Combined with the RealVision mod, the 2K texture pack boosts detail across all surfaces in the world, giving a far crisper look to cobblestone roads and mountainsides. The other primary overhaul is in texture quality. It lacks the subtlety of Bethesda's approach, but also highlights how much further the developer could have pushed the boat out in this respect, had they wanted a bigger departure from the game's original look. Rather, it entirely fills out places like Riverwood with trees, NPCs, wildlife, and much more.

Easily the biggest shakeup comes via the town enhancement mods (applied to each location), which don't stop simply at the small scattering of extra plants we see in the remaster. Likewise, the HD Plants and Herbs mod found on the Steam Workshop is a must, while the Enhanced Towns and Villages series also helps fill places like Riverwood and Whiterun with more foliage.īetween these visual tweaks the change is staggering - at times far exceeding the official remaster. This is an absolute must if you plan on playing the game today (where the vanilla game's best textures haven't aged too well) and simply involves dropping a 'textures' folder into the game's install directory. The first is the Skyrim HD: 2K texture pack a hefty 3GB download that completely overhauls every texture map in the game with higher resolution assets. In our case, we went with three specific extras on top.

There are full instructions on Nexusmods website to help you along, plus a lengthy list of optional mods you can install too. This injector mod compiles several post-processing effects into one handy package, though the setup is somewhat involved. However, if you're after something close to the results of Bethesda's remaster, a great starting point is the RealVision ENB mod. The sheer volume of mods out there can be quite overwhelming - and many of are of variable quality and have issues with cross-compatibility. After our last comparison, the question we asked ourselves is: could we match this new Skyrim release using a range of the most popular mods? But of course, we can already get many of these graphical upgrades right now, simply by enabling user-made mods on the PC version.

The upcoming Skyrim Special Edition adds a host of visual tweaks - as we've covered - ranging from extra foliage, upgraded shaders, dynamic depth of field, and volumetric lighting.

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