Skyrim Best Graphics Mods

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is an amazing game, no doubt about it. However, Skyrim has been out for a decade now, and the graphics have certainly seen better days. Luckily, thousands of mods are currently available to rectify the problem. With a little work, Skyrim has the potential to look stunning with the right mods installed.

These graphics mods serve as an excellent base to get the player started. There exists a literal multitude of graphics mods. In fact, some only deal with the re-texturing of a single object! The mods here provide the broad strokes to get Skyrim to look its very best. More of them can always be added alongside these essential enhancements.

Updated November 26, 2024, by Hamza Haq: Skyrim graphics mods have come a long way over the years. From texture mods that change how items in the game look to weather mods with custom effects to lighting mods that completely revamp the way light sources work, the choices for graphic mods to add are innumerable, and choosing which ones deserve a spot on the load order can get overwhelming.

Security Overhaul

Downloads: 2,868,300

• Created by kreiste-wSkeever-powerofthree
• Mod Link

Skyrim holds a lot of goodies locked away behind closed doors and tantalizing chests. Even non-stealthy players likely find themselves spending large amounts of time staring at the lockpicking screen to see what loot there is to discover. Unfortunately, every lock in Skyrim appears exactly the same, whether they’re encountered in palatial estates or dank caves.

Players who love expanding on the immersion of the game really shouldn’t leave home without the Security Overhaul mod. The locks of Skyrim now have a more varied appearance and complement the environment in which they are found. For example, a chest beneath a body of water will have barnacles attached to it. If they haven’t already, fans should give this mod a shot.

Simplicity Of Snow

Downloads: 2,571,994

It should come as no surprise that Skyrim, being a northern province of Tamriel, gets a lot of snow. The wintery conditions that characterize the land of the Nords set the game apart from the ashy, swamp-ridden lands of Vvardenfell and the lush greenery of Cyrodiil. Nevertheless, the quality of the snow from this 2011 game hasn’t aged very well.

The title of this mod is apt. Simplicity of Snow is a lightweight mod that can work alongside other snow texture mods for an overall cleaner appearance. Snow will look more natural and less like it was painted onto the environment. Fans who tend to employ large load orders should appreciate the utility of this mod.

Downloads: 4,604,346

A good half of Skyrim is covered in snow, and while updating the look and feel of the snow itself with Simplicity of Snow, which is an excellent first measure, players can go a step further with Footprints.

Essentially, what the mod does is convert the flat plane of snow into an interactable environment that reacts to what’s happening on top of it. Players trudging through a snowy landscape will leave deep footprints behind them, winter wolves will leave pawprints, and ice trolls will leave their own markers. Built-in Particle FX ensures that the effect is consistent and pretty, blending into the game like it was always a part of it.

Lux Orbis

Downloads: 2,370,522

The underwhelming lighting quality of vanilla Skyrim is hard to miss. Ancient dungeons and deep caves aren’t all that impressive when it comes to their lighting effects. Interior locations lack realistic shadows despite the familiar presence of candelabras and braziers. Fortunately, players don’t lack options when it comes to worthwhile lighting mods.

Lux Orbis is one of Skyrim‘s premier lighting mods. Put simply, with this mod, light will conform more to reality. Players will certainly notice the difference while inside an interior. The shadows cast by flames are immediately more apparent. The windows of residences also have a more “lived-in” appearance when viewed from the outside. All of this makes for a highly immersive environment that old and new fans will instantly appreciate.

A Clear Map Of Skyrim And Other Worlds

Downloads: 805,369

Players may not realize how much time they spend looking at Skyrim‘s world map. The map itself is vital for fast traveling and planning one’s future explorations. A Quality World Map had been the go-to mod for many years but is now rather dated.

As such, players may want to check out the A Clear Map of Skyrim and Other Worlds mod. Among a host of other tweaks, this mod adds additional maps for locations such as Blackreach, the Soul Cairn, the Forgotten Vale, and more.

Enhanced Blood Textures

Downloads: 8,235,945

Skyrim certainly isn’t the most violent video game in existence. Nevertheless, enemies can still be dispatched in a variety of rather gruesome ways, including decapitation. The blood isn’t overdone and the textures, by this point, fail to impress. Luckily, an awesome mod exists that gives Skyrim‘s blood a much-needed update.

The appropriately titled Enhanced Blood Textures adds more visceral realism to the proceedings. Not only does the blood itself look better, but there’s also more of it. Players can also customize how much of it they want. An updated playthrough of Skyrim with better textures won’t be complete without this mod.

Skyrim 202X Parallax

Downloads: 19,632,179

As far as retexture mods are concerned, the Skyrim 2020 Parallax mod by Pfuscher is still relevant in 2022. As an all-in-one package, this mod is a gargantuan texture pack composed of approximately 2,000 files. Fans who want to install everything the mod has to offer can expect several gigabytes worth of content.

However, the results are worth it. Skyrim‘s architecture, landscapes, and everything else in between will look sharp and crisp in a way that’s hard to forget. The mod is also compatible with others on this list, such as Static Mesh Improvement, Blended Roads, and ELFX.

