Wed, Apr 20, 2011 | 05:02 BST
Skyrim may implement full DirectX 11 feature set
Bethesda’s Todd Howard has clarified earlier comments to the effect that the latest Elder Scrolls game wouldn’t live up to DirectX 11′s full potential.
“We get performance gains out of [DirectX 11], versus an older version, and there are specifics that [DirectX 11] does like tessellation and that kind of stuff; we aren’t taking advantage of that right now,” the Skyrim director told Ausgamers.
“But that doesn’t mean we won’t in the future, we just aren’t right now.”
Howard had previously worried PC gamers by saying Skyrim would scale performance to produce near-identical results across all three platforms.
“Basically, it’s mostly a DirectX 9 game in terms of [how the] shaders work,” Howard reiterated.
Apparently, that doesn’t mean the PC version won’t see some seriously fancy-pants DirectX 11 bells and whistles later on.
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Posted in: Bethesda, PC, PS3, RPG, Xbox 360
Tags: directx 11, Skyrim, TES V: Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, todd howard
7 comments
#1
HauntaVirus
20/04/11, 6:00 am
Wow, my assumption that it would launch DX11 was obviously way off.
#2
Phoenixblight
20/04/11, 6:04 am
@1
Console version first then PC. Them’s the rules.
#3
Erthazus
20/04/11, 6:18 am
I don’t care for graphics in RPG genre but it already looks crap to Direct X9 version of Witcher 2 or other RPG games at the PC which don’t use even the full potential of direct X10
Not because Bethesda sucks in it. No, it’s because of console hardware it looks very similar to Oblivon with few enchantments. Facial animation is much much better of course but thats because PS3 and 360 is capable of it.
direct X11 tesselation won’t do nothing here. Absolutely nothing. Learn from DICE that makes PC first and console versions second. No one complains.
#4
Maximum Payne
20/04/11, 11:30 am
We are going to have Mod tools.That is more valuable then any DX or shader support…
#5
UuBuU
20/04/11, 12:12 pm
@4 – Exactly.
Modders will improve the look of the game greatly, just as they’re still doing with Morrowind which is almost 10 years old now.
That’s what makes Elder Scrolls games so amazing. Each year that passes, they get better and better thanks to the mod community.
Lesser RPGs may be slightly better on release, but they don’t age well at all.
#6
YoungZer0
20/04/11, 3:20 pm
@4: Amen to that, brotha.
#7
Stardog
20/04/11, 4:12 pm
I only have XP, so they would’ve lost a sale with DX10+ anyway.