I can't seem to find the right mods to improve graphics...

[thenormal02]

I'm searching for suggestions on how to improve skyrim's graphics. I can't use the famous Skyrim HD 2k Textures (both lite or full versions) as my system can't handle it and it keeps crashing to desktop after a while. I tried Cinematic Lightning ENB Cleneb by HD6 and Superl3 ENB and they seem to help, though when i put my character into dark places i can barely see what's surrounding me...

 

Any help is quite welcome.

 

Also, is there a way to use the Storm Call shout without wounding (or even killing) your companion?

 

Thanks

[ThyHarrowing]

Without your system specs it's hard for me to guess at what will or will not work on your computer. If you can't run the Lite version of Skyrim HD 2k then I'm not sure you should really be messing with texture mods but that is your decision, not mine, so I'll mention a few smaller scale texture mods I know of. By the way, you probably already know that Bethesda has released an "HD" texture pack of it's own. If you're computer cannot handle things like Skyrim HD 2k then you might want to stick with the official HD texture pack even though it is nowhere near as good...

 

1. Snow and Rocks TEXTURES HD (this mod adds the best rock textures I have seen yet by far. It also makes snow look a bit better on rocks and it makes dungeon walls and floors look pretty nice).

2. Better Dynamic Snow (adds excellent snow textures. The up-to-date nexus version is better than the older steam workshop version)

3. WATER (phenomenal water textures for all water bodies, waterfalls, etc.)

4. Realistic Lighting with Customization (great lighting and weather effects, but it will make the game way darker at night and in dungeons)

 

These are just a few I use and love. Again, without your specs I'm not sure about whether you can run these but they are all way smaller, simpler graphical mods than Skyrim HD 2k. Before you give up on Skyrim HD 2k, though I would make sure you are installing it with the NMM and you have BOSS to sort your load orders too. It is possible that your game crashed to desktop because of a load-order issue or improper install. I can imagine the mod would kill your frame-rate if your computer can't handle but to make your game crash totally is somewhat odd. Check into it a bit more.

[thenormal02]

Right, here's my system specs:

 

Win 7 64bit

2GB of RAM

AMD athlon 64bit dual core 4800+ at 2.51GHZ

GEFORCE GTX 460 with latest nvidia drivers 296.10

 

I will try the mods you suggested. As far as the Skyrim HD 2k packs are concerned (both Lite and Full), yes i installed and activated them with NMM. Funny thing is they both ran perfectly on my system, without any framerate issue. Then, suddenly, the game would crash back to desktop.

 

I'm also including a screenshot of my BOSS load list and the mods i'm currently running, in case it's needed.

 

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/8554/61946600.jpg

 

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7527/44025913.jpg

 

 

 

 

Without your system specs it's hard for me to guess at what will or will not work on your computer. If you can't run the Lite version of Skyrim HD 2k then I'm not sure you should really be messing with texture mods but that is your decision, not mine, so I'll mention a few smaller scale texture mods I know of. By the way, you probably already know that Bethesda has released an "HD" texture pack of it's own. If you're computer cannot handle things like Skyrim HD 2k then you might want to stick with the official HD texture pack even though it is nowhere near as good...

 

1. Snow and Rocks TEXTURES HD (this mod adds the best rock textures I have seen yet by far. It also makes snow look a bit better on rocks and it makes dungeon walls and floors look pretty nice).

2. Better Dynamic Snow (adds excellent snow textures. The up-to-date nexus version is better than the older steam workshop version)

3. WATER (phenomenal water textures for all water bodies, waterfalls, etc.)

4. Realistic Lighting with Customization (great lighting and weather effects, but it will make the game way darker at night and in dungeons)

 

These are just a few I use and love. Again, without your specs I'm not sure about whether you can run these but they are all way smaller, simpler graphical mods than Skyrim HD 2k. Before you give up on Skyrim HD 2k, though I would make sure you are installing it with the NMM and you have BOSS to sort your load orders too. It is possible that your game crashed to desktop because of a load-order issue or improper install. I can imagine the mod would kill your frame-rate if your computer can't handle but to make your game crash totally is somewhat odd. Check into it a bit more.

[ThyHarrowing]

As far as load order is concerned I would be inclined to trust BOSS if that is the load order it indicated. There are certainly those who would disagree, but personally I have never had any issues with BOSS's load order assignments (as long as they are recognized mods of course).

So I am going to assume that your load order is not the issue... If your game was running fine with Skyrim 2k HD and with no frame-rate issues and suddenly just crashed then I would bet it is due to insufficient RAM. I'm not an expert at all things modding or hardware related but it sounds to me like if go from fine fps to a instant crash then Skyrim HD is just demanding to much RAM from your system. In that regard, I think that the mods I suggested will be helpful because they are all much smaller-scale mods than Skyrim HD and, as far as I can tell, do not demand nearly as much from your system, even though they have some great textures. If you can't get more than a couple to work at a time I highly suggest Snow and Rocks TEXTURES HD be your #1 texture mod. Those hideous rock/snow textures just look so much better both up close and in a distance. I noticed Vurts Flora on your mod list. If Vurts is running without performance issues than I think most of these other mods I have mentioned should as well. I neglected landscape textures in my last post so here are 2 I use (however a lot of the textures in these mods overwrite vurts so you'll have to decide which you like more)

 

1. Bettter Landscape Skyrim

2. HD 2k Landscapes

[ThyHarrowing]

I can't really think of anything to help with the possible RAM issue. The only thing I can think of is using a skyrim performance increasing mod and to set down certain unnecessary settings like AA (if you already play at a high res like 1920x1080). But to be honest I'm not sure how much of an impact those tweaks will really have on minimizing RAM usage. They'd probably only alleviate the load on your graphics card.

[thenormal02]

Yeah i think my main problem is the RAM, i'll check on those mods you suggested.

 

Thanks for your support