This is What Skyrim Could (and Should) Look Like With Next Gen Tech

Today’s PC gaming technology is roughly 10x more powerful than current gaming consoles. So, what could an already beautiful game like Skyrim look like if combined with next gen PC tech? Well, it would probably look something like this.

[HavenDan]

Fuck it, I'm buying for PC.

[evrfighter]

jeezus christ

I hope Qarl puts out some texture mods that comes close. My jaw hasn't literally dropped since I first saw crysis 1 announced

@Endoran this is a 2007 engine dude. though Crysis 1 physics were still very impressive. massive realistic physics are still some years away even on pc. Frostbite 2.0 is the closest we've come and even that doesn't pack realistic physics.

[SantistaUSA]

Can't wait for next gen with those kind of graphical power :)

Anyways did he have to kill the bird? That's just wrong lol :)

[dirthurts]

Sorry, but even next gen isn't going to look like this. This is pushing the high end of the pc spectrum. No way the next consoles will have that power. No one would pay that much.

[Autodidactdystopia]

Except for the fact that this is Crysis.

[Perjoss]

It's important not to forget that a modder can spend as much time as he or she likes on a part of the mod, an artist in the gaming industry has to work pretty fast to strict deadlines. Therefore modded games usually look incredible, like Doom3, GTA IV and Crysis.

Often when you see a crappy asset in a game it's not always that the artist is bad, its just that they often get very little time to work on each one.

[stu888]

In places it looks like someone has actually taken a hand-held camera to a forest next to a small river ie, it looks real.

I hate PC gamers and their elitism but fair play, that looks incredible!

[miDnIghtEr20C_SfF]

I think it kind of looks stupid how you can walk right through branches though. Looks great the graphics, but weird the branches don't bend.

[Winkle92]

I think the fact that it's closer to photo realistic than we have ever seen makes up for the fact that the branches don't bend. At least I think that's an acceptable trade off. Imo of course.

[miDnIghtEr20C_SfF]

I would take that trade off too for certain games, that's for sure.

[StoneyYoshi]

the brances do bend. you cant really notice since you are so close to them. but on crysis, they deffienitely do bend when you walk into them.

[trancefreak]

This is hunters life mod for cryengine 2. I can run it @ 1080p all settings very high with a gtx 570hd around 40-50 FPS. It is freaking gorgeous to the eye.

You can play this straight from crysis 1 mod folder. This map is on mod db http://www.moddb.com/mods/h...

Edit I also think it looks better without the extreme immersion mod but along with I think its called rygans texture mod that goes into your .pak file folder

[fatstarr]

ohh my God... this is beautiful.

Glorious PC smh 4 @ more years of generation 7

[CrzyFooL]

I can't wait until games on all platforms can look this good. I can't wait for Skyrim.
I can't wait for what comes after Skyrim!

*waits*

Also, the music!

[Organization XII]

omg dude this is my video, i recorded it on my rig (gtx 560 ti + core i3) no kidding :D

[Gazondaily]

Really?

That looks epic!

Imagine what we're in store for next-gen!

*gets all giddy and giggly like Mr Pop n Fresh*

[xAlmostPro]

really?.. you just made my day because my new rig is gtx 560 sli with an overclocked i5 :D (im a pc noob so you've kinda just got me excited haha)

[outwar6010]

an i3 you serious i should be okay then :)

[BlackjackCF]

...what the...
Realism mod for GTA applied to Elder Scrolls...

[psb]

well, I'm getting this for PC, no matter how much I love my PS3, I know I'll enjoy it the most on my PC.

[StealthyRay]

Not only for the graphics, but also I expect the speedier loads for the save/load/map changes.

If a title is multiplat I will get the PC version first. If there is no PC version, I'll get either PS3 or 360.

[Kahvipannu]

And the mods, best reason to get PC version of any game that supports them.

[HappyGaming]

I also expect much much more life like physics!!!

[Vagrant]

Very interesting video.

[jaredhart]

Agreed.

[Hitman0769]

i want this

[xtheownerzx]

That looks amazing I want it like that

[InNomeDiDio]

PC FTW

[BushLitter]

If today's PC technology is that powerful, then why doesn't Skyrim actually look like that?!

[NBT91]

Cause that video was a small area and actually was Crysis just with Oblivion music.
To make a game the size and scale of Skryim or Oblivion with those kinds of visuals would be a big taks right about now, even it it were a PC exlusive

[BushLitter]

Well why not make games that aren't that big with those kinds of visuals? Why don't developers make linear games using the technology to their advantage? Why the need to keep PC games on par with console, when it could be ten times better?

