- Joined
- May 30, 2018
- Messages
- 1,890 (0.74/day)
- Location
- Cusp Of Mania, FL
| Processor | Ryzen 9 3900X |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | Asus ROG Strix X370-F |
| Cooling | Dark Rock 4, 3x Corsair ML140 front intake, 1x rear exhaust |
| Memory | 2x8GB TridentZ RGB [3600Mhz CL16] |
| Video Card(s) | EVGA 3060ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming |
| Storage | 970 EVO 500GB nvme, 860 EVO 250GB SATA, Seagate Barracuda 1TB + 4TB HDDs |
| Display(s) | 27" MSI G27C4 FHD 165hz |
| Case | NZXT H710 |
| Audio Device(s) | Modi Multibit, Vali 2, Shortest Way 51+ - LSR 305's, Focal Clear, HD6xx, HE5xx, LCD-2 Classic |
| Power Supply | Corsair RM650x v2 |
| Mouse | iunno whatever cheap crap logitech *clutches Xbox 360 controller security blanket* |
| Keyboard | HyperX Alloy Pro |
| Software | Windows 10 Pro |
| Benchmark Scores | ask your mother |
I think my mod setup for Skyrim is already crystallizing. I may try some other weather mods and matching ENB's just to see the other side and make sure, but there's not much I can do without getting into minutia, which I usually like to reserve for those rainy days when I'm maybe a little bored with a playthrough, but I still want to play, yet can't bring myself to embark on that little one to three session undertaking of solidifying a new character. Micromanagement cuts into playtime too much. And I'm trying to maximize returns and experiential gains with my modding.
I feel like I'm talking about this like a business exchange. It ain't really that serious.
Sometimes I hear myself talking and think to myself "MAN... am I really messed up or not?" It's like I know I'm crazy... just not well enough to stop it, even watching it happen and knowing I'm being weird.
Aaanyway... I was leaving Septimus place, looking for the elder scroll so I can figure out how to step into this "time wound" thing and hopefully stop the universe from falling into cataclysmic entropy, y'know... so that our world doesn't become the seed that births the next kalpa cycle (it will anyway, one day - though let's be honest, Alduin seemed more interested in dominating all of Nirn than actually fulfilling his one true purpose for being and ultimately causing the godhead to wake... which again, doesn't say anything about taking over the universe... only restarting it. Not so much the "World Eater" he's made out to be as he is a "World Groomer".)
I mean... that stuff is all good, just... not on the Dragonborn's time. They're just not into that whole universal reincarnation continuum thing. Just not big on universes birthing more advanced universes and nullifying everything from the previous one. They like this shitty world of horrific, often sadistic mysteries. The godhead can just have these brutally garish nightmares everyone else calls 'reality' forever as far as Skyrim's semi-silent protagonist is concerned. The personal development of its mind over the eons is just not as high on their list as the petty thoughts that comprise of all that is 'you' and 'me' and 'them' and 'the trees' and the 'wind' and 'Tamriel' and 'Nirn' and all of the other nebulous things that exist, I guess. I mean, what is the universe but a series of dreams within a beings mind, am I right? At the end of the day, what is anyone but a thought in a brain? It's good to sleep in sometimes. The new dawn era is overrated. Though Louis CK did that bit about oversleeping and having crazy nightmares. Is that why Tamriel is so weird and messed up? Hmm... I hope the godhead is alright after sleeping through two dragon breaks!
Am I spoiling anything? I low-key am. Those are technically the deepest cuts to the world's lore. It goes hard on that Hindu shit. But I think even after reading that and consequently beating the game for the third time, what I said still wouldn't make any sense at all. The whole foundation of the ES universe is some trippy shit! I could spoil it all and you wouldn't get it. I don't even get it! The ideological undertones are pretty nuts. I'm trying to enrich you a bit here.
But I digress again. On the way to this sprawling, labyrinthine, perilous, and lamentlessly churning and bellowing Dwemer ruin, where the glacier-dwelling lunatic just said I'd find Blackreach (before giving me these weird trinkets that look like puzzle toys for dwemer children,) I saw this cool glacial valley with a nice view of the clear night sky. It kind of looked to me like a side profile of a crack in a rock, and the sky was like water being poured through it. Like sand slipping down through a swirly, artsy hourglass. Or maybe a bit like how syrup pours down channels in the ice of a snow cone... the tundra of Winterhold being a giant snowcone, and I, just a speck of sand stuck in somewhere in the middle.
