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m3ta1head
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This thread will focus on modifying Skyrim for the best playing experience. Although the game has only been out for less than two months, the modding community has already released a host of enhancements, including texture and shader overhauls and performance improvements. I will do my best to aggregate the latest Skyrim modifications as they come out. Feel free to contribute to this thread by posting any up and coming mods or tweaks. Please remember to support the modders behind these projects-they pour hours of time into these mods out of complete charity. Donations are a good way of showing your appreciation for their hard work
Useful Links
Skyrim Nexus
The central resource for Skyrim modifications. Registering an account is recommended-it's free and will enable you to download without restriction. Unregistered users are limited to the number of mods they can download per day.
Skyrim Mod Manager
This software allows for easy management of multiple mods, and is tightly integrated into the Skyrim Nexus site. Mods can be installed, enabled, and disabled all from within the app. Highly recommended for users who plan to run a multitude of mods simultaneously.
Skyrim Wiki
Alternate Skyrim Wiki
These wiki collections feature a wealth of information, including details on quests, items, NPCs, glitches, etc.
Console Commands
This is a comprehensive list of in game console commands. In particular, the FOV xx command is useful for changing FOV on the fly.
INI Tweaks
Like previous games running on the GameByro engine, Skyrim can be tweaked extensively via config files. The most notable improvements include increased LOD distance and self tree shadowing/land shadowing.
GeForce Optimization Guide
This extensive tweak guide shows the visual and performance difference between all the in game graphics settings. Additionally, it lists a number of INI tweaks that can be used to improve visual quality or enhance performance. Although this guide is sponsored by Nvidia, it is not brand dependent and can be utilized for any GPU. I highly recommend running through this tweak guide first before you start modding your game.
HardOCP Optimization Guide
Another useful guide for tweaking the INI files.
PC Gamer Tweaks Article
.ini Tweaks for Shadows
Permanent FOV Fix
Some common INI tweaks and console commands
Tweaks for low end systemsHow do I disable the smooth mouse settings?
- Go to your My Documents -> My Games -> Skyrim
- Create a backup of the SkyrimPrefs.ini file
- Open the file, then scroll down to where it says [Controls] and find bMouseAcceleration=1
- Change to bMouseAcceleration=0
- Save, exit, and play
How do I fix the vsync ("laggy mouse") problem?
First, make sure that using a controller is not checked in the settings menu in-game. If it is unchecked, and you still have problems, follow these instructions:
- Go to your My Documents -> My Games -> Skyrim
- Create a backup of the SkyrimPrefs.ini file
- Open the file, then scroll down to where it says [Display]
- Add to the bottom of the section iPresentInterval=0
- Save, exit, and play
Is there a good way to cap FPS at ~60 without introducing the terrible mouse lag that vsynch introduces?
A few people have mentioned fixing the physics problems and y axis sensitivity issues by capping their FPS at 60 when vsynch is disabled. Basically whenever someone is in a house or a cave, the slightest flick of the mouse will send the view all the way up or down, and it's a little frustrating.
This mod on the Skyrim Nexus should help you out.
My shadows are horrible, pixelated pieces of shit even on Ultra settings
Unfortunately, it appears that the game's Shadow settings are integrated with each other. What this means is, the game's shadows are rendered based on resolution/quality in conjunction with distance. The more distance you have set your shadows to render, the less in quality the shadows are. The less your distance, the better the quality. You can change the settings with the instructions below to lower the default Ultra distance (8000) to something lower. Goons have found that 4096 seems to be a sweet spot between quality and distance.
- Go to your My Documents -> My Games -> Skyrim
- Create a backup of the SkyrimPrefs.ini file
- Open SkyrimPrefs.ini and search for the [Display] section
- Change fShadowDistance=8000.0000 to fShadowDistance=4096.0000
- Save and close this file
How do I change the FOV?
