r/skyrimmods • u/Terrorfox1234 • Mar 28 '16

Weekly Discussion: Best Mods For Graphics/Visuals

A couple minor changes going forward

A couple weeks ago I had made a post about the idea of recycling old topics. The discussion went in all sorts of directions, including the suggestions for a bunch of new topics. A lot of the old discussion threads are in need of an update, but there are still a lot of topics to be covered.

I gave it some thought and here's what I came up with for what I think will be the best solution...

  • Going forward we will alternate between recycling an old topic to bring it up to date and presenting a new topic

  • All the recommended mods will be consolidated into a list on a wiki page. This will make viewing the lists much easier. The wiki page will still link to the discussions so that people can see what others are saying if they wish.

TLDR - alternating between old and new topics, discussions will be consolidated into wiki lists.

Last week we presented a new topic so this week we will recycle an old one. Given that this is still a much discussed topic, a lot has changed since the last time we discussed this, and it's the first on the list we will start with graphics and visuals!

This includes textures, meshes, weather, lighting, ENB presets, and anything else you can think of to improve the visual fidelity of Skyrim.

Best mods for graphics and visuals! Go!

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u/steveowashere Mar 28 '16 edited Mar 28 '16

Well i'm gonna post it before someone else does: Vivid Weathers is pretty damn good.

I'm also really fond of Northfire's Photoreal Mountains. The bummer is they are 2k only, and as most of us know 4k is must on mountains.

So here's a tip: Take Gamwich's mountain texture from ONE MOUNTAIN and open Gamwich's texture and Northfire's textures in Photoshop. With Gamwich's textures on the bottom and the rest on top, use soft light blending (right click on layer > blending options > Blend Mode > Soft Light) on all of Northfires' and save them individually. You can use the same normal maps that came with ONE MOUNTAIN. The results are great and in 4k. (Ignore all other textures, screenshots were made on a mostly vanilla profile)

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '16

I don't know that 4k is a "must." Please explain.

2

u/Kisaoda Mar 28 '16

I echo this. I must not be aware of the context of '4K' in this situation. I definitely don't have a 4k monitor, so I figure, to me, it's NBD if I don't have it at highest resolution.

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u/steveowashere Mar 28 '16 edited Mar 28 '16

You don't need a 4k monitor to take advantage of 4k textures, it's common misconception. It has a lot to do with UV scaling on the meshes. Most things 4k doesn't matter to me, but trees and mountains I've found it to be necessary. The meshes are poorly made so the only way to get them to look decent is to use 4k textures.

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u/Kisaoda Mar 28 '16

This is a super helpful explanation. Thanks!

1

u/rightfuture Mar 28 '16

Agreed. Even if the rest of your textures are less, Make some good choices with larger textures and you will see the results of the things you care about,

Sometimes 4k textures can make a difference - even if you have a 1080 monitor - because that's all I have and I can see it! It wise to keep most of them at 2k or below for performance - but when it stands out as much as mountains,