Skyrim, or How Not to Make a PC Game

Gamasutra: After spending a couple of hours with the game, there's no other way for me to say it: Skyrim is one of the worst PC ports I have ever had the displeasure of playing. Though many issues will likely be fixed and improved as time goes on, and undoubtedly mods by more enterprising gamers will help additional problems, the release state of Skyrim is, frankly, inexcusable. "Appalling" is not a word I use too lightly to describe a game, but it's the only one that fits here.

[MAJ0R]

yes it is, luckily Bethesda's games on PC aren't made by them but rather the community

[Winter47th]

You shoulda got it for the consoles. On the PC you'll have to wait for a year at least until there's a decent mod among the plathora of nude & hintai mods that are infesting the community, as usual.

[FEARprototype]

its hentai by the way, just saying^^

[decrypt]

@Winter47th

Dont know what you are on about, the PC version is clearly superior to the console counterparts and can even be had cheaper.

Benchmarks prove you dont need a high end rig to play the game just like any other console port.

http://www.tomshardware.com...

Most mid range hardware is running the game at 1080p 60fps.

Quote from tomshardware.com:

"The good news is that you don’t need an uber-rig to enjoy the game. A 2.5+ GHz Phenom II matched up to a Radeon HD 5770 or GeForce GTX 550 Ti is enough to enjoy at least 40 FPS using high-quality details at 1080p, even with FXAA enabled to help smooth out the bothersome aliasing artifacts. "

Funny people seem to disagree with links from a reputable site like tomshardware.com

[T900]

About 250,000 concurrent users are online on Steam playing Skyrim, which means the game has probably sold very well on the PC.

If there were issues with the game the forums would have been full of complaints, I dont see that happening.

Imo PC is the definetive version for the game, specially with the truckloads of mods coming up.

[bozebo]

"the forums would have been full of complaints"

er... the steam forums are full of complaints.

Personally, I only see a few console-port flaws:
- Mouse accelleration is forced on and has to be turned off in the ini
- vsync is forced on and has to be turned off in the ini
- vertical mouse sensitivity seems to be decided by the frame rate :S (what the hell kind of programming!?)
- menu is clearly designed for controllers

So... all input method issues (vsync causing severe input lag for some people - there should ALWAYS be an option to disable it in the game menus).

All in all, I would say its actually a very good port. Even BF3 has some "console port" flaws, such as the inability to properly customise mouse sensitivities for vehicles and the bipod forcing use of the same button as ADS when I have 108 keys and 7 mouse buttons to make use of... for PC being the "lead" platform according to DICE for BF3, Bethesda have done well.

Oh also, the graphics on the PC version can instantly be improved in the ini in ways that aren't in the menu. (self shadowing on trees, rocks projecting shadows, richer water reflections, greater LoD). That should probably be in the menu, or maybe they didn't test those effects on enough setups to trust noobs with enabling them and complaining that there are artifacts or something.

Anyway... a few little tweaks to Skyrim and it's golden for 200+ hours :D

Performance wise, it seems to be a bit up and down but from what I hear it's like that on consoles too so it's not a "port" problem.

[Abriael]

While on console you won't get that decent mod at all. Yeah, good idea. LOL.

[TheGameFoxJTV]

I only had ne problem with Skyrim on PC, it was the UI, but I fixed that by plugging in my PS3 controller, and bam. UI navigatable.

[aquamala]

Why would anyone with a gaming pc get this on a console and play in 720p lol

[sphinct]

"Whiny bitch" isn't a word I use too lightly to describe a game article, but it's the only one that fits here.

Really though, having spent more than ten hours on both thec@ console and PC versions, the level of glitches and bugs has been basically identical. (Me on PC, my brother on console.)

I'm calling hit whore article. No,really though.

[zero_gamer]

"On the PC you'll have to wait for a year at least until there's a decent mod among the plathora of nude & hintai mods that are infesting the community, as usual"

And on consoles you have to wait for, well, the day you'll finally realize you cannot get any community-built mods on a console at all, as usual.

[mynameisEvil]

It'll take a few DAYS to get a decent mod, mein freund.

And, knowing DARN, that UI will be a bit better reeaaall soon.

