Lighting!

Yes, some textures are horrible in the 360 version and I hope to god that gets fixed. For example, the map of Skyrim in the court mage's quarters in Whiterun looks pretty awful and blurry, while on PS3 it is crisp. That's a huge problem.

However, what I've noticed most after switching from the PS3 version is that the lighting in the 360 game is extremely hard on the eyes. When I switch into third person and try to get a glimpse of my character's face, it's ridiculously dark. I need to be standing near or at a fire or some other light source to be able to see it clearly. On PS3, this was never a problem - step outside into the sun and everything is illuminated evenly and clearly giving a much more pleasurable view of the world, NPCs, and my character.

I don't know if this is something that can be improved or if it is just a downside of using the 360 version. Anything's better than watching the Skyrim slideshow lagfest that is the PS3 version I guess.

congratulation's! finally another person can see the xbox 360 is the best, good riddance to the PS3! how amazing doe's the controller feel compared to the PS2..er sorry, the PS3's controller?

Give me a few minute's to put on my flame retardant suit before any PS3 really devoted fan's see this post.


-Edit - i cant say f.a.n.b.o.y.s! "really devoted fan's" replaced what i typed...i call shenanigans!

Its not about devoted "f.a.n.b.o.y.s" rushing to do anything. What you typed out just shows immaturity on a whole other level. Nothing to do with the topic either and completely unnecessary. You simply just displayed stupidity and ignorance to be honest and you are now going to use the "really devoted fan" excuse?

Hilarious.

I switched from PS3 because the bugs render it pretty much unplayable. Having to restart my game ever 45 min to an hour because of the lag is total insanity. Bethesda still hasn't figured out how to make a game for the PS3 and that's a real tragedy. Overall, the PS3 version graphically looks noticeably better than the 360 version. The textures are much better, as is the lighting. The only area in which the 360 performs better is with water and shadows in my opinion. The 360 version feels like generally a much more smooth experience.

The difference between the console Skyrim versions really just comes down to convenience and controller preference. However, it's impossible for me to recommend the PS3 over 360 simply because the PS3 version became unplayable for me due to lag and bugs. I have a lot of doubt that Bethesda will be able to fix those issues.

I'm another person who just recently switched to the 360 version from the PS3 version, for the same reasons. I totally agree with you that the 360 version is more dark, and I do prefer the PS3 version in that regard. But you're saying the PS3 version is overall graphically better? I don't see where you're coming from. Almost every aspect of the 360 version looks more crisp and defined to me. As for some textures looking bad, are you playing from the disc or did you install the game to the HDD? Doing the latter will cause texture bugs, which Bethesda has acknowledged and is attempting to have fixed in the upcoming patch. I'm playing from the disc and so far everything's looking excellent.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2625wzb.gif <- This is a comparison gif showing how the PS3 version does a poorer job at rendering fauna and how the terrible anti-aliasing method makes the overall image look like the screen has been smeared with vaseline. No way would I want to go back to this.

If you manage to see the 360 textures the way they should look, they are the same quality as the PS3 textures (and I would imagine they are the PC's "high" textures). It's a shame about the bug that causes low textures when you insall to the HDD.

It has been noted that the Xbox 360 has a darker output on most games than the PS3. As the Digital Foundry article on Eurogamer states: "A cursory look at the game reveals that the often-seen gamma level difference between the two consoles is present, giving PS3 more dynamic range in terms of colour at the expense of seeming a little "washed out" in comparison to the Xbox 360 game."

That article is a great read if you're interested in the graphical differences between the 360 and PS3 versions. It also highlights that the PS3 is using a kind of fast approximate anti-aliasing that causes everything to look slightly blurry: "Perhaps the most striking is the marked blurriness to the PS3's image quality in general, particularly on textures ... The blurring on PS3 is almost certainly down to the implementation of NVIDIA's FXAA technology, which is also included as an option on PC. Best described as an 'intelligent blur'."

Draw distance and object pop-in are also a little worse on PS3. Then of course there's the horrible fact that the game becomes unplayable as your save file gets bigger.

Sorry! I know that sounds awfully weighted against PS3. I'm not taking any pleasure in that. I think both consoles are great and there's no point being a really devoted fan of one or the other. But I like these Digital Foundry articles because they really study the graphics of both versions hard.


As for the OP's main gripe about the 360 version being too dark: How are you connecting your TV to your 360? I think if it's VGA or HDMI you have a few different colour profile options in the dashboard options, one of which boosts the gamma levels. Also Skyrim's in-built brightness slider boosts the gamma. I had to turn it up to about 75%.

