Basic Mods:
This section details basic mods all players of TES: Skyrim should do before starting a game.
In-Game Day Length:
By default, in-game day length is a mere 72 mins, this is insanely short to say the least. To change in-game time to something far more fitting open the console (`) key and type “set timescale to 3” (without quotes). Lowest value you can set is 1 which means time will pass in-game realtime, while higher values will make it so time in-game passes faster.
Skyrim.ini Tweaks:
FOV Fixing:
By default, Skyrim uses a FOV of 90, this is fine if you use a old style “box” monitor, but for those of us that enjoy the fruits of the modern age here’s what you need to do;
16:10 Monitors: Open the console (`) key and type “fov 77”
16:9 Monitors: Open the console and type “fov 84”
To permanently make these settings stick here’s what you need to do;
Add ;
fDefaultWorldFOV=90
fDefault1stPersonFOV=90
to the [Display] section, changing “90” to 77 or 84 depending on your monitor, next, open SkyrimPrefs.ini and add fDefaultFOV=90 (or 77 or 84) to the bottom of the [General] section. Now if you have already started playing Skyrim load your latest save, open the console and type “fov 77” (or 84) without quotes, hit enter, close the console and save your game.
uGrids:
This is a setting you will need to add yourself to the [General] section;
uGridsToLoad=11
What uGrids actually does is increase the level of detail in-game, especially for distant objects and landscape. uGrid values must be odd numbers such as 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, etc. Note that the higher the uGrid value the more details that will be visible. I don’t know the value at which uGrids cap and you no longer see any additional details, You’ll just have to experiment to find that out. Also bare in mind that increasing uGrids too high could either negatively impact your FPS or make Skyrim unstable, or perhaps a combination of both. I suggest you set a uGrid value to roughly reflect how good of a PC you have and make any necessary adjustments if needed. A good value to start with is 9, however with this value distant mountains will still appear rather splodgy, a value of 11 sorts that, while a value of 13 or above really is just “hey, I have a PC not a console!.” It should also be noted that you will need to test higher uGrid values thoroughly before saving your game as once you have saved your game you cannot revert back to a lower uGrid value, only higher. As such be certain to make a backup of your latest save!
uExterior Cell Buffer:
This value determines the number of cells that should be buffered to RAM. Apparently a good rule is to take your uGridsToLoad value, add one to it, then multiply it by itself. So a example formula would be;
uGrids 11
+1
= 12
12x12
= 144
I recommend leaving this setting at its default of 36 until you have thoroughly tested your new uGrids value, only touching this paramater if needed to get a higher uGrids value stable. I’ve also found if you are using texture mods it is very much worthwhile increasing this value to 1152, 2304 or 4608.
MapMenu:
This is a setting that must be added to the bottom of Skyrim.ini, so you would add the following;
[MapMenu]
uLockedObjectMapLOD=8
uLockedTerrainLOD=8
These values increase or decrease the amount of detail on your map. Lower values seem to increase detail while higher values seem to lower detail. Valid range seems to be between 8 – 32.
fSunShadowUpdateTime & fSunUpdateThreshold:
Adding these values to the [Display] section you can adjust the way in which shadow positions update as the Sun moves. I recommend values of 0.000 and 0.001 respectively for smooth shadow transitioning of positions. These values will also help give a more dynamic natural feel to the game as you will be able to see the shadows of trees and bushes gently sway.
Realistic Arrow Flight Arcs:
Skyrim doesn’t do a good job of making the flight arcs of arrows very realistic. To fix this look to the [Combat] section and add in these lines;
f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.0
f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.0
SkyrimPrefs.ini Tweaks:
iShadowMapResolution:
For absolutely beautiful perfect shadows a value of 8192 is essential, however it will cripple FPS if not managed carefully and finely balanced with other settings. A much cheaper way to have nicer looking shadows is to use the iBlurDeferredShadowMask method. A good combination of settings is;
iShadowMapResolution=2048 (or 4096)
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=5 (or 6, 7)
fShadowDistance=4000 (or 5000)
iBlurDeferredShadowMask:
This is the cheap way to nicer shadows, the parameter softens the edges of shadows in-game. I recommend values of 5, 6, or 7.
fShadowDistance:
This variable is a bit of a oddball as it controls both shadow quality in outdoor areas and the distance at which shadows are visible. With a value of 8000 shadows are drawn until the cows come home at the expense of accuracy and quality, a value of 2000 results in gorgeous shadows but a rather short draw distance. Try balanced values of 3000, 4000 or 5000. It’s also worth experimenting with the iBlurDeferredShadowMask parameter in combination to this.
fShadowBiasScale:
This variable determines the degree to which a surface is shadowed, higher values will reduce the amount of shadowing, while lower values will increase the shadowing.
bTreesReceiveShadows:
If this variable is set to 1 it will enable self-shadowing on trees making things look considerably better with minimal performance impact.