- Go to your My Documents -> My Games -> Skyrim
- Create a backup of the SkyrimPrefs.ini file
- Open SkyrimPrefs.ini and search for the [General] section
- Add fdefaultfov=XX at the end of the section (where XX is the value you want to change to)
- Save and close this file
- Create a backup of the Skyrim.ini file
- Open Skyrim.ini and search for the [Display] section
- Add fDefaultWorldFOV=XX (where XX is the FOV value you put in fdefaultfov)
- Add fDefault1stPersonFOV=xx.0000 (where XX is the FOV value you put in fdefaultfov)
- Save and close this file
How about some tweaks to make Skyrim look even more pretty?
This is a good one.
Fundamentals of Character Editing from Console
Understand that opening, or using console commands does not affect achievement triggering in any way. You can still get achievements while using the console without fear.
Open/close console: ~
Search help for a string:Code:help "string here" <0,1,2,3,4>
If the string has spaces in it, use double quotes. The search types are:
0: all
1: functions
2: settings
3: globals
4: other forms
To find the perk ID for the Block perk Quick Reflexes, type:Code:help "Quick Reflexes" 4
One result should be:
Code:PERK: (000D8C33) 'Quick Reflexes'
Leading zeros can be omitted.
To add or remove this perk
Code:player.addperk 000D8C33 player.removeperk 000D8C33
Some perks have multiple levels, each of which has its own perk ID. To use the Shield Wall perk, start by finding the IDs:
Code:help "Shield Wall" 4
The results are:
Code:PERK: (00079355) 'Shield Wall' PERK: (00079356) 'Shield Wall' PERK: (00079357) 'Shield Wall' PERK: (00079358) 'Shield Wall' PERK: (000BCCAE) 'Shield Wall'
To add/remove rank one:
Code:player.addperk 000BCCAE player.removeperk 000BCCAE
Be sure to add/remove these in order or the perk display UI might get confused. You may have to experiment to find the correct order.
Some other useful commands are player.additem and player.removeitem. For example, to add gold you need to find the item ID, then use that when calling additem:
Code:help gold 4 MISC: (0000000F) 'Gold' player.additem F <amount>
This method can be used to edit known spells and manage your inventory with a little digging around.
Help, there is some kind of visual effect stuck on my screen! (Blood, blurry and blindness effects on the camera; NOT on the character)
- In game, open up the Console (default key is ~)
- Type in one of two commands:
RemoveImageSpaceModifier(rimod)
RemoveImageSpaceModifiersCrossFade(rimodcf)
If the vision effect was two parts, rimodcf is probably the command you want. I haven't seen anything require rimod yet, but if the crossfade can get stuck I suppose the original modifier can too.
Is there a way to turn off killing animations?
- Open the console by pressing ~ in game
- Type set killmoverandom to <0-100>, where <0-100> is an integer representing the chance to do a finishing move (in this case, 0)
How do I shorten or lengthen the book-opening animation?
- Go to your My Documents -> My Games -> Skyrim
- Create a backup of the Skyrim.ini file
- Open the file, then scroll down to where it says [Interface]. If you do not see this, add it at the bottom of Skyrim.ini
- Add to the bottom of the section fBookOpenTime=XX.0000, where XX is the value of the opening animation (default is 1000). Most goons recommend changing it to 400
- Save, exit, and play
To make TES Skyrim gameplay smoother and to use more memory for it, modify Skyrim.ini with these:
[Papyrus]
iMinMemoryPageSize=100000
iMaxMemoryPageSize=5000000
iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=1800000000
You can turn off shadows in SkyrimPrefs.ini by editing the following:
iShadowMapResolution=256
fShadowBiasScale=0
iShadowMaskQuarter=1
fShadowDistance=0
iShadowFilter=1
fShadowLODStartFade=0.0000
iShadowMode=1
bTreesReceiveShadows=0
bDrawLandShadows=0
bDrawShadows=0
PLEASE NOTE
The mods listed below may not all be intercompatible with each other. It is up to you to determine which ones you can use together.
Graphical Mods
FXAA Post Process Injector
Enhance your graphics with FXAA and a variety of post processing effects, including bloom, sharpen, technicolor, sepia, tonemap, vignette, and more. No impact on FPS.
