Nothing that a Qarl/Bomret's Texture Pack for Skyrim doesn't solve, in any case...^^

according to some people that apparently have nothing better to do than rip on every thread that pops up that they dont like, only one thread is necessary for every topic. :rolleyes:

as for the graphics im not to worried since qarl had parallax mapping on his textures and if he doesnt return someone else will redo those godawful textures from the trailer. it also depends on how much better the PC textures really are compared to console. maybe bethesda will surprise everyone and have textures that are easily 4 times bigger or more and have parallax on them. heres to hoping.

Well, I won't say "No" to that, after seeing Bioware releasing 1 gb of hi-res textures for Dragon Age 2/PC just when the game was released. I wouldn't mind if Bethesda does the same.

yes this is the case, especially when it gets spammy, I.E Multiplayer Discussion for Skyrim. its called use the search button.

The textures are good enough that its not easy to tell that the road is flat... and its not even flat. The way the textures are can be deceiving, but the shadow from the building gives away what clearly looks like a rut in the road and an increase in elevation at the sides of the road. Besides, do you actually need every stone in a road to be a mesh? There are things you "can" do with increased technology, but its totally unnecessary if you ask me, and anything that can be eliminated for optimization even on a minor scale for high-end PCs is welcome to be eliminated when the alternative still looks damn nice.

Could it not just be the way was 'built?'

That's what things that new technology brings (like tessellation) are for: a compromise between performance and visual quality.

edit: eh, whatever. Nevermind.

Not really no. Normal maps can do very very very very very little compared to completely "new" features like tessellation and parallax occlusion mapping.
They can give some mediocre illusion of depth, but still only mediocre. Or more like only half-mediocre (even slightly worse).

If it was possible without too much trouble, parallax occlusion mapping would be incredibly amazing. Highly doubt it though, seeing as the game is so late in development.

I still hope. Here's some nice reading about the feature itself: http://developer.amd.com/gpu_assets/GDC06-Tatarchuk-Parallax_Occlusion_Mapping.pdf
Lots of nice info there of how to implement it, its downsides and upsides. Workarounds, etc.

I Don't get it, you just said that the ground is too flat?

Yeah, I know that POM/Tessellation are superior features, but the issue is if the Creation Engine will be ready to support any of them

(Thank for the .pdf, I'll look into it later, I have to install Acrobat Reader first).

Yeah, having 50+ people walking back and forth across the same dirt-and-stone surface 1000+ times each, usually has that effect. :facepalm:

Install google chrome
Build in pdf viewer! And built in flash and translator!

I don't think it's an engine thing about them supporting it (although definitely not sure of course). I think it's more of a priority thing, where the money goes etc.

and someone doesnt seem to read the whole threads

I think it looks pretty good. This game really is just looking better and better with every piece of info that gets released.

My guess (and its only that)... is that the textures on the ground plane do not have normal mapping, and so textures of rocks in the dirt are flat looking; where a modeled rock might be normal mapped?

Textures of stones in grass might be tricky and look weird if they shared a normal map. :shrug:

Flat as in "Level" or flat as in "Smooth"?

I agree that a cobblestone road should not be smooth (i.e. looks like a sheet of glass with rocks painted on it), but roads should definitely be level (seeing as that is kind of the purpose of a road, to provide the least resistance from one point to another).

I see this all the time but I think people aren't realizing that the ground is painted in every game that doesn't have tessellation (meaning your not going to see otherwise on a console game, aka what these screens are of, or even most PC games.) Also, it's definitely not flat, look at all the dips and curves in the street, it's very much got depth.

There are lesser techniques to pull off the rocks having depth but they are usually meh looking and also they will eat too much processing power in a massive world like TES.

hmm...tempting...



What do you mean?

1st pic is in a village, people usually build villages on flat places not in a 80 degree slope.

I'm really convinced that you are a PR guy from Crytek in disguise lol.

this is a very specific thread concerning two pictures not just another generic thread about the trailer. putting some topics like this in generic threads means they get lost immediately among all the other posts. someone has posted seperate threads about using two handers and shields and using two handers and casting spells. that is a good example of threads that are better off seperate since they are different discussions.

@sleign..............modders made spectacular looking textures and meshes for oblivon that had parallax mapping and looked great. there is no reason bethesda couldnt do it if they wanted to at least for the PC version.

I don't think it's that flat...looks normal to me :shrug:

What really annoys me the most about the graphics is the lighting.

But I also hope for parallax occlusion mapping for the PC. Would help a lot.

Looks fine to me. The second picture actually has clear contours in the ground. You just aren't seeing them properly. Besides, don't worry about it. There's the best part of a year to go before it's released. You can't expect everything to be perfect now, otherwise it would be released now. And another point, would you really let something like that stop you from playing the game? And another point, how much time are you gonna spend looking at the ground after the first 7-8 hours of gameplay. Personally, I think the ground is the least of our concerns.