Completely off topic but your character looks badass, especially in the second picture. I'm going for a similar thing with my mage right now, trying to get a priest mask but using heavy boots and gauntlets instead.

Damn. And my specs are a bit better than yours.

I hope it gets fixed too. Since it seems like I'm not the only one this is happening to, there must be a sort of common factor causing this. I wonder what it is.

Can anyone of those that said that their game looks better post some screenshots (prefferably same places as op)? Me and my friend both play the game maxed, and it looks exactly the same as op's. I was pretty sure that its the optimization for consoles thing. And to be honest im having a hard time beliving its not.

I would also appreciate comparison pics.

Not that I don't believe them, I just want to see what I'm missing.

Im on the 360 and have never seen this, it look incredible even at a distance.

Same issue here, not sure if it's a bug or what, seems much worse in certain areas. i5-2500k, radeon 6950 2gb, settings on ultra/maxed.

I dont know about any of you but on my 50" dlp tv with my 360 it blows oblivion out of the water. This game looks great than most of the pc pics im seeing lately.

For xbox users, you need to know what tv to buy and it matters how close your sitting in front of it, plus learn how to adjust your tv settings. Factory settings are set to high on colors and contrasts.

If you wanna try that one go to Documents>My Games>Skyrim>Skyrim.ini

Right at the start under general there is:

uExterior Cell Buffer=32

I think this is the setting youre looking for.

Speaking for me btw, I am running crossfire hd6970′s on a i5 2500k with craploads of ram at ultra with .ini tweaks (only will try the cell buffer thingy now) and as far as I remember it looked pretty much the same for me outside solitude, seems like one of those forgotten areas on the map that just got less attention.

I will check it out now and take a screenshot with cell buffer set to 64.

Cheers

The other guy in the thread saying that he has this doesn't have a Radeon card, so I don't think it's that.

I wonder what it could be. This is the most disappointed I've been in a long long time.

You can try using my ini file. My game looks pretty damn good and it is the ultra settings with lots of tweaks. (I changed the GPU value to your card series so you just have to copy and paste all of this to your C:\Users\Your Name\Documents\My Games\Skyrim SkyrimPrefs.ini file)


[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=6000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=1
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=6600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=5600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=1000000.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=3500.0000
fDecalLOD1=3000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=1000.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=4
iMultiSample=1
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=3.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=1024.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=8192.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=11356.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=4
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0
sD3DDevice="AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series"
bFXAAEnabled=1
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=3
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=1
fGrassStartFadeDistance=8000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=15000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=400.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=0.4500
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=2
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=1
bGeneralSubtitles=1
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0240
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=1
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=0
fMouseHeadingYScale=0.005
fMouseHeadingXScale=0.010
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=1500
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.7500
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=1.0000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=462144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=52768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=36384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=20000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=100
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=3
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=2048
iWaterReflectWidth=2048
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1
bUseWaterReflectionBlur=1
bReflectExplosions=1
iWaterBlurAmount=4
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=0
bForceHighDetailReflections=1

After you add this, go to your CCC settings and set your values as so.

Anti-Aliasing: Use application settings
Anisotropic Filtering: Use application settings
Tessellation: Use application settings
Catalyst A.I.: "Quality" and uncheck the "Enable Surface Format Optimization"
Wait for vertical refresh: Always On (you can lower this for better FPS if you need it.)
Anti-Aliasing Mode: Adaptive Multi-sample A.A.

I'm using a superclocked Geforce 450, could I potentially do the same as above in terms of .ini editing? I've been having the same issues as the OP and the draw distance is really killing me inside sometimes.

Absolutely. Just make sure you type in your correct video card series where it has his AMD Radeon 6900 info.

Yeah the game looks great on my 360. Draw distance looks wonderful, and that's for an outdated piece of machinery.

The guy is on PC, actually, which is why he is confused. XBox even manages to look better than that, which again results in the confusion. He should be getting better results.

I have that same issue, I believe that is looking out over Solitude. I can't say it really bothered me too much, but if other people have it looking better than I'd like to be getting the best possible graphics. I have everything on Ultra and for the most part it looks great. This was the first thing that caught my attention as being ugly.

i7 2.8Ghz
6 gig
HD5870

But in a year or 2 they will have mods which will make Skyrim look better then real life...

Thanks, I'll give this a go and see if it works


Edit: Here are my new results http://i.imgur.com/Jr1t5.jpg

Looks the same.

It's def. not the best that's for sure, but there will be mods that beautify the game, or maybe even an official patch that helps out in no time.

There's an awesome mod out right now though called fxaa injector or something like that, that makes the game A LOT better looking than it looks unmoded.


Here's some before and afters (ever since I installed this mod my game takes a screenshot of the unmodded game and the moded, anyone know if that's supposed to happen? lol)

Before http://i.imgur.com/brLbb.jpg

After http://i.imgur.com/HPOYk.jpg

Tried those .ini tweaks and the view over solitude still looks the same for me as well. Going to try and find that fxaa injector mod and see if that helps.

Would love if someone claiming their graphics don't look like this could post a screenshot of that same view over Solitude for comparison.

Should be experiencing the exact same thing, if not worse since the 360 can't render as far as PC's can.

Oblivion was exactly like this only a bit worse.

Looks fine on xbox.

my PS3 has none of those problems...

Sigh.. saying "Looks fine on my console" isn't really helping anyone. To those of you playing on consoles saying they don't have this problem, did you actually go and look at the same view over solitude that the OP posted? How did it compare?
Most of the game still looks amazing on PC there just seem to be some long distance views that aren't appearing properly.

Maybe it's the area? If you look close, the farthest distance actually looks better than that mid-distance area with the water and little islands.

Nope. It's like that everywhere. I could take more pics, if you like.