One of the reasons that Skyrim has such Low Res Textures

[TheOutlander]

It is simple really, it is the 2gb exe limitation.

 

Consider what happens when you run the default 2gb Skyrim exe with mods (especially texture mods).

 

Greater frequency of CTDs, instances of invisible meshes (people / armour / water / walls / whatever) and instances of screwed up textures. Amongst other things.

 

Now when you run Skyrim with 4gb enabled all those problems go away (on most systems - at the very least on my new this year rig).

 

This seems to me like they are sitting on a limit of what a 2gb exe can handle (especially with their poorly handled memory coding).

 

Now consider the idea that the textures in default were perhaps better but had to be dialed back because of the 2gb exe's limitations causing the same problems you see alongside mods. Things start to make more sense, don't they?

Edited December 3, 2011 by TheOutlander

[Brittainy]

Well...if you call the inherent slackness of limiting a modern-day game to 2gb of memory 'making sense' then yes, I suppose it does.

 

Frankly, it reeks of laziness to me. :dry:

 

(And forgive the snide tone of this - I don't mean it to be directed at you. I'm just more than a little irked at Bethesda's shoddy work with Skyrim.)

Edited December 3, 2011 by Brittainy

[Fatalmasterpiece]

If you want the real reason Skyrim isn't living up to it's potential you will find it sitting under millions of people's TVs with a big ugly green X on it.

[gofortheko]

If you want the real reason Skyrim isn't living up to it's potential you will find it sitting under millions of people's TVs with a big ugly green X on it.

 

 

This, its too bad I am an owner of one of these ugly things. I wish everyday I had a PS3.

[audioave10]

It doesn't make sense to me. Why have the 2gb limit on the PC? There should be an easy choice during installation if nothing else.

This part reeks of lazyness and proves the point of an easy port job without thought.

[hipolipolopigus]

It is simple really, it is the 2gb exe limitation.

 

Consider what happens when you run the default 2gb Skyrim exe with mods (especially texture mods).

 

Greater frequency of CTDs, instances of invisible meshes (people / armour / water / walls / whatever) and instances of screwed up textures. Amongst other things.

 

Now when you run Skyrim with 4gb enabled all those problems go away (on most systems - at the very least on my new this year rig).

 

This seems to me like they are sitting on a limit of what a 2gb exe can handle (especially with their poorly handled memory coding).

 

Now consider the idea that the textures in default were perhaps better but had to be dialed back because of the 2gb exe's limitations causing the same problems you see alongside mods. Things start to make more sense, don't they?

Considering that the option to enable Large Address Awareness in the code compiler is a drop-down box with either "Yes" or "No", I find it rather appalling. I find it further appalling that the recommended system specs call for 4gb of RAM. Sure, that's total RAM and not the total that Skyrim would use, but my computer (With all mah crazy shiz on it :P) uses 3.2gb (Of 10gb, so I'm safe ;)) when "Idling" (Relative term :P).

 

And even further appalling than that is the fact that Bethesda shut down the LAA fixes (Mostly) on the grounds that it was adding a byte flag to their binary. One byte! Their security was so compromised and it totally started screwing up the player's experience of Skyrim when they could actually play for more than 5 minutes, right? Oh wait...

[TheOutlander]

Well...if you call the inherent slackness of limiting a modern-day game to 2gb of memory 'making sense' then yes, I suppose it does.

The low quality textures make sense when their choice is a 2gb exe. The 2gb exe being their only choice doesn't make sense. They should have had a 64bit exe (4gb) too.

 

If you want the real reason Skyrim isn't living up to it's potential you will find it sitting under millions of people's TVs with a big ugly green X on it.

Heh, yeah I know that is "another" reason. Microsoft is a rather nasty company when it comes to their favourite child (such as forcing all other platforms to get DLC later, or preventing custom badges in Dawn of War 2).

 

And even further appalling than that is the fact that Bethesda shut down the LAA fixes (Mostly) on the grounds that it was adding a byte flag to their binary. One byte! Their security was so compromised and it totally started screwing up the player's experience of Skyrim when they could actually play for more than 5 minutes, right? Oh wait...

That was Steam that did that. They didn't like the fact you could bypass Steam and launch the game independantly. If it was Bethesda and it was vs LAA fixes, they'd of hit the latest efforts too.

[xlcr]

i would assume we could expect an approved LAA patched EXE from Bethesda/Steam at some point or the modding future for Skyrim could be very much handicapped.

guess it would be too much to ask Bethesda to recompile Skyrim for 64-bit operating systems which is what i actually originally expected.

64-bit version sure would be nice!

[agno]

PC are currently vastly suprior to consoles, and our pc game uses console limmited graphics.

 

probably why i can run on maxed with a 3 year old video card.

 

aint right, someone like me should be dropping settings down to high quality

and medium quality in order to get framerates.

 

but instead weak ass textures fit for a 360 barely stress my card when maxed :/

[gengrimm]

Its a simple analysis of these equations.

 

Witcher 2 = PC only Launch = Amazing Graphics

 

Skyrim = Multi-platform = 2005 Hardware Limitations = lack-luster graphics

 

 

There is only one way that I'm ok with the dimmed down graphics and thats that in order to improve the perceived graphics they added more detail to the environments i.e clutter and critters.

 

The PC at the very least should have a Steam tool which lets you choose an option of Bit type .exe i.e 32bit-64bit

 

I have 8 gigs of ram with the app running I got 6gigs of ram available. I'm also told that it doesn't really take advantage of Crossfire, which means its mostly only running on 2g of video ram which when I'm crossfired has a max of 4g.

 

Skyrim Graphics Limitations = sad panda .....