One of those is really bright, one is really cloudy and the sun is nowhere in the image, and one is pretty bright, but some of the light is ducking behind a mountain blocking some of it's light. It's true that winter skies can look bland, but if it's the right time of day and the sun is shining brightly without clouds or mountains blocking it's light, it can be really bright, which is what it looks like is happening in the Skyrim images to me.



I would disagree only slightly, because in those images, the sun's light is still being obsured by clouds or trees. In the Skyrim shots, it looks to me like the sun is un-obscured. In other words, there are gaps for the sun to peek through FULLY without mountains, clouds, or trees obscuring it whatsoever. I of course only say that because the Skyrim shots are so bright and that's the only other logical explanation... aside from them just doing it wrong as you say. If you find images like that though, I'll concede defeat. Until then, I await the evidence.

I remember seeing this epic pic of a truley beautiful sunset from deviantart.com... I'll see if I can whip it up

tada

those moons look sixy (in MW)

http://anumc.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/mika_-_landscape_-_the_sentinel.jpg
http://static.travelblog.org/Wallpaper/pix/sunset_wallpaper_brazil-1600x1200.jpg
http://beachfrontonly.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/ocean-sunset-in-san-diego.jpg

Sometimes I wonder how often people look at the sky, not knowing when it's a fully white-bloomed nuclear sky or something more realistic and normal.

The first one, although still really bright, is your best evidence. It looks like the sun might be obcured slightly as it's ducking behind the Earth a bit and appears really orange which is something that happens when it's light is being blocked. If it was higher up it might appear brighter and less orange. The second two are genuine sunsets and the light is being obscured by both the curvature of the earth and clouds. The skies are even dark in those images as if it's almost night time. And yes, I look at the sky all the time.

Repeatedly linking pictures of sunsets doesn't prove any points when the trailer obviously takes place midday. Link the screenshot where Bethesda messed up sunsets.

Nah soz guys, cant find the pic :c

If you want your best evidence you should go out at sunset with clear weather.
The sky does not go nuclear, I promise. It's obviously brighest around the sun, but the sky isn't nuclear....

The skies in Skyrim is really wrong artistically. Ask a good artist and I think he/she might agree. Especially on http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer3.jpg
That's just very wrong.

@aggressor27: Maybe you should read my first post on page 3 I think, or look at the link above.

I'm a good artist.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=163061477059057&set=a.163059673725904.33664.100000656165259&theater

Most of this stuff is pretty old, so it's not the greatest, but... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=163059673725904&id=100000656165259&aid=33664

.... But that doesn't mean anything. In fact, often artists like myself look for reference photos of things for this very reason so that we get an accurate idea of how to depict something we may not be entirely sure of. I guarantee Bethesda's artists have to do that all the time. Getting lighting right is actually one of the more challenging aspects of drawing, painting, etc. for a lot of artists.

It's been repeated countless times in this thread; Bloom Lighting. Not one second of the trailer show a clear shot of the sky so your contempt is based on what might be, not what is.

Sky is pretty drab midday, blues, whites and greys in shades you can count on one hand. Orange and pink hews aren't present when light has less atmosphere to shine through, ie midday, ie when the trailer takes place.

Exactly.

So your point is: All the trailer was taken during midday, and none during sunsets or sunrises. I don't know but maybe you should look at the shadows again and the colour of the sky.
http://skyrimguild.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SkyrimTrailer3.jpg is definitely during sunset or sunrise.

But that doesn't really matter anyway to be honest. No matter what time it is, it should never look like that in such weather. The rest of the skies don't look good either if you compare them with other games. The saturation of the colours shows the intensity of the HDR. That's how HDR works if it's done too strong. Try it yourself in Oblivion and then try installing All Natural. Or fiddle around with the HDR weather settings. You'll definitely see the difference and how much better it looks.

Were the sun setting it would be obscured by the crag arch, if not the mountain. The sun is clearly well into the sky initiating the bloom lighting affect that distorts the player's view, something they've used in previous titles as well as other developers to the same effect. Sunset is indicated by it's proximity to the natural horizon and the effect the longer atmosphere has on light passing through, not the microsecond it passes its apex. Were that the case we'd be calling 1201pm sunset. Again, no clear shots of the sky have been given.

I should say I'm in no way stating it is the best feature of any game, in fact I despise it for the simple fact it obscures textures (hence this discussion - no clear view of the sky) and becomes a burden when you're slightly oriented in the direction of a strong light source. But it is the best emulation of that effect until something bigger and better comes along.

Meant that as an edit, whoops.

