What are the best Skyrim graphics enhancing mods

[BillyBadAss]

I finally picked up Skyrim from the Summer Sale. I know there are a lot of graphic enhancing mods that make the water look more realistic and the lighting more realistic etc. My question is; which are the best mods for this? I've never played the game before, so I want to my my pants blown off.

 

[Jacks:Revenge]

I've tried several and I don't think there's a "best" of the bunch.

it really comes down to whatever looks good to your eyes.
here is a list of all the current graphics and visual overhaul mods for Skyrim sorted by the most downloaded.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/se...&src_view=1&src_tab=1&src_cat=62&page=1&pUp=1

most people (like myself) use a combination of several of these mods to achieve the best looking environment.

[screenshot]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8334/8386986487_e1fa4462a3_o.jpg[/screenshot]

[screenshot]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8367/8387271209_91df646f7b_o.jpg[/screenshot]

 

[HugoMarques]

I never really cared about graphic enhancing mods, I cared a lot more about making the game more stable, more immersive and practical. These will help you quite a lot, BBA.

These mods fix bugs, fix the stupid blocky faces and add a forgotten door animation:
Unofficial Skyrim Patch
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch
Unofficial High Resolution Patch
Animated Dwemer Lift Load Doors
No More Blocky Faces

The original UI is basically shit, but nothing that modders can't fix:
SkyUI

Finally some mods that add immersion, and the last one overhauls the civil war. Great stuff:
Book Covers Skyrim
Wet And Cold
Wet And Cold: Ashes
Cloaks Of SKyrim
Footprints
Civil War Overhaul

 

[BillyBadAss]

Thanks guys.

 

[Carbon]

Aside from most listed above, these are sweet:

ENB (119b for me), Flora & Fauna overhaul, Detailed faces, High quality Eyes, Enhanced Distant Terrain, Improved NPC Clothing, Lush Trees, Real Ice.

The "Ugrids" tweak makes a difference for me as well.

Using the full-sized textures for these mods need a fair bit of graphics memory though....I wouldn't start loading all of this up with a 1GB card. Many offer a few sizes.

 

[BillyBadAss]

Ok, so the game crashes right after the Bethesda(sp?) screen. I thought I messed the game up with all the mods I installed, so I uninstalled it and reinstalled the game again. This time with no mods. Same result. I figured this game would be playing smoothly this late in the game.

 

[HugoMarques]

I'm not 100% sure of this, but it might have to do with the saves and ini files that you probably did not delete. Go to the My Documents folder, then My Games and delete the Skyrim folder. Then try booting up the game again. This time it should work.

Peace of advice, don't install 50 mods at once, and be careful to check mod compatibilities on the mods descriptions as there are some mods that don't really get along unless there's a compatibilty patch.

 

[BillyBadAss]

I'm not 100% sure of this, but it might have to do with the saves and ini files that you probably did not delete. Go to the My Documents folder, then My Games and delete the Skyrim folder. Then try booting up the game again. This time it should work.

Peace of advice, don't install 50 mods at once, and be careful to check mod compatibilities on the mods descriptions as there are some mods that don't really get along unless there's a compatibilty patch.

That fixed it. Thanks!

 

[Nevzat]

go ask bethesda skyrim mod forums if you have a problem or questions you can get better answers

 

[Carbon]

go ask bethesda skyrim mod forums if you have a problem or questions you can get better answers

What is better than correct?

Anyhow, yes, don't load up a pile of mods without checking to see that they are playing nice together. One also has to consider the load order of mods (some will override others, some need to load before others...), but this is a bit complex to write up here. For this idea, yes, going over to the Skyrim Nexus is probably a good idea; not that we don't know, but why re-invent the wheel, so to speak.