Take a look at some Skyrim graphics mods
One of the best reasons to be a PC gamer is modding. There is a passionate and dedicated community that helps to breathe new life into many PC games because of it. Yet while the scope and diversity of mods available are vast, we are focusing on mods that will improve a game's graphics.
Of course, we can't talk about mods without mentioning Bethesda's popular game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim, and previous installments in the franchise, has a very large modding community and a plethora of mods that enhance its graphics. Because there are so many different mods, we are picking a small selection where the changes will be noticeable while keeping the game as stable as possible. We're also focusing on mods that improve the outdoor settings in the game rather than structures.
The mods we'll be showcasing are Skyrim HD, Skyrim Floral Overhaul, Realistic Water Two, Enhanced Lights and FX mods, and Static Mesh Improvement Mod. These particular mods, we feel, will enhance the game in a noticeable fashion without too much fiddling, and should be easy for newcomers to implement. We'll be looking more at outdoor environments rather than towns, since we find that we spend more time travelling through the wilds than in towns. It made sense to focus our efforts on where we will be spending most of our time in the game.
For video capturing and screenshots, we went with the AMD Phenom II X4 965 processer, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 with the game's settings set to Ultra.
Installation of mods is relatively simple, depending on how you do it. But before you begin to download and install any Skyrim mods, there are a couple of things you'll need. A Nexus Mod account, so you can download mod files, and WinRAR to extract the .zip files.
When you've taken care of that, you can install the mods manually in four easy steps.
1) Download the mod you want.
2) Extract the file using WinRAR, WinZIP, or 7-Zip.
3) Extract the contents to Skyrim's data folder. In our case, it is located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Data
4) Once done, just launch Skyrim and choose Data Files. When you do, you'll see a list of the mods you extracted to the Data folder. Click the ones you want to use.
The other way to install mods is with the Nexus Mod Manager, which makes the process easier. However, not all of the mods available will work with the NMM program, which is still in open beta. For our purposes this is not an issue, as all of the mods used here work with NMM.
For those wishing to install a variety of mods, you should be aware that, depending on what you want to enhance, some mods will conflict with each other. In some cases, we've had to choose one mod over another because of incompatibility issues that caused game crashes. In other cases, we've installed some mods on top of others. For example, we wanted to have the best looking water possible (you know how much we love our water here). In order to do this, we installed Skyrim HD first, then we installed Realistic Water Two and replaced the water texture files that came with Skyrim HD. That way, the game still benefits from the HD textures Skyrim HD brings with it for landscape and flora, but with improved water from Realistic Water 2 (look at the comparison pictures in the gallery and you will see the difference).
Stock vs. Mod Comparisons:
We've provided a couple of pictures that show the stock version and final modded version so that you can see the differences the mods will make when combined together.
In the first picture, you'll notice an immediate change to the flora, with the pine tree becoming larger and more fleshed out (don't ask us for the specific variety of pine, botany is not our forte). Looking at the road in the modded version, you can see that the stones are dirtied up, or not as white, but can still be seen. The wall contains more rocks in its contruction, while the wood has been given a different texture.
Click on the image above to see an animated GIF comparison
We were psyched to mod the game's water. As you can see, RW2 reduced the wave's choppiness for this particular river, smoothing it out with a gentle flowing and ripple effect. You can also see the reflection of the trees better in the smoother water as well.
Click on the image above to see an animated GIF comparison
Installing these mods will take some patience and, depending on how ambitious you are with the amount of mods you want to install, plenty of trial and error. But in the end, it's worth it. Your "new and improved" Skyrim will look great.
What mods do you use for Skyrim?
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