Game News Oblivion Screenshots

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

In addition to their <a href=http://www.elderscrolls.com/codex/team_rpgnextgen.htm>Designer Diary</a> by Oblivion producer Todd Howard at the official Elder Scrolls website that was posted the other day, they have just (well, a couple of days ago) yielded a bunch of new screenshots of Oblivion that look very pretty. Look <a href=http://www.elderscrolls.com/art/obliv_screenshots_01.htm>here.</a>

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Shiny.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Ugh. I was hoping you meant new screenshots. Saw those about a week ago on Adrenaline Vault. But, yes, definitely shiny.

 

[mathboy]

Wow, finally there's some meaning in going for graphics instead of gameplay. Not that I want it, but I can see the publishers wanting it.

 

[HanoverF]

Damn, my comps gonna choke to death on that thing like Bush on a pretzel

 

[Nicolai]

The art style is pretty gay. It's too... generic?

 

[Whipporowill]

The art style is pretty gay. It's too... generic?

Rather that than the horrible art direction in MW.

 

[Ortchel]

Morrowind had wonderful architecture, especially the Redoran buildings. The creatures were, for the most part, unique and creative, there were no giant spiders and no dragons and definitely no Kobolds (*cough*Bioware*cough*). The only thing I thought that needed considerably more work was some of the armor, especially the Glass armor, which made you look like a giant anime robot.

 

[Lemon]

The art style is pretty gay. It's too... generic?

Its very muscular, the church especially looks quite silly. Morrowind had some fantastic concept work, this looks less interesting to start with.

 

[Ortchel]

Thats in no small part due to the fact that the two games take places on vastly different continents. Cyrodill (where Oblivion takes place) is comparable to fedual Europe and Morrowind is supposed to be 'Eastern'.

So if it looks generic, it's supposed to.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

The church looks "silly"? How so? Please explain, I'll get some popcorn. This ought to be good...

 

[Mendoza]

It looks pretty damn similar to any number of real life churches I've seen, I guess they look silly too. Except the real life churches aren't as pretty.

MSFD: Is it all going to be medieval european style architecture in Cyrodil? I loved the architecture in Morrowind (except Vivec, it was a bit dull) and I'd love to see some similar stuff for Oblivion (although I guess mushroom towers would be pushing my luck).

 

[Ortchel]

As the former 'official Bethsoft fanboy' I can say; yes, probably anyway. As long as the game remains within Cyrodill's boundries or unless they have you tapping the heart of a dead god in a side quest or something, which might change the scenery a bit.

Oblivion is going to get a lot of 'generic' remarks, because thats just what Cyrodill is; generic. They even have dragons

Edit: My only real criticism of these graphics is the BLOOM, whats with game developers and this stuff lately? It looks awful, it's only going to hide your shoddy texture work so much (see: Guild Wars). Other than that, the graphics look nice, though I doubt these are legitimate screenshots, much as Morrowinds first were later found to be 'proof of concept shots' (renders).

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Ortchel -- they are actual in-game real undoctored screenshots. And the game's far from finished, lots of stuff is still being tweaked including the high dynamic range lighting (what you are referring to as "bloom").

Also you've only seen the architecture from one of the towns. There's a LOT that hasn't yet been revealed.

 

[Ortchel]

I almost feel honored to be replied to by name by a Bethsoft dev. I guess old fanboys die hard. I now feel compelled to nod in agreement to everything you say. I'm beginning to understand why you guys hang out here, I was just at the official forums, ugh, it's like a barnyard over there:

"I want hats with wings and spears that shoot confetti."

"No! You're gay, I want griffins with crossbow tongues."

p.s. Playable Orcs, please.

 

[Sol Invictus]

What's wrong with the Bloom, Ortchel? Guild Wars certainly looks prettier than any other game I've played, to date, including World of Warcraft, which has no bloom, and ugly textures to boot. You say GW has ugly textures: have you even seen the platemail and chainmail armors? Just look at the Wallpapers on the Guild Wars site: the one with the big horned helm knight guy - that's an actual screenshot, with its background doctored a little.

Sands of Time used bloom and even though it was a tad shoddy in terms of texturing, it looked pretty good. Deus Ex and Thief 3 both used bloom but they didn't look good because the textures were poor. Several mods have been released that improve the overall textures in the game without any slowdowns and suffice to say, they look good, and even better with the bloom enabled.

The bloom consists of pixelshading. If its done well, it'll look good. Oblivion looks good, there is no denying that. You might not like the Gothic Architecture the game is using but I certainly do.

 

[Ortchel]

Exitium, we've gotta let this Guild Wars thing go, I just don't like it.

As I don't like Bloom.

It's just the vaseline on the lense of current graphics technology to cover up the welts on the hooker's ass. And yes, I saw a multitude of armor on the henchmen, those in plate appeared to be bathed in heavenly glow.

Real life isn't an awful shiny mess, I rest my case.

Edit: And as I said, everything else (including the architecture, which looks very realistic) about Oblivion looks good, though the knight is too pretty.

/nitpicker

 

[jiujitsu]

How do you spot 'bloom.' I've never heard of it before now. What the hell is the difference?

 

[Ortchel]

It's a trendy technology that (I believe) makes the light areas lighter, to the point of achieving a 'glow' effect. It smoothes out rough edges, it's a crutch, basically.

It only exists in a few games, Thief 3, Deus Ex 2, Star Wars Battlefront, Guild Wars and Prince of Persia being the only ones I can think of offhand.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Actually we're not using bloom in that sense. We're using High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting. What that does is simulate the eye's response to suddenly bright lights. For example if you're in a dark room and suddenly look at a bright light, the light seems overbright for a period of time until your eyes adjust. A really good example is if you're driving through a tunnel and come to the end. At first the light seems excessively bright, but as your eyes adjust and you get outside, everything returns to normal brightness levels.

 

[Ortchel]

So you're simulating the human eye?

Thats pretty high tech.

.. But is it optional?

 

[Sol Invictus]

Real life isn't an awful shiny mess, I rest my case.

/nitpicker

Who gives a flying fuck about real life? I don't think artists care too much about how real life looks when they're designing their pieces.

 

[Sol Invictus]

So you're simulating the human eye?

Thats pretty high tech.

.. But is it optional?

It's part of the graphics engine. I don't see why they would make it optional, because adjusting the gamma in order to fit the environment isn't exactly a burden on the GPU. The problem with a lot of games, especially first person shooters is how much of the view might consist of bright lights, with some tunnel up ahead that's too dark for you to see in. Walking into it can be really annoying, because you're probably going to have to play the game with the lights off because otherwise you won't be able to see anything, and blindness isn't a fun experience.

I might be wrong but I think Splinter Cell 2 used a similar lighting technology with the night vision goggles.

I really don't see what's wrong with light bloom or whatever anyhow. It's a visual experience. I don't know why you feel you need to look for flaws in the textures or architecture.

 

[Ortchel]

Well, artists give a flying fuck about real life.

'Art imitating life imitating art' x infinity, thats what they taught me in art school.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Which artists are those?

I don't recall any Surrealist paintings to be an imitation of life in any way. Do you?