Aerothorn on 18/4/2011 at 19:34
So according (
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/skyrim-is-looking-like-the-elder-scrolls-evolved/3048/) this write-up at Giant Bomb, Skyrim will be using DirectX 9 shaders exclusively (though you'll get a "performance boost" from a DirectX 11 card, whatever that means). I'm not a shaders whore and can live without it, but it does seem to be a curious admission, given that DirectX 10 was released all the way back in 2008. I suspect this is because the consoles are lead platforms and they don't support it - hopefully this isn't a sign that the PC will get a thoughtless port.
monterto on 18/4/2011 at 23:44
Game developers...
B)
gunsmoke on 24/4/2011 at 23:25
Vista came out a helluva lot earlier than 2008...and DX10 was packaged with it.
Sulphur on 25/4/2011 at 15:54
Console feature set lock-in, baby.
Anyway, while I do crib about the the sad state of affairs Crysis 2 arrived in with all that potential prettification cruelly excised in the name of optimisation, it does look rather good even with all those terribly boohooed DX9 shaders. Crytek even managed to get object motion blur in DX9, which Crysis was incapable of unless you ran it with DX10, so technical miracles are still very much possible. And Skyrim does look pretty damn good in those trailers regardless of shader model archaicness (though in that latest trailer, that glowy soul trail from the dragon flowing up towards the protagonist seems rather... polygonal).
Anyway, even if they aren't coding specific DX11 shaders, implementing a DX11 codepath and using the artists' original high-res assets will potentially allow for better and higher-res textures since it lifts the DX9 texture size limit (as we saw with recently with DA2's high-res pack) and that's half the visuals better right then and there, eh? DX10/11 gave devs lots of nice stuff in the name of performance enhancements like better instancing and the like, so I hope they implement that at the very least.
Sg3 on 10/5/2011 at 03:11
One of the more remarkable aspects of Oblivion was that it could run at maximum graphics, and look gorgeous, on even rather crappy computers. I wonder if this has something to do with the same graphics philosophy.
Koki on 10/5/2011 at 14:59
With the way most Elder Scrolls races look like I don't mind ugly graphics.
Sg3 on 10/5/2011 at 15:07
I do hope they've ditched the silly lizard people, cat people, and green-skinned "orcs," along with the glass armour, excessive spikes, and all other elements which are more befitting of a Saturday morning children's cartoon than an immersive fantasy game.
Matthew on 10/5/2011 at 15:38
Er, you realise that there is absolutely no chance in hell that any of that is going to be ditched, right? Nor indeed, should it be?
Sulphur on 10/5/2011 at 16:59
'Immersive fantasy game' is a bit of a contradiction in terms, I think.
The cat- and lizard-people are great. Cats make for bloody great thieving ninjas, and the brilliance of this can not be overstated.
Nameless Voice on 10/5/2011 at 23:01
Take out all the parts that actually make the Elder Scrolls universe unique? That sounds like a great idea...
</sarcasm>
