Skyrim is the game that keeps on giving. At this point, it feels like players have done it all, but we’ve never seen the fifth title in the series quite like this before. One fan is taking Skyrim cities and updating them to reflect what they should look and feel like when compared to Elder Scrolls lore. It’s an impressive feat and their latest creation revitalizes Whiterun by increasing its size, population, and appearance.
Titled The True Scale of Whiterun: Skyrim in UNREAL ENGINE 5!, the video was created by Leo Torres on YouTube. The stunning video showcases the entire city but expands it to align with how big it actually is according to official lore. It takes into account real-life population from medieval Scandinavia to adjust for city size and the people that call it home. Though, there are no actual people walking the streets in the video.
While it’s difficult to gauge just how large Whiterun or its populace actually would be outside of the game. Using real-world data, Torres came up with a rough estimate. By looking at previous Elder Scrolls lore that had 110,000 people living in the city of Daggerfall back in the third era, the population for the expanded Whiterun was set between 9,000 to 10,000 people. However, the numbers did not account for an increase of around 12,000 for those living outside the city or traveling merchants and those passing through. That all being said, in the actual game itself, only 74 people can be found living in Whiterun.
Of course, due to it being a game, making Whiterun, or any city for that matter, actual size could potentially be problematic. While everything would be larger and more grandiose, you’d run the risk of increasing load times, not having enough people to flesh out the world, and overwhelming the player. Not that it wouldn’t be cool to see each and every city as large as it should be.
The Whiterun video was created using Blender, Mixer, Nanite, and Lumen. Torres also created the entire city of Dawnstar. Seeing both in their full glory really makes me want to be able to visit them. Alas, this is the best we can hope for.
