New Oblivion Screenies

[Radial]

Btw, does anybody know in which province of Tamriel this is supposed to take place?

From the prophecies the Nerevarine was told in Bloodmoon, and the foreshadowing from Caius Cosades and a few others, it'll take place smack dab in Cyrodiil, or the Imperial District. As most of the prophecies were about a direct threat to the Imperial throne and rumors about the heirs, I'm hoping that means visiting Imperial City, meeting Tiber Septim, all that stuff. Damn I'm a geek.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Here's one, why does every possible object and person look like they are glowing? This isn't ESA, is it?

It's a "Bloom" effect. Ever play Deus Ex 2 or Thief 3?

I'd rather think it's the old "Diffuse Glow" filter from Photoshop... Basically you can turn any picture in something like that with this filter.

I'm going to install Photoshop a bit later and post an example.

Edit:

Fallout:

Broken Sword 3:

Just the Diffuse Glow filter with small corrections made with the eraser to remove it from unlikely places.

 

[Kahgan]

aaahaao, my eyes

but that last picture there really makes me think that's what they've done with the Oblivian screenshots

 

[Montez]

Well, they've said repeatedly that all the screenshots are 100% real in-game pictures and it would be pretty stupid of them to make that claim if they just photoshopped them - especially when graphics are at the point where those type of effects are doable. Not sure where I read the "Bloom" thing, and that probably isn't what Bethesda is calling it, but I'm sticking to it.

From IGN:

IGN: The screenshots for Oblivion look too good to be true. (To be fair, we said the same thing about the first Morrowind screens.) What new graphical effects and techniques are you using in Oblivion? What types of things are you showing in the screens?

Todd Howard: I can assure you those shots are 100% real, taken right from playing the game and will look even better in the final product, as there are effects we're working on now that haven't been shown yet. The main effects we use include normal mapping and specular mapping, which are becoming commonplace in games. We also use parallax mapping, which is kind of like displacement mapping. This allows surfaces to appear truly 3D in a pixel-shader, even though they are flat.

The other things we do really deal with just color. There are things you can do in pixel-shaders now to change how the screen looks based on how much light is in the scene, in the same way the human eye views them. Just look at a photograph and how bright it is, and how dark the shadows are. Most games by comparison look flat, and don't have vibrant color and shadows -- Morrowind especially -- so we do a lot of looking at how CG movies portray sunlight, and how the human eye and camera lens' work and use the pixel-shaders on the video cards to do a simple version of that. So even if you take a standard textured object, and render it using these lighting tools, it looks more real on the screen.

 

[Murdoch]

The other things we do really deal with just color. There are things you can do in pixel-shaders now to change how the screen looks based on how much light is in the scene, in the same way the human eye views them. Just look at a photograph and how bright it is, and how dark the shadows are.

If that the case then they aren't doing it well, in fact it looks pretty shitty. Given the picture FeelTheRads posted, she is too bright and her shadow far too dark. If the intention was to make her stand out, then fine, but they state that realism is the objectve, and I just don't see it in that screeny.

 

[Silencer]

It'd be even more fun if you took a screenie from THE GLOW

 

[FeelTheRads]

it would be pretty stupid of them to make that claim if they just photoshopped them

True, but game companies are rather famous for promising features during the making of the game that suddenly disappear when the game is out. Who can say if all those features are real and not just a way to attract attention?

Also I agree with Murdoch... if they want realism with that glow effect they aren't doing a very good job. It doesn't looks real or at least good... not even for a fantasy game. It should be much more subtle and visible only on close surfaces that reflect a lot of light. In those screenshots it's everywhere... on the tree leaves, on the cave walls, even on the clouds! That's what made me think it's the glow filter from Photoshop.

Edit:

I've hunted for some Morrowind screens on the web (so I would be somewhat closer to the subject) and modified them:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/sfg/mor2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/sfg/mor1.jpg

Well, pull my nipples and call me Rita if they don't look very much like the Oblivion screens. The glow looks plain and it's applied everywhere! Correct me if I'm wrong, but this "Bloom" feature shouldn't be present only on the objects? Then what the hell is doing on the clouds? I kind of doubt the clouds are objects too! Also note that in the screenshots I posted the parts that aren't covered by the glow have a slight blur to them (that's part of the diffuse glow filter), just like in the Oblivion ones.

Please, Bethesda, go back to making hockey games! Technology and realism my ass! More like:

-Hey, artist guy, can you make these screenshots look better?
-Sure, I'll just use this nifty batch tool and apply diffuse glow on all of them in a jiffy!
-Great, good thing we've hired you!

If I'm wrong, and this feature will turn out to be true, I'm gonna eat my Photoshop CD and then go puke it in front of the Adobe headquarters.

But, hey, look at the bright side (no pun intended): if it's true, and considering the same engine will be used to make Fallout 3, we'll have a glowing post-nuclear game! Maybe they'll even sell it in a glow-in-the-dark box!

Fucking Bethesda in the ass,
FeelTheRads.