Bonus Skyrim Xbox 360 Timelapse

By Richard Leadbetter Published 27 November, 2011

Keeping it Tamriel.

Here's a small weekend Digital Foundry bonus. Last week we published our Skyrim: World in Motion timelapse, based on 1080p captures acquired from the PC version of the game running at ultra settings. However, before we began work there, we experimented a great deal on the Xbox 360 version which we received several days ahead of release.

The work we did was abandoned when it became evident that the PC game would offer us improved resolution, superior visuals and greater control over the way time passes - meaning that a single shot which would take around 1.5 hours to capture on 360 could be acquired on PC in around a third of the time.

However, the fact is that we acquired around 25 hours of 360 capture across a number of different shots, and it would have been a shame just empty the recycle bin and say goodbye to all that work, so we spent a few moments editing them together to see what we could come up with.

A montage of timelapse shots captured from the Xbox 360 version of Skyrim. We aborted work on this and concentrated on the PC version so we could enjoy higher resolution, higher quality shots, and other advantages. However, it seemed a shame to waste so much time and effort, so here's a bonus edit of our initial work when putting the article together.

The original captures were acquired at two frames per second, with the video headers tweaked to run the clips at 60FPS, giving us an instant speed-boost. These files were then imported into Adobe Premiere Pro, where we sped up these videos still further by a factor of 500 per cent, giving the fast, dynamic motion we see here.

The decision to go for PC was the right one - we were able to get far more impressive vista shots with a much improved view distance, and the computer version isn't subject to some of the other limitations that we see on console, such as the selective anti-aliasing that seems to be wiped out by the processing of transparency effects. You can also see that even in this hyper-accelerated state, the movement of the dynamic shadows across the environments is significantly choppier than it is on PC.

Overall then, while the results aren't as impressive as what we saw in our final PC video, this Xbox 360 "alternative take" is an interesting companion piece - and in terms of its handling of the passing of time, its atmospheric rendering effects plus the beautiful Aurora Borealis, the console game still delivers some superb visuals and an absolutely compelling game world.

Picture of Richard.

About Richard Leadbetter

Rich has been a games journalist since the days of 16-bit and specialises in technical analysis. Commonly known around Eurogamer as the Blacksmith of the Future.

Read more articles from Richard by visiting the Richard Leadbetter archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 6 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • GrandpaUlrira #1 6 months ago

    Videos still don't work for me, unfortunately, on Firefox 8. I'm sure it's lovely though.

  • CFacto #2 6 months ago

    Thanks for this. As someone who hasn't (yet) bought the game, it's impressive to see the attention to detail the developers have.

  • Paul_cz #3 6 months ago

    Argh, my eyes!
    No wonder people are calling it an ugly game. They obviously never saw PC version.
    With applied few tweaks and mods, it is about a generation ahead of this aliased mess.

  • Phoenisis #4 6 months ago

    I know I'm probably gonna get negged to hell and back for this, but I don't see the point of these Skyrim timelapse videos. Don't get me wrong, Skyrim is a very good looking game (providing that you don't look at things up close), but speeding up the time doesn't really make it look more or less impressing. It's not like anything changes over time, beyond the sky turning and the lighting being adjusted.

  • TOOTR #5 6 months ago

    GLOL "Keeping it Tamriel"

  • Tiberius_Gracchus #6 6 months ago

    I can't watch any videos on eurogamer through my ps3 browser. And as my laptop is broke at the minute i'm missing out on thes great videos... shame.

  • Arsecake_Baker #7 6 months ago

    Like a pencil without lead!...Pointless!

  • miiiguel #8 6 months ago

    Can't watch any videos with Firefox as well. And IE just puts everything too big, has to set it to 75% zoom.

  • Rodriguez #9 6 months ago

    @miiiguel - That's odd, I'm on Firefox 8.0 and it's working fine for me. Perhaps there's something else that needs updating on your system?

  • Canyarion #10 6 months ago

    Skyrim is gorgeous. The only thing that they didn't get right is the water. Hopefully they'll patch it before I'll play it! ;)

  • hiscore #11 6 months ago

    Too bad this commercial only shows the good parts and not the ugly blocky and repetitive (texture) parts. Can't see why this is necessary really. Next the PS3 time lapse -or was it "lag lapse"- video? It would be a shame to leave all that sweet little footage in the bin now wouldn't it..

  • drhickman1983 #12 6 months ago

    I still think Skyrim looks awesome on the 360, it looks better than how my shoddy PC would render it, and thats all that counts to me personally.

    Is it the best looking game on the 360? No. But its the best looking game of this scale and magnitude, and the landscape is sculpted extremely well, the vales and mountains and valleys flow naturally, and different areas are quite distinct, without having jarring transitions.

  • Zaiz #13 6 months ago

    >_> So many people are bitter and angry about this game, it seems ridiculous.

  • SvennoJ #14 6 months ago

    Could you make some fly-throughs next with a mod to put your viewpoint on a path? It should look lovely as long as you don't fly over cities.

  • 43n1m4 #15 6 months ago

    Looks quite good. Will buy it for the Xbox360 a little closer to Christmas - and vacation.

  • wayn3h #16 6 months ago

    I can't quite remember the last time I got lost in a game world as much as I have with Skyrim's.

  • MerricK #17 6 months ago

    @GrandpaUlrira get chrome. I made the switch. Don't regret it! -.-

  • UkHardcore23 #18 6 months ago

    Have they patched the 360 version yet so we can install it to our harddrives?

  • metallicorphan #19 6 months ago

    I am on Firefox 3(had problems with the later versions,and had no problems with Firefox 3 so just went back),video played fine for me

    Looked great,i love the wind around the mountains

  • SheffAl #20 6 months ago

    More pointless Skyrim baloni from Eurogamer. Have you seen any bugs yet?

