Best graphics mods for Skyrim?

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tehruler

New Member
There are thousands of graphical mods out there for this game. What are the best ones, to improve the experience over the vanilla game?
 

DietOwl

New Member
I think some of my favorite ones that I've used are the generic ones.
Interface would include SkyUI if it counts, it's beautiful.
'A Quality World Map - With Roadsby IcePenguin' on nexus
'Enhanced Blood Textures' on nexus is nice too.
I also had this awesome snow mod but I can't find the name...:0
 

tehruler

New Member
I think some of my favorite ones that I've used are the generic ones.
Interface would include SkyUI if it counts, it's beautiful.
'A Quality World Map - With Roadsby IcePenguin' on nexus
'Enhanced Blood Textures' on nexus is nice too.
I also had this awesome snow mod but I can't find the name...:0

Cool I try out some of those mods when I get back from college. Thanks!
 

wiseman05

New Member
Personally, I agree with what was said above. Skyim HD 2k (or even 4k if your PC can handle it) makes the game look SO much better, really. There was also one as well I believe that was on the nexus that changed the format that the textures were in and compressed them down to about a fourth of what they were. It didn't really change anything, but it DID make the game run quicker, especially if you ran with an ENB.
 

Jxhn

New Member
Skyrim HD 2K Textures is a full texture overhaul that will make the game look better.

Yes! The Skyrim HD 2k Textures pack is by far my favorite graphics mod for this game. As stated before, it is an overhaul of the original textures and makes the game absolutely beautiful. Skyrim was slowly beginning to show its age, but the HD 2k texture pack makes it look like brand new. I would recommend this visual mod to anyone playing Skyrim who is looking for a pleasant change.
 

TheNatural

Active Member
Personally, I agree with what was said above. Skyim HD 2k (or even 4k if your PC can handle it) makes the game look SO much better, really. There was also one as well I believe that was on the nexus that changed the format that the textures were in and compressed them down to about a fourth of what they were. It didn't really change anything, but it DID make the game run quicker, especially if you ran with an ENB.

The only thing compressing the files sizes did was decrease loading times, it didn't really affect performance.

I recommend using the "LITE" version of Skyrim HD 2k Textures, especially if you are going to be using it alongside landscape overhaul mods. I have a fairly high-end rig and still use the light version, as does gopher.
 

_Eddard_

Member
Yes! The Skyrim HD 2k Textures pack is by far my favorite graphics mod for this game. As stated before, it is an overhaul of the original textures and makes the game absolutely beautiful. Skyrim was slowly beginning to show its age, but the HD 2k texture pack makes it look like brand new. I would recommend this visual mod to anyone playing Skyrim who is looking for a pleasant change.

It enhances the clothes and faces or it's only for the nature and buildings?
 

raze1907

New Member
I only use Purity which makes Skyrim look much better. Not really a fan of ENB - the improvement in IQ is not really proportional to the performance hit, but it's understandable since it's just a wrapper. The various texture packs can be good if you have enough VRAM, but keep in mind that they also increase RAM usage.
 

Arvis

New Member
I remember I used 2k textures, but there weren't too much places where I saw a huge difference. Perhaps I somehow installed it wrong or had downloaded some wrong version?
 

Personablue

New Member
Personally, I agree with what was said above. Skyim HD 2k (or even 4k if your PC can handle it) makes the game look SO much better, really. There was also one as well I believe that was on the nexus that changed the format that the textures were in and compressed them down to about a fourth of what they were. It didn't really change anything, but it DID make the game run quicker, especially if you ran with an ENB.
The thing is they eat a lot of VRam. The 4k can saturate your GPU if it's 2GB. 1GB GPU have no question of running this mod though. The 4K texture make the game sharper and beautiful but still it is quite easy to see the age. If your GPU is below 2GB then don't bother with the 4K.
 

FromMorrowindOn

New Member
I like ENB, the HD textures pack (I can't run the 4K though) and then a bunch of specialized aesthetic mods: Detailed and No more blocky faces, Realistic water textures, Skyrim Enhanced Shaders and Enhanced View Distance.
 

raze1907

New Member
I remember I used 2k textures, but there weren't too much places where I saw a huge difference. Perhaps I somehow installed it wrong or had downloaded some wrong version?

I haven't tried 2K, since my old GPU doesn't have enough VRAM, but texture quality not only depends on resolution but also on texture detail. Some textures in 1K can look better than others in 2K.
 

aquaticneko

New Member
I think some of my favorite ones that I've used are the generic ones.
Interface would include SkyUI if it counts, it's beautiful.
'A Quality World Map - With Roadsby IcePenguin' on nexus
'Enhanced Blood Textures' on nexus is nice too.
I also had this awesome snow mod but I can't find the name...:0

You pretty much listed what I'm using right now. I've been very slowly introduced to mods and I have a pretty beefy PC. I'll make use of it and try some of the recommended ones here. I remember I tried out a mod that made the skyrim waters look awesome. I don't remember what its called now though
 

erook7878

Member
I have no idea what mods were used, but I saw a short clip of some insane graphics. I've yet to figure out what the mods were. All I know there was extensive use of ENBs and texture overhauls.
 

SaveVsBedWet

Well-Known Member
I have no idea what mods were used, but I saw a short clip of some insane graphics. I've yet to figure out what the mods were. All I know there was extensive use of ENBs and texture overhauls.

Definitely a good ENB helps. Match that up with a really good weather and environmental mod such as Climates of Tamriel, plus specialty mods such as Realistic Embers, Real Snow, and/or glacier texture overhauls, and then of course mods for the character models, and you can get something really good going. My game had about 120 mods including all of the ones just mentioned but the ones mentioned made the biggest difference.

The other thing you have to do is use BOSS and WyreBash to ensure your mods are not corrupt and load in the correct order, so they override each other properly. That is a must - you have to organize them and load them in the best order for them to work. There's another third party app that's important too, but I can't remember the name of it for the life of me.
 

SnowAspire

YouTuber
If you haven't yet, look into Physics Extention, static mesh improvement, climate of tamriel, JKs Whiterun (he overhaul most cities and they look amazing), there's a lot that can improve you experience without slowing your computer down. I have a crappy Walmart rig with a very old Nividia graphics card and it runs Skyrim on ultra (I also have a ton of mods installed most of which are graphics enhancers)

Some of my gameplay here:
 

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