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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Console Performance discussion

Mr Pockets said:
So all these issues seem so random for some people. I don't get it.

I can see people playing 360 version with no bugs, lag, tearing etc and then the next person has all three and more. Install, no install, you have happy and unhappy people on both sides.

Same with the PS3. Hours of playing with no issues (the only constant seems to be lighting) and then others saying it is almost unplayable.

I just watched almost 2 hours of PS3 stream last night and never saw any issues. Then I watch the vids linked here and they are plagued with them.

How can so many people have so many different experiences.

Sounds like it is system related in some way (age of system, firmware, memory usage, etc)...what else could it be?

Color me confused!
Like some people already mention it seems long play sections causes the framerate to suffer.

HamPster PamPster said:
It sucks to see all the poor impressions of the PS3 version

To anyone who has played both, how would the PS3 performance of Skyrim compare to Two Worlds II on the PS3? Loved the game, but it had its fair share of performance issues and I don't know if I want to play something that runs worse
Huh? most here are positive.
 
Picked it up on 11-11 for 360. Installed to the HDD, started the game the opening sequence glitched and no one was in the wagons!! We were all there standing outside the wagons with the wagon audio playing. Restart. :/

Played for about an hour... boom texture issue. Save, dashboard, delete install, restart. Texture issue resolved. :)

I've played about 35hrs since with no issues and the IQ is very very nice considering the scope of Skyrim and definitely a decent leap over Oblivions visuals and effects. :)))
 
Has Bethesda said anything about an ETA on the texture fixes for the PS3 and 360 yet?

I know it's the first working day after release, but I'm surprised these versions even made it out the door without having this fixed beforehand.
 
civilstrife said:
Same. Game is buttery smooth 90% of the time. Don't know what people's issues are here.

I should add: I have an older PS3 (2008 40gb model), and read this thread sufficiently spooked me into action. I've cleared out most of my saves as a precaution (plus I didn't need to keep 10 saves for levels 6-10) and will try to limit them going forward.

One thing I did notice was that the size of my save files gets bigger with each save. Why is that? I can understand why my level 1 save is much smaller than my level 13 one, but not why my level 14 'Inside Whiterun' save is bigger than my level 14 'Outisde Whiterun' save.
 
Dorfdad said:
Im going to chime in here. I have all three versions of the game. PC,PS3, and Now 360 (rented)

Hands down the PC version is the best but I will have to tell you I was more than impressed how the 360 version looks compared to the PC. Mind you I have a PC with a 570GTX and playing on ULTRA the PS3 version looks nothing like it Blurry textures and washed out looking. The 360 is damn close to the PC with some major benefits over the PS3 version.

What I noticed was on the PS3 everything took longer to do. Menu's loading, saving, and entering areas, even conversations. It seemed like I had to walk up and wait 2-3 seconds before someone would talk. When in dungeons the PS3 version looks great however but once your out in the sunlight it looks less impressive and everything has a shine to it. Shadows are horrible if you want an example go to Riverwood and look at the old lady at the entrance look at here face and look at the quality of the neckline and the shadows OUCH!!!!!!

Now if you have a 360 do the same and it looks night and day and closer to the PC. The 360 loads levels in 1/3 of the time as the PS3 enter rooms take like 2 seconds vs 8-10 for ps3 (small issues but still slower) The 360 version seems crisper as well. I did notice some screen tearing but Bethesda has said they are fixing that so I'm not worried.

Im no hater of the PS3 in fact I have 90% of my game on there, but for me Skyrim on PS3 is the worst version. 360 is the best console version and the PC is of course even better.

I will try to take some pictures and post them though I only have a iPhone and the quality with lighting and as nice.

Needless to say I will be selling my PS3 version and buying it on 360. It's that much better IMOH.

I went out and traded my PS3 version for an 360 copy this morning partially based on your post, and I'm happy to say that it was the right decision. The difference between the two versions is like night and day.

Wish I could've kept the ps3 version but (in my opinion) the difference is just to great to ignore.
 
Oh ffs, ive just got the texture problem, strange thing is im playing it off the disc. New gears 320gig 360 new dash beta game running off disc. Its fucking horrid and still there after i turned it off and turned it back on again arggghhhhhhh.
 
madmackem said:
Oh ffs, ive just got the texture problem, strange thing is im playing it off the disc. New gears 320gig 360 new dash beta game running off disc. Its fucking horrid and still there after i turned it off and turned it back on again arggghhhhhhh.

Tried clearing the cache?
 
