Oblivion

[Fyron]

Graphics card resources are still system resources... You over-render grass, you slow down the rendering of everything else.

[atari_eric]

The problem here is not whether the grass is rendered or not, the problem is that it's easy to see where it stops. A properly executed rendering would effectively "fade" the rendering so the only way the player would see the rendering edge is to actively look for it - otherwise, it'd be relatively unnoticeable.

[Yimboli]

bingo! atari_eric hit the bullseye...

however, I don't know why we're debating an issue based on the hearsay in the first post. I shall refrain from grass arguments until I try the game and see for myself.

[Caduceus]

Well, I played for about 3 hours last night.

I can understand all the criticisms that people have brought up - in my original post.

The grass radius is noticeable, so I will see about turning it off when I get back outside the dungeon I am in. The first dungeon (outside the tutorial) that I stumbled across is HUGE. Something gratifying in watching a mindless skeleton stumble into swinging blades.

The textures are not bad on my machine AMD 3700+/Radeon X850, but it depends on the lighting. The second time I talked to the emperor - lighting made his face look ghastly, but again that was because of ambien lighting.

I have never been much of a "sneak attack" kind of player, but I am enjoying the bow/marksman part of the game - in "sneak" mode 3x damage from afar, 6x damage if you can stab/slash them before they notice you.

Anyway, much too early to give a full review. I am on the default settings the program set for me - the quality is on high, I think, with a resolution of 800x600, which looks fine. You can set it on letterbox, which I think I might do.

I'll let you know what else I think.

[PsychoTechFreak]

Grass distance even has got its own optional settings:
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...owtopic=277929

Unfortunately the screenies of the initial post are too large, but it looks like you can customize almost everything about graphics.

[Caduceus]

I know, I am not dead-set on photorealistic gameplay. I played Zork, Sword of Glass and Bard's Tale I, for goodness sake.

I'll play with it when I get home. Although that will be put off as the wife is having a bad dog and bad toddler day.

[PsychoTechFreak]

I pity you.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

My copy has been shipped. Details to follow, probably after I'm over the cold.

[PvK]

Upgrade to ADOM or TOME?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Huh?

Anyway, according to UPS my package is slowly making its way accross the country. In the meantime, I've resorted to re-playing NWN.

Now, I just have to figure out how to scribe scrolls...