Whenever a game gets remastered or upgraded, it’s not always immediately obvious what makes the new version so much better. While a couple side-by-side screenshot comparisons can show surface level improvements in lighting and textures, more nuanced improvements can usually take a while to pick out.
That’s especially true for a game as massive as Skyrim. Like any other game that came out five years ago, it’s easy to forget just what the limitations were back then that a new Special Edition can improve on. Fortunately, the Skyrim mod YouTube channel known as Brodual has put together a quick video to showcase some of the new version’s easier to miss changes.
The improvements discussed above include things like the addition of rain occlusion which makes it so that participation doesn’t clip through roofs or other in-game structures, as well as improved stability overall that prevents the game from crashing if, say, there are hundreds of NPCs onscreen killing each other all at once.
One of the more interesting changes involves how realistically the water flows. In the original Skyrim, water flowed in one direction at a constant speed no matter what. In the new version, rivers bend around turns and the water flow changes speed depending on the topography.
How water flows in the original Skyrim.
Water flowing in the special edition version.
It’s one of those things you’d don’t realise you care about until it’s finally there, helping the game to feel more realistic on a very instinctual level. Of course don’t think this means the new edition isn’t filled with classic Skyrim nonsense, because it definitely still is.
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9 responses to “Some Skyrim: Special Edition Improvements You Might Have Missed”
Early tests, bit worried. Seeing a lot of pop-in. Literally only ran it for fifteen minutes at dusk/night so I need to get back to it and traipse around in the day-time to really put it through its paces.
Yeah, I need to give it a shot without any mods whatsoever, but with minimal modding, Whiterun looks fucking horrible when viewed from the plains outside. Flickering and pop-in all over the place.
I swear there’s more wildlife running about. Especially foxes. I’m starting to think the Fox is my avatar’s spirit animal.
Darned cute little doods.
managed to sink a few hours into this over the weekend. made a sneaky Wood Elf archer (she hates vampires & wields a 2-H greatsword as a back up). then BAM. holy shit its 2am.
it’s still got the core Skyrim appeal, but it definitely looks much prettier. Though i’m currently trying to edit the ini files to get the draw distance up. (i’ve got a relatively OP PC, so I figured I may as well push it to its limits).
noticed a few things that i think are new to the Special ed. like Depth-of-Field & when you go from inside to outside, the change in brightness washes out your vision for a sec. the water effects are much nicer, too.
cant wait until mods are available again.
I was trying it out last night, the ingame mod manager seems to be not working. It’s adding mods to my “library” but it’s not downloading any.
A horse blocked my path between disembarking from the cart and creating a character, breaking the game. Fucking goty forever right?
It was was staring directly at me while the man talking was stuck in it’s ribs as well.
Haha. I installed the ‘alternate start’ mod because I thought my game was fucked when two of my characters refused to get up off the chopping block after the intro dragon attack.
“No thanks, I’m good down here. It’s nice and cosy and this decapitated head is keeping me company.”
played it for 12hrs on friday and my god how i miss SKYUI. it really really really sucks having the use the default UI
I can’t remember if this was in the game or a glitch? When Helgen gets destroyed and you finally make it out of the cave, you run around the corner to see what’s left of it. There’s a guy walking backwards down a hill? Like proper backwards.