Been playing the PS3 version of this game over the weekend and so far I haven't had any of the major issues people are referring to. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones or don't know what to look for, but the only issue I've seen so far has been the menu lag when I go to level up or select items, I have to push the stick twice in the direction because it doesn't respond the first time. Have the problems really been that bad for others that they feel the need to switch?
 
SpecX said:
Been playing the PS3 version of this game over the weekend and so far I haven't had any of the major issues people are referring to. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones or don't know what to look for, but the only issue I've seen so far has been the menu lag when I go to level up or select items, I have to push the stick twice in the direction because it doesn't respond the first time. Have the problems really been that bad for others that they feel the need to switch?
The 360 texture glitch drove me to try it on PC, and once I did, I couldn't go back.
Looks amazing, even running on my old-ass card.

On that menu, I think I push the stick once in whatever direction and then select with the A button (360 controller, X on PS3) instead of pushing the direction again.
 
Dorfdad said:
the PS3 version looks nothing like it Blurry textures and washed out looking.

Sorry to keep repeating this, but nothing on the PS3 version should look blurry. Everything should be sharp. Pores in peoples faces. Scars and hairs should all look real, and very detailed, etc. If you're noticing anything that looks even remotely blurry, it's because Bethesda needs to fix the texturing bug.

For the rest, can't really speak to it. If it is that much faster, it may be a major deciding factor.
 
The framerate suck balls on ps3, it's almost never at 30fps when I'm running through weather effects, I'll try deleting some saves later.
 
Philthy said:
Sorry to keep repeating this, but nothing on the PS3 version should look blurry. Everything should be sharp. Pores in peoples faces. Scars and hairs should all look real, and very detailed, etc. If you're noticing anything that looks even remotely blurry, it's because Bethesda needs to fix the texturing bug.

For the rest, can't really speak to it. If it is that much faster, it may be a major deciding factor.

It's relative, of course - it didn't look blurry to me before I bought the 360 version, but in comparison it's hazy and washed out.
 
I wonder how many of these issues can be due to wear and tear on each individuals systems?

For example, a few months back, I was having horrible issues on my 60gig PS3 with playing games like Yakuza, inFAMOUS 2, God of War 3, and some others. Horrible framerates, freezes, game not loading at all.

Turns out, my BD drive was on the outs. I ended up buying a PS3 slim, and haven't had any of those issues with it. The phat PS3 still gives me issues when running games off of disc, so I use it primarily for downloadable titles (I had just put a 320gig HDD in the machine, so I didn't want to shelve it).

So, yeah, that makes me wonder if some of the issues some of you guys are having with the game could be related to aging hardware? Granted, not all of the issues could be related to this (it is Bethesda after all), but perhaps some of them?
 
I wonder that as well. When I originally played Fallout 3 on my launch 60 gig PS3, I had lots of freezing and glitches like others mentioned and when that system died I got a refurb from Sony. I replayed FO3 with less issues and a lot of the issues I'm seeing about Skyrim, I haven't really seen, but I bet if I still had my launch system I would have the same issues.
 
Figboy79 said:
I wonder how many of these issues can be due to wear and tear on each individuals systems?

For example, a few months back, I was having horrible issues on my 60gig PS3 with playing games like Yakuza, inFAMOUS 2, God of War 3, and some others. Horrible framerates, freezes, game not loading at all.

Turns out, my BD drive was on the outs. I ended up buying a PS3 slim, and haven't had any of those issues with it. The phat PS3 still gives me issues when running games off of disc, so I use it primarily for downloadable titles (I had just put a 320gig HDD in the machine, so I didn't want to shelve it).

So, yeah, that makes me wonder if some of the issues some of you guys are having with the game could be related to aging hardware? Granted, not all of the issues could be related to this (it is Bethesda after all), but perhaps some of them?

Mines a gears slim so its only really about a month old and ive had no issues with other games.
 
fna84 said:
Are some of the weather effects missing in the PS3 version?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o921p4TIzH4#t=1m20s

Watch in 1080p...the rain drops seem to be missing...

Just did another comparrision before I trade in the ps3 version for the 360 version and found something else new. Look at the trees in the PS3 verswion vs 360 in the 360 the entire tree sways in the breeze and the textures are better. On the PS3 the trees are pretty static, and much less movement if any on some.

This make the world feel more real and yes I noticed weather effects missing or not as crisp as the 360 version.
 
Yeah, my 60gig was getting on in years, and it wasn't until I started having problems with LA Noire that I wondered if it was my system, and not the games. Since I got my Slim, I haven't had any problems.