[Pandamobile]

Because at the end of the day, it still has to fit onto consoles.

[limewax]

they did, except its not exactly a small game, the witcher 2 is an entire game of incredibly high rez textures, and it was made by a team of 20

[Kahvipannu]

Pretty much what Pandamobile sayed, developers make the game so that it can be fitted/run on consoles. Thank god Dice is doing otherwise now, it's a move I would like to see from Bethesda too, but all PC gets is "ports".

Tought PC has modding-community, which usually fixes/improves the games a lot. Most games that come out on PC with modding, are at theyr best after one or two years, thanks to mods.

[Somebody]

They could. If it weren't for the fact that suddenly every developer have cold feet. Before Battlefield 3, developers usually don't comment about the PC versions much or that it will be a slightly better looking version. After DICE announced BF 3 and saying that the PC version will be the superior version, all hell broke loose. The console crowd didn't take kindly to that.

It very obvious if you care to read the articles after that announcement and reaction. Suddenly everyone wants to clarify that their games will look the same across all platforms. Most notably Skyrim since it was one of the most anticipated games of the year. I think Bethesda was the first to make such announcement. Others soon followed.

Before BF3, everyone politely saying that the PC versions will be better. After BF3, everyone said all versions will look the same.

Look at the Unreal 3's latest version (U3.9). It's supposed to be the next gen engine for future consoles. It was demoed, the Samaritan demo, using the latest PC hardware (DX11, Triple SLI) and Epic even admitted they can make a game out of it now. Just that,well, they don't want to. They'll just sit on that game engine and wait for the PS4 and X BOx 3.

Yeah, everyone's deliberately agreed to not use that 10X power of the PC.

[vickers500]

I personally think Skyrim looks better than this video. Sure, this video may have far better textures and better water, but that's about it. The art style in Skyrim is far superior to this.

[cannon8800]

Because their engine is different from the cryengine 2. They could have done that but then it would most likely be a pc exclusive.

[cannon8800]

you do realize that this crysis demonstration was probably running at a very high resolution, maybe 1920x1080 or maybe even (2560x1600 which is not possible on consoles this gen)Crysis uses a bit over 800 mb or video ram to run at highest settings, but since this is a mod that uses even higher resolution textures it's going to require a lot more. it's probably using 16x antialiasing also (to remove any jagged lines. I don't think this detail would be possible on any console unless some company completely revolutionizes the way polygons,textures,physics, and AI, are processed by the hardware. I'm sure the ps4 and xbox 720 will have absolutely no problem running games with this much detail.

[danieldeath]

Because Consoles are where the money is ,, easy to make easy to earn.

[LegendarySins]

I agree, theres no way PCs are 10 times more powerful than todays consoles. I would say 4 times maybe absolute max. Unless you are going to add 3 or more 590s,or 6990s in sli or crossfire and watercool everything which is just far too expensive imo.

[Chocoboh]

8 core cpus were just released recently.. most games now a days only use use up to 4-6 cores

[LegendarySins]

I have a good pc but the only advantage is the higher resolution, reflections and draw distance, other than that games look pretty much the same. Like the guy above me said, if they are already 10 times more powerful then why dont they already look like this, otherwise what is the point in an 8 core cpu if games don't use it.

[playaplayer]

You won't see games that look 10 times more powerful on pc until the next gen consoles comes out. Even BF3 that is a game built with pc in mind first doesn't look 10 times better than consoles. It has more than double the player count but the game definitely don't look 10 times better. If you don't know what 10 times better looks like it would be the difference between halo for the xbox and halo reach for the 360.

[NBT91]

Its all realism until someone shoots a fireball out of their bare hands.
Honestly, it is impressive but I kind of do not want games to look this good, that might sound a bit strange but think about it... If a game looks that real, then EVERYTHING has to looks and feel as real as the game looks or it just will not work IMO.

I mean imagine if Modern Warfare 2 looked like that but still played like it did... Does anyone else not think that would just feel strange?

[StealthyRay]

That's called progress.

In my experience with PC games in the 90's, developers usually pushed the graphics beyond the mainstream PC's back then. The effect was that 1) not everyone was able to enjoy the maximum graphics, but 2) they were part catalyst/incentive for hardware manufacturers to develop better hardware, which when consumers were able to afford those PCs or computer parts to run the games in max graphics (meanwhile game devs were already making another killer game to tax those PC's)...so on and so forth.

