Modders get a cookie when Skyrim looks like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5be28k42nUM&feature=related

This is Cryengine and honestly just shows some grass and trees ... I do not see it as an "improvement" to Skyrim ...

Ok the Engine they use is still "dated" compared to the Cryengine or UDK but is doing the job for the moment , allowing large world streaming that the other two do not offer Atm .... as far as I know ...

If you want it to look that good, why don't you learn how to code and made us a mod for it. Then you can have your cookie.

OF course we can make it look similar but it will run like crap because the engine and the game are not made for those graphics. Skyrim runs a lot in the background and honestly it's not photorealistic but to me it looks good, even vanilla.

Meh, Skyrim looks just as good.

I think Skyrim looks pretty great on ultra

I think Cryengine games are generally PC games made for people with high end systems. Skyrim was made for consoles that are getting pretty dated by now and due to be replaced. XBOX was released what, 5 years or more ago now? But a lot of people can't afford a system that can run Crysis and the like on decent settings. As much as it pains me to say it, and despite my nice gaming rig that could handle way more than Skyrim is throwing at it, I think Bethesda made the right decision in making it for consoles. I wouldn't want Skyrim to be essentially unplayable for a majority of gamers due to requiring a high end gaming PC. That would svck for them plus it'd be less $$$ for Bethesda to put to good use on the next game which will probably come a lot closer to Cryengine quality if not surpassing it - game technology moves pretty quick. I just wish they'd have put a little more into making the PC UI and controls better.

Oh no it doesn't. If only it did...
And as Odd Hermit said, it was made for consoles, which at this point are still stuck with old DX9 GPUs, and can't support new features like tessellation.

I think Skyrim can be improved and will be improved. i believe that the modders will show us a few little miracles if you wait some month.

Skyrim WILL look even better. Heck, MORROWIND looks better than that with the current release mods.

But gamesas made the (right, imo) choice to make the game playable on more than just the latest Alienware.

This i can play on my laptop just fine.

People might flame me for this but im happy that consoles are around they slow down the game requirements good thing in my book.

Gameplay is what matters.

CryEngine is overhyped and overrated. It's not pretty because of the engine, it's pretty because of the artists. The models and atmosphere are just modeled and optimized very well. Don't underestimate what the fog and bloom do in that video to provide a WOW effect. Skyrim's new renderer is not bad at all, just wait until projects like SKGE come off the ground and modelers made better resources.

Asking why it's not possible to make Skyrim run and look like Crysis is like asking why a Ford Focus can't run and look like a Bugatti Veyron. They're incomparable and built for different things, and optimized differently. There's noithing wrong with that, but it is what it is.

Although, I'm not sure why people act as though it's a good thing that Skyrim doesn't scale up very well. It's possible to make it look fantastic on PC and have it run optimized for low-end PCs and consoles. Why not have high-end art assets available as a download, or already on disc, for those with the machines to run them?

Given gamesas's choice in textures, it wouldn't matter if there was a high-end texture pack, modders would still do it better Just give it a month or two, and we'll finally get rid of all the greyness.

I'm hopeful, certainly, but a lot of texture mods simply build on what Bethesda's already done by blowing up a vanilla texture to 2x or 4x original size, adding noise/texture filter, and slapping "HD" onto the name. I'm hoping that as time passes people will be able to make new, actual high resolution textures instead of faking it with filters.

Yeah, new textures are a must - everything in skyrim is just so drab :/ Mountain peaks should be blinding white and an evergreen in a snowy glade should be an amazing green

The FXAA and the HDR one help... but it's not the same.

Pfft, surely you can't be serious. Look at the trees in that video. Look at the grass. You wanna know why that looks good?
Firstly, there's foliage EVERYWHERE. Grass, in particular. Now, the video stays a fair level above the grass, fairly perpendicular to it, and in particular doesn't go too close or too high over it. If it did, you'd notice that it was pretty much the same as the grass in, say, Skyrim, or Oblivion - only there's just a HEAP of it.
Secondly, the lighting. The lens flare. The subtle godrays. The good shadowing (which, admittedly, Skyrim doesn't have). If you removed all that bloom and fog, it would look like Oblivion. With shadows.
Now, take a look at the tree trunks. Do those look like real trees to you? They shouldn't, because real trees don't look FLAT like that. Your average tree has bark, which is kinda noticeable. Likewise, check the tree branches. Trees don't have flat sections of branches and leaves that bend partway through. If it weren't for the speed and the angle, it'd be pretty damn noticeable.

Now, I reckon Skyrim doesn't need to look like that. I think it can do way better. All we need is some kinda "Skyrim Graphics Extender". Considering all that was done for Oblivion, and some of the leftovers from graphical things that were removed... I'd say we can do a lot with the graphics in Skyrim, even with just porting over shaders from the other graphics extenders.

Check your eyesight or provide pictures.
Console -> 'teofis'.
Skyrim ain't drab. The entire game is just desaturated.

People say "mods will fix it", but they're very wrong.

