Even though more than 12 years have passed since its original release, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, this fantasy RPG has not stopped accumulating passionate players. Bethesda created something truly timeless with this RPG, and the community continues to show its commitment with all kinds of creations, from mods that completely change the game to simple graphic tweaks. I myself always have Skyrim installed on some platform, and I am not the only one who feels that need to return to this vast world of dragons and magic. However, there are players who take this passion to another level, and one of the names that stands out among all of them is Leo Torres. This 3D artist is not only committed to Skyrim; he is recreating the most important locations on the game map to real scale using Unreal Engine 5, and his work is simply impressive.
Leo Torres’s project is something that seems like a dream come true for any Skyrim fan. While many players spend hours improving their character or exploring new lands, Torres has opted for a titanic task: bringing the continent of Tamriel to life as if it were a real place. Or at least, a next-gen video game. His recreation of several cities and locations from the game is not just a simple visual update. What Torres is doing goes beyond the expectations of any modder. He has set out to create realistic scale versions of iconic places from the game, and not just villages or small places like Morthal, but also places like Whiterun, which now looks more spectacular than ever. The idea is to make these cities more faithful to the history and lore of the saga, and the result is so astonishing that it’s hard to believe it’s done by a single person.
If Skyrim were real, it would look like this
Whiterun in particular seems like it’s taken from a medieval fantasy movie. According to the artist, his vision of the city is much larger, as if it housed between 7,000 and 12,000 inhabitants, a number much more in line with the game’s story. To achieve this, Torres has designed hundreds of new buildings and recreated in detail the most iconic ones in the city. All this, using a combination of tools that includes Blender, Quixel Mixer, KitBash3D and Megascans, with Unreal Engine 5.2 as the base to integrate models and vegetation, and take advantage of the global lighting system of Lumen.
The creation process is not just about expanding the dimensions of the original maps. Torres takes into account factors like Skyrim’s climate, which affects the viability of agriculture and therefore the size and population of the cities. For example, he had originally considered making cities that housed between 20,000 and 30,000 people, but reduced those numbers upon realizing that the harsh winter climate of the region would make it unlikely for a population of that size to be sustainable. This shows a level of detail and dedication that is rarely seen in fan projects.
But Whiterun is not the only place that has passed through Torres’s hands. His version of Morthal, a small city located in the swamps, is another example of how this artist transforms the iconic places of Skyrim into something closer to a realistic experience. Using Unreal Engine 5.4, Torres has recreated Morthal with attention to detail that is hard to surpass. For this work, he used a combination of custom models and textures created with Mixer, all rendered with the power of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card. The result is amazing, and allows us to imagine how Skyrim would be if it were released today with the most advanced technologies.
Although Torres has recreated other cities like Markarth, Solitude, and Falkreath, what stands out in each of them is his focus on capturing the essence and realistic size they should have according to the game lore. The scale and level of detail he has achieved are impressive, so much so that it makes you rethink how the cities of Skyrim would be if Bethesda had had access to today’s technology when they developed the game.
Although many fans would like to be able to download and experience these versions of Skyrim, Torres seems to have no plans to share his recreations. This project is part of his personal portfolio, and is designed to create videos and visual content, rather than being played by the public. Still, the work he has shared so far is impressive enough to leave us speechless, and one can’t help but dream of the possibility of one day being able to explore these cities to real scale in an updated Skyrim game. If you want to see more of his work, don’t hesitate to visit his YouTube channel, where he shares his incredible recreations of Skyrim and other projects of The Elder Scrolls.
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