Zenimax teases DX12 upgrade for Elder Scrolls Online

It looks like we can expect some DirectX 12 visual upgrades for Elder Scrolls Online, with developer Zenimax Online Studios teasing the upgrade in their ESO Live stream on Twitch. We can also expect the 7th core on the PS4 to be used, which should increase performance on the PS4 version of ESO, which currently runs at 1080p 30FPS, but with the additional CPU horsepower, it'll keep at 30FPS during intense parts of the game.

During the Twitch stream, Zenimax said: "Yes, we are planning on a DX12 upgrade and expect that this will give us a number of graphics performance improvements. We cannot provide an ETA at this time, but it is something we're working towards". During the ESO Live show, Zenimax also talked about the fog and limited draw distance issues, saying that they're working on it - but it's at a lower priority than some of the other things they're working on.

They added: "In certain situations, the fog is intended to be heavy and thick to contribute to the mood and atmosphere of the region. Aldcroft in Glenumbra, for example, is a spooky and moody place - as are many areas of Tamriel. The fog distances do change based on weather and time of day, and yes, we are able to change them. But, we have set maximum fog distances in each environment to hide other immersion-breaking issues such as LOD (line of distance) transitions, and very low-detail terrain, the worst culprits being the mountains and large rock features in the geography. This is an old issue and something we have been slowly working on addressing".

"Additional LODs for all of the environment assets is somewhat prohibitive, but we are working through the problem. We have improved our tree LOD system and our skybox system so that we can have trees draw further in the distance and create the illusion of extended background mountain ranges, so the fog distance in Orsinium (the zone for our next upcoming DLC game pack), is set somewhat farther back than other zones. We would like to go back through the older zones and update them accordingly, but that work is currently lower priority than creating new DLC zones", they continued.