[GrumpyVeteran]

yeah FEARprototype, you'd definitely be the one to know how to spell hentai roflmfao crazy tenctacle loving octupus crazy person

[pain777pas]

I beg to differ. I was just unimpressed with the visuals in the game especially after UC3 and the like. The game on PC should have been pushed to the max. However, the game itself is amazing. I started playing on PC 11am this morning and just stopped to eat a half hour ago. Really immersive and better than Oblivion in every way in my honest opinion. From crafting, spells and leveling everything is at your finger tips and the map is humongous. I am in awe at the team at Bethesda on that front. This is a game worth the price of admission. I just plugged in a wire 360 controller toggled sensitivity and I have had almost no issues with the game at all. I am surprised I have the game running at 1080 with four samples AA everything on high and ultra and I am still not blown away visually BUT the game is awesome and is a must for any RPG fan. Here is the MAJOR problem I have though with this game. YOU CANNOT PLAY WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONNECTION. Seriously Bethesda? I do not understand why they are connected with steam for achievements and stuff the disc is for naught and if you don't have a connection to the internet for any reason you cant play the game. I tried offline Steam mode and no you cannot play the game. This forces you to get the console version in a sense which I will just for comparison sake. Probably game of the year edition for the consoles at some point. My goodness that is the biggest problem with the game to me right now. I just do not understand.

[ThanatosDMC]

I'm playing on the PC and I don't see any problems. Just choose the default settings which was high but if you tweak anymore of the distance fading of objects or actors, stuff start disappearing from the game like textures, magic, webs, etc.

[kaveti6616]

That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

Bethesda makes the modding tools. They made the engine, they made the game, they designed the missions.

The modders, while I appreciate them, do not make the games. They just refine them.

And secondly, Skyrim is NOT a PC game.

Yes, Bethesda followed the money. They took the lazy way out. Nobody appreciates them for that. But the fact is that Skyrim is not a PC game. It's a console game first and a PC port second.

Most people are not happy about this, but this is a business. If Microsoft offered Bethesda a ton of cash upfront to do this, then what could possibly persuade a business to refuse?

[Imalwaysright]

"followed the money" Can you blame them? This is a business. Its not their fault that "budget" gamers buy MORE games than PC gamers!

[kaveti6616]

I wasn't blaming them. I was somewhat defending them, actually.

Although they did follow the money, they didn't betray PC gamers outright. They're still taking the time to develop the modding tools for the PC community to spend the next few years making Skyrim better than it is now.

[Gamer1982]

The problem with the game is I have to play on low settings and the game looks TERRIBLE. I can play crysis 2 on medium settings which looks great even on medium. I have a powerful PC I can play Crysis 2 with some stuff one high aswell so why can't I play this on the same kind of settings? PC developing is getting lazier by the year the proof is in the pudding.

Console games look better than launch sure but the leaps not AMAZING since launch of 360 and PS3 yet I still need to constantly upgrade my PC to keep up with the games my now 5 year old console can play and make look that damn good? Consoles shouldnt be able to match PCs anymore yet they can because of bad developing.

[Ravenor]

From your comment below:
"I play on 8800GT 3.6ghz dual core cpu and 8gb RAM"

The 8800GT is your problem, do you really expect a Low-mid end card to run games maxed out still? On top of it's original designation as a low-mid end part it's 4 years old.

Your comparison between Skyrim and Crysis 2 is also far more broken then any Bethesda game. They are two games doing VERY different things, like one being open world and the other being a linear shooter.

[MarkusMcNugen]

Yeah, the 8800GT is definitely your problem. I have a 4870 overclocked on a Core 2 Duo overclocked to 4.5GHz and 4 GB of 1333 DDR3 and I can play the game above high settings and get a consistent 40-60 FPS. Hell, its even playable with 8x FXAA on, just have to watch out for the running water...

All it takes is a half-way decent video card and you can play this game on high settings easy. Looks a hell of a lot better than my bros 360 version too.

[tee_bag242]

Shame for the dude who wrote the post.
Iv been playing the PC version with a 360 pad for about 20 hours already! I'v found it about demanding as Crysis 2. No complaints here - Its absolutely gorgeous and I have not seen one bug yet! Im getting 62 fps peaks 40 fps drops on Ultra settings 720p AAx2 - Big deal!

