Looking back at Morrowind and then to Oblivion... It worries me that the sky in Skyrim won't be sufficient. And the reason being, that the sky in Morrowind was fantastic, especially at night, but Oblivion was a big BIG HUGE step down. The Oblivion night sky might as well have been a roof of drying paint.

But the reason I'm worried is more because of how varied it has to be to really mimic an "arctic" climate.

For a complete illustration of what I mean, check this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNDIvjJ-Xww

Cliff racers flyyyy soo hiiiiigh....

Shivering Isles puts Morrowinds night sky to shame. And personally I liked Oblivion's night sky better too.

Anyway, add some northern lights and it'll look amazing.

true I want the sky to be beautiful

and the night to be,..... well... dark

Oblivion's night sky was pretty good although Shivering Isles night sky puts them all to shame. I think it's going to be hard for Beth to top that.

How and in what way was the sky in Oblivion a "huge step down" from Morrowind? Someone's been wearing their nostalgia goggles...

I couldn't stand how dark Morrowind was. I ended up hitting the "wait" button till sunrise most of the time because a torch was not sufficient to see. That said, I couldn't get my TV bright enough, and I don't own the game on a computer. Maybe I could have made it happen that way, but on the Xbox 360, the Morrowind GOTY did not have a gamma slider. As for the sky, I'm not sure how one compares the two. On the version of Morrowind I saw, everything was a bit muddy. Oblivion had an incredible sky. On a number of occasions I just stopped and looked up.

Yes, it could have been darker. Yes, Skyrim should have some aurora borealis. Hell yes it should.

OOOoooooo... I never thought that Skyrim could/should have an aurora borealis ... That'd be awesome as!!

First off the 2 moons were very poorly textured in Oblivion compared to Morrowind. In Morrowind you could see craters and craquelations on the moons. Also, Oblivion's star sky was completely basic. Where Morrowind had a redish mist (nebulas?) in addition to the stars, Oblivion was just stars. You can see it in http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/images/image33_800.jpg pic. Also note how the clouds were still visible at night as it should be as opposed to Oblivion where "night" is synonymous with "clouds go invisible".

The shadowing on the moons in Morrowind was also far superior to the http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs41/i/2009/041/6/4/Oblivion_Night_Sky_by_BrynSilverhorn.jpg. In Morrowind, the darkest edge of the moon where it's shadowed would be almost impossible to make out against the sky - where in Oblivion you could always see the full outline of the moons. No amount of darkness on the moon would fuse it with the background sky.

Basically, Morrowind was more realistic and stylized at the same time.

Oblivions's night sky was miles better imo, i could just look up at all the distant stars gleaming for minutes on end. MW's was more bland.

I wonder what you guys have been drinking.

Maybe the Morrowind console version's skies were cut down, because on the PC version there is no way to objectively compare it to Oblivion's night sky without Morrowind coming out on top in every way.

Morrowind had:
-More detail
-Larger resolution textures
-Stronger contrasts
-Bigger celestial bodies
-Realistic clouds
-Variety (nebula effect, both red and green)

give them some screens to compare

Morrowind: http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2009/360/f/f/The_morrowind_moons_2_by_Lord_Radian.jpg

Oblivion: http://www.gamesas.com/newsletter/images/devdiary_march_screen11B.jpg

;)

whoa... I had forgotten about all that from morrowind. Yea lets do that but better!

Honestly those screens are the FIRST time I noticed the sky in either game. But hell yeah make it pretty why not.

I must say after looking at those screens, I can see very little difference between them at all, apart from the clouds. Meh :shrug:

wait...you ran around looking at the sky??? LOL :teehee:

Skyrim is not much closer to the northern pole than High Rock and Morrowind. Solstheim is, according to maps, most northern piece of land "belonging" to Tamriel. And there weren't any aurora borealis neither in High Rock, nor on Solstheim while I checked last time.

Though I believe they will be added, because "snow = must be north, must have aurora borealis". Which is kinda... sad, but "sad" is too strong word. Meh.

Aurora borealis belongs to TES #: Atmora.

Well considering as your stats imporove and your characters abilities are displayed in the stars, I think they will put a lot of effort into the sky. also oblivions sky wasnt that bad, if you were near an oblivion gate the sky was orange and cracked with thunder

Haha. Well, it may seem small for many, but the beauty of a 1st person game is that you get to take in more of the scenery - and the sky can be a very powerful tool for creating ambience... Otherwise why would they make the sky go red around Oblivion gates, etc.

To me, the sky matters as much as the ground

Atmospheric scattering is a must.

Well, not like there will ever be a TES set in Atmora, so bring it on now.

So Oblivion's sky was more "realistic" :whistling: while Morrowind's was more wacky sci-fi/colorful.


...I'd guess when they made the MW one, they were designing crazy fantasy mushroom-world and gave it a sky that matched. And when they went to do OB (which was more of a "standard" European-style fantasy setting) they thought that the crazy Star-Trek-like sky wouldn't fit the art direction for Cyrodiil.

So..... dunno. Skyrim might continue the "match the sky to the setting" thing, and end up being a normal night sky. But with possible auroras, because that fits the art direction of the Norse/Frozen North thing.


(Personally, looking at those screenshots, I think the Oblivion sky looks quite good. But, yes, it doesn't have colorful nebula all over it. It's less of a NASA wallpaper, and more of a "real world sky" style. Doesn't mean it's not good, just means that it's different.)

This statement is similar to, say, "there won't be any TES set in Akavir, so in Skyrim there should be Tsaesci and other Akavirian races."

They are simply saying that if we're goingto have it anywhere, it might as well be Skyrim because that's the only remaining place that makes sense that we will actually see.

For the most part, Morrowind's Sky was worse than Oblivion's. The night sky may have looked shinier, but the rest of it really wasn't that good. Plus, nearly everything good about Morrowind's atmosphere was outdone by Shivering Isles.

The sky in Skyrim gives me great hope. Well, at least for the daylight hours. If you see the picture of the mountains that looks too good to be real, you can see what I mean. Absolutely stunning.