How to Make Skyrim Look Ultra Next-Gen: Top Graphics Mods for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim (2019)

Hey how's it going guys it's Nate here and the question I most often get asked in my videos is what mods are you using to make Skyrim look so good indeed in virtually every elder scrolls 5 video I post I'll end up receiving a good 5 to 10 versions of this enquiry so I figured it's high time that I finally get around to addressing it now you may have noticed in the past I've made similar videos where I gave in-depth explanations of my Skyrim graphical mods but all of that content is now woefully outdated and over the past 6 or 7 months I've adopted an almost entirely different set up one you guys seem to have noticed and thankfully liked for the better in fact what are the reasons I've put off on making this video for so long is I wasn't sure when or if I'd be making any big changes to my mod list however I think I've settled down for now and I'm pretty excited to share everything with you it should be pointed out that I very much consider my Skyrim graphics mod choices with a no compromises sort of attitude I'm trying to create the absolute best looking game possible period performance hasn't been a big issue for me I'm a running 220 80 TI i7 build some experiences in that department may vary but file sizes can add up so keep an eye out for that I've decided to organize the mods that we're gonna cover today into six different categories major texture packs important individual textures clutter enhancements vegetation lighting and en DS this is a big one and lastly miscellaneous mods so hopefully that will keep this video organized in on a nice pace despite all the mods we're gonna be discussing anyway without further ado let's do further beginning with major texture improvements I'd like to use Skyrim realistic overhaul as a base it's a massive series of texture packs hosted on ModDB that covers just about everything from roads to city walls it's hard to find a texture that sro doesn't improve radically and that's what's really great about it we're just using this as a base we're gonna be replacing a lot of what sro does in fact most of it but there's just so many retexture x' within this mod that it manages to cover certain parts of the game that nothing else ever thought to touch for our Hut's made containers the stuff that other mods leave behind is what makes Skyrim realistic overhaul a great base to start off with next I'd like to throw on noble Skyrim noble Skyrim is another texture pack that focuses on architecture homes cabins log houses that sort of thing the resolutions are obviously far superior to vanilla but the author has also crafted his own aesthetic making use of darker colors to give a more dramatic yet somehow realistic vibe that I prefer to vanilla then for landscapes my go-to is Skyrim 3d landscapes this is going to get your dirt sand snow coastlines all those natural ground textures and enhance them in resolutions as high as 4k on top of that 3d landscapes goes a step further than just painting over existing textures it also peppers the land with various 3d objects like pebbles new types of vegetation and even some debris to give the ground that three-dimensional look it doesn't cover all the landscapes in the game I'd say it improves about 80 to 90% of them but the rest is exactly why we're also using Skyrim realistic overhaul while we're talking about 3d landscapes I'd also recommend you pick up 3d rocks buy the same mod author it replaces old scams small and medium sized rocks and rock piles with incredibly detailed new meshes and accompanying textures I mean just look at this these are some freaking incredible stones it's one thing to improve the texture quality but to go in and refine the geometric models that's something I absolutely love our final mod in this category is enhanced textures detail UV tweaks this mod doesn't actually retexture anything by itself instead what it does is edit the UV mapping of a variety of objects and models to allow them to use a larger area of whatever textures are loaded onto them if that didn't make a lot of sense to you don't worry you're not alone I still don't quite understand it in English essentially what ETD is doing is making the textures on certain objects almost smaller in size but not resolution and repeating them to improve their visual fidelity it just makes things look better particularly models and meshes that already had poor UV maps to begin with best of all since it's not retexture in anything of its own enhanced textures detail works with modded textures too so you don't have to worry about it overriding anything or being overridden by something else so despite being hard for me to both understand and explain enhanced textures detail has become an absolute must-have for me now we move on to our next category in this video important individual textures these are all still just more texture mods but they don't retexture quite as many things as the entire packs we just covered instead the creations here focus on retexture in a single type of acid or two but do it so well I consider them must-haves starting off for the bigger boulders and cliff sides Red Rocks 4k gets the job done in a stunning fashion it does break away from the vanilla style we see trading in darker gray colors for brighter reds and yellows but it's a change I've come to really appreciate and when you combine red rocks with enhanced textures detail you get something that is truly brilliant for water I just keep coming back to realistic water to using the watercolor preset realistic water to or rwt is an oldie first releasing back in 2013 for