The creation engine, a reusable engine from Bethesda that has been reused too many times, is an ancient engine with many flaws. And yet despite these flaws there is something strange and timeless about Skyrim, and it is because of its modding community. More mods have been made for Skyrim then any other game, the creation engine has been picked clean and torn apart by modders, and is quite infamous due to its many glitches and issues. So, while the engine supports many games, it should have been retired long ago. The constant reuse of this engine means the “program code that defines a game essential core functions” is the same throughout many of Bethesda’s games, resulting in many similarities and glitches between them(Pg1).
To generate a game like environment for the player to immerse themselves in, the engine uses “Havok Behavior” for its AI’s which allows the blending of animations with little work from the developer. This makes things like an NPC switching from walking to running seem much smoother and more realistic. The AI also utilizes a system called ‘Radiant AI,” which allows for NPCs to act and react with the world around them, making the environment seem much more realistic. For Skyrim, a custom-made foliage rendering system was used that is capable of rendering large swaths of plants without a huge hit to performance.
Deger, A. C., Guins, R., & Lowood, H. (2016). 25, Game Engine. In Debugging game history: A critical lexicon (p. 203). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