At the end of the valley you can see the entrance to the broken tower, which being broken... didn't have much to explore. I did learn that the Dwemer tried out a security system wherein the operator stands on one side of a gate with a button in front of them, that when pressed will jab self-retracting spears from the wall, floor, and ceiling, more or less instantaneously scrambling the body of whoever runs by. I like it. Efficient. That's up there with the spinning death blades that pop out of the ground and chop your shins off. Just pure machiavellian utility and callousness. Those dwarves had no scruples about anything, but they were very clever.
I made it out just in time to catch the sun caressing the statue of Azura's back off in the distance. The daedric prince of dusk and dawn herself! Talk about synchronicity. This actually wouldn't have happened in the base game. ENB's procedural sun is what has the sun there at that time, from where I happened to be standing. If I turned it off, you wouldn't see the sun from there at all. I find this game is full of so many more little visual surprises now.
It's still crazy to me how that moment just sorta lined-up like that. Praise Azura! Cuz that shit is cool.
The way I'm narrating this is actually how I feel playing the game now. Steam may say I only have 100 odd hours in, but I have many more on PS3. Suffice to say, there is little I haven't seen of the game. And somehow just upping the visuals alone is completely reversing that for me. I just wanna see everything and stay in that world again. It's made it a totally new, yet totally nostalgic trip. I've realized the landscape work is better than I thought. I always felt like it was kind of repetitive and looked rather procedural, but now I realize the amount of time and thought put into not just the different regions, but virtually every single area in the regions... even ones with nothing in them. There are scenes set-up everywhere. Almost every spot is a work unto its own.
You miss it because the default visuals of the game are flat and monotonous - it doesn't stand out enough for you to spot. Things that are designed to grab your attention still impress and it's intuitive, but you miss all of the things that are always just there, but also intentionally placed to give a certain effect. A lot of things become buried and homogenized. Now, with more convincing-looking and interesting textures, better sun/moon lighting, detail shadows, SSIL, better grading, bloom... all of these different layers of dynamic visual polish, it ALL stands out. It's not so much the effects glossing over as it is them highlighting what's already there. Those aren't the things I'm thinking about when I see something cool. There's just more to take in... more going on with the images in a general sense. And that pushes my focus so that I'm more often forced to actively process more of what I'm traversing. Every single place I find myself in feels more distinct and memorable. I like to think the added stuff is the stage upon which the game that was already made does its thing. It's there to bring out the stuff that was already done well and kind of let you see all that it really has to show you.
This is something I think Bethesda has always failed badly at. Polish doesn't make a game. I think Vayra86 was just pointing out how Bioshock gets by on fundamental artistry and compelling thematic elements. But I think with Bethesda, the way they handle top-end graphical elements detracts from what they have going, back down on a more fundamental level. It literally hides things from you that you would otherwise want to see highlighted a bit. The drama falls flat and the subtleties are lost. It's just very stark. 76 shows them starting to get on board, but I'm still not sure anyone there really has a sense of the aesthetic qualities I'm talking about.
Think of it like a photo. The beauty in the best photos is far better illuminated when cast through skillful and purposeful processing. It imparts a stronger impression than the one with a flat, neutral presentation. You wouldn't want to have some drugstore lackey developing your once-in-a-lifetime, nat-geo-worthy landscape shots! That's more Bethesda's style... ...anyone else would take them to a pro with two decades of experience and then have it framed. There are reasons why these things are done that can't be dismissed... I think it's just that when they're done right, they are overlooked. That people often say "Games don't need all of this fancy post-processing." only proves that there are people out there doing it right with their favorite games. Because when it's done well you can't even picture what it would look like otherwise. It cements the whole vibe of everything else that's been built up to make it stand out. And when it's bad or just absent, you'll be thinking "I don't know what it is... something is missing. I'm not really feeling it."