legendary edition but I still consider it to be the best at what it does I specifically enable the water color preset to get a brighter much more vibrant palette and I think it fits in really well with the lighting mods and en B's I run which we'll get into shortly don't worry however the mod also comes with a default more realistic setting if that's what you're trying to capture since our WTS release there's been a number of similarly great water mods out there with just as high texture quality so if you pick any of the other ones don't worry it'll still look great and lastly in this category for all things northern Tundra I use fluffy snow and just ice technically these are two separate mods but they go together extremely well and supplement sky arms colder regions fluffy snow is rather self-explanatory offering 2k textures to make Skyrim snow blankets appear less smooth and fluffy just ice improves glaciers ice sheets and all things frozen h2o giving them a more crystallized look that blends great with realistic water to here we enter our third category vegetation mods at first that was somewhat unsure if I wanted to dedicate an entire sub category just for plant stuff but frankly there's so many mods I use for this plus we're so often exposed to the game's fauna I think it's necessary when it comes to grass there's an endless variety of options to pick from but I've settled on at bait Ostrom I think I said that properly releasing in mid 2017 it's on the newer side of things and replaces Skyrim's boring at sparse vanilla fauna with gorgeous 2k textures and increases the amount of ground covered by grass quite a bit the plant life you'll see will vary from environment to environment with each one carrying a different look and feel the forests of fall creep will be blanketed with rich dark green colors where's the plains of Whiterun feature a habitat more ripe with yellows and light Browns again much like water there's a wealth of grass mods to choose from many equally good with just as high quality textures some honorable mentions in my opinion would be verdant or sky reef Laura overhaul but Vedas from just satisfies my preference the most next four trees Skyrim 3d trees replaces both the models and textures of over 220 trees and plans to transform Skyrim selection of timber into something that satisfies next-gen standards remember that improving both the models and textures not only will trees now look better but they'll also have improved responses to wind it thanks to weighted foliage and while we're at it let's not forget HD photorealistic ivy normally I want to go out of my way to mention a mod this small all it does is change the textures and meshes of ivy plants but it does it so well and I be such a common piece of vegetation I think that this deserves some recognition it looks so real you can almost feel the photosynthesis that doesn't make any sense why'd you put that in the script Nate moving on to clutter mods these are the types of modules that improve the smaller more miscellaneous things in game particularly in relation to furniture and small objects tables silverware beds candles that sort of stuff I think a lot of people underestimate just how important it is to make sure your clutter looks as good as everything else because if you're rocking 4k textures all around but your sweet rolls are still looking like something out of Fallout 3 it's gonna create an odd sort of atmosphere the static mesh improvement mod is a great way to kick off this category a classic you'll no doubt see and just about any mod enthusiasts load order it overhauls the appearance of countless static 3d models its focus isn't on retexture Ain but instead improving the polygon meshes of about 900 different individual items you'll notice in the base game so many object models look 2d in a way or not quite as three-dimensional as they should if you know what I mean slim strives to solve that problem and create far more realistic looking surfaces for those models after the SMI M comes ruins clutter improved which improves both the meshes and textures of many of the smaller things we find in dungeons and ruins so not only do we get better shapes but coats of paint are in even higher resolutions as well get ready for your ruins to be dotted with gorgeous looking urns sarcophaguses and torches on top of the other two mods I also can't recommend enough the high poly project this in effect does the same thing as the static mesh improvement mod but for the objects it effects it creates even higher quality polygon meshes that make for some truly next-gen looking items I mean just take a glance at this sweet rule and tell me you don't feel immersed the only catch is that the HPP doesn't address nearly as many items as smin but since we're putting this one on top we end up with the best of both worlds anyway alright now we get into my choices for lighting and env s this is undeniably the most important group of mods you want to pay attention to when building your sky armload order at least in terms of visuals we've already gone over some amazing retexture x' and novel replacers but without an up-to-date lighting engine our game is still gonna look very weird to say the least scarves vanilla lighting systems weren't exactly made with 4k resolutions in mind so we're going to have to use some that were by contrast if you find the right env in lighting mods you can make your game look pretty damn good without any retexture at all so definitely do not overlook this section it will make or break we'll begin this part with natural and Atmospheric Tamriel natural and atmospheric Tamriel or NAT for short is actually first and foremost a weather