Skyrim uses a clever trick to make the game world feel a bit fuller. Simply repurpose cabinets and bury them.
Filling large game worlds with life and enough objects is not easy. A highly sophisticated world like Skyrim requires a tremendous number of objects – in other words, “assets” that can fill the world. Every object in a house, every tree, every rock, every chair – everything needs to be created first, consuming development time.
With one trick, it seems that Skyrim saved a bit of time and money. Because buried cabinets are perfect as small tables.
What has been discovered? A while ago, developer David Amador on X / Twitter showed that Skyrim employs a simple trick. The little side tables that can be found throughout the world of Skyrim are actually not tables at all.
The developers simply took the cabinets and buried them in the ground so that only the top half protrudes above the surface. The rest is sunk into the ground.
Normally, this wouldn’t even be noticeable. It is only visible when you rotate the camera to “clip through the ground” – either through a glitch, mods, or very skillful character movement. Therefore, it usually goes unnoticed.
And from now on, you will never look at the little tables the same way again. Sorry.
Is this normal? Although it may surprise some: such an approach is normal in game development. Creating assets like furniture, trees, or other environmental objects takes a lot of time. It’s nearly impossible to make an entire game world “complete” so that it consists solely of unique objects. Typically, assets are reused multiple times. That’s why forests often consist of 5-10 different trees that are copied and reused repeatedly.
It’s also not unusual for assets to be creatively repurposed when feasible, even if the options are more limited. It’s rare for it to fit as well as in Skyrim with the cabinets and tables. You can enhance Skyrim a bit with these 5 mods that improve the game.
What do you think of this approach? Clever and efficient, as it fits perfectly? Or simply “lazy” and lacking care?
