TES V: Skyrim

The updated version is good so far. 60fps Riverwood feels goood!

 

The new Nvidia beta driver gives me fluctuating indoor performance. It does jump a lot higher than the constant fps I got before. But unfortunately it doesn't stay higher, also GPU utilisation jumps around between 50%-90%.

 

Indoor performance isn't Skyrim's problem, except for perhaps the very biggest rooms you ever encounter, such as in the horn-of-whatsisname mission in the main questline. Other than such corner cases, indoor performance is very good in my experience.

It's outdoors the game really needs work, especially in cities where the framerate can really chug. If the NPC AI is as terribad as people say, I guess that explains a lot.

 

Yes, I was talking about a corner case I guess, specifically the first dungeon where you escape from Helgen.
The point where you lower the bridge with the switch. If I look left or right at one of the torches on the wall I get 30fps. The new driver lets it fluctuate up to 50fps.

 

I would certainly enjoy seeing Skyrim running at 60 fps, it has to be a sight to behold. Talking of which, for an open game, it looks really good in general. Like in this picture:

 

Their atmospheric effects help a ton with distant visuals.

 

Yeah they did a great job with all the fog floating around mountaintops.

 

Yeah one of the things I noticed too, it looks awesome. It creates a real depth and realness.(grammar?)

 

I was one of the 'unbelievers' when they first published photos of the fog and depth-of-field effects during blizzards and heavy rain and the like. I'm quite impressed with how the world 'feels' during a heavy blizzard, how your vision is so well obscured like you would truly expect.

Kudos to Bethesda for getting that right

 

I'd say 'realism'...

Icy and snowy areas can look a bit bland and flat at a distance when the engine culls away most of the small details and paints everything with fairly low-res textures, but anywhere where there are trees and rocks, and preferably also intermixed with grass just looks fabulous.

 

Hopefully there will be mods that adjust the LOD on stuff. For the moment no amount of ini tweaking helps for clean watery environments like the view of the ocean just outside Solitude because the assets you can see are so simplistic.

 

Yeah those big oceans views are really crappy. It's like you're looking down on flat textures with hard edges to the shores.

 

Yes, like Albuquerque and Kyyla said, they got it right. You can feel the heaviness of the weather and the air. It reminds me of a certain place in the south of Germany where I spent a week. There was a wide river that when I woke up -at 6AM or so- seemed completely frozen. Beautiful to look at but it was really cold.

What Bethesda should fix though is the fact that the snow still goes through walls. It looks very shabby and it's something that didn't change in the TES series since Morrowind.

EDIT: The atmosphere at the very entrance of Glenmoril Cave is very well done also. It made me shudder, and really added variety to the wooded landscape surrounding it. The cave is your typical dungeon, but the entrance made me really feel I was there. A great job by Bethesda, I was amazed and made me feel fear. The change in the tone of the music when getting close really added to the atmosphere, too. When a game makes you feel something like that I can't help it but feel "proud" playing it.

 

This is mostly a copy & paste from the console games section, because I want to make a vampire since the very beginning of the game and I am still wondering how.I am looking for help.

Do you know a way to become a vampire at very, very low level? I mean, like below lvl 2.

If I knew some low level places where vampires dwell that would help, but I didn't find many so far, and the one I found I don't remember well, except it was really far from Helgen or Whiterun even.

The rest of the post here:

 

@Cyan
http://i.imgur.com/zbk8P.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/01AcY.jpg

I've been here at level 3 or 4, You will survive and You can escape from there easily.

Ps.Its my HDD or loading times have increased after new patch significantly?

 

Thanks for the help, it made my day.

I didn't find that place yet in my two walkthroughs of the game. One of the my characters is level 30, the other is level 22. It just goes to show how different is the experience for everyone in this game.

The first vampires I found with my first character were roaming around in the wilderness while I was trying to go to where the Greybeards are and I got lost in one of the sides of the mountain, following narrow trails and slightly confused. I was level 20.

Yet there are other people who found them as soon as they escaped Helgen. The openness of the game and its situations makes you live your very own experience.

Looking at your map I realize I missed that place. I usually took right to Whiterun in my two walkthroughs, but with my 3rd I am going to take left so I can become a vampire at level 1.

I have been in the environs of that place, relatively close, but still a bit far. I discovered 118 locations until now with my level 30 magician. I hope you can marry as a vampire, sure my wife in the game will think I have a mistress, all night outside home, but that's the life I choose to tell old vampire tales.

p.s. When I am looking at the cool pic of your map I can't help it but move the cursor around hoping the screen will tell me the name of the places marked in your map. Thanks for your help and kindness.

 

Does anyone know where I can acquire some more powerful healing spells? "Fast heal" or whatsitscalled from the Jarl's mage in Whiterun whatsisname, kind of loses its punch when you have 300 health or more...

 

I began my current walkthrough as a mage and as soon as I completed the first mission of the main quest so I could have a follower I went to Winterhold, so I know the college well.

You can buy Healing spells to Colette. Make sure you have access to Expert restoration spells though, which means that your restoration skill has to be 75 at least. I won't tell you the name of the spells you gain access to, not to spoil you, but while Fast Healing was useful this one you can use at that level is quite better and perfect to keep your allies alive, not only yourself. My character is a Healer, btw

 

I still use the standard healing spell. I never try to use it in a fight, I carry potions for that, but it works well enough for healing up after a fight. I do have the Novice and dual-wielding perks, so it heals me up fairly well, in about ten seconds, even from near-death, without draining my mana completely (I still have only 100 mana, I'm strictly melee in combat).

On a completely different subject, I started carrying a dedicated Soul Trap weapon. Saves the trouble of having to cast the spell, which is around 85 mana (out of my 100, so it pretty much drains it). And it's not my primary weapon, so I don't have to worry about it wasting charges on every kill. It's a Nord Hero Sword (Legendary) that I call "The Reaver".. hehe.

What I found interesting (and kind of funny) is that some of the NPCs actually seem to be afraid of Soul Trap (for good reason). I hit someone with the spell once (which doesn't do any damage by itself), and the guy immediately surrendered and conceded the fight. He tried to rob me though, so it didn't help him. Another time, right after I got the Reaver, I tried it out on a group of bandits that I came across. After watching me take two souls in the space of about a second and a half, the third guy gave up and ran away. Lucky for him (or rather, his soul) I was out of Black gems.

 

HAHAHAHA! Awesome!

I have a soul trap-enchanted glass dagger, but the chant wore out it seems. Maybe because I didn't recharge it, I dunno.

Btw, you don't get enough perks... It's gonna be hell trying to perk up chanting too in addition to the other points I'm trying to spend. Bah. I'll have to wring the last few levels out of my character by tossing fireballs at mudcrabs and deeer and such, because I don't dare do it on bandits and the like. They have started carrying pretty serious weaponry, and I have been killed several times by a power attack when still at 60+ % health (I have 300 now, but plan to raise some more.)