Small complaint the hotkeys are disruptive, I wish it was more like oblivion.

The visuals are so polished, they are breathtaking and on a such a awe inspiring scale I'm convinced making such a game surely doubles as art.

[xztence]

this article makes valid points.
honestly it's bethesda... what did you expect?

[neoandrew]

The real evil is zenimax.

[MarkusMcNugen]

Im quite happy with the game honestly. The hotkeys/mouse support is kind of annoying. Having to use the keyboard to select menu options gets tedious, and I did run into a game stopping bug... but I found the workaround for it.

Other than that the game runs great and hasnt given me any hickups. Although I do wish it would show me my level progression when I kill something or complete a quest...

[tee_bag242]

If your trying to imply Bethesda always disappoint, I'd be really interested to know which developers you consider to be delivering to your satisfaction.

[aPerson]

Glad to know it's not my PC causing the game to run at 20 FPS. For shame, Bethesda.

[Abriael]

looks like it is, since mine runs easily between 45 and 60, and it isn't even top of the line. Time to upgrade.

[aPerson]

I knew some asshat would write that. Well done.

My computer is brand spankin' new and plays Crysis 2 on max settings. Y'know, that's kinda why I purchased Skyrim for PC in the first place?

[dougr]

i5 2500k
GTX 570
16 GB Ram

I play this game on ultra at 1080p at a consistent 60 FPS due to vertical sync. So either something is wrong with your computer or something is screwy if you bought AMD parts, because I have a decent mid to high range system and it runs the game flawlessly.

[Gamer1982]

I play on 8800GT 3.6ghz dual core cpu and 8gb RAM and it will only run good on low settings. Crysis 2 runs lovely on it. How can one look so great and one look bad using the same power available? Easy.. Bad developing.

[MRMagoo123]

Im not sure how good my pc i bought some bits and put it together its got (reading from my Dxdiag thingy)

.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560

.AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor, MMX, 3DNow (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz

. DDR3 4gb RAM

With this setup the game runs on ultra settings and i have yet to get any slow down at all so i suspect its the pc you have and not the game.

[MarkusMcNugen]

Core 2 Duo [email protected]
4GB DDR3-1333
4870 OC

Runs as smooth as butter. Slightly above high settings with 8x FXAA and higher than average draw distances for the high setting. 40-60 FPS average.

Gamer1982, your just running the game with a low end graphics card. My 4870 has been running games nearly maxed for about 4 years now. They arent even expensive anymore. Go get one, or a better card and see if you still complain that its the developers...

[RedDragan]

Your brand spanking new PC sucks then, aPerson. You wasted your money, I think you have been cheated.

My PC rarely drops down below below 90fps with all the .INI file improvements bolted on.

[TheGameFoxJTV]

Same, I have a 260GTX, and it runs without a stutter for me. So many whiny bitches now days. This isn't even on of those game you can complain about, sure, it may be a console port, but it will be SO MUCH MORE than that soon. Even if it is a console port, the game as it is is amazing.

[zero_gamer]

Quite frankly I think some console ports look and play better than some of the PC-lead titles out there, and even better than the lead console versions. Console port =/= bad game. Yes it is understandable "console port" has been given a bad reputation because they can be a hit or miss nature but with Bethesda they're not bad.

On PC Gamer and forums worldwide you see many comments crying over the fact it is a console port. I am getting sick of the complaining myself, considering Bethesda has done console development since Oblivion and Fallout 3. Both games play better on PC.

[Jormungandr]

my computer is 4 years old, has a core 2 duo (1.8ghz) and ddr2 ram... the only thing upgraded about it is that its got a Radeon HD 5850 video card

And i am running the game on max settings, 1080p, self shadows for rocks and trees turned on. Just did the siege of whiterun... not a single visible hickup.

If you cant run this game without problems then your computer is ether ancient or there is something wrong with it. Or your trying to play a game on an integrated graphics chip... but I'm trying to give you more credit than that.

