First of all, I realize the majority here doesn't want to hear any criticizm, especially about the graphics.
And that's fine, you don't have to bother yourself with such topics. By now we are all familiar with your reasoning ("Gameplay is more important", "You are wrong, it looks incredible", etc), but I don't feel it will contribute anything.
Most of 'us' don''t criticize for the sake of flaming or hating, but to give constructive feedback, without which The Elder Scrolls wouldn't be where it is today.

Now, on topic.
The first descriptions of "dynamic snow that falls realistically" raised high hopes, and although I didn't actually expect real particle physics, I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed about the snow we saw in the trailer.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/1305/ss20110226104739.png:

• The rock on the right looks really, really nice. The deeper parts are filled realistically, and the rock itself blends perfectly with the surrounding 'flat' ground.
  
• However, the other rocks don't fit. Their snow is darker, and they don't blend into the ground at all.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/192/ss20110226104818.png:

• The rock Dovahkiin is standing on is covered in snow on all sides. Furthermore, the snow-covered parts stay at the same height as the underlying rock, which indicates a simple re-texturing. This makes it look like a white rock instead of a snow-covered rock.
  
• Again, the boulder on the right looks much better, but the snow on top doesn't seem to accumulate either, it's 'just' a new texture.
  
• In case this is supposed to be part of a glacier: I'm sorry, it looks great.

Some examples of real snow-covered rocks:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TCNoY2oICdw/TS76oi6vqjI/AAAAAAAAG7o/zSCsMlVcvag/s1600/angry+snow+rock+01.13.11.jpg: The more snow accumulates, the less it imitates the surface of the rock.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nXp7fPRIhO8/S9q0P7Wre2I/AAAAAAAAARw/OnnB3j9YOJE/s1600/snow_rock.jpg: A similar example; the snow only covers the top and generates a new, smooth surface.
http://www.cepolina.com/photo/Europe/Italy/Piedmont/Limone/2/Limone_snow_rock_soft.jpg: This is a good example of a rock with less snow, and how it blends into the surrounding area.

Overall, one of the main problems seems to be that the snow doesn't create a new mesh, thus just "recoloring" the rock (which I think could be darker in the first place to create a better contrast between the rock and the snow). This is the part I don't think they will be able to change. Sadly, this means there most likely won't be snow-covered trees either - the ones we saw looked more like frozen over.
But: They already have the means to place the snow where it would fall naturally, e.g. not at the sides of the rock. Also, I'm sure they could equalize the brightness of the snow, so it doesn't appear darker on certain rocks and blends better into the environment.
However, all this nitpicking is just about closeup snow. From afar, the http://cms.elderscrolls.com/sites/default/files/tes/screenshots/CompositeMountain_wLegal.jpg.

What do you think about the snow in Skyrim?

I believe your last link is just concept art, which most of the time looks gorgeous.

Even though I could care less for dynamic snow, I think you should wait and see before making assumptions on just a few seconds of seperate video footage on the snow environment.

Wait till we see some actual gameplay and watch for a few minutes to see what happens.

I think Pete Hines confirmed that was in game.

Really? It looks painted.

How can you judge how snow falls on screenshots?

I think Faulgor means that we should have seen some snow that has previously accumulated, but maybe the reason we don't see that is because this was a cinematic scene and the snow was "fresh" because the game hasn't had time to run. I can't explain it in a way that makes sense... Okay, they crafted the cinematic, started the game up, hit record and the game hasn't had a chance to accumulate snow yet because it was just started.

Well, that's a good point...

It doesn't look painted to me, The only thing that makes it look painted is the clouds/fog imo.

As others have pointed out, it is a screenshot. Enjoy!




I understand what you mean, and it could be.
I'm not making any final judgments, that would be stupid. I'm just interpreting what we have seen so far, and pointing out a few things that I know they can do better.

you wanna know where it was to fast for you to see in reality youd probably have to stand in the snow for a few minutes to notice it

...or looking at a few seconds of video.

The snow gets blown about,from the mountains,and even when the dragon takes off,it swirls snow.
That pretty dynamic to me.

I think the trailer was too brief to give any indication of how snow will fall and accumalate over a set period of time.

I think it will only "paint" the texture.



The technology to create mesh from particles is not yet able to be incorporated into games, its just too hard to do. I like the idea, but its not going to happen anytime soon.

In the aerial shot from the Dragon's POV, you can see the character's feet kick up powdery snow as he runs.

And the flames melted the snow apparently too.

It's hard to tell. It seems like if it doesn't look like the snow is deep.
It looks more like a shader layer on top of objects.

We'll have to wait and see for more.

I really hope for real accumulation, or at least an illusion of it, where you really walk in deep snow. Like up to your knees or something. Would be awesome.

I just realized... Wheres the footprints in the snow

There could be snow prints, the "snow-cloud" that appeared when the character ran pretty much covered the sight. Snow prints are easy to make it seems (a lot of game has them). So they should be in. Would be strange if not.

[/topic]

I don't think we will see real time dynamic snow. They probably meant that snow was generated dynamically during the landscape generation process.

minecraft has the best snow physics in any game. how many games can you make snowballs with snow you actually collect.

Completely agree. No way Skyrim can stand up to Minecraft.

That part was awesome, the snow blowing in the wind, amazing. On of the best "little detail" things in the trailer.

except they already confirmed that wasn't the case.

also when the dragon does the fire thing the snow in its path is melted and the ground is charred a bit. the trailer's way too short to show any snow actually COLLECTING, so we'll probably see some of that during Todd's E3 demos.

i highly doubt it'll be much more complex than painting the surface of whatever's being hit with snow, but honestly that's enough.