Pc = Full Shadows, Xbox = No Shadows? Options

[Infiltrator]

Let me first say that you should have seen the E3 20 min showcase movie in order to fully be able to participate in this topic, but I suspect a lot of us did, so here's what's up:

The brakedown - two videos, one from the PC showcase at E3 (the one that's been leaked around) and the other, released from Gamespot right here (marked as "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Developer Interview", first one from the top). Seemingly the same showcase, but, if you look at the xbox version, there are absolutely no shadows whatsoever by the chains or by the skull / ribcage.

Figures I guess, the shadows, especially dynamic ones, and then softened up consecutively, eat up quite a bit of video memory and the developers need oblivion to run as fluid as possible on a console. Thoughts?

[RobRendell]

Actually, I just went back and re-watched the demo (which is definitely PC-based), and apart from the chains and bones in the original cell, I didn't see many dynamic shadows in that video, either. None of the following characters I checked cast shadows: The deer in the forest, the warrior defending the ruin, the zombies, skeletons and lich in the dungeon, the player character when Todd demonstrated 3rd person view, the people walking around Chorral in daylight...

However, the bookshop owner and Thunder the dog cast shadows. Hmm.

I wonder if maybe the game is doing some sort of FPS optimization, dynamically dropping the shadows when the demand from other systems is getting too large? In the bookshop, there are only two NPCs, so it can afford to draw shadows, but in the dungeons there are lots and it can't?

This post has been edited by RobRendell: Oct 7 2005, 01:25 AM