That's why I'm kinda going for a mix of hyperrealism and high-fantasy. I want it to look convincing enough that it might be real, while also retaining some of that fantastical grandiosity. That aside, the actual world design doesn't lend itself to going fully realistic with the look... it should be a little ethereal, colorful, and exaggerated at times. Like, even the mountains are not like our mountains - thier form is exaggerated and implausible, as are many of the structures and objects. No matter how 'true' the materials and lighting are, you're always going to know that somewhere in your mind. It's never going to convince anyone that it is real. It will always be a little alien. And do you even want it to be real for you? Does a fantasy game need that? A little magic and drama better suits the artistry in Skyrim's world, I think. I mean... it has actual magic in it lol. I just also don't want it to look tacky. I feel like when people go in on modding this game, the two greatest sins are A: making it so gritty and real-looking that it could be an FPS or a zombie survival/horror game and B: making it SO bright and cartoony that it could be a modern anime. I don't get the obsessions with either. I just want a Skyrim that's even more 'Skyrim' than Skyrim itself ever was.
Okay.... back to the game now.
I feel like I'm talking about this like a business exchange. It ain't really that serious.
Sometimes I hear myself talking and think to myself "MAN... am I really messed up or not?" It's like I know I'm crazy... just not well enough to stop it, even watching it happen and knowing I'm being weird.Aaanyway... I was leaving Septimus place, looking for the elder scroll so I can figure out how to step into this "time wound" thing and hopefully stop the universe from falling into cataclysmic entropy, y'know... so that our world doesn't become the seed that births the next kalpa cycle (it will anyway, one day - though let's be honest, Alduin seemed more interested in dominating all of Nirn than actually fulfilling his one true purpose for being and ultimately causing the godhead to wake... which again, doesn't say anything about taking over the universe... only restarting it. Not so much the "World Eater" he's made out to be as he is a "World Groomer".)
I mean... that stuff is all good, just... not on the Dragonborn's time. They're just not into that whole universal reincarnation continuum thing. Just not big on universes birthing more advanced universes and nullifying everything from the previous one. They like this shitty world of horrific, often sadistic mysteries. The godhead can just have these brutally garish nightmares everyone else calls 'reality' forever as far as Skyrim's semi-silent protagonist is concerned. The personal development of its mind over the eons is just not as high on their list as the petty thoughts that comprise of all that is 'you' and 'me' and 'them' and 'the trees' and the 'wind' and 'Tamriel' and 'Nirn' and all of the other nebulous things that exist, I guess. I mean, what is the universe but a series of dreams within a beings mind, am I right? At the end of the day, what is anyone but a thought in a brain? It's good to sleep in sometimes. The new dawn era is overrated. Though Louis CK did that bit about oversleeping and having crazy nightmares. Is that why Tamriel is so weird and messed up? Hmm... I hope the godhead is alright after sleeping through two dragon breaks!
Am I spoiling anything? I low-key am. Those are technically the deepest cuts to the world's lore. It goes hard on that Hindu shit. But I think even after reading that and consequently beating the game for the third time, what I said still wouldn't make any sense at all. The whole foundation of the ES universe is some trippy shit! I could spoil it all and you wouldn't get it. I don't even get it! The ideological undertones are pretty nuts. I'm trying to enrich you a bit here.
But I digress again. On the way to this sprawling, labyrinthine, perilous, and lamentlessly churning and bellowing Dwemer ruin, where the glacier-dwelling lunatic just said I'd find Blackreach (before giving me these weird trinkets that look like puzzle toys for dwemer children,) I saw this cool glacial valley with a nice view of the clear night sky. It kind of looked to me like a side profile of a crack in a rock, and the sky was like water being poured through it. Like sand slipping down through a swirly, artsy hourglass. Or maybe a bit like how syrup pours down channels in the ice of a snow cone... the tundra of Winterhold being a giant snowcone, and I, just a speck of sand stuck in somewhere in the middle.
I made it out just in time to catch the sun caressing the statue of Azura's back off in the distance. The daedric prince of dusk and dawn herself! Talk about synchronicity. This actually wouldn't have happened in the base game. ENB's procedural sun is what has the sun there at that time, from where I happened to be standing. If I turned it off, you wouldn't see the sun from there at all. I find this game is full of so many more little visual surprises now.
