Remember all those years ago when we first got a glimpse ofSkyrim? My word, but it was gorgeous. Jaw-dropping vistas of the colder parts of Tamriel were something to behold. Fast-forward some 13 years later and vanillaTES5has certainly aged to some extent. But there’s still life in the ol’ girl, yet.
As noted byDSO Gaming, someone has created a version ofSkyrimwith a graphical kiss of life, so to speak. Specifically, someone has ported the game over to Unreal Engine 5, and you’re able to now play the demo of this fan project.
The video above gives a taste of how much it’s improved the overall look of Bethesda’s aging RPG. The person responsible for the port – one Greg Coulthard – says they wrote their own C++ plugin, which allows it to read the ESM files ofSkyrim, which also automates “landscape generation and object placement” within UE5. You can download the demo from Discordhere. Just look for the link pinned to the top of the “bethesda_unreal” channel.
Just a lovely stroll through the world
A couple of things to note: first, Coulthard says their version uses the vanilla assets ofSkyrim, so it will still look very close to the 2011 release, just with much better visuals. Second, DSO notes that the demo only contains the world, so there’s no gameplay or RPG mechanics to speak of.
Basically, if you just want to have a leisurely walk throughSkyrim‘s land, wondering what could have been hadBethesda built the game in Unreal Engine, this is your chance. As for when we will have a full release of the project, it’s hard to say at this stage. For all we know, it may never emerge.
Essentially, go into this with an understanding that it’s more of a proof of concept than an example of things to come. But, hey, it’s at least another way forSkyrimto retain some degree of relevance while wewait ever longer for updates onThe Elder Scrolls 6.
