Monday, January 17, 2011

Bethesda's Technology Behind Skyrim!



Its been five years since Bethesda has revisited Tamriel, what have they done to improve the Elder Scrolls Series. What kind of technology are we looking at here?

Oblivion offered gamers a beautiful open-ended landscape to fulfill their every whim, from the renaissance feel of the huge city of Cyrodiil, to the dark brooding underground caves, the lush forests, and the hellish landscapes of Oblivion. TES IV: Oblivion was hailed by critics and gamers as one of the best single player rpgs ever to come forth from Bethesda's creative labs.

THE CREATION ENGINE


Now Besthesda has created a newly dubbed Creation Engine and Kit. This will enable violent waterfalls, steep cliffs, even denser forests will sporadic wildlife, and epic battles.

In an interview with lead director Todd Howard, he explained “The big things for us were to draw a lot of stuff in the distance so we have a really sophisticated level of detail, more so than what we've had in the past for how things stream in and how detail gets added to them as they get closer to the camera."


The draw distances look pretty on a postcard, but gamers were also worried about the close up gameplay. Need not worry though, Bethesda has explained that there will be an extensive revamp on shadows and light on the entire Elder Scrolls world.

The Foliage system in Skyrim has been overhauled, we are talking much much more foliage (I cant wait to see this!). The creation engine allows players to modify almost anything in the game. Say for example you are making tree on a steep cliff, you can alter the weight of the branches so they look as if they are swaying in the mountain winds!

Radiant AI System

Remember when you were playing Oblivion, and the NPCs would walk around the town going about their own duties?

Well thats been improved, and I mean really improved a hundred fold. Now each denizen in Skyrim will go about duties that actually make sense to the environment. For example in the forests villages most of the villagers would be seen chopping logs, building houses made out of wood, etc.

Now the improved AI system is more conscience of the Player as well. Suppose the player goes to a town, and drops a very valuble piece of loot. Now the villagers will pick up the item, one might return, others may fight over, one villager may even use it against other villagers if its a weapon. Many possibilities can now occur!

Skyrim has also taken some hints from Fable, if you terrorize or take care of the villagers they will develop feelings for you.

“Your friend would let you eat the apple in his house,” Howard says


This will make for some interesting gameplay.

HAVOK Engine Animation


Remember how robotic the NPCs were in Oblivion, well say goodbye to that.

Now Bethesda has introduced a Havok Animation system, making NPCs movements more realistic.

“We looked at a bunch of [animation solutions], and this is about the tippy-top state-of-the-art stuff out there,” Howard says. “I think we're the first real big game to use it.”


The Havok Engine allows developers to make blended animations with a few simple clicks of the mouse with minimal code support. NPCs now transition more realistically between say walking, jogging, running, attackng, eating, sleeping, talking, etc.

Bethesda has also revamped the third person perspective and allowed better timings when switching to third person.

“We definitely have made a significant jump in how it plays [in third person perspective],” Howard proclaims.


Not only that but when you have conversations with NPCs it switches to a cut scene now, and the NPCs dont just stand around and talk to your face, but now they be walking, eating, running, etc.

For example a bar maid may continue to clean glasses or cups as you speak to her.

4 comments:

  1. Great Blog. I can't wait for this game, makes me want to play oblivion again!

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