We all know skyrim has some serious potential as a game. However this is not about the game, this is about things you kind of wish the engine did.

Here are some things that I kind of wished for before the first screenshot.

• - Godrays
  
• - Ssao (Screen space ambient occlusion, a technique that shadows the screen realistically)
  
• - Full, dynamic shadows system, with a shadow lod, allowing for distant objects, or mid range objects, to also cast shadows.
  
• - Tessellation, and steep parallax on the environment.
  
• - A high texture resolution
  
• - A more comprehensive culling system, enabling more distant buildings and objects to be viewable at a long range.
  
• - A fully reflective, high definition water system, involving tessellation for waves.
  
• - A reflective surface system for rain and snow.
  
• - A more comprehensive world lighting system. Making everything look less plain.
  
• - Cloud Shadows.
  
• - Grass that moves as you walk through it.
  
• - Soft Particles.

Just to name a few things that come to mind.

As far as I can tell, most of these features won't be included. The shadowing system is 10 feet range only (arcania, two worlds II, and witcher 2, had distant shadows in an open world), there is no ssao (featured in most p3/360 games these days). There are no godrays. (featured in the console versions of red dead, and many other console games)
Some features, such as tessellation and steep parallax are likely more possible on pc hardware, however it seems that most graphical features that are persistent in 2010-2011 console games that also feature open worlds, are not currently evident, or present, in skyrim. In fact, with the exception of close range shadows, it seems "no" features are present, what so ever. Even the lighting system seems to barely exist, less so than the aging oblivion.

While this kind of makes me glad, because it hints at my pc being able to run the game at 60fps, I feel the game might be a little skimpy (or skyrimpy, oh, yeah, bad joke) on features. Sure, elder scrolls games always require more beef. Due to more complex systems in place, but in red dead, you had a hugely taxing animation system that skyrim does not have to deal with, so that goes part of the way to making the two on a more even playing field. And red dead, is not a brand new game.

O please god dont start another graphics thread...

Oh and btw, while I agree some of them are part of the engine, most of them are simply a question of shaders and scripts. Look, Oblivion supported godrays, it just didn't have them in the retail version. Water is mostly a question of shaders and normal maps, until we can get tesselation. Lighting... It's just about toggling which lights have raytraced shadows, buffer shadows, and which surfaces emit them. Any engine that does lights can do that

and BTW, I've yet to see a game with cloud shadows, that also has dynamic weather.

There are no godrays? I could swear I saw godrays in multiple different places throughout the E3 demo.

As long as they are optional so it doesn't decrease the amount of people who can run it. PC gamers should have more advanced graphics because they pay $1,000+ for their rigs compared to the consoles which cost only $200+.

- Godrays
- Ssao (Screen space ambient occlusion, a technique that shadows the screen realistically)
- Full, dynamic shadows system, with a shadow lod, allowing for distant objects, or mid range objects, to also cast shadows.
- Tessellation, and steep parallax on the environment.
- A high texture resolution
- A more comprehensive culling system, enabling more distant buildings and objects to be viewable at a long range.
- A fully reflective, high definition water system, involving tessellation for waves.
- A reflective surface system for rain [wet surfaces] and snow.
- A more comprehensive world lighting system. Making everything look less plain.
- Cloud Shadows.
- Grass that moves as you walk through it.
- Soft Particles.


Some things are more important than others, while I'd put the rest in the middle somewhere.

Yes, and we also have to upgrade every five minutes twenty four hours a day, seven days a week or we will die a horrible death. And that terrible thing that we can't play as soon as we put the disc inside! UGH! THE HORROR!

Come on, how about actually looking up stuff for once instead of spewing that nonsense?

I don't think you realize how different TES is from other open world games

i would like clothing and hair to sway, also euphoria's behavioral engine.

Occlusion culling.

As far as I know, the culling system has been improved (maybe not the word, because Oblivion didn't have any?) greatly.
Besides that: Lighting, lighting, lighting. Work on it, Bethesda. Hard.

unless they dedicate ALOT of resources to this i wouldn't get your hopes up too high on this. go look at the e3 footage again and watch the mammoth hair. horrible.

I agre with high resolution textures being the big #1.

They say the game is going to look the best on PC, why dont we wait till we get some of the ever elusive PC screens.

The only thing Skyrim really needs is farther draw distances. When the next gen consoles come out somewhere in 2013-15, we'll see huge improvements on graphics offered - purely because developers can afford to spend time developing graphics and knowing that the majority of users will see it.

SSDO. With an SSAO option for people who prefer it. Adds so much to the scene it's almost necessary...

Just wondering if this is confirmed, and where. Thanks .

It's not. Look at practically any screenshot. I see shadows 20, 30, 40 feet away.

Yeah, that's what I thought .

I'm sure Skyrim won't be as groundbreaking as it could be if it didn't have to run on the current gen consoles. However, that being said, why don't we actually wait until we've seen what the PC version looks like?

After watching http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-elder-scrolls/714852?type=flv, I can say I saw shadows many feet away, especially on the mountains and rocks that are maybe 30-70 feet away. Also, buildings were viewable from far distances, notice once the part where the mammoths appear, the town and structures near it appear. Plus, the Elder Scrolls games are denser, and larger than other games with those graphical features. (Two Worlds II, the Witcher 2), so it is not possible for a giant game like Elder Scrolls to look ages better right now. I think it looks better personally (but not WAY better). I saw the textures pretty up-close in the fight with the Draugr, they are pretty high-resolution. Much better graphics than a game much smaller (and more popular) like Halo: Reach (not saying it is a bad game, pretty fun). I'm somewhat picky with my graphics, but I still can't see why people complain. I'm in love with the art style, I love the graphics, so no complaints here.

I just want REAL DX11 support. And that means taking advantage of all the features it has, not just performance perks.

You're right. It'd be more groundbreaking if consoles were better, or if it were made just for the PC. But that's not to say that their ability to program and implement things on consoles hasn't improved and this won't be a kickass game!

sadly you know that can't happen...you also know why.

I am going to guess that the reason we haven't seen any PC screenshots/videos yet is because if revealed they would like to showcase what the directx 11 features will make it look like. However, since that is probably the lowest objective on their development schedule I wouldn't be surprised if DX 11 support isn't added until AFTER launch. Much like Crysis 2.