Grass Mods are not the Answer. In short, the answer is no. Grass Mods do not in any way increase the FPS of Skyrim. Grass on Steroids and Verdant contain nothing that would contribute to an FPS increase. On their own they’ll actually make your game run more slowly.
Overhauling a game with mods can be an intimidating process, but the only thing you really need in order to make Skyrim shine is patience. Since each mod needs to be properly installed and configured, it can take hours to get everything in working order - certain methods of beautifying the game, such as S.T.E.P., or the Skyrim Total Enhancement Project, have been known to take as long as eight to ten hours to fully configure. Rather than force you, dear modder, to spend those precious hours that could be better used actually playing Skyrim, here is our list of the 15 (and then some) best mods to use that will drastically improve your adventurous experience.
Skyrim Best Grass Mods 1
You can read about all the mods below, or watch the video above (complete with plenty of heavily-modded Skyrim eye-candy).
Let There be Light
Installing Boris Voronstov's ENBseries modification and configuring it is actually far simpler than one would expect - simply download the necessary files and copy them into your main Skyrim game folder ( if you're using Steam, this is usually C:/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/Common/Skyrim ), and then run the game and configure your own personal settings. You can also download a preset created by a member of the community. The one we've used is by Nexus member Opethfeldt, though other excellent choices would be RealVision or Seasons of Skyrim.
Once you've gotten your ENB set up and have begun installing your other modifications, consider also adding a lighting mod or two (if they're compatible) that will enhance the local light sources in-game - torches, lanters, candles and so on. We're using Enhanced Lights and FX by NM user anamorfus alongside Ultimate HD Fire Effects.
What a Wonderful World
Once you've installed your ENB and preset of choice, then the real work begins. There are hundreds of texture mods and updates for flora, fauna, armor, weapons and more that players can choose to include in their game, but here are our recommendations for must-have mods when trying to make Skyrim look beautiful:
- Skyrim HD: Replaces standard game textures with 2K-4K textures. Lite version includes 1K textures.
- Static Mesh Improvement Mod (SMIM): Updates static textures and meshes (furniture, rubble, buildings, etc)
- Lush Trees and Grass: Updates and greatly improves the quality and fullness of forested areas in Skyrim.
- Grass Field: Replaces most of the ground area textures with 3D grass.
There are many other mods that affect the game world's plant life - Glorious Grasses, SkyRealism and Vurt's Flora Overhaul are all great, but if you can only run two we recommend LT and GF, as they look best during actual gameplay. For quality visuals at a distance, be sure to install one of the many distant LOD (Level Of Detail) mods, such as Enhanced Distant Terrain, HD Enhanced Terrain or the Skyrim Distance Overhaul. Additionally, be sure to install a water mod to ensure you aren't stuck swimming around the boring vanilla rivers - we're using Pure Waters, though the Water and Terrain Enhancement Redux (WATER) is another excellent option.
Beautiful People
The NPCs in standard Skyrim look... well, a bit off. Giving them a hearty facelift is somewhat of a necessity if you're attempting to update the game graphically - and can be one of the most challenging aspects of your mod configuration. Dozens of plugins and texture packs (some are NSFW) exist to do just this, and many are compatible with other mods. In our configuration, we're using the Xenius Character Enhancement (XCE) mod coupled with No More Blocky Faces, which smooths out the originally pixelated facial textures. We're also using Xenius's Better Beast Races, which overhauls the look of the Argonian and Khajiit characters ( though we also recommend using CoverKhajiits) to improve the nonhuman models. To spruce up the human characters, we've installed Better Females by BellaGail, as well as some various face texture and mesh replacers for the male NPCs, such as Detailed Faces and Beards.
These are far from the only mods out there to be used in the beautification of Skyrim - remember, patience is the only necessary component to making this game look great. Well, patience... and the literally hundreds, if not thousands, of mods that are at your disposal. For more modding suggestions, game secrets and more, be sure to check out our full Skyrim wiki the next time you visit Tamriel.
Any graphical mods you can't adventure around Skyrim without? Let us know in the comments!
Jon Ryan spends more time modding Skyrim than actually playing it. Don't be like him - but do follow him on IGN and Twitter.
A great texture comparison by NebuLa
Because you're wondering: Console Code 'fw 10fef8' (without quotes).
If you want to make your copy of Skyrim look remotely like this, it's relatively easy and most of the mods used were outlined in our previously-linked graphics mod list. You'll also need the Skyrim 4GB mod to fix inevitable crashing problems that are experienced with graphically enhanced iterations of Skyrim. Other crash fixes are also found in this article.
Mods List
Lighting, Shading Effects, View Distance:
- FXAA Post-Process Injector (Preset 4)
Texturing & Environs
- Skyrim HD - 2K Textures
- Improved Rock & Mountain Textures (4096 version)
Characters, Models, Items
Note that we do not take responsibility for any loss of failure or bugs that should arise as a result of your modding endeavors; however, if you do require help, feel free to post in our comments below or in our forums.
You should refer to our crash guide for more detailed support.
Note: Make backups of all files before attempting to install mods. You should back up all saved files just in case. These are typically stored in (C:Users[User]My DocumentsMy GamesSkyrim).
Skyrim Flora Overhaul
Some of these mods may be conflicting in some form or other, but installation order will typically resolve conflicts as it will overwrite non-compatible files as they install.
These are the best graphics possible for Skyrim with the current mods, and we give our love to the modders that helped make it all possible. If you're looking to make the game look better than it natively did, these are the best graphics mods for Skyrim to do so.
For those wondering, the system specs of the modded version are as follows:
- Intel Core i7 930, ~3.0GHz hyperthreaded Nehalem Quad-Core
- 12GB 1600MHz (OC) Triple Channel Memory
- NVIDIA Superclocked GTX 580
- 1920x1080 resolution
I run around ~40-65 FPS with the mods installed on maximum settings and 1920x1080 resolution. With 3D Vision activated (which we reviewed here), I average 15-30 FPS, depending on locale (I will no doubt need to lower my view distance to better work with 3D Vision).
~Steve 'Lelldorianx' Burke and FJ 'GT' Ybarra.
Big thanks to GT for putting up with my director's chair demands for screenshot positioning!