I'm sure everyone has seen the Markarth screenshot
http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/screenshots/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim/TheElderScrollsVSkyrimMedia/Markarth01.jpg

Do you notice the cliff and walls in the background. Do you see they seem foggy and unlike the Oblivion's crystal clear atmosphere as in this:
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/2973/oblivion201006120538249.jpg

I like the foggy effect in Skyrim, it creates more sense of space. Do you agree?

The fogging effect is nothing new, Gamebyro just probably didn't allow it. But yes, it's a very nice improvement.

I like it.
But what disturbs me is the title of this topic. 'Ye of little faith'

The screenshot shown from Oblivion was taken during clear weather, Oblivion has foggy weather too, it's just not the kind of weather that was seen in that screenshot. Presumably, the screenshot of Skyrim was taken during foggy weather too, when the weather is clear, we're going to be able to see even further than Oblivion, we've been told, and you won't hear me complain about that. But the screenshot does show some other major improvements over Oblivion, the biggest one for me is that the structure in it, which is apparently one of the cities in the game, looks much more interesting than Oblivion's major cities. I also like that it shows actual sheer cliffs, not like in Oblivion where we only ever saw really steep slopes with a rocky texture used.

new vegas had some fog that looked good

I don't think it's foggy weather though in the skyrim screenshot. if you look at the bottom of the image you'll see some intense lighting on the structures

So this is the one thing they did right? I didn't know you played the game?

Check out the mountain shot fer sum real fog

I said one thing, not "the only one thing"

what are you talking about lol. there's only 1 detail screenshot of skyrim in the world.

That's not actually fog, that's atmospheric (Rayleigh) scattering.

Dry ice in water, really.

What?

I meant the mountain shot on page 48 in the GI article.

Title of the thread just sounds negative. Sorry if you weren't implying negativity.

well, those are nice but can hardly see much in it. it looks like some CGI drawing

I know, but it's in-game. And the fog. THE FOG.

Pete Hines confirmed that it is a screenshot, no tricks.

Dry ice in water does not produce blue color.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vgawnhRg_KY/TGC8M_QnSuI/AAAAAAAAC8g/ZY9ASNRLWGs/s1600/006.JPG

You will see that blue color on any clear day. It has nothing to do with water vapor.

What?

wow, that water color is a clear sign of either being extremely pure, or filled with radioactive waste

Sometimes I don't just want "realism." An example of this is fake blur effects with the game camera that puts everything the cutscene isn't focusing on out of focus. Mass Effect has done this a few times since I started playing it. This isn't real life. If they can make it crystal clear for the entire picture I think they should do so (in that example). It doesn't add to the realism to me when I see "camera" focus blur in a video game. It annoys me that they spent video resources to make the image look worse than it could have looked.

I'm not saying all fog looks bad, but I don't think literal realism is always a good thing.

The blur you see in Mass Effect 2 is called Depth of Field. You see it with your own eyes, but your eyes automatically focus on what you want to look at, so you don't really notice it. Depth of Field is used a lot in cinematography, focusing on the speaker in either the foreground or the background for example. I've seen it used to OK effect in games like Gothic 3, where very distant land, that is less detailed due to LOD having a blur effect to simulate depth of field. This has the odd effect of simulating a condition known as Myopia, or near-sightedness.

In screens I have seen of Skyrim so far, it does not use a depth of field effect. You are, however, seeing atmospheric scattering, where the further away something is in a scene, the more the atmosphere "scatters" the light, giving distant landscape the impression of fading into the color of the sky.

That effect is related to relative humidity though. the more there is, the closer to your point of view it starts going blue. that's why on very dry days you can see REALLY far.

(that's what I've been told anyways, and so far nothing proved it wrong)

I think it's more closely related to the amount of particulate matter in the air. I could be wrong, but I've always noticed after a rainstorm if the clouds break quickly afterward, the rain has removed a lot of the particulate matter in the air and clarity/vision distance looks fantastic.

After a rain storm, air humidity would be really high, so the only explanation I can think of is rain removing dust and stuff from the air, allowing a moment of very impressive landscape viewing.

I also like how they fogged everything up, everything is just so fogged. All the fogging, it's awesome.

Sorry couldn't resist