Forget GameBryo Guys... Skyrim is using a new engine

[TheImperialDragon]

Originally posted by Deeza
Actually heightmaps would probably be easiest, since they start out life as simple bitmap files before they are converted into a format the game can use. Of course, depending on the maps published with the game we may need to adjust our heightmap to take account of changes in geography.

In TES3 you would have needed to create the entire heightmap by hand in the CS. There's no guarantee yet that there'll be a function in the Creation Kit to allow for the importing/exporting of maps, though it would be nice.

[morcroft]

Anybody know if Lightwave's stll active? What we really need is a TESAnnwyn update!

[FLESH]

"We then rewrote all the major graphics and gameplay systems including lighting, shadows, level of detail, animation, interface, scripting, dialogue, quest systems, melee, magic, and more. All of those changes made it into our internal editor as well. So much had changed that we decided to call the engine and editor by a new name, the Creation Engine and the Creation Kit. We can't wait to see what all the brilliant mod makers do with these tools. "


Sounds exciting, it should be fun seeing the community master these new systems and the stuff people are going to come up with, not to mention take part in all that ourselves. Don't be fooled though There'll be head-banging frustrations and angry curses at the devils who work at Bethesda that ever thought up a contraption designed to not do the one thing you were really hoping would work (devils!). But ultimately it should be amazingly fun and that's what we're all here for right?

[Sniper4]

To address concerns regarding .nif:

We still use the nif file format, because it worked fine for what we're doing and our modders know it well. We still use some middleware that we like, such as Havok. We're not just using their physics this time, but their animation system, Havok Behavior. It makes a dramatic difference in how the game looks and plays.

Todd Howard said this in the following interview:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1158651p1.html

WWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[The Old Ye Bard]

Originally posted by Sniper4
To address concerns regarding .nif:

We still use the nif file format, because it worked fine for what we're doing and our modders know it well. We still use some middleware that we like, such as Havok. We're not just using their physics this time, but their animation system, Havok Behavior. It makes a dramatic difference in how the game looks and plays.

Todd Howard said this in the following interview:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1158651p1.html

WWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Because they're using a differnt type of physics engine now though, anything ported over will still need to be updated -which will probably mean we'll need to wait on new tools to be made, unless Bethesda releases them for us.

[Deeza]

We can always hope. Still, reworking niftools should be easier for the community than moving to a completely new format.

[Candlemaster]

One thing that a lot of people seem to forget is that they did release nif exporters for 3ds Max for morrowind. Nobody uses them nowadays because they're only available for an old version of Max that isn't available. (Believe me, I've looked. A LOT.)

It's very possible that they'll release Max or Maya exporters for Skyrim, or they may just let the community hack into the new nif's like they did with Oblivion.