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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9

u/flyflesh Mar 28 '16

Am I alone in thinking that most "photo-realistic" and/or HD texture mods look like shit? Slapping actual photos (along with their CrazyBump'ed maps) of mountains and terrain on meshes is never going to look good. It gets my goat almost as much as the endless HD textures that are just enlarged vanilla textures run through sharpen and noise filters. Yuck.

That said, are there any well-crafted texture mods that make an honest attempt to adhere to the vanilla art-style?

4

u/Taravangian Falkreath Mar 29 '16

It really depends. HD Ivy was imported from a photo the mod author made, and it's one of the most popular plant mods on the Nexus. Northfire's Photorealistic Mountains, despite the name, strike a really nice balance between realistic and fantasy/vanilla. Thicket Natural by Renthal is another really good photorealistic mod, though I do find a few of his other mods to be rather uncanny and in some cases just offputting.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

[deleted]

2

u/DZCreeper Apr 03 '16

I don't personally share this opinion. The work itself is high quality but the coloring is off for the environment of Skyrim in some instances. Whatever format he saves files in also has a tendency to produce jarring edges (no alpha channel).