Skyblivion, an ambitious mod looking to recreate Oblivion in the Skyrim engine, has just released a twenty-minute-long devlog video showing their "biggest update yet." The video goes over the hard work the environmental artists have done in recreating the landscape of Cyrodiil and its cities.
Released just yesterday, the third devlog for Skyblivion starts off by stating that there's still plenty of work left, but the team wants to show how far they've come since the second devlog and where they're heading. When it comes to the environment, many parts of the map are in their final phases of development. One of the wilderness areas they show off is the Fall Forest, which the team has made more lush and vibrant, as well as extending the area in order to "play a more prominent role within the already diverse landscape of Cyrodill."
As for the more civilized areas, the city of Leyawiin has been redesigned and rebuilt by referencing Oblivion's concept art that was likely unused due to technical or time limitations. This new version of the city has two large canals that ships can pass through as well as three distinct districts separated by said canals.
The old Imperial forts that make up a portion of the game's dungeons are being made with a kit that allows the team to make more unique locations. The interiors of locations in the city of Brevil have been finished, and the team is moving onto the interiors of Bruma and Skingrad. However, one part of Oblivion that's often seen as the weakest part of the game is dungeon design. That's why the Skyblivion team has put the best of the best into making the dungeons feel unique. One tool they're using is biome-specific tilesets that will, for example, help dungeons in colder climates feel unique to ones in warmer parts of Cyrodiil. For the team's next devlog, they plan to go into detail about highly-requested subjects like quests, game mechanics, and more.
Skyblivion does not have a release date yet, but you can follow its development on its official website or Discord channel. Players will need both Skyrim and Oblivion in order to play Skyblivion, as well as some of the DLC from both games.
