Creation & Gamebryo Engine Comparison

To answer the question “What the Creation Engine REALLY means for Skyrim”, Raiding Party places the high-res screenshots we have of Skyrim next to similar screenshots from Oblivion, and draws its conclusions.

So we’re being crude, but just look at the two lasses in the above comparison. We really can’t wait to have a good old-fashioned chin wag with a busty tavern wench who actually looks like a busty tavern wench, rather than a reject from Morph and Chas’ claymation dud box. Not only will they look like real people and move their mouths at the same time the words come out, but they’ll potter about as you speak, interacting and reacting to their environment and the goings on around them.

The very fact there ARE goings on around them is also a big leap forward in Oblivion the world would always freeze as you were presented with an ugly wax work to talk to. The inhabitants of Skyrim will also go about daily chores such as wood chopping and running a logging-mill all in all it should make for a far more believable and immersive world. The character animation uses Havok’s behaviour technology, which allows the animations to transition into one another far more effectively. And there’s no need to mention the greater level of detail in Skyrim’s cosy indoor scene, but hey, we just did.

I would like to point out that like pretty much every studio out there Bethesda brushes up its PR screenshots before releasing them, so this is a comparison on unequal basis, but it is pretty clear Creation is a big improvement on Gamebryo.