[Angels3785]

@Abriael
I can guarantee from personal experience that it is not his PC. The game seems to not like newer hardware for some reason. For example I have an AMD 1090T, HD 6970 2GB, 8GB RAM. and I'm getting 20-30 fps (even dipping into the TEENS sometimes). EVery other game I have works I and do EVERYTHING necessary to maintain my PC (I'm not a noob at this stuff). Don't go saying that other people are lying just because you personally aren't having an issues. Yes Skyrim is great from the few playable hours I have had with it, but some users are experiencing legitimate issues that SERIOUSLY need to be addressed............SOON.

[TheGameFoxJTV]

Always go Nvidia, less problems with drivers. It seems every other game has a problem with AYI's terrible drivers.

[limewax]

Yeah thats actually AMD to blame, My GTX 580 is not struggling at all and they are fairly recent cards

[Angels3785]

Heres the thing though I have a friend who is getting similar performance to me and he has an GTX560ti with an i7 processor, 4GB ram. I dont think drivers are the issue especially since my friend who has an HD 6870 is getting near perfect performance with the same drivers as me. I think it may be a DUAL GPU thing that is causing the problem as HD5970 users are experiencing similar issues. SERIOUSLY KEEP THE BRAND FANBOYISM AWAY. Yes ATI has bad drivers SOMETIMES, but not anytime recently. Plus this is not exclusively an ATI issue.

[limewax]

Not brand Fanboyism here, To actually specify the issue directly, Nvidia released drivers the day before Skyrim launched, SLI profiling was included. Currently there is no driver for AMD supporting crossfire. So yes your mostly correct about it being a dual GPU issue. However I noticed that when testing an area where I get 30FPS for no explainable reason, My single GPU was only getting 50% usage. So there are two issues playing at hand. One for lack of crossfire support. One bug of the games fault

[dougr]

I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy what-so-ever, I just go with what works best and my Intel/Nvidia system is light years more reliable than my AMD/ATI system was, so going the budget direction is no longer a concern for me, because I want rock solid performance which is what Intel/Nvidia seems to provide.

[bozebo]

I have a 280GTX in my system and it can run the game fine most of the time. But there were a few points where the fps dropped to 20-30 for no reason at all (nothing graphically intensive going on) but after pausing and unpausing the frame rate instantly goes back to normal (80-90).

Though to be honest, I have seen far more inconsistent frame rates in plenty of other games.

[dougr]

wrong spot

[icecoldfire]

i have already the patches and mods 2 fix the problems so its not an issue for me

[pr0digyZA]

Wow I havn't experienced issues like this guy has, I don't even use the favourites menu I just assign equipment to my numbers on keyboard (like a shooter). I have had no framerate drops even with 1x 560ti on ultra. Also buying selling has never been an issue. The only thing I can think of is that the patch improved all of that.

[pctrollv4]

wtf are you people on? the pc version is easily the best by far. No loading, great graphics, almost no bugs. The interface may be consolish, but this is a great pc game and miles ahead than the console version, by a lot. Jesus, its one thing to complain about legitiamate bad ports, but this isnt one of them

[T900]

Modders fixed the interface on the last one, i am sure they will fix this one too.

[pr0digyZA]

The loading surprised me, it takes 2 seconds to get into the game which was so much faster than the 360 walkthrough I watched.

[Faelan]

I read through a quarter of that article. Then it struck me - do I really want to continue reading all of that or should I just fire Skyrim and play?

Yup, UI could have been better, but it's not ruining the game for me and I've had no other issues so far (15 hours in), so back to playing some more.

[Abriael]

This article is the typical hit whoring sensationalistic crap that you see nowadays on popular games. Just look at the massively hyperbolic terms the writer uses. It's obvious that his intent is not to inform, but to cause a stir.

[bozebo]

He does come accross like a bit of a douche but the overall idea is pure. That AAA titles should be able to provide the simple changes that they often miss out on their PC releases these days.

[Series_IIa]

I planned to play this game with a xbox controller anyway since Witcher 2 played so much better with it.

PC version to me is solid, 3-5 second load times, lovely graphics which could have been better with like tessellation and all of those little things but it plays solid. The only problem I've had at the moment is not having enough time to play it.

[aman84r]

People are quick to bitch about everything.Skyrim works fine for me.I would say rage was annoying at first but after the patch it has been an enjoyable experience.

[Mista T]

I just use a wired 360 controller. works great

[Sidewinder-]

Yes, the UI is quite horrendous.

