP's lifted screenshots.

I just searched screenshots for autumn themed Crysis maps then I did my best to reduce their graphics fidelity even added fake ugly yellow bloom to match Skyrim's screens.

original pictures
http://maxedgaming.com/forum/download/file.php?id=1756
http://maxedgaming.com/forum/download/file.php?id=1753

mod map page:
http://maxedgaming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3256&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

PS. Hehe, in Crysis' defense, an original Crysis screen:
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f386/vtastek/crysis/sc01/00005.jpg

Not dark enough in my opinion. Where's the light source in an ancient dungeon? :tongue:

It's a definite improvement though.

Seriously, how are those graphics mediocre? Show me 1 game with the amount of detail that Skyrim will have with the same graphics.

Yeah..There's none. Don't give me The Witcher 2, that game world is very linear. I'm talking about huge, open world games. Is there a game out there with better graphics than Skyrim that has the level of detail and openess (Yes, I made that up) that Skyrim has? Nope.

So give Bethesda a break, these graphics are stellar for the level of detail that this game will have.

Here: http://cdnstatic.gamesas.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/DraugrGroup_wLegal.jpg

The graphics are great for an open-world game (and one on outdated consoles for that matter). I just think the lighting and textures could be refined quite a bit. I also think the images are fairly poor in quality and don't do the game justice.

There's nothing wrong with constructive criticism.



There's no way that flame would realistically be giving off that amount of light. But anyway, I was hoping to see ancient, undisturbed dungeons in Skyrim. If there are lit torches and flames all over the walls, i'm going to be disappointed.

It's hard to really tell off screenshots, but it does seem that there is a lot greater range of movement, in terms of animation. I can probably count 20 different ways I've seen a Draugr hold a greataxe idle so far, just from our screens. So that's pretty cool.



You should see the original screenshots in the digital magazine, instead of the ones directly linked. They look much different.