The way I'm narrating this is actually how I feel playing the game now. Steam may say I only have 100 odd hours in, but I have many more on PS3. Suffice to say, there is little I haven't seen of the game. And somehow just upping the visuals alone is completely reversing that for me. I just wanna see everything and stay in that world again. It's made it a totally new, yet totally nostalgic trip. I've realized the landscape work is better than I thought. I always felt like it was kind of repetitive and looked rather procedural, but now I realize the amount of time and thought put into not just the different regions, but virtually every single area in the regions... even ones with nothing in them. There are scenes set-up everywhere. Almost every spot is a work unto its own.
You miss it because the default visuals of the game are flat and monotonous - it doesn't stand out enough for you to spot. Things that are designed to grab your attention still impress and it's intuitive, but you miss all of the things that are always just there, but also intentionally placed to give a certain effect. A lot of things become buried and homogenized. Now, with more convincing-looking and interesting textures, better sun/moon lighting, detail shadows, SSIL, better grading, bloom... all of these different layers of dynamic visual polish, it ALL stands out. It's not so much the effects glossing over as it is them highlighting what's already there. Those aren't the things I'm thinking about when I see something cool. There's just more to take in... more going on with the images in a general sense. And that pushes my focus so that I'm more often forced to actively process more of what I'm traversing. Every single place I find myself in feels more distinct and memorable. I like to think the added stuff is the stage upon which the game that was already made does its thing. It's there to bring out the stuff that was already done well and kind of let you see all that it really has to show you.
This is something I think Bethesda has always failed badly at. Polish doesn't make a game. I think Vayra86 was just pointing out how Bioshock gets by on fundamental artistry and compelling thematic elements. But I think with Bethesda, the way they handle top-end graphical elements detracts from what they have going, back down on a more fundamental level. It literally hides things from you that you would otherwise want to see highlighted a bit. The drama falls flat and the subtleties are lost. It's just very stark. 76 shows them starting to get on board, but I'm still not sure anyone there really has a sense of the aesthetic qualities I'm talking about.
Think of it like a photo. The beauty in the best photos is far better illuminated when cast through skillful and purposeful processing. It imparts a stronger impression than the one with a flat, neutral presentation. You wouldn't want to have some drugstore lackey developing your once-in-a-lifetime, nat-geo-worthy landscape shots! That's more Bethesda's style... ...anyone else would take them to a pro with two decades of experience and then have it framed. There are reasons why these things are done that can't be dismissed... I think it's just that when they're done right, they are overlooked. That people often say "Games don't need all of this fancy post-processing." only proves that there are people out there doing it right with their favorite games. Because when it's done well you can't even picture what it would look like otherwise. It cements the whole vibe of everything else that's been built up to make it stand out. And when it's bad or just absent, you'll be thinking "I don't know what it is... something is missing. I'm not really feeling it."
That's why I'm kinda going for a mix of hyperrealism and high-fantasy. I want it to look convincing enough that it might be real, while also retaining some of that fantastical grandiosity. That aside, the actual world design doesn't lend itself to going fully realistic with the look... it should be a little ethereal, colorful, and exaggerated at times. Like, even the mountains are not like our mountains - thier form is exaggerated and implausible, as are many of the structures and objects. No matter how 'true' the materials and lighting are, you're always going to know that somewhere in your mind. It's never going to convince anyone that it is real. It will always be a little alien. And do you even want it to be real for you? Does a fantasy game need that? A little magic and drama better suits the artistry in Skyrim's world, I think. I mean... it has actual magic in it lol. I just also don't want it to look tacky. I feel like when people go in on modding this game, the two greatest sins are A: making it so gritty and real-looking that it could be an FPS or a zombie survival/horror game and B: making it SO bright and cartoony that it could be a modern anime. I don't get the obsessions with either. I just want a Skyrim that's even more 'Skyrim' than Skyrim itself ever was.
Okay.... back to the game now.
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Only 4 steam achievements left, and I've been putting those on a backburner for a couple of years already...
