Well, the Northern lights here are caused by of charged particles directed by the Earth's magnetic field. Now on Nirn, we may see something simmilar to northern lights caused by exess magic coming in due to the fact that the god of time is about to take a munch. So...us not seeing them in Morrowind is perfectly fine, mainly because the 205 years or so ago the cliff racer ruled the sky instead of the god of times little minions.

One of the things that I think needs to happen with the moons is that they need to remove the crisp edges. What you see in Oblivion is that the moons, even when not full, have an http://www.gamesas.com/newsletter/images/devdiary_march_screen11B.jpg. What's supposed to happen is that the illuminated edge is supposed to have a crisp glowing border (not shaded), while the darkened edge is actually supposed to fade out and blend with the background. You can see examples here with http://www.alexanderandthings.com/Moon%20in%20phases.jpg and http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/horizonmoon_nasa.jpg, respectively. I propose that the moon in Skyrim should become transparent, rather than black, in order to best capture this effect. The one drawback is that it will look fake if you can see the star layer behind it. So it'd be best to have a permanent circular obstruction of the star layer, even if the moon isn't full.

I also think the moons should be a little smaller. I think that Secunda should be http://www.nunukphotos.com/images/moon-and-cloud-over-city-pv.jpg, if not smaller, while Masser should only be http://i.space.com/images/i/8736/i02/supermoon-2011-sandy-adams-dc.jpg?1300627669, not the http://static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/30682-bigthumbnail.jpg.

I don't know about anyone else but on a clear night, I can always make out the complete shape of the moon IRL.

I can too.

give us some http://www.trustedlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/northern-lights-f.jpg. fits the scandinavian landscape

For those of you who don't have a site advisor... My McAfee SiteAdvisor says this is not a trusted site (red = bad, bad = virus)... soooo proceed with caution

Not me... Must be geographical location.

And it's not my eyesight because my eyesight is perfect.

I'm pretty disappointed with the skies in Skyrim. If you look at the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSRtYpNRoN0 you'll notice how a lot of the skies are almost completely white, as if a nuclear bomb just had exploded (light up the entire sky).

I believe the reason of this incredible over-bloom / "whitening" issue is the HDR. It's WAY WAY too strong for the skies. In Oblivion, this could be handled very easy.
Look at this mod http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18305 and see the difference:
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/Brumbek/All%20Natural%20Oblivion%20Mod/AN-Tints-IC-Comparison-Vanilla.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/Brumbek/All%20Natural%20Oblivion%20Mod/AN-Tints-IC-Comparison-ANDefault.jpg


I personally photoshopped an image from the Skyrim trailer, showing the difference that could be achieved with a nice sky and good lighting. In the picture you'll see below, I clipped in what I thought to be a fitting sky photo and changed the lighting to give a softer and bluer tint to behave well with the new sky. I personally think this looks MUCH MUCH better. But please take not that I absolutely didn't mean to make the photoshopped picture perfect. There are so flaws in the picture I made but I don't care. I think it shows my point. I'll let you judge for yourself...

Skyrim original sky & lighting trailer: http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer3.jpg
Skyrim my photoshopped sky & lighting trailer: http://oi51.tinypic.com/15dqcg4.jpg


Now look at Skyrim's pictures again. The sky is over-bloomed everywhere. Sometimes all white on a few spots (and NOT "cloud-white" it's "BLOOM-white". There is a difference). Does this look nice? NO, I say!
http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer1-1.jpg
http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer6.jpg
http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer9.jpg
http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer10.jpg

Anybody who agrees with me here or am I the only one?

To me only http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer6.jpg and maybe your photoshopped one look like "Bloom white" the rest look like cloud, fog, snow white...

Direct link to .jpg here. Should be safe. Unless the host site is a dangerous one but I doubt it.

It's easy to make the sky better than the rest of the world, every time I watch the sky in MW I think wow, epic graphics. Then I look in front of me and return to MW reality. The time should move slower so the planets won't move so fast.

Yes, I was going to point that out. Oblivion's moons look like they're INSIDE the atmosphere. The clouds are even blocked by the moons. At least in Morrowind, the clouds cover the moons. Also, the stars behind the clouds are way too visible in both.

As far as how colorful the night sky is, it depends on where you're at in your respective galaxy. In ours', we're near the outer edges, which is, like the Earth in our solar system, the sweet spot for life as we know it. If we were closer to the center of the galaxy for example, it's very chaotic because there is a super massive black hole and star nurseries swirling around it and each other extremely fast. But, if we were there and able to survive, we'd see some amazing sights as the night sky would be FILLED with brand new stars and large nebulas filled with gas and dust. So, I guess in some sense it just depends on the lore of the games... but it sure would be cool if our sky looked like that, except, nights would likely be as bright as days with so many stars being so close to each other and we'd likely be ejected from our solar system or pummeled by meteors in real life or in the game.

Honestly, I'm sure they'll get it right. I just hope the moons aren't inside the atmosphere this time. If you look at the clouds and fog in Skyrim surrounding the mountain skapes, the detail is miles ahead of Oblivion. I expect it to look much better and definitely more realistic, likely more like Earth's sky aside from having to moons.

