Modding is a beautiful and powerful thing. Sometimes, it makes us embarassed to be PC gamers, but most of the time we’re proud to be the heralds of this notion. This is going to be a story of pride, thankfully, so no NSFW content here. This time.
If you’ve played both Oblivion and Skyrim you certainly know that there’s a clear distinction made between the two games, atmosphere-wise. Whereas Oblivion was very whimsical, colourful and fantastical, Skyrim’s down-to-earth and gritty setting have replaced it in the fifth installment of The Elder Scrolls. Alas, the technical advancement between the two titles is obvious – Skyrim is the better game in that regard, while most of the other stuff is personal preference. Now, some blessed modders jumped to the conclusion that Oblivion deserves the advanced techincalities of Skyrim for sure, and have embarked on the task of remaking the game on the newer engine.
Indeed, we’re looking at a community-driven remaster of Bethesda’s 2006 hit game. Alas, there’s a lot of stuf that needs to be done before it hits its completely playable 1.0 version. Skyblivion is said to be nearing a v0.3 build as it currently stands, but it’s important to note that there’s absolutely no navmeshing done yet. As some of you may or may not know, navmeshing allows the NPCs to actually move around the game world without getting lost or wandering into a wall. This task is obviously immense, as the map of Cyrodill is quite large and navmeshing is done completely by hand.
There isn’t much more to say yet, but it’s good to know that there’s a few souls who are tackling this mod with due respect. The mod is nearing its publicly playable v0.3 build, and you can track the volounteers’ progress here