Realistic Lighting Without Post-Processing
Makes the lighting more realistic without the use of screen shader injections or other post-processing. No impact on FPS.
Realistic Skyrim HD ENBSeries
FFXA Injector v2.1 profile, ENBseries v0.102 profile coupled with TESV Acceleration Layer v0.3. Drastic hit on FPS.
Enhanced Night Skyrim
Replaces the star and galaxy textures with high-resolution night sky alternatives.
Better Blood Texture
Improved blood texture detail and increased resolution from 512 to 2048. Main plugin will adjust blood size, duration, and amount for screen blood, wounds and hit splatters.
Better Decapitation Gore Texture
Changes the neck wound in game.
Xenius Character Enhancement
Adds more detail to skin of faces and bodies, gets rid of angular shapes caused by compressed object space normal maps, adds a lot more detail to the eyes, makes the fingernails more visible, removes jagged edges from the lips.
Coolsims Hair Pack
Adds several new, high quality hair meshes.
Improved NPC Clothing
Retexture of NPC clothing.
Improved Dragon Textures
Enhances dragon textures so that they are more sharp and visible.
Enhanced Horse Skins
This mod replaces 6 main horses with improved textures and 2 new horse skins. Also enhances the default saddle to a higher resolution saddle.
101 Bugs - HD Butterfly LunaMoth
Retexture of the butterflies and other insects.
Skyrim HD - 2K Textures
This mod aims to redo Global Objects. Retextures things you see very often, like a Blacksmith, Farmhouses, etc.
HQ Towns and Villages
This mod replaces many of the textures that are used in villages and towns, such as Riverwood and Morthal, including objects such as the tanning rack, fish rack, various benches and tables, etc.
HQ College of Winterhold
This mod aims to make the college of Winterhold kinder to the eyes by adding new and improved textures.
Enhanced Distant Terrain
This texture mod enhances the distant low-detail terrain by upping the amount of noise and quality of the the texture maps.
Realistic Water Textures
Four different high resolution textures for oceans, rivers, marshes, and creeks, waterfalls, foam, blacksmith's trough, rain and waterdrop ripples replaced with high resolution textures, increased object, land, tree, sky reflectivity and image refraction in most bodies of water, murkier underwater view for oceans and lakes (crystal clear underwater is also available).
Skyrim Sunglare V3
This is a nice and cinematic sunglare for Skyrim.
Dramatic Clouds
Improves the clouds for rain, snow, overcast, cloudy weather, horizon, mountains and distant clouds.
Skyrim Flora Overhaul
WIP mod project dedicated to overhauling the Skyrim flora with more detailed textures and eventually new higher poly tree models and more variety of trees.
Hybrids Hires Plants and Herbs 1024 Retexture
High resolution handmade & homemade textures of some of Tamriel's flora.
Lush Trees
Fills out all the pine trees in the world by adding extra branches and needles to the current ones.
Lush Grass
Enhances the worlds foliage by making it look fuller and more lush.
Serious HD Retexture Landscape Skyrim
Improves most landscape textures, including snow, tundra, rock, leaves, beaches, etc.
Snow and Rocks HD
Enhanced version of the snow, mountains and caves.
Ice of Skyrim
Retexture of ice formations such as icicles and glaciers.
Re-Defined Dungeons WIP
Retextured dungeons and caves.
Glowing Ore Veins 300
This mod serves to make the game's ore veins much more visible,
especially in darker environments.
Super Realistic Ore Textures
High resolution textures for various ores.
Weapon Retexture Project
This is an ongoing project aimed to have a high-resolution texture for every single weapon in Skyrim.
Accingite Vos - Shields HQ Retextures
HQ re-textured from scratch prettier shields.
Deadly Spell Impacts
Fire, lightning, and frost spell impacts with their own unique textures.
Realistic Smoke and Embers
Higher detailed embers and smoke.
