Looking for visual and graphics improvements mods

[HarryD]

What are some mods that I should look at for improving the look of Skyrim?

I'd like to improve the look of the game first and then see what other mods I'd like to install.

 

Here's what I currently have installed.

 

[panurgy]

If you're willing to put the time in, the STEP Project is a great place to start. They give detailed, step by step instructions on installing their suggested mods in order. I use it as a guideline, and don't use their patches.

 

If that looks like too much work, I'd personally suggest:

1: Skyrim HD 2K - this is the base, that will be somewhat overwritten by later mods

2: Vivid Landscapes - this or aMidianBorn last, depends on your preference

3: aMidianBorn Book of Silence - weapons & armor - install everything

4: aMidianBorn Caves & Mines

5. aMidianBorn Whiterun

6. aMidianborn Landscape - use parallax if you have a decent GPU and are using ENB

7: aMidianBorn Solstheim

 

These PFuscher Textures are optional, use these instead if you like them better:

PFuscher all in one: Skyrim 2016 WIP

PFuscher separate downloads by category: 4K Parallax Skyrim (you don't need parallax to use the textures)

 

Also note that you probably want 2K textures (or 1K if you have an older GPU). 4K is probably larger than your monitor resolution.

 

After this, you'll still probably want bodies/face textures, hair (KS Hairdo's), but I'll leave those suggestions for others. ;)

 

If you want great female faces, look at all of Bijin's mods. Males of Skyrim does something similar for male NPCs.

[HarryD]

Thanks. I was looking at Skyrim HD 2K.

 

Hardware isn't a problem. I have an i7 5960X and 3 GTX980's in SLI.

Edited November 30, 2016 by HarryD

[thestigma]

Oh... you just asked a HUGE question...

There are literally hundreds of visual mods that are top-tier quality.

 

But for the most basic of basics, you will be wanting to install some large high-def texture-pack compilations for a start - and then pick a good ENB (again there are dozens of great ones - and hundreds of mediocre ones).

Yes - I know you have the official highdef packs, but frankly those are junk compared to what the community has created...

 

Go on the nexus and search for "ultimate modding guide". You will find an up to date guide in 2 parts - the first covers most of the top-tier visual mods including recommendations and instructions (the second covers gameplay-stuff). It is in-depth (incredibly so), but even if you only pick the bare essentials from that list it will go a long way. I use that guide as a base-reference myself.-

 

-Stigma

[panurgy]

If you have 3 GTX980s, then you can go fairly crazy. I hit 3.2 GB of VRAM with a 2K texture base and some 4K (especially for faces/bodies)--also, I've been talking about and linking oldrim/SLE, not SSE.

 

I might not have been clear enough, but I'd install 2K as the base, then go for any one of the landscape options: aMidianBorn or Vivid or Pfuscher. Pfusher's has more than just landscape textures, so it's to taste, install it last if you like it best, or install it then overwrite the landscape files with one of the other options.

 

Also I forgot to mention SMIM, which is a must-have. You might also want Skyrim Flora Overhaul. If you want to go further down the rabbit hole, search for Realistic HD, and you may want Bellyache's Animal & Creature Pack. There are other options for specific creatures that are really nice, but Bellyache's mod is a good base. And there are clutter items (pelts, rugs, etc.) and other misc items that you might want to browse around for. I don't want to push a two hundred item list at you. :wink:

 

Finally, water is probably worth improving. All 3 of the big mods (WATER (SSE only now), Realistic Water 2, Pure Waters) are better than vanilla. RW2 seems to be the modern favorite. IMO, WATER and RW2 are a coin toss, though I like RW2 a little more. In some situations one looks better, in some the other does. RW2 has an extra Watercolor for ENB plugin that's really nice.

 

 

[thestigma]

For flora and grass the Skyrim Flora Overhaul (SFO) has been the default go-to for a long time, but personally I would strongly recommend you use ENHANCED VANILLA TREES combined with VERDANT GRASS instead.

 

Enhanced vanilla trees (primarily talking about the large lush custom variants) are considerably more detailed and much more dense, not to mention much larger (and no need for simply bigger trees).

