Skyrim LOD program

[KaizerFaust]

As I run through the tundra surrounding Whiterun I am bothered by something, things loading right in front of me, now I have Enhanced Distant Terrain already but that obviously isn't my issue, I recall a program in my days of Oblivion modding that scanned through all the files and was able to make so that objects buildings and terrain or what have you are visible/loaded already in the distance, is there such a program for Skyrim, also is there some way to get grass and terrain to load much further ahead of you instead of in front of you?

[LargeStyle]

All of what you're describing can be altered and improved by adjusting Skyrims 2 .ini files - Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini within your documents (games\Skyrim) folder.

 

The "main" visual distance tweak you can make is to increase the uGrids settings - if you're unaware of what this is then google will inform you of it better than I could. You can adjust this setting from its default value of 5 up to 7, 9, 11, or even 13, but I'd say just going up to 7 is a great improvement. You may find that people avoid adjusting the uGirds as it can / will reduce performance and possibly general game stability too. Just be aware that the uGrid value is saved within your save-game file and that if you want to lower your uGrid value then you have to do the following:

 

1) Open Skyrim.ini file (from folder path mentioned earlier)

2) Run Skyrim Launcher and set the game to windowed mode.

3) Run Skyrim and load your save-game.

4) Once in-game Alt+Tab to your Skyrim.ini and change the uGridstoLoad value back to desired number (has to be an odd number) and once done save then close the .ini file.

5) Alt+Tab back to Skyrim and open the console - if unaware it's the ` key (normally located to the left of the 1 key) and type "refreshini" (without quotation marks).

6) Save your game within Skyrim and quit the game.

7) Reopen the Skyrim.ini file and check that the uGrid value is still correct (using the new uGrid value).

8) Run Skyrim and load the exact save-game file that you just made.

 

It's a bit of a pain but it's worth doing just to see the extra eye candy. You may find other methods of reducing the uGrids value but I'll warn you now that if uGrids are changed using incorrect methods then you may not even be load a save-game back up again. Follow my suggested way and you should be fine (I've recently and successfully gone back down to uGrids 5 recently using this method).

 

There are also loads of other tweaks that can be done via the SkyrimPrefs.ini file. The grass setting can be extended distance-wise further than Skyrims launcher will allow, have a look at this guide:Link.

 

Another good tweak is to increase the viewing distance for full LOD trees which can be found within SkyrimPrefs [TerrainManager] section (increase the values to increase the distance which full LOD trees are seen for).

 

Also, I've just come across another Enhanced Distance Terrain mod found here: HD Enhanced Terrain

 

Lastly, I'll just restate that .ini tweaks can slow your game down if not break it completely so I'd strongly recommend reading some Skyrim .ini tweak guides via google before you go any further.

Edited January 13, 2013 by LargeStyle