Mods will never be able to achieve the great lighting that Cryengine amongst other game engines have today.

Skyrim's lighting is outdated by several years and looks extremely crappy compared to the almost fully realistic lighting other games have.
If Skyrim had proper lighting and not ancient outdated, overused HDR techniques, then it would look a lot better. Sadly, this will most likely never happen.

This is just one of the things mods will never be able to fix or enhance, amongst a pile of other outdated techs Bethesda got stored in their old Gamebryo vault, covered by a sticky marker that says "all new Creation engine".

But honestly, want the real answer why Skyrim can't look like that?
1) Skyrim is a massive RPG with tons of features. Bethesda prioritized other things more than graphics. That is why there is over 300 hours of gameplay.
2) Engine is closed source. Mods will never be able to add complicated techniques rather than just doing some post processing effects that not even nearly achieve the great results otherwise capable.

I did not even bother viewing the video as I knew which one it was going to be, firstly Cryengine deals in smaller map sections, less to load into memory for each cell, that scene looks great on a high end system, of course the whole scene lacks complex AI scripting, a multitude of activators, not to mention a constantly running radiant script, in short, pour all the extras from Skyrim into the Crysis and watch it grind almost to a halt.

It's funny that you say all of this, when even without the creation kit, modders already have access even to hard-coded settings, including lighting. They've fixed a coding oversight that has (mostly) fixed the bad performance when looking at large scenes. The overused HDR is really the only thing we don't have complete access to (currently can't turn it off, but with the CK we can fix that) but even then, hdr mods can reduce the overbrightening (and nothing else) with the right darkening settings.

I say the sky is most definitely the limit, and seeing what has been done only a month since release, I'm super stoked for the future. I agree with your other points, and that Beth indeed dropped the ball regarding supporting new tech (or the pc in general), I just wanted to point out what the modding community is capable of.

You misunderstood me of what I meant with what can't be changed.
I'm aware of that lighting settings will and always has been able to be changed in the game editor, like HDR settings.
BUT, there is no way to implement complex lighting systems that other games today have. A lot modern games spend TONS of time coding lighting (and shaders), BF3 is an example and Crysis as well.
The most of what mods we saw for Oblivion was post processing effects with changed lighting, like global illumination, but this was nowhere near as good as it would be if coded directly into the source code, from scratch.

We will be able to change lighting settings, but lighting code and how lighting works? No. Perhaps slightly with some really hard work from talented modders. And therefore no lighting mod or shader will be able to make the game look what other games look like, for instance Crysis. Crysis and Battlefield 3 can achieve an almost photorealistic lighting with the right settings, thanks to such a complex, up-to-date lighting system.

I agree with hlvr, I'm hoping some smart modders with come up with a DX11 hook, yes I'm aware it's not as simple as that, but we've seen some pretty clever stuff so far.

The arrival of the CK is certainly going to help, but it won't make the game look amazing. Sure, you can get access to resources like lighting and textures, but there's only so much the Creation engine (Beth's own engine) can handle. Current HD textures that are being made make the game look better, but it's nowhere near what we could achieve with a better engine. The game was made to run on consoles as well as older computers, thus the texture quality is of course going to be lower. I personally don't like this idea, and I wish Beth had spent more time on a better optimized PC version. However, porting Skyrim to a better engine is very much possible, and should be envisaged.

Take this video for example: it shows off the level of detail you can achieve using Cryengine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=carhSWLCaZM&feature=related
And this one, which shows off Oblivion running on Cryengine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwmAIfL_yoo

I love the way Skyrim looks.

Have some

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCEc7SA0rWY&hd=1

http://morrowindoverhaul.rpgitalia.net/screenshots

I don't actually have MW installed right now, so those are not from my own game.

Also, this guy has some awesome screens here. Not all are environmental, but most are:

A batch of shots from recent travels.

http://postimage.org/image/fc11w99zr/
http://postimage.org/image/omd5zskpj/
http://postimage.org/image/drvpxv1lj/
http://postimage.org/image/d3mvex2vr/
http://postimage.org/image/yep0wxadz/
http://postimage.org/image/7i51olrkn/
http://postimage.org/image/5238ar9hz/
http://postimage.org/image/4qlrxzt1z/
http://postimage.org/image/6kymfqg2f/
http://postimage.org/image/82k2rakt3/
http://postimage.org/image/ccyqmvpw7/
http://postimage.org/image/ou9znsafr/
http://postimage.org/image/r04aiadw7/
http://postimage.org/image/a9swsyfh3/
http://postimage.org/image/k9semlg47/
http://postimage.org/image/eznfvavvb/
http://postimage.org/image/v1pz1ovkn/
http://postimage.org/image/57g6bwvkn/
http://postimage.org/image/6nrou1yhj/
http://postimage.org/image/4gs1jvil3/
http://postimage.org/image/4utdjh2on/
http://postimage.org/image/moovkrlqv/

So can I use that to make changes in-game? Or is there a mod that allows me to make changes? Otherwise, it doesn't help me at all