i remember invisibility being awesome in oblivion, but in skyrim im getting spotted by enemies who are nowhere near me. im even sneaking. any help?

How high is your sneaking skill?? At a low level sneaking is practically impossible and that might be why.

In Oblvion you had 2 options. Invisibility or chameleon spells. In Skyrim those 2 are combined in 1. So invisibility does no longer mean that you are 100% invisible. So in order to stay invisible, try raising your sneak skill. And get muffle as a spell or as an enchantment on your boots.

I personally have sneak 100 and muffle boots (plus some enhancements on my armour). I can sneak in front of enemies and they still cant see me....

Just because you invisible dont mean they cant hear you.. Falmer -and possibly Draugr- are blind yet can still detect you easy..
With high sneak and invisibility you can pretty much high 5 someone without them noticing.

yea, invisibility worked very well in Oblivion. Especially when you just wanted to grab the sigil stones from within the gates

my sneak skill is about 70 and i have several perks in it. i equipped muffle sound boots and it seemed to help. thanks

It works just fine in skyrim, it is pretty simple to understand.

enemies detect you on sight, sound, and touch.

Invisibility removes the sight detection, but you still need a sound silencer- like muffle- or high sneak with no armor weight (but muffle is best). If they touch you- of course you are instantly spotted.

Little known caveat (I guess) is that you can jump away after you bump an enemy and recast invisibility and they will loose the detection (even if they are falmer).

this says it all!

I liked it better in Oblivion myself. I personally hate it in Skyrim, but I understand the developers reasons for modifying it.

ya really thought it was stupid that it isn't really worth it anymore, I didn't want to invest in sneaking but now I have to when I am a stage 4 vampire to escape towns that want me dear -___-

Yeah I'm not sure, it seems to work most of the time... But muffle on the boots doesn't always work either. I find if I cast the muffle spell on top of that, then muffle actually does it's job.

Try wearing muffled boots, casting invisible and running around town as a blood-starved vampire. People detect you.

Then try casting the actual muffle spell, invisibility and then walk around town. People detect you much less often.

Just my experience with it.