Navigating the perk trees with keyboard and mouse? *shudder*.

Though I have heard it plays better with a controller. But still, it should damn work well with a keyboard and mouse.

[aGameDeveloper]

I've been playing it with a controller on PC. When I first started playing FPS games on consoles, I really disliked the controller. But a combination of my getting used to it, and devs getting better at implementing controllers in their games has made it my input of choice, as I feel I have much more control than I do with keyboard & mouse. Also, it doesn't cramp my fingers after several hours.

[Jormungandr]

for starters... its an awesome game. Haven't been able to put it down.

And yes... its a Bethesda game so it suffers from the Bethesda curse (bugs bugs bugs and more bugs). All of the problems Ive seen with the interface so far (except one thing) have been obvious bugs.

Like for instance... try navigating the menus with the keyboard. I prefer to do so because the keyboard is simply 10 times faster... when it works. Half the time i will press E to select a dialog option not realizing that were the little symbol to the side is isn't lined up with the currently selected dialog option. I'll select the first option... go through it... then pres down to select the second option... again everything is fine... then down again to select the third option and... while the symbol on the left lines up with the third option... in reality the second options i elected. Cue wailing and gnashing of teeth as i listen to the same 5 minutes of dialog all over again.

It has a similar issue in the inventory... i'll be picking items out of a chest by hitting the E key... and even though there are 4 of an item in the stack every time i hit E the selection jumps up to the item above it. So instead of pressing E, E, E, E... i have to press E, down, E, Down, E, Down, E. Which would be managable accept it only does this occasionally. Sometimes it will even do it for the first two items in stack and then start working correctly. Regardless of which random permutation of this bug i get inevitably it means switching to my own inventory to dump whatever item I didn't want back out of it.

Then there's what happens when you reassign keys. I originally changed the strafe left/right to q/e (cause it works better for me). Well that meant i couldn't pick up books. Books are hardwired for "press e to take" and when I press E nothing happens. Switch it back to default so E is set to ACTIVATE and while picking up books still sais "press E to take" it works fine... even though e is still bound to something. And before you say oh well it sais "press e to take" but it means "press d to take" (which is what activate had been reassigned to)... no... that didnt work ether.

I could go on about the interface bugs... but they almost certainly will be fixed in the first few patches and im more than use to accepting bethesda's little eccentricity in that regard considering the games they put out.

The only non-bug interface problem I've had is when i need to switch back and forth between weapons in combat... there really aught to be a more elegant way. Like defining sets and assigning then to number keys. Even just 4 sets would be plenty for "magic - combat" "magic - healing" "ranged - combat" "melee - combat" configurations. Instead i find myselkf pausing over and over in the middle of what MIGHT have been an intense fight.

Oh shit... black wings... BLACK WINGS... DRAGON!!! gotta change to bow {pause} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {leftclick} {unpause} oh shit here he comes {fire arrow} he landed! shit! {pause} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {rightclick} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {leftclick} {unpause} run up and SWING SWING SWING LIKE HYOUR LIFE DEPEDS ON IT! AHHHH FIRE BREATH!!! {pause} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {rightclick} {unpause} using healing ! much better now back to sheild {pause} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {right click} {unpause} and... wait no he took off! {pause} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll} {scroll}...

you get the idea.

[caperjim]

I have this game for my PC and love it. No matter what game comes out PC players cry over the game for the same usual reasons. There is no satisfying us it seems. I dont have a fraction of the problems that many PC gamers seem to have with PC games.

[360ICE]

You can play Skyrim on PC!?
In which museum is that!?

[Saryk]

The same museum that you can get on this site with that POS 360.

[360ICE]

I don't think PC would make it into a museum of current pop-culture :P
No, nevermind me. I'm just kidding. There are still good multiplatform games on PC.

[blackhammer]

Games with a PC version seem to come out with a shitload of bugs one way or another. Haven't played it yet, but I'm sure some things will get better.

And the community of modders will definitely tear the "consolized" interface apart if they really want to. That is, when the tools come out.