Getting games with that graphical quality now won't be much of a problem, it will just be a good reason for those who want that to upgrade their hardware. The mainstream gamer will just enjoy the game in mid-quality.

Ten years from now we'll see today's graphics as cartoonish.

[cannon8800]

Totally agree

[_LarZen_]

There is no video out showing how Skyrim looks on a pc....I find that disturbing.....

[Delt4]

This proves my PC is garbage :(

[ZILLA]

without great gameplay!!never buy a game base on looks or hype,go with sound and fun also.thats what makes a great game,if your not smiling when your playing a game move on to the next.

[Tony P]

While a valid point, I thought we were talking about TES, which pretty much has gameplay in the bag.

[OMGitzThatGuy]

Wow the Crysis video from like 3 months ago

[FragMnTagM]

I saw it even longer than that.

Edit: Could not find the original, yet I found a much better video and even earlier than the one posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Edit 2: Found one from a year ago, but it is a really crappy capture card or the guys hardware can't run it too well....

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

That said, can't wait till graphics are at least at this standard and above.

[kaveti6616]

There's a lack of focus in that video.

It's like I'm dreaming because I can't focus on anything.

[Ducky]

It seems the people who work on these mods don't know how a human neck is supposed to work.

It's like the camera is attached to the main character by a slinky.

[xX_Altair_Xx]

The Immersive mod on Crysis gives me a headache just watching; These guys should go outside and run for just a little bit and figure out how the human neck works.

[pr0digyZA]

just change head bob in config file and you are sorted. Thats what I did with immersive mod.

[flightdown]

that is pretty darn good looking.

[k3x]

Adding high res textures and playing games in some super high resolutions is kind of like putting a sports car spoiler on your Prius: it just looks ridiculous.

I honestly do not understand the obsession with super high resolution textures and sharp edges on everything. Look around. Reality does not look like that. Even with perfect 20/20 eyesight things aren't this sharp. Textures, shapes, patterns don't burn into your retinae when you look at them as if they were made of glowing plastic covered with lube. And when you're looking around, notice that things don't blur into a mess of dancing trails and colors, unless you're on something, which in turn might explain why you'd find such pos graphics to be appealing.

[StealthyRay]

Don't stifle progress. :-) In the future these advancements in graphics will have its practical use. Everything has to improve somehow. Remember computers are just too precise, and there will be techniques to simulate real life.

The graphics you see in consoles nowadays (I assume you only play on console since you said you don't understant the "obsession") were still new and experimental in the late 90's and early 2000's, but the norm today. Otherwise, we'll still be stuck with SNES graphics.

Let's be thankful to these modders who work while we play.

[k3x]

You assume wrong; haven't had anything to do with consoles since SNES. High res textures in so-so looking games have been around for ages and they're not progressing anything. It's just that I seem to be one of the very few gamers who prefer well designed and thought-out art coupled with fluidity of movement / animations over platicky-looking, lube-covered environments filled with high-poly lifeless mannequins.

[Twilightx7]

You realize that with your perfect 20/20 vision, that the human eye actually perceives (conservatively) 576 megapixels? Reality looks much, much sharper than anything we can actually produce on a screen. Sure, I can't see all the detail in the fabric of a chair from 10 feet away, but the closer I get, the more detailed it gets, until the "resolution" of the fabric is the equivalent of hundreds of millions of pixels.

Your metaphor of a sports car spoiler on a Prius isn't really that great either - if we're going to compare game graphics to cars, this is more akin to changing up the paint job on an already amazing performance vehicle.

[Jocosta]

I am probably the only one that gets what you are trying to say, I totally agree.

[SageHonor]

Thats just jaw dropping

[TheOtherTheoG]

And this is why I'm looking forward to the inevitable Skyrim mods... SO much.

[Bob570]

If only Bethesda would have waited just a couple more years for next gen.

[NovusTerminus]

Skyrim: Now with wobbling camera's that fuck with my head. Oil Containers and semi auto Handguns... Yeah that sounds about like what westerners will do to a game.

On a serious note.

But yeah, that is amazing tech, overall without another 500+ USD that I can't afford I can't hope to get a PC running anything. Much less whatever this guys space age tech PC is doing.

[Darkfiber]

I agree, Skyrim needs barrels and guns.