bDrawLandShadows:
If this variable is set to 1 it will add subtle shadowing to land masses. Another setting well worth enabling as performance costs are slim to none.
fGrassStartFadeDistance:
This variable has the most significant impact on grass. Raising the value will increase the distance at which grass is visible. As Skyrim was designed to work with crappy consoles grass is nowhere near as demanding as it is/was in Oblivion, you can easily raise this value to 14,000, or even 25,000 on moderately powerful systems and not notice a significant performance drop.
fTreeLoadDistance:
This variable determines the distance at which trees are shown. Raising the value will increase the number of visible trees in the far distance, while lowering it will reduce them. I recommend a value of 100,000 as it is both a nice balance between performance and realism.
fBlockMaximumDistance, fBlockLevel1Distance, fBlockLevel0Distance, fSplitDistanceMult:
These variables control the level of detail on distant terrain. As the three fBlock variables are raised, this will provide improvements in the details on very distant terrain, such as mountain tops. The fSplitDistanceMult variable appears to determine the rate at which the LOD transitions occur. As its value is raised, there will be greater detail in the terrain which is slightly closer to the viewer. If you are having trouble with the uGrids and uExterior Cell Buffer paramaters, these paramaters would be the next best thing to adjust. Through testing I’ve found that the following values are a excellent balance;
fBlockMaximumDistance=300000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=150000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=75000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=6.0000
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance:
This variable effectively controls the distance at which clouds are seen, particularly around mountain tops. A higher value will increase the amount of cloud, adding to realism and eyecandy. In combination with the above values I’ve found a value of 250,000 works in nicely.
iMaxDesired:
This is yet another setting you can cure of consilitis. I recommend setting this value to 800, 850 or 900. Values above this tend to be excessive. The improvement is mainly noticeable for flame spells and the torch, perhaps fires in buildings too.
iWaterReflectHeight, iWaterReflectWidth:
These values increase the resolution of reflections on the water. I recommend setting a resolution that matches the resolution of the water texture itself, with the realistic waters mod this will be 1024 or 2048 for both. The only exception to this is if you are playing Skyrim without any texture mods, set the values to 2048 to help cover up the awful vanilla water textures.
bMTRendering:
This value must be added to the bottom of the [General] section, when set to 1 it enables multithreaded rendering, most likely related to the shadows as shadows are rendered by the CPU. Obviously when adding this parameter add as follows; bMTRendering=1
bDoTallGrassEffect:
This parameter must be added to the bottom of the [General] section, when set to 1 this setting allows the use of larger grass rendering.
bPerPixelLighting, bEnablePerPixelLighting:
These settings need to be added to the bottom of the [General] section, when set to 1 the former setting attempts to force per pixel lighting instead of per vertex, and the latter when set to 1 simply enables per pixel lighting.
bAllow30Shaders:
This setting must be added to the bottom of the [General] section, when set to 1 this setting ensures Shader Model 3.0 is used ensuring the engine doesn’t default to a lower shader model.
bAllow40Shaders, bAllow50Shaders:
These settings need to be added to the bottom of the [General] section, when set to 1 they will ensure either shader model 4.0 or 5.0 is used. I do not know if these settings are applicable at this point in time or if Bethesda plan to release a DX11 update for Skyrim making these settings useful.
bDo30VFog:
Once again, this setting must be added to the [General] section, when set to 1 it will ensure shader model 3.0 fog rendering is used.
Thats it for basic Skyrim modding. As you can tell from all these variables to change, Bethesda didn’t even give PC gamers a thought. If they did, we wouldn’t have to do all this manually ourselves.
Heres some example SS with all the latest tweaks;
Note: For the updated files I've uploaded theres really only two settings you will want to play with, iShadowMapResolution (default 2048) and uGrids (default 5). These settings I've tweaked keeping in mind very much to make these files universal so everybody gets good performance and great visuals.
NOTICE: If you experience random crashes to desktop (particularly while exploring the game world, doesn't seem to happen in towns) with the modded ini files open skyrim.ini and remove the uGridsToLoad paramater, then close saving the changes.
Advanced Modding:
Skyrim HD textures: These are not the Bethesda HD textures (which are crap BTW), Clicky
Realistic Colours and Real Nights: Clicky
Realistic Water Textures: Clicky
Real Ice: Clicky
Skyrim Flora Overhaul: Clicky
Enhanced Night Skyrim: Clicky
Xenius Character Enhancement: Clicky
Glowing Ore Veins 300: A bit of a cheat, but nobody likes aimlessly wandering around. Clicky
A Quality World Map - With Roads: Clicky
SkyUI: Clicky
Unfortunately despite my best efforts to truely make Skyrim as wonderful to look at as possible, I still feel it lags behind Oblivion when its all visually modded out. Well, hopefully these mods cover all of the visual side of things in the game, its up to others to now post links of the very best mods they have found
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Originally Posted by Linchpin
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