While Bethesda Game Studios is developing TES VI, modders continue to experiment with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Recently, Josef Rudberg showed gameplay with a modification that adds full-fledged snow deformation to the game.
For many years, it was believed in the community that implementing such a feature was simply impossible. One modder explained a few years ago that the geometry in Skyrim is almost entirely static, and implementing interactive snow requires a dynamic physics system. The game also has other technical limitations that a player simply doesn't see:
For [snow deformation] to work, all snowy landscapes would have to be edited, and depending on the implementation method, the game would likely start to lag terribly and/or crash every time snow appears on the screen, as it simply wouldn't be able to process it [...] So, while it would certainly be a nice addition, I'm not sure if it's even technically possible.
However, as Josef Rudberg showed, it is indeed possible to implement this. He explained that it is a module for Community Shaders: the game will automatically generate dynamic snow — the player will be able to tread paths. According to the developer, there are still some issues, but "the work is going very well."
This month saw the re-release of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Legacy Edition. One expert believes that at the time, its release alongside The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim negatively impacted the sales of the "Lord of the Rings" game.