Gaming The Perfect Skyrim - A Guide To Mods

We delve into the latest Skyrim mods to create an even better game

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2012/05/24/the-perfect-skyrim/1

 

Thats quite nice! Are there any graphics performance mods? I love the blood textures on the last page!

 

Very nice article. Maybe you could mention about performance tweaks too. Importantly FOV & turning off VSYNC as this is a killing on the game engine is left on.

 

5 pages of mods for Skyrim - that's a bit-tech grade article right there!

 

@Nealieboyee there are some polymesh overhauls and shader improvements, but none make as big a difference as the lush trees/grass and improved lighting, or the HD texture pack and each time I've tried one my framerate has dropped considerably.

If you do want to go down the huge graphics improvements route though, check out the deadendthrills guide (might be a bit outdated now) - http://deadendthrills.com/2011/11/madness-in-the-method/

@dwarfer - Hmm, I don't have a problem with VSYNC but yeah, I should have mentioned FOV. Here's a pretty comprehensive list of quick tweaks you can do for improvements like that http://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/m7zja/tweaks_to_make_skyrim_that_much_better/

 

Jesus..you'll spend more time downloading,installing,tweaking all this than actually playing the damn game.

 

I love this article and I will be playing Skyrim a bit more off the back of it. Rep incoming Craig.

"Stops NPCs talking to you from so far away which makes a massive improvement to someone telling you about arrows in their knees when you’re having a serious conversation with the Jarl about saving the damn world."

Made me chuckle.

 

Not really. You subscribe to the mods, then just start the game and it sorts it all out without any issues.

I think it could've done with Skyrim Voice Shouts in the "Might as wells" section, because bellowing "FUS RO DAH!" at the PC never gets old.

 

Top work there; I've taken a bit of a hiaitus from the game, but I think that's just the ticket to get me back in again.

 

Nah, just subscribe to this that I made for you http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=17205

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=5626

I'll give it a spin later, if I can convince SLI to work once more so skyrim doesn't run at 15FPS.

 

This has reawakened my interest in Skyrim. I will have to give it a go!

 

Nice collection, I too may fire up Skyrim for the first time in months.

 

Have been using mods for Skyrim for some time and it really is worth it, in addition to some of the ones mentioned here I use one for longer arrows and one for more realistic ragdolls, both very much worth a go.

A good place to get these are the nexsusmods page and a series of video's called Skyrim Mod Sanctuary on youtube that presents quite a few.

 

This is brilliant thank you so much! I really love that you've clearly got the same taste as me in mods! Chucking out stuff that doesn't fit the lore or is just downright silly and keeping stuff which improves or fixes the core game experience Think I'll start that other character I've been thinking about and do me some Stormcloak, Thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood quests

 

Right then, that's my evening sorted.

And most of my weekend.

And a bit of next week.

Awesome article.

 

Live Another Life is worth noting at well, a really good mod if you're experimenting with other mods and want to start new games often without the whole plough through the into. It allows you to skip the start of the game and instantly drop a new character into an array of different starting scenarios, from surviving a shipwreck to starting out in an army to being a vampire or owning a house. The main quest is still there, but it's disabled until you go and seek it out.

 

Would also point out by the way that the Nexus Mod Manager, that you can get from the Skyrim Nexus, is probably a bit better than the Steam Workshop. I went with the Workshop too at first, because it's so easy and convenient, but once you get into the trickier mods and when you start to layer functionality, with mods overlapping each other, the extended functionality of the NMM is very useful. If one mod modifies something that another mod wants to modify, then the load order becomes a serious factor. This can be a real bugbear if you're using mods that reference mods that reference mods, like Jaysus Swords combined with Lorecraft or one of the other crafting overhauls which may in turn change the perks and whatnot that other item mods might be using.

Have to agree with the premise of the article though, Skyrim is the best game ever. The fact that in just about six months since release you can basically build your own version of the game, bespoke to your exact demands, is a testament to the awesome power of a well supported modding community. The set up I've got, based around about thirty mods or so is pretty much perfect for me. Upped the challenge, made the world less forgiving, made the combat more skilful, the UI less of a dog, the graphics more lifelike, and all for free with the blessing of the developers. It's how gaming ought to be.

And seriously guys. THIS:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=16981

Installed this one last night and went fishing. Totally epic. Was like a cross between Captain Ahab and Conan The Barbarian.

Also this mod deserves a mention:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9694

Because if, like me, you're well past your hundredth hour of Skyrim, this is one of the few mods that can genuinely throw up a surprise. There's so many extra monsters in there that it's almost impossible to know exactly what you're going to go up against. There's a more Lore-Friendly version available that leaves out some of the oddities like the triceratops. Which is perhaps a good thing, they are not friendly.

 

Where is 2k textures? .ini file editing for further distance viewing, Realistic Rain and WATER. These should be under a category of "massive improvement, if you've got a system that can handle it" because I had to disable the rain and water inorder to get over 13FPS on my GTS 250 1GB... when I get my hands on two 670 4GBs though... oh boy I can't wait.

Also, Riverwood Redux and A Better Whiterun really enhance the gameplay in my opinion, making those towns more what they should be, bustling civic centers rather than a few houses where 5 people live. A Better Whiterun slows my game down to 20FPS (from a normal 40) but again, crappy old GTS 250 here.

 

Good that, thank you.