It totally changes the experience of forests and wooded areas in a way that even SFO doesn't quite manage. Next time you go to Riverwood you will suddenly realize how it was supposed to look all along, and it's role as a small logging village is suddenly a hundred times more beliavable. If playing with real darkness settings, forests at night get downright scary...

Finally - enhanced vanilla trees (even the large lush custom ones) compares favorably to SFO in performance, so it's a no-brainer in my mind.

 

Verdant grass compared to SFO grass is also comes out ahead in my opinion, although there is a lot of preference in this (and there are other good grass mods too).

But for the same density and performance impact while remaining lore-friendly I think Verdant is hard to beat.

 

There just really is too much to mention it all individually. Use a compendium guide like I said, or else this thread would need to be dozens of pages long to cover everything.

 

-Stigma

[HarryD]

So I downloaded: enhanced lights and effects, Skyrim 2016 WIP, Skyrim flora overhaul, Skyrim HD 2K textures and the static mesh improvement mod.

 

I'm going to read about STEP before I activate any further mods.

[Novem99]

  On 11/30/2016 at 2:40 AM, panurgy said:

 

 

4K is probably larger than your monitor resolution.

 

 

So what? Do I only benefit from 4k textures when playing in 4k resolution?!?

 

  On 11/30/2016 at 2:40 AM, panurgy said:

 

I1: Skyrim HD 2K - this is the base, that will be somewhat overwritten by later mods

2: Vivid Landscapes - this or aMidianBorn last, depends on your preference

3: aMidianBorn Book of Silence - weapons & armor - install everything

4: aMidianBorn Caves & Mines

5. aMidianBorn Whiterun

6. aMidianborn Landscape - use parallax if you have a decent GPU and are using ENB

7: aMidianBorn Solstheim

 

Skyrim HD 2k is by that time a little bit outdated compared to mods like Noble Skyrim.

 

And amidianborn is good for weapons and armors but for everything else there are far better mods out there.

[thestigma]

  On 11/30/2016 at 10:48 PM, Novem99 said:

 

  On 11/30/2016 at 2:40 AM, panurgy said:

 

 

4K is probably larger than your monitor resolution.

 

 

So what? Do I only benefit from 4k textures when playing in 4k resolution?!?

 

Actually, yes... or something like that. It's not quite THAT simple (it depends on the size of the object and also some textures wrap or repeat ect.) but generally you will struggle to make use of texture resolutions that are larger than that of your screen, and even that is arguably overkill.

 

Imagine a 4k wall texture. If you walk so close to it that that single wall texture fills the entire screen then yes - you will need a 4k monitor to fully see all the details. If you smash your face into it and end up looking only at a quarter - you are still maxing out a full HD display's worth of pixels. Obviously this is a bit of a waste...

 

Now Imagine a 4k book texture (and yes, I've seen loads of 4k textures for itmes of such size) and imagine just how close you need to get to it in order to fill your entire screen whit the book, much less a quarter of the book. That is well and truly pointless.

 

So in short - people tend to not think through how much texture quality they really need. Size and how much you are likely to study it up close has a lot to do with what is the correct choice.

2k is generally a great allrounder for a modern videocard. Use 4k sparingly for objects that are very large primarily, and maybe splurge a few 4k ones on your favority vanity outfit for yourself or follower.

You can't run 4k for everything in the game anyway, so use your VMEM smart instead.

Just don't install 4k butterfly wing textures because "ermagerd 4k is bettar!"

 

EDIT: If you have lots of VRAM to play with - 4k/2k mixes are often a great compromise. The author then makes intelligent choices for you about what really benefits from the 4k textures and what doesn't and presents that as a ready-to-use package. Sometimes it's due tothe objects size, or sometimes the normal maps are not 4k but the textures are because the nature of the item is not super sensitive to the normal-details.

If you have this option (or similarly 2k-1k mixes for systems with less VRAM) this is usually the best option.

 

-Stigma

Edited December 1, 2016 by thestigma

[Novem99]

Sorry but that's just nonsense. I definitely see the difference between a 2k texture and its 4k counterpart on my 1080p monitor. Especially on big things like buildings or mountains but even on armors you can see it. Granted you have to get close.

 

And I'm using 4k butterfly wing!!!

Edited December 1, 2016 by Novem99