mod so it updates the climate with new types of weathers improves the particle effects of participation like rain and snow enhances clouds and all that stuff but it also modifies the color and lighting patterns of all existing weather types as well as introduces some new shaders and subsurface scattering techniques to make everything feel much more naturally lit at least when you're outside sunny days will feel more vibrant and brighter well foggy ones will be darker and contain more Gray's the mod looks great by itself but when combined with the ENB I'm using everything it gets even better that ENB is natural view Tamriel by fire badass I've chosen this env in particular because I love the way a lightens colors without going too far into over saturating them it additionally has a custom preset specifically designed to complement my weather mod natural in atmospheric Tamriel they go together to create a feeling that's bright and warm without being too unrealistic or drifting too far away from what I would consider the vanilla feeling to be outdoor environments look absolutely breathtaking especially on those cloudless blue sky days however I will admit that interiors do at times feel a bit too dark when using NVT for that reason I like to turn my gamma down to 0.9 when inside of buildings and dungeons just to even everything out sometimes I also like to tweak my exposure at down to 0.15 rather than point two as well and those are just minor changes mainly so I can get the best shots possible when recording in normal gameplay chances are none of this will be a problem at all so a natural view Tamriel and natural atmospheric Tamriel combined together are what I would personally consider to be the best weather and lighting combination currently available though I think the rest of the jury is still out on that one the last lighting mod to discuss is another one of those that you'll see showing off in just about every experience modding enthusiasts load order the enhanced lights and FX mod what this mod does is edit a variety of the game static light sources such as candles lanterns fireplaces and torches and changes the type and patterns of light they emit to behave more realistically you'll see improvements in reflections darker interiors and a generally more dramatic feel of when this mod is enabled it doesn't conflict with NAT or NVT so you don't need to compromise on anything with e.l.f X furthermore it shouldn't have any impact at all on performance since it's really just playing around with vanilla assets suffice to say this is a classic mod I don't think my list would be complete without and now we get into our last category of this video miscellaneous all the mods I think are important to share though didn't really fit in with any of the other five classifications to start there's wind song immersive characters overhaul this will polish the textures of all of the game's human and mur NPCs as well as argonians orcs and cos eats it's one of the few mods of its kind that's able to noticeably enhance the look of characters without turning them into straight-up models and CoverGirl's which is what earns it a spot in my setup furthermore how could I leave out enhanced night sky as the name implies enhanced night sky will turn your Twilight into a stunning display of extremely high resolution stars Aurora's and nebulas with some assets and as high as 8k texture resolution gazing off at the cosmos has never been so satisfied in Skyrim and finally the last mod on this list is footprints footprints is pretty self-explanatory it will allow your character to leave footprints after you've walked in snow or ash don't worry it's compatible no matter what texture mod you're using and almost always looks great frankly I'm not quite sure what goes into making this mod function the way it does it's clearly not a texture mod but it also doesn't seem to be doing anything with models I don't know I guess some just work and with that out of the way we are finally done just the looking at the script I can already tell this video is going to be on the longer side of things but what are you trying to emulate my setup get a few suggestions or just be entertained hopefully it helped now admittedly altogether I have around 200 visual mods active at any given time but the overwhelming majority of those are really tiny things like IVA mod that retexture is a single circle it you get from a quest to 4k that kind of thing and if I included all those small ones well we'd be here for a while longer than we already have been however I really don't think they're necessary and they fluctuate quite often anyway the mod show enough today are all the ones that actually matter and I think really count though if you do have any questions left feel free to pop in my discord end we'll do our best to help you out where we can anyway thanks for stopping by everybody what are your thoughts on this load order so far do you have any suggestions places I could maybe improve leave a comment down below I'm always looking to enhance it as always like ratings are very much appreciated again thanks for watching and I hope to catch you all in my next video peace out everyone

Channel: TheEpicNate315

Views: 1,348,041

Keywords: Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 5, Elder Scrolls, Skyrim Special Edition, TES 5, Skyrim Mods, Skyrim Modding, Skyrim Mod, Skyrim Graphics Mods, Skyrim 4k, Skyrim Best Graphic Mods, Skyrim 2019 Graphics, Skyrim Mod Spotlight, Skyrim DLC Sized Mods, Best Skyrim Graphics Mods, Skyrim Xbox One Mods, Skyrim Top 2019 Mods

Id: qo6JKvUMro8

Length: 16min 44sec (1004 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2019