Skyrim Special Edition audio problems to be patched, subtle visual enhancements highlighted

[Shawn Knight]

A remastered version of Skyrim, officially known as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, was announced by Bethesda earlier this year. On Friday (October 28), the game finally arrived on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC albeit not without at least one glaring issue.

In the original Skyrim, Bethesda utilized uncompressed .wav files for non-music and voiceover sound assets. According to Reddit user LasurArkinshade, the sound assets in the remaster are packaged in a .xwm format.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, the Redditor continues, as it’s possible to compress audio to .xwm without significant quality degradation so long as you don’t crank the compression up to insane levels. Unfortunately in this case, Bethesda cranked the compression up to insane levels.

In the same thread, a Reddit user that goes by the handle gstaff – believed to be Matt Grandstaff, Bethesda’s worldwide community manager – says they (Bethesda) are currently testing a fix and hope to have an update out this week.

Gamers have already come up with a workaround but if Bethesda has an official patch coming in the next few days, it’d probably be best to just wait for that.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition delivers a number of visual improvements, a fact that’ll no doubt be more appealing to console gamers with limited access to mods. PC gamers, meanwhile, have been using mods to supplement Skyrim’s graphics for years thanks to a very devoted community.

That said, there are some subtle changes that may not immediately be evident as highlighted in the video above from YouTube user Brodual.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/66855-skyrim-special-edition-audio-problems-patched-subtle-visual.html

 

[BSim500]

Can't say I'm impressed about the "Special" Edition. Same bugs. Same 60fps lock or the physics go wonky thing. Audio quality now sounds worse. Textures still look worse than 4K mod packs. Meshes look no better than old Skyrim. Still need SkyUI for inventory menu's, etc, to not look completely ridiculous on a monitor up close. Then there's the hassle of hunting down dozens of mods to be updated (and looking for replacements for those abandoned after all this time).

One thing I love about the modding community is choice. If you didn't like Climates of Tamriel there was PureWeather. If you didn't like Realistic Lighting Overhaul, there was ELFX, etc. Some always found one personally less appealing but liked the other and vice-versa. With the "improved" Skyrim, one size supposedly fit all. Except it doesn't. Some like the new colors, but for me and others, they've swung from one extreme (a little washed out) to another (Nord land in bleak mid-winter now looks like an over-saturated tropical rainforest in some areas). Think I'll be sticking to the original rather than spend another few weeks trying to get everything "just right" again.

Edit: Wonder how long it'll take to try and stuff the higher quality Special Edition mods behind a paywall again...

 

[yRaz]

Can't say I'm impressed about the "Special" Edition. Same bugs. Same 60fps lock or the physics go wonky thing. Audio quality now sounds worse. Textures still look worse than 4K mod packs. Meshes look no better than old Skyrim. Still need SkyUI for inventory menu's, etc, to not look completely ridiculous on a monitor up close. Then there's the hassle of hunting down dozens of mods to be updated (and looking for replacements for those abandoned after all this time).

One thing I love about the modding community is choice. If you didn't like Climates of Tamriel there was PureWeather. If you didn't like Realistic Lighting Overhaul, there was ELFX, etc. Some always found one personally less appealing but liked the other and vice-versa. With the "improved" Skyrim, one size supposedly fit all. Except it doesn't. Some like the new colors, but for me and others, they've swung from one extreme (a little washed out) to another (Nord land in bleak mid-winter now looks like an over-saturated tropical rainforest in some areas). Think I'll be sticking to the original rather than spend another few weeks trying to get everything "just right" again.

Edit: Wonder how long it'll take to try and stuff the higher quality Special Edition mods behind a paywall again...

it isn't fair to compare modded skyrim 2011 to skyrim remastered when it's only been out for 3 days. They already have mesh mods and the texture mods are on the way. BTW, the "unoffical skyrim patch" was available on launch day so those bugs you're talking about are a none issue. They are literally the same bugs you would have in base Skyrim 2011 and has the exact same fix as Skyrim 2011

The main thing people are waiting for is the script extender to be released on the special edition which should take about a month. After that things like SkyUI and many other graphical enhancements can essentially be ported over.

 

[Panda218]

I played about 5 hours this weekend of the SE version and ran into TONS of bugs that I had experienced 6 years ago when I first played Skyrim. I would of returned the damn version, but my ******* left the title screen open after getting upset with falling through the world and having to reload...

Bugs

- Horse carriage in the intro gets F@#$ed up and start tumbling forever... I ended up finally getting it to work correctly after restarting the game 8 times.
- Enemies floating in the air
- Audio skipping in and out non stop
- Scripts running behind on main story quest. It took me about 10 minutes to finally obtain the shout after killing the first dragon...
- Falling through the world and having to reload my last save...

The worst part is if I download and enable the Unofficial fix all the achievements are disabled

 

[loading]

I played about 5 hours this weekend of the SE version and ran into TONS of bugs that I had experienced 6 years ago when I first played Skyrim. I would of returned the damn version, but my ******* left the title screen open after getting upset with falling through the world and having to reload...

Bugs

- Horse carriage in the intro gets F@#$ed up and start tumbling forever... I ended up finally getting it to work correctly after restarting the game 8 times.
- Enemies floating in the air
- Audio skipping in and out non stop
- Scripts running behind on main story quest. It took me about 10 minutes to finally obtain the shout after killing the first dragon...
- Falling through the world and having to reload my last save...

The worst part is if I download and enable the Unofficial fix all the achievements are disabled

Umm... by any chance are you running the game FPS unlocked? Most of those issues are tied to 60FPS and physics calculations by the Creation Engine. Do not run a Bethesda game made with Creation Engine above 60 frames. Or do it anyways have a wacky time with bowls and spoons killing you.


OT: I've had two crashes thus far, both have been from doing a quick travel. Other than that the game has been surprisingly smooth. My cpu is thanking the 64bit executable.

I did think it was a bit backwards for Bethesda to outright block Mods from getting achievements. Especially since it's a heavily modded game. Thankfully someone came out with a day 1 fix for that. (Although I would figure people complaining about mods blocking achieves would also look for this but w/e http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/245/? )

But by far the most amazing thing to come to this addition is the rain occlusion. My immersion levels have reached new heights. I mean the updated Creation Kit did just come out yesterday, give the modders some time.