My roommate got the GameInformer issue with Skyrim in it. OMG!! Love the screenshots and that article just made me so excited for this game. This and ME 3...Can't WAIT!
I really liked the thing they did for Oblivion where they had a 30 second gameplay clip to countdown the release. I hope they do something like that again.
um, yes. but it still looks great, and thats damn first screenshot from damn tes5
lets cross fingers, maybe they will do something with those shadows. In general, design and art directing looks cool so far.
-Uses Havok Behavior to improve animation blends and how physics affect them.
- World no longer freezes when you talk to people nor does the camera zoom into their face, NPC's whom you talk with while they are working will keep working and alternate between their current action and the conversation with you.
-Shadows confirmed to be everywhere in the game (guess they are not turned on in that screen) along with a better view distance and way of handling LOD.
- Radiant AI now works closer to STALKER's A-Life than what Oblivion had. For example, NPC's may pick up a weapon you drop in a town and return it to you, fight with another npc over who gets it, steal it and use it for themselves or probably cash it in.
NPC's may also ask you for training or a duel or somesuch in relation to a skill you have mastered, or the Radiant Story system might create a quest around it.
- Radiant Story means that, for instance: Assassination Quests may now be randomly generated based upon how far you are in the game, your rep, your skill, who you have met and what you are currently doing, it also creates random encounters in the wilderness.
A lot of works seems to have been put into making sure the Radiant Story Quest system doesn't detract from the main quests too much or overwhelm the player (this is excellent).
-Weather now directly affects the environment, for instance: snow will collect on trees brushes and stones.
- New engine is called Creation Engine and comes with an SDK.
Well now, colour me impressed, and positively hyped.
I dunno if that's shadowing in the tower. That's probably just a texture darkening effect.
What does look like a shadow to me is the arch on the bottom left of the image. You have the top of a building with an arched beam right along the side of the roof. That's seemingly casting some sort of shadow on the side of the building.
Edit: Now that I look at it some more, they probably disabled distance shadows. Top down lighting is hard to judge, but there's a slightly different appearance to the stuff in the distance. I wouldn't be surprised if we get more screenshots that clearly have shadows in them.
Looking from the magazine, you could clearly see there were no shadows on certain things in the landscape, but you also had instances of little wooden fences casting a shadow or a troll doing self shadowing.
Haha. If you look at the shots from the magazine you can see tons of shadowing! Like the self shadowing on the giant and on the troll. Also the giant spider is casting one on the wall of ice too.
Haha. If you look at the shots from the magazine you can see tons of shadowing! Like the self shadowing on the giant and on the troll. Also the giant spider is casting one on the wall of ice too.
I think the suspicion is around if there's a maximum shadow distance, or if it's just sampled down at further out distances.
also I am not saying it doesn't look like there are NO shadows, I mean environemtal shadows :P but time will tell, I almost don't care because of how awesome that GI article made the actual game sound.
I missed out on Morrowind. For some reason, I just couldn't get into it at that age. I didn't make the same mistake with Oblivion. When it first came out, I was blown away. I couldn't believe it was a video game, it felt more like I was reading a book, but in complete control. It's still in my top 10 favorite video games, but since I started working with environment art and as the game aged, Oblivion slowly lost a little of it's magic. I guess that is inevitable and to be expected.
But after reading this thread and watching these videos... For just a short second while the Skyrim theme was playing, I felt that sense of awe and adventure return full force. You may consider me excited.
I send my thanks to everyone on the Skyrim team lurking here at Polycount.
It's funny how music can totally pull everything together. I was kind of "meh" regarding this game until I watched the behind the scenes on the sound design. Damn that theme gave me chills. I'm debating about playing some Oblivion when I go home now...
It's funny how music can totally pull everything together. I was kind of "meh" regarding this game until I watched the behind the scenes on the sound design. Damn that theme gave me chills. I'm debating about playing some Oblivion when I go home now...
or hit the prison boat to morrowind, listen to this variant of nerevar rising, and you'll never look back:
And then when you're picking mushrooms for the mages guild while exploring ancient dwemer ruins, things just wont get any better.. but then this song starts playing:
Well now, colour me impressed, and positively hyped.
Yeah, me too. From that article it sounds like they have really paid attention to the common gripes about the last one, and tried to rectify them. Now I just have to wait a year. Hmmmm....
Birds, a whipping-tentacle monster and a very angry and surprised looking bear?! This game is going to be mindblowing!
Edit - just watched the video. Looks spectacular! About the soundtrack, it seems a lot more suspenseful and less melodic than the previous games' soundtracks. I imagine the game being more atmospheric as a result (if thats even possible!). It sort of reminds me of some of the music from World of Warcraft.
That actually looks like a wooly mammoth with an extra set of tusks for extra awesome. That's really nice though and I hope some of the scenery is like that.
I don't like being negative, but it all looks terribly boring. Nords are just vikings and they're not even trying to hide it. Sounds boring too, they've got an epic soundtrack, and if there's one thing that's overdone, it's things being epic.