[Ninjamonkey82]

If only he had a pulled a sword and shield that would have been prefect :)

[josephayal]

Same PS3 Graphixs

[qwertyz]

lol this(along with a number of other pc games) makes even the best looking console games look like ps2 games its not possible on a console if you max out a 2005 ultra spec pc and optimize for it it will produce better looking games than either console and you think ps3 can match a modern pc ? lol ignorance even a core 2 duo with a $40 gpu will blow your piece of crap ps3 and 360 out of the water

[Arnagrim]

After all the great mods on tesnexus for Oblivion it's a no brainer that I'll be buying Skyrim on PC.

[Tony P]

tesnexus: Your one-stop shop for replay value.

[Kahvipannu]

I have to say, Skyrim even at consoles looks amazing, simply love the visuals, but the article has point.

If these titles would be made just for PC in mind, they could look lightyears better. Just look Crysis 1, it was made so that only the high end PC's could handle it with ultra-settings back then, it was utilizing the potential of the hardware, and now it looks even better with mods, that video is mind-blowing.

I'm happy with upgraded "console-visuals", but would wish to see more developers do same as Dice is doing now, use the hardware as it should be used, not with console limitations.

[Anon1974]

Just like Crysis 2? I think the problem isn't so much with the tech. PC's can do this kind of stuff now. The bottleneck is with developers. Anyone care to estimate the man hours and cost of developing a AAA game with super detail? And if you had the tens of millions and hundreds necessary to truly push the boundaries of PC hardware and create a AAA game took advantage of that hardware, what if it didn't sell?

This has been a problem this entire gen...resources. Every game could be the next Gears or Uncharted, so why are games like this so rare? It's not the developers necessarily lack the talent, they lack the resources and at the end of the day need to turn out their games in a reasonable time frame in order to stay in business.

New, more powerful hardware may it easier to include better physics, kick ass lighting and shadows, higher resolution textures and not have to make as many sacrifices - but at the end of the day someone needs to create, program and test those effects - and the more of these features, the more people money and time are required.

New hardware might make more things possible but the bigger the project, the more complex it becomes. This is a problem developers are struggling with right now. Throwing better hardware at them isn't suddenly going to solve that problem and you always need to keep in mind your market.

And would you spend millions to make a AAA game that pushed hardware to it's limits when only a fraction of PC's could run at those settings, and then a good junk of that market would pirate your game anyway? Maybe someone would try if there was a super PC in every household but that's not the case.

[Kahvipannu]

Good points there mate. It's true that the business is harsh these days, we have seen many studios shutdown, and developers don't take as much risk these days in fear that the games won't appeal to all. Also the development costs are high as sky, time and resources limited, and market is flowing with "AAA"-games.

But you know, it would not take much extra effort to use PC-hardware properly, it's the easiest platform to develop games. Now we see halfhanded "console-ports", games with UI's not designed for PC, and such, everybody know these things. Games like Battlefield, and Skyrim is well known that they will sell, no matter what, there isn't as much risk as other titles. Dice knows this, and builded new engine that will last, making it with next-gen consoles in mind, Bethesda builded new engine for current-gen, and that's what PC gamers now get. I know it is not just that simple, but makes one just wonder...

[turgore]

everything, but the water (which is lacking reflections) is photorealistic.

[danieldeath]

What misleading Crap ...Just add Skyrim to the title for a old crap Crysis MOD video..

[Shojin1]

WOW! A 2007 original PC game is being used to show what a 2011 game "should" look like...

Where are the new systems?

[WetN00dle69]

Awesome video!
By the way anyone else get the urge to play Oblivion after hearing that music??? lol

We need Skyrim........NAO!

[Bleach]

That bird fell like a piece of cardboard.

[lionelglitchy]

lol love the way at 1:44 its the edge of his map so he turned around

[Tommykrem]

Looks great! Consoles have really lost contact with PC when it comes to texture quality (among other things). Anyway, it's good to see that hardware manufacturers don't rush to start the next-gen because of the graphics race and instead give developers some time with current technology.

[B00M]

That is quite photo realistic actually =D Tech still has a long way to go though, but from a distance that looks quite real.

[ZippyZapper]

next gen

[Khordchange]

This makes my wii cry

Hope the 720, Wiiu, and ps4 can look close to this

[bayport]

That music was epic

[Nes_Daze]

Graphics this graphics that, if only graphically impressive games played like they looked....

[drzmvp554]

I looked at the trees outside then back at this video and I honestly couldn't see a visual difference. Amazing...