Whether it matters or not, the sun is rising or setting in that shot, but it's still really high in the sky and in fact, if you trace the perspective of the shadows, the sun is somewhere near the center of all that light near the top right of the image emitting apparently all of it's light right into the camera, hence the strong HDR. It's really hard to tell if it's accurate since we can't turn our heads around the world and see how much of the sky is being illuminated and to what degree. What's in the image may be more accurate than you're giving it credit for since it's such a small part of the sky. It's definitely wrong if the whole sky looks like that, but I can't tell for absolute certainty from that image. I'm pretty certain though, that the camera is staring right into the sun hence the strong HDR (which would hinder detail just like if you yourself looked directly into the sun) and that if the camera panned around, the rest of the sky wouldn't appear that bright..

Besides even if you're right, which I'm not ready to admit, this isn't Earth, maybe their sun is much brighter, bigger and hotter than ours. I guarantee though that the rest of the sky isn't that bright, so there's no way that's the case.

Wow man, yeah I've always love Morrowinds sky better (and it's not biased in anyway), I used to have a screenshot of the sky as my desktop background.

You can tell in Morrowinds the moons actually look round, whereas in Oblivion they just look flat. And it's weird how Morrowinds are also more detailed. Match that with nighttime clouds, and red/pink colors in the sky it's just so much better.

I didn't think there was anything wrong with Oblivion's skies--in fact, I found them amazingly realistic and beautiful. But I do agree that Skyrim's sky needs to be more like the one in that video you showed. I would especially like to see something resembling the aurora borealis at night. Amazing!

Gah hlvr, you seem to have pet peeves about just about every other aspect of the game, and this time you're actually starting to rub off on me - especially since you showed your own photoshopped picture.

Okay, so I'm looking out of my window right now, and it's cloudy - with a lot of sun glare. That said, the whiteness isn't like HDR whiteness at all - it's sun glare, which distorts your vision when you look at it, like any other bright light source. Right now, I've got colored spots in certain areas of my vision where the sun burned into my eyes. (To date, I've never seen anything like that implemented in a video game.) Needless to say, it doesn't stay so painfully bright outside once my eyes properly adjust to the light (and comparably, it doesnt stay completely pitch black at night after I turn off the lights, as my vision adjusts to the darkness.)

I'll admit it seems they did not take advantage of the engine in Oblivion, and to me the moon seems more ellipsed but I wonder if the choice in resolution was a conscious decision by the developers to save resources. Otherwise, I see no real difference in night sky between the two games.

The night skies in both Oblivion and Morrowind were really nice. Morrowind's skies were incredibly impressive for its time. Will be interesting to see Skyrim's.

Look at this screen.

http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/93394/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/images/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-20110211094610642.html?page=mediaFull

The sun is slightly obscured, but there is a lot less bloom and blue skies, which tells me that in this shot, the players eyes may have adjusted to the sun. That's just speculation, but it's a lot less bright, which tells me that there may have been different circumstances in that other shot creating the extra bloom, like say the effect of being blinded somewhat by the sun because the eyes hadn't adjusted. Again, just speculation. All I'm saying is, until the game is in our hands, we shouldn't jump to conclusions based on a static screen or a quick edit of the trailer, because the image I just presented shows a different situation that suggests you may need not worry as it did not have an overt bloom effect.

Good catch.
I'm not saying either way, and although it's easy to make light of the situation of the importance of a sky texture I do enjoy the eye candy. Some settings in Oblivion were breath taking in all of its pixelated goodness (I'm sure my wife got tired of me calling her in all the time with "Holy crap, babe, look at this sunset!") while others had you circle-strafing baddies in frustration, fighting the light map just to know where you're swinging. Based on that screenie the best we should probably expect at this point is the Oblivion standard with more clouds.

Well there is a different HDR setting for each weather type, if Skyrim's weather and HDR works like Oblivion's. Over-bloom in one weather type doesn't mean in all. But yes, that picture looks more natural than others imo.

Personally, I think this doesn't: http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/gallery/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/skyrim-lake-mountains-screenshot.jpg
Why is a small part of the sky there to the right not-bloomed, while everything else is practically completely white? My guess is once again HDR. Some weather types may got too strong HDR settings. That's what I think.

Would the above picture look better if the sky wasn't practically completely white? That's a question everyone has to ask themselves. I think it would look better, do you?

My best guess is, we're looking at a foggy overcast above those darker clouds that can reflect light very brightly from the sun, creating a very bright sky. That might be what's going on in the other screen too, although, I'm less convinced there. In this one here though, I think that's what's going on and if that's true, it looks fine and perfectly realistic to me.

EDIT: Actually, I think the other one is probably a fog overcast as well.

Yep. I just want the inclusion of clouds

If Solstheim had no aurora borealis then I dont see why it has to be in Skyrim. They should try and adhere to lore.

If anything the constant swirls of snow and the glitter that I saw in the trailer indicates that the sky will still be a sight to behold with or without Northern Lights.