It's a shame, because I was hoping Bethesda had picked up some creativity after the backlash from Oblivion or having gotten to work with Fallout.
I don't like being negative, but it all looks terribly boring. Nords are just vikings and they're not even trying to hide it. Sounds boring too, they've got an epic soundtrack, and if there's one thing that's overdone, it's things being epic.
It's a shame, because I was hoping Bethesda had picked up some creativity after the backlash from Oblivion or having gotten to work with Fallout.
If anything the design and the land of skyrim is way more conan than viking.
Besides, bloodmoon was pretty awesome.
edit: Am I still the only one seeing the conan movie inspirations all over elderscrolls?
I don't like being negative, but it all looks terribly boring. Nords are just vikings and they're not even trying to hide it. Sounds boring too, they've got an epic soundtrack, and if there's one thing that's overdone, it's things being epic.
It's a shame, because I was hoping Bethesda had picked up some creativity after the backlash from Oblivion or having gotten to work with Fallout.
One of the reasons I liked Morrowind so much is that despite the fact that the game was made on a continent made of ash, it was full of life and was pretty diverse overall.
While the entire game might have plenty of snow and vikings, I'm sure they'll really dig deep and bring some character into the game. I don't have too many worries about that.
I don't like being negative, but it all looks terribly boring. Nords are just vikings and they're not even trying to hide it. Sounds boring too, they've got an epic soundtrack, and if there's one thing that's overdone, it's things being epic.
It's a shame, because I was hoping Bethesda had picked up some creativity after the backlash from Oblivion or having gotten to work with Fallout.
DISAGREE
Vikings are the best fucking part ! Why would they hide it?
One of the reasons I liked Morrowind so much is that despite the fact that the game was made on a continent made of ash, it was full of life and was pretty diverse overall.
While the entire game might have plenty of snow and vikings, I'm sure they'll really dig deep and bring some character into the game. I don't have too many worries about that.
This. Vvardenfell was basically just ash and mushrooms, but still had a way more interesting setting and locale compared to cyrodil which had the benefit of neighboring several different landscape types.
The snow will just make it feel like a dangerous place again just like the agressive plants and mushrooms did in morrowind.
edit: Am I still the only one seeing the conan movie inspirations all over elderscrolls?
No way man. I think Howard or someone mentioned that they've always drawn inspiration from Conan. I heard once that the Conan soundtrack was the unofficial Morrowind soundtrack.
The new Creation Engine provides more impressive draw distances and a significantly improved dynamic lighting system.
Snowfall will land on objects and accumulate over time.
The Radiant AI system has been heavily improved, with NPCs reacting to characters behaviour realistically. Turning up uninvited to a friendly NPCs house will prompt them to offer you lodgings.
Havoks new Behavior system will be used to generate exceptionally fluid animations.
The less-than-well-received third person view from Oblivion is gone, replaced with a greatly improved one.
An organic side-quest management system known as Radiant Story will direct you to areas youve yet to explore by placing quest objectives in undiscovered dungeons.
Side quests will be conditionalized, meaning they will adapt to what youre character has done in their past and create objectives based on who youve become.
Random encounters will feature, one of which has been confirmed to be a pack of wolves attacking a mammoth.
No way man. I think Howard or someone mentioned that they've always drawn inspiration from Conan. I heard once that the Conan soundtrack was the unofficial Morrowind soundtrack.
Yeah, and it still lingers in the morrowind soundtrack, rest in peace poledouris.
I'm hoping they've done something with their scripting language, the one they've used since morrowind has been so crude and basic.
Replies
aw yeaaaahhhh interesting read!
Nice!
Cheers for the link
Fap fap fap fap
Yep. No solid shadows as far as I can see.
lets cross fingers, maybe they will do something with those shadows. In general, design and art directing looks cool so far.
I assume they just haven't switched on SSAO yet. after that, though.. :O
though, honestly? it's better than being given bullshots.
-Uses Havok Behavior to improve animation blends and how physics affect them.
- World no longer freezes when you talk to people nor does the camera zoom into their face, NPC's whom you talk with while they are working will keep working and alternate between their current action and the conversation with you.
-Shadows confirmed to be everywhere in the game (guess they are not turned on in that screen) along with a better view distance and way of handling LOD.
- Radiant AI now works closer to STALKER's A-Life than what Oblivion had. For example, NPC's may pick up a weapon you drop in a town and return it to you, fight with another npc over who gets it, steal it and use it for themselves or probably cash it in.
NPC's may also ask you for training or a duel or somesuch in relation to a skill you have mastered, or the Radiant Story system might create a quest around it.
- Radiant Story means that, for instance: Assassination Quests may now be randomly generated based upon how far you are in the game, your rep, your skill, who you have met and what you are currently doing, it also creates random encounters in the wilderness.
A lot of works seems to have been put into making sure the Radiant Story Quest system doesn't detract from the main quests too much or overwhelm the player (this is excellent).