Fog, clouds, snow aren't shining teal: http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer1-1.jpg
That's the HDR's fault. Too strong HDR values make that happen.

The other two screenshots are better. You can see more of the clouds there. But at some places it's just plain bloom-white.
In any case, I think the skies don't look good artistically either. It's not just them being over-bright in the WRONG places (making it look bad imo). It's also them not looking interesting or beautiful in my opinion. I was expecting/hoping some amazing skies in Skyrim.

Just look at Rage's skies. Amazing:

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/08/rage_gc09_screenshot_3.jpg
http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/4176/11835880.jpg

Far Cry 2's skies. Amazing too:

http://radiated5.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/far-cry-2-03-l.jpg
http://xboxoz360.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/far-cry-2-11.jpg

Stalker Clear Sky as well:

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/5988220080201_093541_0_big.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/896/896729/stalker-clear-sky-20080805050108344.jpg


Now look back at Skyrim's skies:

http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer6.jpg
http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer3.jpg
http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer9.jpg
http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer10.jpg

My thought is: Skyrim's skies look really bad. What the heck has happened? Bethesda used to own at making skies.

Actually, around here the sky can be pretty blinding. On some winter days, it's brighter outside with a cloudy sky than a cloudless summer day. It's just because everything is reflective. What I've seen from the trailer is actually pretty accurate when it comes to winter lighting conditions.

You know, those comparisons would actually work if you'd include some snowy, mountainous or winter landscape pictures...

No it doesn't. I live in the same climate. I asked my brother as well, who is a good artist. He concurred and said it looked completely wrong artisitically.
The sky can be blinding on a few rare cases during overcast, but lol... never in weather with a few clouds. And when the sky is blinding, it's very rare. Not common at all. Look at the trailer and you'll see it everywhere.
The HDR is way way over the top.

Hopefully you're not reffering to Morrowind...

To me, those images seem to point toward the sun and because the skies aren't completely over cast, it looks really bright which would be accurate. That's what it looks like to me.

Ok first off don't get the impression that I'm saying your brother isn't a good artist, BUT I don't think Bethesda would hire people if they didn't know what they were doing/talking about... I dunno what that weather (snowy and all that) is supposed to look like, I've never been to it... Although I do know that people have become snow blind due to the reflective nature of snow + sun... Again I have no doubt that your bro is a good artist

He is. Not that that is the main point.

My main point. When the heck is almost the entire sky bloomed so often and in clear/cloudy weather? The HDR is way too strong, you can see that in other screenshots as well: http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/520246-1298584608.jpg

Freaking amazing! :rock:

He is squinting in that... lol jk jk but yea I get your point

Again, it just looks like a really bright day that is NOT completely over cast. In other words, we seem to be looking at the sun breaking through the clouds and reflecting brightly off the snow in that last image. I mean, that's what I get from it. I can't exactly pan the camera and look for the sun.

Skies in winter can look pretty bland. I'm giving Bethesda the benefit of the doubt as well with the fact that the game isn't finished.

http://www.fiddlersphotos.com/Landscapes/Canadian-landscape/DSC7360-copy/463579225_asGaE-L.jpg http://shellypark.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/winter.jpg http://www.highroad.org/ranch%20images/Winter2000/winter-backyard1.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SSwonmplvQ4/TZJ0gOKhomI/AAAAAAAAKbQ/ypxLSqOT7Zg/s1600/DSC01516.JPG.

If the sun break through the clouds on a bright day it should look more like this:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_b-YuSdvMmaQ/SwLClQfzSsI/AAAAAAAADEk/GEUWit5CeIg/s1600/Summer+Pack+Ice+at+Sunset,+Ivvavik+National+Park,+Yukon,+Canada.jpg
http://www.snow-wallpapers.com/bulkupload/wallpapers/Landscapes/snowy-sunset-wallpaper.jpg

That is much more beautiful than: http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer3.jpg

Sorry if I come on too strong on this. I just think that skies are important and can make things really beautiful contrast to the world. And seeing how other games pull them off so beautiful, it kind of bothers me as well :confused:



Picture 1 and 4 are completely off. Badly taken pictures with a camera. Any sky can look 100% white if you take it wrong with a camera, just saying.
Picture 2 and 3. Yes it can look like that. Especially the snowy picture. But it does not look like picture 4 in clear/cloudy weather...

------------------------------------------------------------
Even IF the sky can look bright some time, it does not look correctly bright in Skyrim. And hence, I think the skies in Skyrim look very bad and wrong.

THIS is how a beautiful sky is according to me:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_b-YuSdvMmaQ/SwLClQfzSsI/AAAAAAAADEk/GEUWit5CeIg/s1600/Summer+Pack+Ice+at+Sunset,+Ivvavik+National+Park,+Yukon,+Canada.jpg
http://pixdaus.com/pics/1235967428ZyNxGH6.jpg

And all the other pictures from other games I showed before. Skyrim's skies? NO.