I actually think oblivion to skyrim had the biggest jump in graphics. Skyrim is just so beautiful. I'm not saying Oblivion was not pretty but i didn't love it. Same with morrowind

I have to say Morrowind to Oblivion. Morrowind was on DX 8.1 and Oblivion was on DX 9.0c. Skyrim is still on DX 9.0c and while it looks good, I dont find it the most "beautiful" game out there today as I did with Oblivion.

but you have to admit its an amazing feat to go from oblivions graphics to skyrims. You also have to remember they did this on the same console.

I would say Morrowind to Skyrim since both of them has in-game depth, which Oblivion doesn't have one bit of imo.

Morrowind-Oblivion was the biggest leap in graphical terms easily. Skyrim would look very similar to Oblivion if you took away the fancy lighting effects. The only real visual difference would be in texture fidelity. Skyrims default low res textures are similar to the high textures of vanilla Oblivion.

I meant in terms of graphics. Morrowind to oblivion. Or oblivion to skyrim. Which one made the biggest leap

SKYRIM is an amazing technical achievement because they took an ageing engine and styled the game so beautifully that it makes the jaw drop (at least mine does playing it)
SKYRIM isn't trying to be photo-realistic, just like a painting doesn't - it's a work of art.
I've also never seen a game that has utilized altitude and varying heights as this game does.
Nothing else comes close.
Seeing a beautiful mountain 5 miles in the distance, trekking towards it, seeing it tower above you, then having the freedom to climb, is something you can't find in any other game.

It's DX9, the textures aren't high-res - but it's still the best looking game i've ever played
(and i've done CRYSIS (modded) and BF3 maxed on my gaming PC)

Morrowind to Oblivion is the biggest leap IMO. Skyrim improves on Oblivion's distant land a lot, but Morrowind didn't have any distant land to begin with. So the difference from Morrowind to Oblivion is very big there. From short view distance to huge view distance. I think the biggest leap from Oblivion to Skyrim was the addition of dynamic shadows, and the better distant land and characters.

Morrowind also didn't have any HDR/Bloom shaders, and its character models and NPC animations were pretty bad. http://defaultprime.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Saint-Jiub.jpg... The character shadows were also so bad that the game looks better with them turned off. They were ugly, clipped through walls, and had a pretty big impact on performance. Textures were also more basic, no use of normal maps or anything like that.

Then again, Oblivion's HDR was a bit overdone at times, the textures had this weird blocky look up close and some landscape surfaces shined when they really shouldn't. And the water from Morrowind to Oblivion was barely an improvement, in some aspects worse.

i would go with morrowind - oblivion. But skyrim was also a big improvement over oblivion graphically in my opinion.

Morrowind to Oblivion, but it was a new console generation so it's understandable.

In addition to these another big leap forward in my opinion was Skyrim's water. I really think Skyrim's water looks fantastic. I still stop what I'm doing and gawk at Skyrim's water seven months later. But then again, it could hardly help but be an improvement. Like you say, water in Oblivion did not look any better than the water we had in Morrowind.

And I too think the biggest graphical jump was from Morrowind to Oblivion.

Morrowind to Oblivion.

Well I am. Games looked far better at that time, people might love it for sentimental reasons, but that game seriously looked bad in some aspects. That being said it's hard to tell, Morrowind looks ancient now, and Oblivion was "improved" a lot after it, but Skyrim kicked in a lot of realism after the cartoon called Oblivion. Personally I'd say Oblivion to Skyrim was a bigger leap.

At least PC users can use mods so these distances are changed for them.

Morrowind to Oblivion, when Oblivion first came out, everyone was simply stunned by how good the graphics were. To be honest the graphics still look awesome, almost better that Skyrim in my opinion(But in my defence i play Skyrim on high and Oblivion on ultra with mods).

But yes, Skyrim does improve the distance view a lot!! However compared to other games out there, it looks extremly average at best.

You need to leave mods out of this. Otherwise http://i.imgur.com/Imj2v.jpg and http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/original/2010/03/Morrowind-Mods-22.jpg shows how easily Morrowind kicks Oblivion's butt, and even Skyrim's in some aspects.

Why not make this a poll.

Definitely Morrowind to Oblivion. With mods both can be made much better. But without mods definitely Morrowind to Oblivion.


This seems to have nothing to do with the question. But I 100% disagree with the quote above, and if someone played Oblivion with an open mind I think that would be clear, imo. Since it may be irrelevant to this thread I won't say any more on that.



Lot's of wonderful graphical improvements with Skyrim, and water is one of them. And not just the graphics, I love the implementation of water currents.

Yup!

MW to OB is the largest leap in terms of graphical fidelity, but with skyrim they were able to focus more on the art in the graphics and the world building.

The view distance in oblivion though, was for its time, pretty damn amazing.

Morrowind to Oblivion.

Is this a serious question?

Speak for yourself. My water has been missing textures from day one.

Daggerfall to Morrowind

Seriously now, Morrowind -> Oblivion.

This. But then again, they did switch from sprite to models, and from random generation to handcrafting, so there's that.

Morrowind to Oblivion.

The only really significant leap for me as far as Oblivion to Skyrim is concerned are the character models.

Finally, somone said it. The biggest change in graphics is from Daggerfall to Morrowind. I am not sure why the OP didn't include this, but I might even say from Arena to Daggerall. In Daggerfall I believe it was the First Game EVER to have 1st person view with the mouse. So what ever direction you used the mouse, that is what you would view. Other than that, the biggest difference in graphics is from Daggerfall to Morrowind.

For it's time nothing could compete with Morrowind in the stunning graphics. (wich Arena and Daggerfall were stunning graphics for it's time as well.) Oblivion had stunning graphics, but it didn't last long the competition kicked it's butt about a year later. Skyrim sadly never set the mark for graphics like all other TES games have.

Morrowind to Oblivion. Skyrim's biggest change from Oblivion in my opinion was the character models. But in terms of overall leap in graphics then it's definitely Morrowind to Oblivion.