  • tossum #21 6 months ago

    Fabulous clouds darling, simply fabulous!

  • Phoenisis #22 6 months ago

    I know asking people to actually back up their opinions is usually a waste of time, but I'm genuinely curious: Can some of the people who negged please explain what makes these videos impressive to them? As in, more impressive than just looking at the actual game? Because again, the only thing the game has that actually changes over time is a simple and basic day / night cycle. What's the point of showing time-lapse footage of something that doesn't change over time? Imagine a time-lapse video of a blooming flower, except that instead of blooming it just sorta sways from side to side really fast. What's the point?
    Edited by Phoenisis at 27/11/11 @ 23:22

  • Zaiz #23 6 months ago

    @Phoenisis

    Because people enjoy seeing what are normally subtle changes in lighting throughout the day blown into grand scale. And even though there are tons of naysayers, Bethesda's engine is one of the best when its taken on a huge scale like this.

  • uninspiredcup #24 6 months ago

    You should do one with pc mods applied.

  • randyronald #25 6 months ago

    @Paul_cz Your words read like elitist guff to me. Of course it doesn't look as good as it would on a high end PC, but by no means is this version "ugly".

    I don't have a high end PC, I'd like to be able to afford one but I can't. The console version is a more than suitable compromise and still looks lovely.

    On second thoughts, I'm not sure I do want a high end PC. If the internet and it's infinite wisdom tells me anything, it's that if I own expensive computer hardware then I'm at risk of trolling forums waving my virtual todger around exclaiming how everybody else is inferior. Puh-lease.

  • Biker_Bob_1971 #26 6 months ago

    Post deleted at 16:59:10 06-02-2012

  • Phoenisis #27 6 months ago

    @Zaiz

    Fair enough, I can only assume other people have different definitions of "subtle" than I do. It's a basic day / night cycle. It gets dark in the night and light in the day, with maybe a hint of red at dawn. It was in Ocarina of Time.

  • Snake_2011 #28 6 months ago

    I'm using FireFox 8 the site works fine for me. why are all the moaners watching this if it is stupid.

  • Okamiwolf #29 6 months ago

    Have this game on PC and 360. The 360 version always look too dark no matter how I adjust in-game settings or my monitor. Raising brightness too much just washes out the picture. Also, the extra grass draw distance when you look out over a vista is quite noticeable on PC. On the other hand, at least the 360 version runs well without hitching and freezing in outdoor areas from time to time or locking my computer up entirely. I guess on balance I'd still rather have a game that looks beautiful when it actually works than a compromise just for the sake of stability, so gonna sell the 360 one now and hope that one day they can patch the crashing and pausing problems many people are having on PC.

    Lastly, hate to be the one to say it but there's a better timelapse vid than either of Eurogamer's efforts on youtube made by one guy. It's more artistically ambitious with sweeping, yet steady camera movements over the terrain.
    Edited by Okamiwolf at 28/11/11 @ 06:25

  • Beek4257 #30 6 months ago

    @Phoenisis
    I don't own Skyrim and I probably never will (not enough time), but I still like to watch these vids. Just to see what all the fuzz is about (I think it looks nice btw).
    But I didn't neg you though. I don't neg people for having an opinion.

  • Ptarmigandalf #31 6 months ago

    The volumetric fog banks in this game are amazing.

  • stu9898 #32 6 months ago

    I think the game looks great on the 360, its not got the texture detail of say GOW3 or Forza 4 but the scale of the world is amazing and never thought they would ever be able to have it running on 6 year old hardware, don't think it holds together as well as Red Dead Redemptions gaming world as it has bugs and some screen tear, but shear scale of architecture, mountains, rivers etc cannot be beaten.

    I understand why some pS3 owners would be angry with the save game bug and hopefully the patch will sort this, but I have not had anything that spoils the experience myself.

  • username84 #33 6 months ago

    @Paul_cz

    Chill.... the xbox is five years old. I think it's pretty darn impressive you can get a game looking that good on tech that old. I doubt a five year old PC costing £150 quid could run pacman let alone the Xbox version of Skyrim.

  • Snufkin #34 6 months ago

    I've been really impressed by the way the game looks on Xbox, yes it's not as nice as PC in some respects, but it still looks lovely.

    However, I'm really annoyed that I've been playing the game for about 30 hours and STILL havenb't seen any aurora borealis/Northern Lights! Is there a best time or place to see them????

  • Quixz #35 6 months ago

    The soundtrack is just amazing!

  • Bigglesworth #36 6 months ago

    Very odd how it was hard to discern any dynamic shadows, outside of a few scenes in the last 40 seconds or so. They seemed much more prominent in the first video - is a PC/console difference?

    And nice as these timelapses are, for me it mainly served to highlight the artificial nature of the directional light from the sun. Odd that they would simulate the planet's rotation enough to move the stars and move the moons in arcs, yet not curve the path of the sun.

  • arremelle #37 6 months ago

    this is absolutely superb, thanks Eurogamer and Digital Foundry for making this. Really shows off the clouds and northern lights.

    On the flip-side , it also highlights some elements that can be improved when more powerful console h/w is available (such as water direction, swaying trees with wind (I didnt see any if there is) ).

  • Phoenisis #38 6 months ago

    @Beek4257

    Sure, I can definitely see the point for someone who doesn't have the game already, as they do show off a lot of neat-looking locations.

  • Ota #39 6 months ago

    Dat eek-box..
    I know the money is on the consoles, but this time the joke is also.

  • Kaminari #40 6 months ago

    Of course, the main difference between the two videos is that the picture is rendered in real-time on the X360 (what you see here is what you get in the game), while the PC capture at ultra settings is essentially unplayable on any mainstream system and only provides a "best case scenario".