2 - 360 versions and 1 - PS3 version in this household.
All are runnin' fine with the minor settings adjustments, plus gaemplay tweaks. Included would be the proper management of the hardware.

tbh, PS3 is the better console but sadly everyone has xbox so I had to get one Its served me well though!

Note to self - do not attempt to post anything that is not a serious post, especially when trying to be funny at 6:10am in the morning after stumbling in drunk and trying to extend the great night i had.

At least you found a way to see my post as being hilarious, thank you, ill be here all week.

I found the contrast on the 360 version to be pretty extreme (crushed) on default with my TV as well, compared to the PS3 version. I went in to my display settings on the TV and turned my contrast down and the brightness up a tad to my liking and it looks great now. But I do notice the screen goes darker once in awhile, for an instant, when switching to 3rd person, depending on the angle to a light source.

Hmm, interesting. I have both of my consoles hooked up via HDMI and I have the 360 game installed to my HD. Thanks for the info.

it would be interesting to see how many people have changed versions and if bethesda consider it a problem!

i would be mad if i was in that position

did the retailer to a clean swap for shoddy merchandise or did u have to buy another?

Yah the texture bug is nasty. I don't have it installed but I get a mix of good and bad (mostly good overall).. But there is the odd time when things haven't loaded properly, like a person's face(tip of the nose can be pixalated) or walls look low rez. Patch is out next week hopefully.

For me, I wasn't able to swap my PS3 version for the 360 version, unfortunately. I traded mine in for store value and then bought the 360 version.

Since I was within the 30 days of buying it at Gamestop they didn't give me too much of a problem when I returned the PS3 game and swapped it for a new game on the 360. If anyone is interested the receipt said the reason for return was "wrong version". So if anyone isn't happy with the PS3 version and has a 360, you should still be able to return it.

How many of you guys are playing on Xbox with the system display settings set to Expanded? This will make blacks very black, which will look terrible if your tv set isn't so good at retaining detail in them, especially if you add to it with tv settings such as black correctors making them even blacker. Maybe standard would suffice.

attention .w.h.o.r.e. alert

Medium, actually. But its pretty hard to tell the difference if you aren't looking for it.

The FXAA blur on the PC is nowhere even close to as bad as on the PS3. It's barely noticeable on PC.

Here's to compare:

http://i.imgur.com/yw72z.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/huhpM.jpg

(Yes, those are not default textures, by the way).

How so? i dont care what anyone think's this is just the internet mr. keyboard warrior! now back on topic on please.

My first post was intended as a joke but it seem's some people take thing's a bit too seriously, anyhoo it does not matter anymore so that's the end of that.

As far as i am concerned when it come's to choice of platform i guess if you couldnt have both console's then the main choice seem's to be between what exclusive's you would prefer. I myself had a PS2 and i loved it, infact this current generation is the first time i have stuck to one single console (xbox 360 of course) simply because well i love Halo and secondly seeing as many game's are now cross platform it doe's not really matter anymore, i would like a PS3 if it was given to me but i don't want to spend any of my own money on one.

pathetic really devoted fan

I have both consoles and all I have to say is it's your guys tvs, get a good tv. XD, the lighting on my tvs great, not to mention the shadows.

See the post above your's...wow.

What mind boggles me is how stupid can Sony be? Unless you are a Sony Exclusive PS3 game, it seems everyone else is having problems with the PS3. If I was Sony, then I would be teaching without CHARGE (since I herd Sony charges to teach companies how to program for the PS3). Right now, all I know is for all the miracles the PS3 can perform, nobody knows how to program for it and you are better off getting a 360.

This would explain why Bethesda can't program for the PS3 very well.

One question I would like to ask, is if you got it for the PS3, why would you dish out more money for the 360 version then? All you doing is giving Bethesda more moeny for their incompetence.

Is the PS3 version that bad?

The PS3 is hard to code for, a simple google search will pull up a fair few article's about it, here is an interesting one i have just finished reading.

http://news.cnet.com/sony-ps3-is-hard-to-develop-for-on-purpose/

"We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that (developers) want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is, what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?" explained Hirai.

That is one of the most stupidest things I have ever herd. To me all this does, is make the 360 better than the PS3 since it makes companies look foolish. Just look at Bethesda. I have said many times they are incompetent to make a game for the PS3. Why companies still bother with the 360 is mindboggling. If enough companies didn't bother for the PS3, I am sure Hirai would be changing his tune.

Thanks fo rthe link Nolan.