You're playing it wrong!

I have the PS3 and PC versions.

When I play the PS3 version (720p native) on my big 48" tv, sat at a little distance from the tv, the game just looks incredible.

When I switch to my gaming PC (1080p native) hunched over a smaller 32"" inch monitor, the game looks really average.

Visually, this game needs to be taken in as a whole, from a distance, to comprehend all the varying altitudes, beautiful vistas opening up, and mountains towering over you etc. The eyes can't do that hunched over a monitor.
Your eyes will just pick out average textures in the foreground rather than taking in the bigger picture.

Sometimes when I see people bashing the visuals of this game (mostly PC gamers) I have to wonder if we're playing the same game.

Skyrim is like a beautiful painting. If you're sat right up to your monitor, scrutinizing all the textures - then you're playing it wrong.

I think another factor is your PC's power and graphical settings.

and for people with a huge monitor, layed back in their lazyboy chair with wireless keyboard and mouse?

My brother plays Skyrim on the PC, i play on the Xbox...i prefer my recliner and my plasma screen over his desk chair and laptop

I have everything maxed with mods, 60fps.

You're getting the true SKYRIM experience.

I usually play Skyrim on my 360 looking at a 40" LCD flatscreen in 1080i.

When I play on my laptop, I'm still looking at a 40" LCD flatscreen in 1080i...

It's a miracle what one, little cord can do.

I play on an Xbox on a widescreen plasma and I'm happy that way... however, I wouldn't say that PC players are playing it wrong. The control you have over the game in all aspects is much greater on the PC and you can hook up your PC to a widescreen via HDMI cable so a PC player could play on the same television you do... they would just have to make sure their rig can handle it (powerful and memory efficient enough to overcome framerate issues).

The difference in posture between me playing my PC and me playing my PS3 is that i have to look a little to the left while sitting on my couch

And my computer monitor (22") is in fact bigger than my TV (19")

Sounds great! Not "hunched over" at all.

This isn't a thread bashing PC gaming.
I'm just saying - if you already haven't - hook your PC up to a bigger tv and get a bit of a distance from it.
Then appreciate the game as it was meant to be played.

What issues are these?

I'm looking into buying a new TV to connect to my PC.

Double post! My apologies.

High resolution demands more processing power from the computer, mods even more if you use them. Still my old-ish PC can handle 1920x1080 with a bunch of visual mods just fine. You have to love console ports

I don't have a TV
I do have a 22" monitor which is big enough for Skyrim to look good graphically IMO and I must admit I prefer a chair to a sofa

I play on my gaming PC connected to big TV, I don't even have normal monitor

I think that we, PC players, are just spoiled by games which are optimized for PC, that's why people are whining that engine in Skyrim does not scale well to more powerful machines.

After a long day, I'd honestly rather lie on the couch and play rather than sit at a desk. My laptop isn't powerful enough to run Skyrim though, so PS3 (and thus the couch!) is my only option. No complaints at all though

I prefer standing up with a controller so I can move around while I’m playing. I also love the way the floor shakes when a dragon attacks. Running the game on a PC with awesome mods but sending the audio through my sound system and the video to the TV sounds like the perfect experience for me. I’ll have to wait awhile for the PC part, though. It’s not in the current budget.

I remember playing 'Crash Team Racing' on the original Playstation. I could NEVER sit in my chair while playing, I always felt the urge to jump out of my chair while playing.
Those were the days ...

When I play on my PC, "hunched over" my 1080p 24" monitor..... the game looks incredible. Of course, it also looked incredible before I installed one of those ENB post-processing mods; but that's because I'm one of those people who was never bashing how it looked.

(Of course, I'm also one of those people who doesn't have a "big screen" HDTV - our regular TV's are still SD, and my PS3 is hooked up to the exact same 24" monitor that my PC is. )


edit: also can't imagine playing a PC (mouse & keyboard) game lounging back with the keyboard on my lap. Seems incredibly uncomfortable/awkward. I'm a big fan of the large-desk "workstation" environment for computing.

For me it was Need for Speed at my brother’s apartment. There weren’t enough places for everyone to sit when we all packed in to play games, so whoever’s turn it was had to stand up. Physically interfering with your opponent was encouraged. Good times.

The other thing that occurs to me about mods on a huge TV is that there are some things I probably don’t want to see in that much detail.

What TojKa said and to make sure your machine is using it's memory efficiently, do things like making sure your video/sound card drivers are up-to-date, going through all of your services and shutting off those you don't use, make sure you shut off all unnecessary OS visuals that are memory hogs and run in the background, log off the internet and shut down your anti-virus (if you can't do that, you should have a Gamer setting... but it still isn't perfect). Basically, tweak your machine until it's using a little memory as possible *before* you start the game.

From there you can start tweaking your memory card through the control panel to start seeing how much you can improve the game graphics without creating framerate issues (things like increasing anti-aliasing settings, dynamic lighting, shadows, etc.). You can also tweak the ini file for the game to make sure you're making the most efficient use of your hardware while still maximizing the visuals. There should be tweak guides on the internet. Once you get your game running how you want to, then you can start installing mods. But I wouldn't install mods until you get the vanilla game running at its best because, if a mod causes a problem, you won't know if it's the mod or your tweaking... and that svcks.

It sounds like a lot of work, but once you get into it, you'll start loving the control you have over the game. And you can put the console graphical quality to shame.

I prefer playing in a comfy office chair in front of 3 23" screens at 5760x1080. Higher resolution and still comfortable. That and I prefer keyboard and mouse for my games.


http://i438.photobucket.com/albums/qq102/Starforce9/Setup-1.jpg

I've got a very nice 27" 1920x1080 HD LED backlight monitor on my PC, along with 7.1 surround sound. My TVs are about the same spec-wise except for being a bit bigger (I think they're both 32"), but I'd have to pull a chair up right in front of them for that to make any real difference and I know the sound experience wouldn't be as good, even with headphones.

If I'm watching a movie or TV show, it's always on the TV so I can relax on the couch and just enjoy what I'm watching. But that's not an interactive thing, unless you count fiddling with the remotes. Gaming's a whole other story. If I just wanted to *look* at Skyrim it might be different, but for games I'm always gonna prefer the PC. Games aren't a spectator sport, lol. Plus my setup is pretty comfortable, my desk chair is actually nicer than the "guest" chair in my living room.

(Plus one thing I'm not doing when I'm hunched over the monitor playing Skyrim is tearing my hair out over bugs, glitches, and things I wish the game had or didn't have, that can and have been fixed/added/removed by all the great mods out there.)

I actually use a subwoofer and surround sound speakers that I originally bought for my PC years ago when playing with my Xbox, and when not using headphones.