I don't doubt that a majority of the performance issues with Skyrim is due to Skyrim, but because of the wildly varying complaints about the game, I'm suspecting some of it is hardware issues also.
 
fna84 said:
Are some of the weather effects missing in the PS3 version?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o921p4TIzH4#t=1m20s

Watch in 1080p...the rain drops seem to be missing...
Weather effect? You didn't notice that you are in a cave? The effect/droplets is there in the PS3 version. It stops after a while that's probably when they captured the PS3 version.

Dorfdad said:
Just did another comparrision before I trade in the ps3 version for the 360 version and found something else new. Look at the trees in the PS3 verswion vs 360 in the 360 the entire tree sways in the breeze and the textures are better. On the PS3 the trees are pretty static, and much less movement if any on some.

This make the world feel more real and yes I noticed weather effects missing or not as crisp as the 360 version.

PC has zero tree swaying in that video. Worst version confirmed! lol

Or it could have to do with something else? It's pretty obvious what causes the trees to sway if you have played that version.
 
360 version, I install the game and it still runs off the disc. What gives? If I have to play with the system noise the whole time, I'm gonna be pissed.

EDIT: Okay, nevermind, started actually playing the game and the disc stopped a minute or so in. Carry on.
 
cgcg said:
Weather effect? You didn't notice that you are in a cave? The effect/droplets is there in the PS3 version. It stops after a while that's probably when they captured the PS3 version.



PC has zero tree swaying in that video. Worst version confirmed! lol

Or it could have to do with something else? It's pretty obvious what causes the trees to sway if you have played that version.

Some of the weather / envoronmental effects are less pronounced in the PS3 version. The droplets in the cave are definitely there, but they're also somewhat lacking in comparison to the 360's.
 
so odd - my game's (360 copy) still en route to me and i still have no idea what the ideal way to run the game is.

guess i'll just install and see what happens.
 
fna84 said:
Are some of the weather effects missing in the PS3 version?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o921p4TIzH4#t=1m20s

Watch in 1080p...the rain drops seem to be missing...
I totally see some droplets in the ps3 version of that clip.


they are just a hell of a lot less pronounced but you can see them in that clip.



Still the game has enough game ruining bugs on both ps3 and 360 I would wait for a patch before getting ether version.
 
My experience: PS3 version seems to run ok for the most part. Loads in capital cities are just a little too long to be comfortable. Saving the game takes a little bit too long, the PS3 OS showing its inefficiency. Frame rate has some slowdown whenever there's a lot going on (dragons) but for the most part is fine. One thing which is weird is these random hitches that have plagued me pretty consistently, mostly in open country, the game will just seize up for a moment. Shadow rez is pretty rough, and the LODing is a bummer... making me wish for a PC... How I envy you, master race.
 
I ended up going with the 360 version on gut instinct, and now reading impressions of the PS3 version, I'm glad I did. Can't wait for a patch to resolve the texture issue though, as playing off the disc is noisy as hell!
 
TheDrowningMan said:
Some of the weather / envoronmental effects are less pronounced in the PS3 version. The droplets in the cave are definitely there, but they're also somewhat lacking in comparison to the 360's.

No, it's very pronounced in the PS3 version. Nothing like that video. Like I said the droplets will subside after awhile that's probably when they captured the PS3 video.

That cave is the first dungeon in the game probably 10 minutes in. You can check it out if you want.
 
I've spent a good part of the long weekend (ie. all of it) playing Skyrim on PS3, and I haven't had many problems. I don't own a 360 or PC, so I have no choice really.

I do notice framerate hiccups here, but like people have mentioned before, they appeared after 3+ hours of non-stop gaming. The game froze up once on me so far, which is to be expected. The only recurring problem I have is during auto-saves the game tends to slow a bit. But really, nothing has been game-breakingly bad. So if anyone is afraid of picking up the PS3 version, don't be.
 
I played on PS3 for about 16 hours straight (took one break and turned the console off for about 15 minutes) over the weekend and I DEFINITELY noticed some serious slow down issues towards the end of my session. The frame rates basically went to shit.
 
I'm playing on the 360 and the texture problem is depressing to witness, and the resolution of many shadows isn't great either, very jaggy.

Once, after depleting my magicka using the shock spell to fry a Restless Dugar (?), my character's hand looked like it'd been mangled in a thresher. It went back to normal after a minute or so. Odd.
 
Wait.. I thought the PS3 got good impressions, now its not? Should I just get the PC version? I really wanted trophies though. Does it have any screen tearing? That's the one thing I will pass a game on if its bad enough.
 
