The Skyblivion mod for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is aiming to bring content from The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion into a much newer engine and the developers have just revealed a boatload of new content to the world.
The TES Renewal Project is a modding group that's keen on bringing older The Elder Scrolls games to modern systems. The Skyblivion project is the realization of those efforts, recreating content from The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion as a massive mod for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and they've now released a new video showing off some of their work (albeit a bit later than intended).
Check out the second Skyblivion development diary for yourself to see how this project is coming along!
What is Skyblivion?
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was a pretty popular RPG in its day, owing in part to its launch on the consoles of the time. The game still has a legion of fans despite its somewhat outdated graphics. A modding group called the TES Renewal Project has been working on recreating this game in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
We aim to bring the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to a new generation of gamers and re-introduce it to long time fans of the series.
The Skyblivion mod will also be totally modular, allowing you to pick and choose which components you'd like to install. The mod team is making their game in the Special Edition of Skyrim, although they've stated that they'll make an effort to port their efforts to the legacy edition of The Elder Scrolls 5 after the core work is completed.
Reviving Cyrodil
Oblivion and Skyrim use the Gamebryo Engine, the latter of which uses the derivative Creation Engine that serves as the backbone for Skyrim and the newer Fallout games. There are a lot of similarities between the two generations of this engine.
This shared history means that much of the Oblivion content can be ported into Skyrim's Creation Engine with automated tools. However, there's still a lot of manual labor involved in this aspect of the project — and that's just the beginning of the challenges faced by the TES Renewal Project.
The Skyblivion team certainly has a lot of work ahead of them. As one example of the challenge, the team has to recreate 2,663 interiors and 219 quests. In both cases, this involves the creation of a lot of assets, although they're getting a fair amount of help from the Beyond Skyrim team with some portions of the project.
There's also the matter of scale. The province of Skyrim is pretty big at 14.5 square miles (36.7 square kilometers), but Oblivion is even bigger than that at 22 square miles (57 square kilometers). That's a lot of content that needs to be ported, recreated, and properly arranged — all done by a team of unpaid volunteers.
When is the Skyblivion Release Date?
Although today's video has shown a fair amount of progress, the Skyblivion release date has not yet been revealed. This project has already been in the works since 2012 and we'll likely be waiting another year or two at least before a firm launch date is announced.
For now, you should keep in mind that playing this mod will require both Oblivion Game of the Year Deluxe and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition on Steam; both of these games can be purchased for a total of $59.98 or your regional equivalent. You can learn more about this mod and follow its progress at skyblivion.com.
What do you think of the Skyblivion project? Which other classic games would you like to see recreated in a similar fashion? Let us know in the comments below!