Nicer Snowflakes
High resolution snowflake textures, with 4 styles to choose from.
HiRes Legible Road Signs
High resolution road sign textures.
High Quality Food and Ingredients
Overhauls textures for food and ingredients.
Silly Level of Detail - Wine Cellar
This mod replaces the wine bottles and mead bottles in the game with higher quality ones.
Silly Level of Detail - Potions and Poisons
This mod replaces the textures for potions and poisons in the game.
Better Gold
Better gold coin textures, based on the coin from the Collector's Edition of Oblivion.
lockpicks
A retexture of the in game lockpicks.
Realistic Paper
Replaces the paper of books and notes with a more realistic and high res texture. Text is also improved.
HD Furniture and barrels
Retexture of beds, chairs, tables, shelves, boxes, wardrobes, and more.
Detailed Chests Texture Replacers
This mod replaces the vanilla textures for the common chest and the ruins chests to more detailed Hi-Resolution versions.
Ruins urn retexture
This mod is a complete retexture of pots found in dungeons.
Intricate Spider Webs
Textures to increase web detail. Cobwebs are a bit more dense and finer.
High Quality Grindstone
Retexture of the in game grindstones.
Ornate Saddles
Ornate leather horse saddles that replace the fur saddle.
N-R HD Display Case
Retexture of the in game display cases.
Better Noble Beds
Retexture of the green noble beds to a more appealing red and gold border design.
UI Mods
SkyUI
Mod that aims to improve Skyrim's User Interface by making it easier to use with mouse and keyboard, less wasteful of available screen space and nicer to look at.
QD Inventory
This is an interface mod, displaying the inventory in a table instead of the usual style.
Better Sorting
This mod takes several items, and renames them so they sort better.
Categorized Favorites Menu
This mod replaces the single favorites menu with several categorized favorites menus.
A Quality World Map - With Roads
This mod aims to give you a map with better textures and introduces detailed roads.
Immersive HUD
Provides the immersive feel you get from having no HUD, whilst keeping the usefulness of having one. It takes the permanantly visible HUD elements such as compass and crosshair, and hides them when not needed.
Extra Hotkeys v2
The primary function of this script is to add more hotkeys for equipment, spells, and shouts.
Sound Mods
Immersive Skyrim Thunder V4
Dramatically changes the vanilla Skyrim storm sound effects.
The Sounds of Nature - Water
Makes the water sounds in the game sound much better, such as rivers, waterfalls, streams, brooks, etc.
Nordic natural Sound
This mod brings new sounds to the game with better quality. (Note that users are reporting crashing, hold off on downloading this until it is updated)
Misc Mods
Please note that these mods are not just simple retextures, but rather completely game changing.
Tytanis - The Ultimate Mod - Crafts - Spells - Items - MORE
Extremely comprehensive overhaul with online play support slated for the future.
Skyrim Total Enhancement Project
Another extensive overhaul of Skyrim.
JaySuS Swords
A collection of 38 high resolution weapons for you to craft.
Weapons of the Third Era
A pack of 50+ new weapons (not replacements!) with Morrowind-themed designs.
Midas Magic - Spells in Skyrim
This mod adds 20 new and unique spell types. It adds beam, spray and projectile attacks.
Lost Art of the Blacksmith
Adds every missing weapon and armor improvement recipe to Skyrim. Useful crafting recipes for Silver weapons, royal armguards, lockpicks, work axes, and Imperial light armor are added as well.
3rd Person Animation Tweak - Sprint with Magic
Animation tweak to sprinting while holding spells in either hand, or both.
Realistic Ragdolls and Force
Reduces the extra force applied on ragdolls to a more realistic level and replaces ragdolls so that they are no longer stiff and fall at a faster velocity.
Performance Mods
SkyBoost R3
Boosts Skyrim FPS via replacing most bottleneck code parts in the executable at runtime (users report 10-25fps gain in CPU taxing environments).
Universal 4GB Memory Patch
Increases memory allocation from 2GB to 4GB. This should no longer be needed after patch v1.31.
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