RPGCrazied said:
Wait.. I thought the PS3 got good impressions, now its not? Should I just get the PC version? I really wanted trophies though. Does it have any screen tearing? That's the one thing I will pass a game on if its bad enough.

It's totally fine. The IQ is a little softer due to whatever AA or filter they used. On the up side it has better AA than the 360 version, but personally I would take worse AA if they can get rid of the blur filter. The game is 720P. PS3 version has no screen tearing. I've only played maybe 3 hours total but I doubt the screen tearing situation will change.
 
I had to switch my xbox's setting's to "Widescreen" to be able to see all the dialogue, and i still can't see all of it, is this a problem for anyone else?

Albeit my tv isn't HD. :(.
 
PS3 version is totally fine. I've put in around 16 hours and killed about 4 dragons over the weekend.

The framerate is pretty good once you get past the initial story section. The image quality is also really good. Looks a lot better to me than the comparison shots on Digital Foundry. I suspect that the textures are the same resolution as 360 but some sort of filtering/AA is making the horizontal ground textures look more blurry.

Foliage on PS3 doesn't look quite as good.

If you toggle between these two images (PS3, 360 from disc) they're practically identical aside from contrast/brightness.

The normal mapping on 360 seems much stronger and looks really nice. Maybe the PS3 normal maps are a lower resolution or the PS3 shaders just aren't quite right.

Game is great though. Can't wait to get back home and play some more.
 
craigrushforth said:
PS3 version is totally fine. I've put in around 16 hours and killed about 4 dragons over the weekend.

The framerate is pretty good once you get past the initial story section. The image quality is also really good. Looks a lot better to me than the comparison shots on Digital Foundry. I suspect that the textures are the same resolution as 360 but some sort of filtering/AA is making the horizontal ground textures look more blurry.

Foliage on PS3 doesn't look quite as good.

If you toggle between these two images (PS3, 360 from disc) they're practically identical aside from contrast/brightness.

The normal mapping on 360 seems much stronger and looks really nice. Maybe the PS3 normal maps are a lower resolution or the PS3 shaders just aren't quite right.

Game is great though. Can't wait to get back home and play some more.

It always seems like the captures are taken for PS3 with RGB set to Limited, and the contrast turned up a few notches. The games usually never look like that on my TV. I have RGB set to Full, which makes, for my set, the image look a lot more vivid (I'm on a 40" Samsung 720p/1080i set). I also spent a good hour back in the day tweaking my picture settings (I used Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction as my metrics back then). For me, both my Xbox 360 games, and my PS3 games look amazing, but my 360 is the older model without HDMI, so I'm using Component cables. Still looks amazing. Sadly, my 360 Red Ringed on me a few months back, and I've yet to get a new one. I'm kind of hoping for a good Black Friday deal on one this month.

Still haven't gotten Skyrim yet, as my plans were dashed today when my paycheck didn't get deposited into my account like it was supposed to today, because of some bank error. Hopefully I should be able to snag it tomorrow. Still not sure if I want to get two copies (my wife is dying to get her hands on Skyrim, so I won't be able to play it for myself for a while. Or, at least until she lets me play it...)

Anyway, it does look like the main difference between the two is RGB not turned to Full, and the contrast being knocked up a few notches. The games I play on my PS3 never look like they do in these comparisons. Also, looking at the screens, the hands on the 360 version look more jagged than on the PS3 version. Maybe it's due to some kind of anti-aliasing that makes the PS3 version look slightly blurrier as well?
 
Figboy79 said:
It always seems like the captures are taken for PS3 with RGB set to Limited, and the contrast turned up a few notches. The games usually never look like that on my TV. I have RGB set to Full, which makes, for my set, the image look a lot more vivid (I'm on a 40" Samsung 720p/1080i set). I also spent a good hour back in the day tweaking my picture settings (I used Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction as my metrics back then). For me, both my Xbox 360 games, and my PS3 games look amazing, but my 360 is the older model without HDMI, so I'm using Component cables. Still looks amazing. Sadly, my 360 Red Ringed on me a few months back, and I've yet to get a new one. I'm kind of hoping for a good Black Friday deal on one this month.

Still haven't gotten Skyrim yet, as my plans were dashed today when my paycheck didn't get deposited into my account like it was supposed to today, because of some bank error. Hopefully I should be able to snag it tomorrow. Still not sure if I want to get two copies (my wife is dying to get her hands on Skyrim, so I won't be able to play it for myself for a while. Or, at least until she lets me play it...)

