Skyrim - Remaster vs. Vanilla Comparison

Eurogamer gives us a look at how the new, (hopefully) improved special edition of Skyrim will compare to the vanilla version.

Also: The mods you've been using in your Skyrim game will be compatible with the new version.

An enhanced remaster of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC this October. This new Special Edition is the first we've seen of this series on either console to date - it's a native 1920x1080 production, and based on trailer footage so far, it's also seemingly set to run at 30fps. We're promised quite a bit more though, and indeed the game borrows features from the more modern iteration of its Creation Engine, adding the rendering techniques for volumetric god rays and water shaders seen more recently in Fallout 4.

It's great news for PC crowd as well, and those who own all DLC of the original (or bought the Legendary Edition) receive this as a free update. Based on our tests, there's a visible difference between this remaster and the vanilla 2011 release, with the landscape improved by new assets; plants, mushrooms, stones and extra trees are more liberally dotted around the initial Riverwood village. A new depth of field effect is brought in too. As plucked from Fallout 4's settings menu, this allows backgrounds to dynamically fall in and out of focus depending on a player's line of sight.

Another element we noticed in matching our PC footage with this reveal trailer is that textures are identical. Bethesda's press materials offer up seven high quality BMP shots of the game - tellingly archived in a folder labeled 'Xbox One.' We've matched each of these with the PC game at maximum settings, and there's little to no difference in the quality of the texture work (barring one mountain-side near Riverwood). Assuming these are Xbox One screengrabs, it's pleasing to at least see texture filtering matches PC's top 16x anisotropic filtering setting, but the ground detail underfoot is precisely as it was before.

The more striking change is in this Special Edition's lighting. A glowing, sun-kissed appearance is in effect across its reveal trailer, notably in an overview of Solitude castle. It replaces the distinctive, colder hue of the original, and each comparison shot differs wildly from the tone of the vanilla release on PC. Actual geometry is untouched, and draw distances for objects and grass are identical to the PC's top setting in this wide overview. However, it's an undoubtedly warmer, hazier take on the world, with a post-process bloom effect also helping to fill the space.

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