From what I saw, I can promise you, mainline PC's will look and function much more smoothly. I don't know what kind of computer they were using in the Rockville office but the game was comparable to this.

PC is to XBOX 360
as
XBOX 360 is to XBOX

It was rediculous and if it wasn't for the people in the hall, I would have literally shed some tears. Also, first time seeing DX11 support in an RPG and it was amazing.

(I pass by their office all the time on my way to work)

*Was said DX11 support witnessed at the same time as this purported Skyrim viewing? Skyrim is already DX11 ready? If so, it would be fantastic if the PC version shipped with DX11 features and it could happen if they've already started. Hopefully this, at very least, means DX11 for Skyrim is pending.

*hopes it's true*

Also, I'll bet they've some monstrous PCs in their office.

Probably never. You'll see on 11 11 11.

I was passing through, I shamelessly showed them my CAC card showing I was USAF (mainly as a joke) and asked if they could give me a showing since I hardly saw any for PC. Since the game is designed on the PC, most of their systems were top of the line to handle the amount of rendering needed. It was just a room with a few comps (a few Xbox 360's not hooked up to anything but didn't see any PS3's), it was one of their viewing rooms. I was told DX11 support is in but I couldn't tell if what I saw was with the implementation. I thought it was but thinking back, he may have said it wasn't in the that beta demo. Regardless, it was breathtaking, reminded me of max quality in The Witcher 2 but with the Oblivion depth and quality. (Hard to explain better).

[edit]
DX11 - That's probably what he meant
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.274350-Skyrim-IGN-Interview-DX11-and-more

Awesome, and thanks! That's really cool that you got to see it up close and personal. I can just imagine their response to the DoD card, as secretive as they've been, went like like:

You: Department of Defense. Per the President’s mandate, I'm going to have to insist you show me your project *looking at foreboding clipboard* Skyrim on PC.
Them #1: Oh crap! We'd better show them the PC version.
Them #2: But we're not showing it or any videos *(until the DX11 stuff is done).
You: *reaching toward candy bar in inside pocket*
Them #1: Show them the game! Now!
Them #2: Yeah, okaaaaay. After all, it's not a matter of ...National Security anything.
You: *chewing candy bar and snickering* Just kidding!

...followed by them quickly ushering you into a room with the game. What a way to get a peek! :laugh:



*I'm still hoping for eventual (even if with a later patch) inclusion of tessellation and the like vs. DX11 support without the "big new features" mentioned in the link. Either way it seems Skyrim on PC made quite an impression. I can't wait to see it for myself. ^__^

After playing Oblivion on my PC for years, when I played it on 360 for the first time, I almost smashed my friend's xbox because it took so damn long to load areas, and then slammed the door in his face after yelling "Console gaming savage!"

This xD

If he's lying or not...that's another thing.

They should at least show some screenshots of the PC. Would solidify Skyrim as a great game graphically.

Was this ever confirmed to be an xbox screenshot?

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/109/9/7/skyrim_composite_mountain_by_minnan2-d3eepw7.jpg




Except for http://www.microsoft.com/nz/digitallife/gaming/how_to_connect_an_XBOX_360_controller_for_windows_to_a_computer.mspx ...

Looks like game art as part of the collectors edition book to me. This is only a guess though.

What about the whole baseline thing... the 360 being a good baseline for showing how the game looks?

It's only a CAC card, lol. It was more or less a joke but I wanted them to know they were doing this country a service (sarcasm). I got the impression they would have been helpful regardless of whom I was. They were really awesome people working there and it makes me even more proud to be born and raised in the Rockville/Gaithersburg/Bethesda/Potomac area as rediculous as that sounds, lol.

This is as wrong as it can get. Having a more powerfull PC will give you that much more raw power to run a non-optimized game smoother.

I have a Q9550, a 1GB GTX460 and 8GB of RAM.
If the game is not running at constant 60fps in 1920x1200 including 4xAA and 16xAF with at least the XBox360 settings, I will be really dissapointed.

Could happen though ... console ports are often terribly bad optimized for PC (or let's rather say: not optimized at all).
We have yet to see how it will be ... usually the performance in the Bethesda games was "ok" on PC.

I just hope the "reloading stutter" will be gone.
I still have this in Fallout 3 and there's seemingly no way to end it (maybe with an SSD I assume). With 8GB of RAM (or even with just 4GB in 32bit mode) it should totally be possible to not have any loading-stutter issues on PC with a game, which also works on todays consoles!

Ha! Great story, thanks
Seconded. Since getting my new card, the graphical quality and frame rate of all games I play has skyrocketed. Oblivion with everything maxed out + FCOM runs at a a pretty steady 60 fps @ 1680x1050. :shrug:

No, what we are seeing is not what we will get.
We will have higher resolution textures (facial, shadow, and item/object/land textures) as well as anti-aliasing, and we've seen none of that yet.

Perhaps Bethesda fears that publicly showing a vastly superior PC version before release would affect console sales.

This pretty much. If they start showing the PC version a lot of consoles players will assume that's how the console version looks. I think this happened with Brink come to think of it.

Besides haven't they only just started porting the game to PC?

Pete Hines once said via twitter that it's 3 screen put together.

Pete Hines said in the Quakecon footage that the PC will looks tons better. I can't wait to see it

It's a shame I won't be able to play it like that though, I'd have to upgrade my PC a bit and I doubt I shall do that in this year. Maybe next year I will.

But that was five years ago, Xbox360 was brand new then and up there with top PCs? That's just common sense isn't it?

Ahm ... it's painted/drawn.

Nope.

Look at the bottom, you'll see the textures repeating.

Look at the dust. It's painted.
It's probably a screenshot, which was modified.

Sorry what do you mean 'dust'? I don't see any dust on there that can't be rendered.

I found a bigger image http://oyster.ignimgs.com/ve3d/images/08/65/86535_CompositeMountain.jpg