Term Paper Outline - The Physics of Skyrim's Open World

1. Intro:
1. Video Game: Skyrim by Bethesda 2011
2. Thesis- As an open world game Skyrim needs to exhibit realistic physics in order for the world to be believable to avoid breaking the immersive experience, while still pushing the limits of physics to the fantastic to match the fantasy environment.  As well as predicting the actions of the people playing the game.
2. Skyrim as a real world
1. Character walk cycles vary, often based on character disposition, stature, and size but on the whole the walk cycle of humanoid characters is accurate.
2. When the player interacts with the world such as a timber mill or engages in combat they are able to feel the weight of the activity based on the character animation.
3. When you run around carelessly you are bound to knock things over such as baskets and pots, and the people around you will admonish you on your clumsiness.
4. The player can see and feel the weight of things in the world such as the speed of a flying arrow or the weight of tumbling timbers onto bandits.
3. Skyrim as a fantastical world
1. Skyrim is home to many fantastical creatures, such as giants and fire breathing dragons and these creatures need to move in a way that at least makes sense.
2. How would you successfully animate a creature that doesn’t exist and make it seem like it could exist?
3. Magic is a feature of the world of Skyrim and the movement and appearance of it has to have some sort of real world reasoning in order for it to appear natural.
4. The Dragonborn performing near impossible feats of combat such as  jumping onto a dragon’s head and repeatedly stabbing it.

4. Predicting the player’s antics.
1. Unlike an animated movie, a game is interactive therefore the designers and animators have to predict what the player will do in Skyrim on a massive scale.
2. Sometimes the reactions to the player’s actions are rather generic or fall under game mechanics which run the risk of taking you out of the immersive experience.
3. The player character often falls at a rather slow rate no matter what armor they are wearing, yet impact seems to be plausible for the height of the fall.
4. In combat, the player character displays various animations depending on weaponry.  The animations are the same regardless of race and sex, however, the weight of the attacks often feel the same from a wooden stick to a heavy mace.
5. Conclusion
1. While observing Skyrim’s immersive world it behaves like a functioning world in a believable way.
2. Sometimes the physics is broken due to having to take a generic prediction at how the player will interact with the world at large, but done so in a way where our suspension of disbelief will avoid us being taken out of the experience.