A demonstration of how mods can make Skyrim look like.

[RobustTurd]

After a thorough investigation as to what mods I should use to improve Skyrim, I came up with a bunch, and this is how the game looks before and after installing them. (For now I just have this one screenshot comparison which is of course quite unrepresentative of the whole Skyrim world).

 

Before:

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/oo246/Ilwuen/ScreenShot5.jpg

 

After:

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/oo246/Ilwuen/ScreenShot8.jpg

 

Installed mods that have an effect on the view in the screen shots:

 

Realistic lighting with customization - Affects the overall lighting conditions (f.ex amount of ambient lighting, brightness, light color etc.).

 

Tobes Highres Textures - Changes the texture of furniture to high resolution.

 

Static mesh improvements - Changes the models to high polygon versions. Means that apples and potates are more round than angular now. See the pictures.

 

More Dynamic Shadows and Striping Fix - Makes all light sources cast shadows. See how the drawer casts a shadow over the barrels and the wall. The light source is a torch outside of view. Without this mod for example the fire in Dragonsreach doesn't make any shadows. Thats what lead me to seek for a mod like this.

 

This is just to demonstrate what you can achieve with only a few well-picked mods that suit their purpose and have a very tolerable FPS hit.

 

Cheers

Edited June 26, 2012 by Ilwuen

[Dhegonus]

nice, but in most cases you can just get the same effects by just turning the brightness up a few notches haha :)

 

but nice mods nonetheless :)

[kevkiev]

I have the mods you mention except for realistic lighting, and your point is well taken. I've spent a ton of time looking at all sorts of texture/mesh mods and have an absolute boatload installed. I know that's not, on the surface, congruous with your "a few well placed" comment but it actually is. Each one serves a particular purpose and it's really a case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. Having a stunningly beautiful environment really makes all the difference in Skyrim for me. From Willow83's HD bugs (so awesome) to RazorFX's Ruins retextures to Horroview's sexified series to the retextured books... etc etc. (Not to mention the FXAA I have, URWL, shadow striping fix and that kind of thing.) I doubt very much I'd play this game near as much as I do without a total overhaul of the visuals.

 

Trouble is, the few remaining vanilla items I have REALLY stand out. He says, down on his knees, BEGGING for someone to retexture the dwemer clutter. (I'm okay with bowls and some other stuff - just need the gawdawful vanilla solid metal, metal plates, levers, that big ugly Dwemer bronze head on the loading screen - that kind of thing.)

[Tamb0]

The bottom effect is what everybody nowdays is used to...electric lighting (white light).

 

The era that Skyrim is set in, lighting way supplied by candlelight and fire, making the top screenshot more realistic for the era.

 

My opinion :D