-Weather now directly affects the environment, for instance: snow will collect on trees brushes and stones.
- New engine is called Creation Engine and comes with an SDK.
Well now, colour me impressed, and positively hyped.
If there were no shadows, the inside of the tower would not be that dark.
edit: visible shadow to the left of the rock under the tower, in the background.
What does look like a shadow to me is the arch on the bottom left of the image. You have the top of a building with an arched beam right along the side of the roof. That's seemingly casting some sort of shadow on the side of the building.
Edit: Now that I look at it some more, they probably disabled distance shadows. Top down lighting is hard to judge, but there's a slightly different appearance to the stuff in the distance. I wouldn't be surprised if we get more screenshots that clearly have shadows in them.
Looking from the magazine, you could clearly see there were no shadows on certain things in the landscape, but you also had instances of little wooden fences casting a shadow or a troll doing self shadowing.
Haha. If you look at the shots from the magazine you can see tons of shadowing! Like the self shadowing on the giant and on the troll. Also the giant spider is casting one on the wall of ice too.
http://badasspanda.com/first-skyrim-screenshots-and-info-from-game-informer/2566
I think the suspicion is around if there's a maximum shadow distance, or if it's just sampled down at further out distances.
We're talking about a series well known for its lack of environmental shadows. :P
But after reading this thread and watching these videos... For just a short second while the Skyrim theme was playing, I felt that sense of awe and adventure return full force. You may consider me excited.
I send my thanks to everyone on the Skyrim team lurking here at Polycount.
or hit the prison boat to morrowind, listen to this variant of nerevar rising, and you'll never look back:
[ame]
And then when you're picking mushrooms for the mages guild while exploring ancient dwemer ruins, things just wont get any better.. but then this song starts playing:
[ame]
Sons of skyrim part:
[ame]
Morrowind skyrim part:
[ame]
but nothing more
[ame]
Yeah, me too. From that article it sounds like they have really paid attention to the common gripes about the last one, and tried to rectify them. Now I just have to wait a year. Hmmmm....
Agreed. Can't wait! (please no co-op *crosses fingers*)
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/01/18/skyrim-the-time-lapse-art-video.aspx
Birds, a whipping-tentacle monster and a very angry and surprised looking bear?! This game is going to be mindblowing!
Edit - just watched the video. Looks spectacular! About the soundtrack, it seems a lot more suspenseful and less melodic than the previous games' soundtracks. I imagine the game being more atmospheric as a result (if thats even possible!). It sort of reminds me of some of the music from World of Warcraft.
That actually looks like a wooly mammoth with an extra set of tusks for extra awesome. That's really nice though and I hope some of the scenery is like that.
Pffft...I'm going with "Whipping-Tentacle Monster". Shit's awesome.
We need more tentacles. The tentacle will have its day!
PS - I feel rather silly haha.
Haha, We have this as a large printout on our wall. I won't lie...The first time I walked by it I thought "WHOAH! Frost Cthulhu!?"
It's a shame, because I was hoping Bethesda had picked up some creativity after the backlash from Oblivion or having gotten to work with Fallout.
Love the video, but I love DotT too! :poly124:
If anything the design and the land of skyrim is way more conan than viking.
Besides, bloodmoon was pretty awesome.
edit: Am I still the only one seeing the conan movie inspirations all over elderscrolls?
One of the reasons I liked Morrowind so much is that despite the fact that the game was made on a continent made of ash, it was full of life and was pretty diverse overall.
While the entire game might have plenty of snow and vikings, I'm sure they'll really dig deep and bring some character into the game. I don't have too many worries about that.
DISAGREE
Vikings are the best fucking part ! Why would they hide it?
This. Vvardenfell was basically just ash and mushrooms, but still had a way more interesting setting and locale compared to cyrodil which had the benefit of neighboring several different landscape types.
The snow will just make it feel like a dangerous place again just like the agressive plants and mushrooms did in morrowind.
No way man. I think Howard or someone mentioned that they've always drawn inspiration from Conan. I heard once that the Conan soundtrack was the unofficial Morrowind soundtrack.
Snowfall will land on objects and accumulate over time.
The Radiant AI system has been heavily improved, with NPCs reacting to characters behaviour realistically. Turning up uninvited to a friendly NPCs house will prompt them to offer you lodgings.
Havoks new Behavior system will be used to generate exceptionally fluid animations.
The less-than-well-received third person view from Oblivion is gone, replaced with a greatly improved one.
An organic side-quest management system known as Radiant Story will direct you to areas youve yet to explore by placing quest objectives in undiscovered dungeons.
Side quests will be conditionalized, meaning they will adapt to what youre character has done in their past and create objectives based on who youve become.
Random encounters will feature, one of which has been confirmed to be a pack of wolves attacking a mammoth.
Yeah, and it still lingers in the morrowind soundtrack, rest in peace poledouris.
I'm hoping they've done something with their scripting language, the one they've used since morrowind has been so crude and basic.