Attached Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d61FPSXnTLc

Why ?

Well - for instance, watching something like the new tech demo of a new game engine, calculated in realtime (if possible, watch it in 1080p quality) - click the YouTube link at the top of this posting ...

This stuff is done in realtime - i'm getting a funny feeling sometimes watching things like this - thinking, why do i setup a scenery in 3D and wait a few hours for the render getting one image as a result ... ?!

I know - there still is the artistic factor for each of those images, more or less, if i succeed in the content, look and feel of the image and idea ...

Anyway - like i said - just some basic thoughts  ...  ;-) ...

DirectX, video card tricks, and game level designers that understand both.

Crysis 2 was one of the worst games I have ever wasted money on :(

yes gorgeous graphics, but abysmal, linear gameplay, sigh

Point is, the items/scenes are all built, limited though (no huge import of almost anything you can find/buy) and very very well optimized by professionals

the tech though does/will filter into art :)

If only the next Elder Scrolls could use that environment/physics engine.  But ES is too large of a sandbox scale with too much stuff in it.  Havok does the job ok.

Shawn

normally I preffer fantasy to scifi, but I have to say I'd MUCH rather have a new Fallout game ;)

Skyrim is very good, but somehow it..,lacks something, much better than previosu ES games though, which I've played since very 1st one, but the Elder Scrolls games still lack a certian coherence, can't quite put my finger on it.
Fallout 3 and Fallput new vegas were total blasts :)

saw on Daz that some perosn had got the assets otu of Fallout new vegas into 3DMax then DAZStudio, oooooh, fun!!!

Skyrim lacks color.  But the MODers have taken care of that.  Everything is too gray/black as the default.  In sunlight grass should have at least some color to it.  Living plants are not gray last I looked.  Fallout 3's grass has color.  And that is after a nuclear war.

ES characters also look too much the same.  The CryEngine 3 system probably will use guys modeled with lots of steroid use.

Edit: Actually, you DID say that mods took care of the grayish problem :)

Thanks to the amazing work around the ENB graphic layer, you can turn Skyrim into a living, breathing Vue gallery  :)

I took hundreds of shots like these so far (still looking for a good way to share them online).

Skyrim .. or I should say Modded Skyrim (like Modded Oblivion and Modded Morrowind) are rare games where I regularly stop, look around, admire the view, and move on.

Now you just need to find the mod the removes the blackness from Skyrim when it's supposed to be the middle of the day.

Overall, shadows are quite light using this mod. 

I am using the Countervibe profile for ENB ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21912 ). I tried many and this one has a nice balance of color and light.

Darker shadows tend to happen in very dense areas only with this one, as it should be.

Overall, it turned the game into an entirely new beast. I feel like I am playing Skyrim as it should have been.

Here is another one with lighter shadows in the distance on the edge of the woods.

Skyrim needs more GR lighting and subrays.  Less AO.

As a test.  Go outside at 12 noon and you will have a hard time finding black anywhere.  Then you'll have a ref to compare with.  Skyrim's artist had something in mind when they chose black as a major palette color for the game.  Maybe for LOD, black hid things better at distances.