[cryptkiller]

gtx 560 1gb stock
i7-2600k @3.4ghz
8gb 1600mhz

game runs very good havnt had any bothering problems this game runs even better and has less anoying bugs than battlefield 3 witcher 2 and assasins creed brotherhood when they were launched and those weren't even to bad and they run good for me dont know what people are complaining about some might just need to upgrade some old parts of the computers. i get 45 to 60 fps with even on and at ultra dont notice any slow down, loads are very quick from going in doors to out doors and vice versa its like 1 to 3 seconds if that for me i dont even get to read what it says on the loading screen or have a proper look at the pictures. Its an awesome game, looks
unbelievable only prob i got is i cant stop playing it.

[Rowland]

Anyone running Skyrim on a Radeon 5970 ?

[iamgoatman]

Still waiting on a new crossfire profile from AMD due sometime next week, so until then performance won't be optimal with it being a dual-GPU card. The game should still run pretty well though if you disable crossfire in RadeonPro or theres a few temporary fixes knocking about.

[XerockX]

I'm running this on xp with an 8800gt with 6gigs of ram and a dual core 3.2ghz. playing on ultra settings with anti-aliasing on and it looks absolutely amazing. mind blowing actually. Games runs very smooth except for the occasional hiccup. This is one of my favorite games of all time now and the visuals are absolutely breath taking. This article does not reflect everyone's experience obviously.

[FiLTHY ESKiMO]

Got the game on PC and PS3. Playing it on PC and loving it. For a game of this scale there are bound to be some glitches, but overall this game is a masterpiece.

This article makes no sense. The PC version is by far the best version. Perhaps he just needs a better system.

[SneeringImperialist]

This article is a load of BS i've been playing Skyrim allday on PC i havnt ran into one glitch, bad game coding and havnt crashed once and havnt lagged at all never went under 40fps with a GTX460 and AMD Athlon X3 445! Skyrim is one of the best games i've played in a while.

[jjb1981]

This dude is crazy, he must have a Celeron processor...

[dragonhearts]

LOL... the author of this article sounds like a spoiled little Kid.

[SephirothX21]

The game plays and looks great for me on my GTX 580 and i7. Loading times are barely existent. I agree that they could have done a better job overall but loading times are more important to me than graphics. I'm also playing it on my laptop with an i5 and a crappy GTX 520m card and it still plays on high settings (not max) and runs smoothly with no problems. Obviously the game would be much much better if it was developed to take full advantage of the pc hardware out there but when devs have to cater to 6 year old crappy 360 hardware and the PS3 where the Cell does the graphics instead of the PS3's awful graphics card, the pc unfortunately gets dragged down with them. Though 250000 people playing Skyrim on Steam day 1 says that the pc crowd should not be neglected. Though I see no major problems with the game so far and I think this author should stop whining.

[jjb1981]

I have an M330 Nvidia and an I7 and the game runs smoother than mr. clean's head. Adjust virtual memory and put it into priority and it should run just fine. I chose skyrim on PC over ps3 and 360 just because RPGs are superior on PC even though I own all three. This guy sounds like a whiner and before you know it some modders will come up with a mapping solution for hotkeys and better mouse control

[DOOMZ]

The game is a freaking masterpiece, whatever platform you get it on!

[tommyth3cat]

This has got to be one of the worst articles from gamasutra(a usually great source) I've ever read. 90% of his bitching revolves around hardware issues... welcome to the world of PC gaming, where you have to upgrade your 5+ year old computer at some point. Quite frankly I've had almost zero issues with graphics turned all the way up. Only hard crashed twice, for whatever reason my companion couldn't clear a dungeon with me so the game would crash, did I cry? No I told her to wait outside and moved on with my life. Also he complains about missing out on achievements... I like to change my FoV as well but, omg if I can't earn achievements if I use the console how will my friends know how cool I am on steam!

These are the kinds of things you have to not care about in the PC realm, if you think games just all work correctly on everybodies crappy PC instantly on release day you are mentally deficient.

[xxmatrix1xx]

article aside Elder Scrolls: Skyrim GOTY

[Krakn3Dfx]

24 hours into Skyrim and have not had a single game breaking issue, no crashes, no issues with npcs not doing what I need/want them to do.

I haven't read this article, but I would say in comparison to Fallout:NV or even Fallout 3, Skyrim is the most stable Bethesda release since Oblivion.