Anyway, it does look like the main difference between the two is RGB not turned to Full, and the contrast being knocked up a few notches. The games I play on my PS3 never look like they do in these comparisons. Also, looking at the screens, the hands on the 360 version look more jagged than on the PS3 version. Maybe it's due to some kind of anti-aliasing that makes the PS3 version look slightly blurrier as well?
Yes its AA. 360 version has less agressive blurring(actually non of it) but it can miss some edges. Honestly, it works great. I thought it was 4xMSAA actually...

BTW, DF sure took their time with article. It is most likely bad news...
 
DarkChild said:
Yes its AA. 360 version has less agressive blurring(actually non of it) but it can miss some edges. Honestly, it works great. I thought it was 4xMSAA actually...

BTW, DF sure took their time with article. It is most likely bad news...
It's mostly been because we only received our Skyrim copies on the day of release. I finished the write-up today and assets the day before though, so the DF article should be up tomorrow (Tues) as planned.

Came to 3400 words in total, which I hope does it justice. I'm glad I can now finally sit down and play the game normally on one platform @_@
 
Cataferal said:
It's mostly been because we only received our Skyrim copies on the day of release. I finished the write-up today and assets the day before though, so the DF article should be up tomorrow (Tues) as planned.

Came to 3400 words in total, which I hope does it justice. I'm glad I can now finally sit down and play the game normally on one platform @_@
K, thanks. It'll be interesting read, I can feel it.

...and who is writing ACR article? :P
 
Figboy79 said:
It always seems like the captures are taken for PS3 with RGB set to Limited, and the contrast turned up a few notches. The games usually never look like that on my TV. I have RGB set to Full, which makes, for my set, the image look a lot more vivid (I'm on a 40" Samsung 720p/1080i set). I also spent a good hour back in the day tweaking my picture settings (I used Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction as my metrics back then). For me, both my Xbox 360 games, and my PS3 games look amazing, but my 360 is the older model without HDMI, so I'm using Component cables. Still looks amazing. Sadly, my 360 Red Ringed on me a few months back, and I've yet to get a new one. I'm kind of hoping for a good Black Friday deal on one this month.

Still haven't gotten Skyrim yet, as my plans were dashed today when my paycheck didn't get deposited into my account like it was supposed to today, because of some bank error. Hopefully I should be able to snag it tomorrow. Still not sure if I want to get two copies (my wife is dying to get her hands on Skyrim, so I won't be able to play it for myself for a while. Or, at least until she lets me play it...)

Anyway, it does look like the main difference between the two is RGB not turned to Full, and the contrast being knocked up a few notches. The games I play on my PS3 never look like they do in these comparisons. Also, looking at the screens, the hands on the 360 version look more jagged than on the PS3 version. Maybe it's due to some kind of anti-aliasing that makes the PS3 version look slightly blurrier as well?
Just a note to anyone considering using RGB Full ... make sure your TV actually accepts it.

If not, while the image may initially look punchy and contrasty, you're crushing the shit out of blacks and whites. Say goodbye to shadow detail. Also even if your TV accepts it, if you're doing double duty with movies you have to realize your calibration will be all fucked up one way or the other. Movies do not use RGB Full (unless something has changed in the FW recently).



As to why PS3 pics look duller - part of it is 360 uses a non-linear gamma curve. So if the games aren't ported between the two with that in mind, you'll get a different image.

That said, many PS3 pics look to me like the brightness is a notch or two too high. That will noticeably dull or 'bleach' the image.
 
Desperately need help:

I began playing the game on Friday at my brother's place on his PS3, and played all weekend there. Sunday night, I saved my save files on a USB stick.

Got home, copied the saves onto my system, loaded them up, and...

It says I can play the saves, but I can't get any trophies, and more importantly, I can't save any progress. Basically renders them useless. It says the owner of the saves hasn't given permission for them to be used for saving or some BS along those lines.

Is there any remedy for this or do I have to lose all my progress and start a new game?
 
RPGCrazied said:
Wait.. I thought the PS3 got good impressions, now its not? Should I just get the PC version? I really wanted trophies though. Does it have any screen tearing? That's the one thing I will pass a game on if its bad enough.

I have the ps3 and the pc version, pc version with a nice machine blows out the ps3 version, I too wanted to play the ps3 version for trophies but I couldn't take the frames and the dullness, want to play this game the way its intended to look.
 
RPGCrazied said:
Now that many people have it, how's the PS3 version look and run? Highly curious.

i had both, and there's a sizeable visual gap between the two (360 is much sharper, has more pronounced effects and better colours). With that said, I was perfectly okay with the look of the PS3 version; framerate issues caused me to switch the two.
 
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