Forgotten Retex Project

Downloads: 1,913,444

It’s worth noting that even the largest retexture packs can’t cover every object in this massive game. Some of the less important items, such as junk and clutter, are often overlooked. Luckily, fans don’t have to hunt down a myriad of individual mods to satisfy their needs for enhanced clutter.

The Forgotten Retex Project is a great mod for improving the more mundane items scattered throughout the world. It’s also worth noting, however, that even unique quest items, like the Crown of Barenziah, are given some love as well. From cookware to ancient diadems, this mod is one that surely shouldn’t be forgotten.

Veydosebrom Regions

Downloads: 2,337,089

Much of Skyrim‘s gameplay is experienced in the outside environment. As such, the foliage must look its best. Veydosebrom Regions is a great choice as it diversifies and sharpens the game’s plentiful vegetation. Each region of Skyrim is given its unique feel to it by expanding the variety of flora.

The mod is very lore-friendly in its approach, so nothing should feel unusual for an Elder Scrolls game. When installing, choosing “Standard Quality” is the best choice without making the environment too dense with grass and shrubbery.

Cathedral Player And NPC Overhaul

Downloads: 381,978

• Created by Soulmancer and Laeris and The Community
• Mod Link

Skyrim is teeming with NPCs. By now, these NPCs are showing their age. For them, a great choice for an all-in-one graphics mod is Cathedral Player and NPC Overhaul. Fans who don’t want the NPCs of Skyrim to look radically different from their vanilla designs should consider this mod in their load orders.

With this mod installed, characters will still look the same way that players remembered them, but with a vast improvement to their face textures, eyes, and hair. As a result, NPCs now possess more originality to them, which fans will be able to notice right off the bat.

Praedy’s Sky AIO – SE

Downloads: 810,538

Praedy’s Sky is an all-in-one mod to completely revamp the night sky, mainly reimagining the moons and the stars with a new look. Players can pick and choose what they want to see in the sky when the sun goes down. The choices include sixteen different nebula textures, five new auroras, four types of galaxies, and multiple new moon options. All retextures can be found in 1k, 2k, 4k, and even 8k for a PC that can handle it.

When it all comes together, the Skyrim night sky feels like it’s out of a modern AAA title instead of a 13-year-old game. This mod only retouches the Night Sky meshes; the clouds and weather are changed by weather mods like Cathedral Weathers or NAT.

Skoglendi – A Grass Mod

Downloads: 518,491

Choosing a grass mod is one of the most impactful graphical changes modders can make to Skyrim. There are tons of excellent options available on Nexus, but Skoglendi hits the perfect balance. It is customizable enough to give players different options, absolutely gorgeous to look at, and is extremely performance-friendly, having a very minimal FPS hit even at the highest settings.

The customization options are included in the FOMOD installer the mod comes packaged in. These are optional add-ons to change how the mod behaves when installed, solving Skyrim’s ugly grass problem with only a few clicks.

Nature of the Wild Lands

Downloads: 1,850,844

Nature of the Wild Lands is a huge mod that reworks all of Skyrim’s forests in one complete package. It adds over 400 new forest objects throughout the world to make the empty forests feel more real. All base game forests are essentially rooted out and thrown in the bin, replaced by a better, more lush version that fits into Skyrim’s fantasy landscape seamlessly.

Nature of the Wild Lands doesn’t simply readjust the positioning of the trees and shrubs in these forests; it adds completely new meshes for these objects from scratch, built from the ground up to be performance-friendly.

JS Dragon Claws AE

Downloads: 1,618,175

Fans will inevitably come across dragon claws throughout their playthrough. A variety of claws, which are all made out of precious metals, exist in the game. Although their corresponding puzzles are extremely simplistic, they are at least striking to behold.

JS Dragon Claws AE revamps Skyrim‘s dragon claws in a major way. The vanilla textures are replaced with brand-new ones that make these key items pop in a manner that’s hard to ignore. Fans can install 1K, 2K, or 4K resolutions of the mod, depending on their setup. The work on this mod is truly impressive, so fans shouldn’t ignore it when upgrading Skyrim‘s visuals.

Realistic Water Two

Downloads: 8,164,783

• Created by isoku-TechAngel85-CaptainCockerel
• Mod Link

The look of the water is one of those details that can sometimes be easy to overlook. But water is plentiful in Skyrim, so it deserves some attention. Arguably the best of the bunch is Realistic Water Two.

This mod adds some much-needed color and vibrancy to bodies of water. Ponds, marshes, streams, and rivers are all given some diversity. New sounds are added as well. Stunning shades of green and blue make the overall landscape pop. Swimming in Skyrim‘s rivers and streams never looked so good!

Deadly Spell Impacts

Downloads: 2,862,045

Improving the overall look of the characters and environment is important, but what about the more subtle details? More specifically, the impact of spells on their surroundings. The vanilla experience is by now, unsurprisingly, not very impressive.

A very simple, yet notable mod to consider is Deadly Spell Impacts. With this mod, the effects of magical attacks now appear as one would expect. Each element is given its unique texture, along with a few added details, such as snow melting when a fire attack is unleashed. It’s an immersive little addition that mages may find interesting.

Ruins Clutter Improved

Downloads: 4,966,018

Skyrim involves a lot of dungeon-delving. It’s fair to say that players will spend much of their time in various ruins and tombs. Ruins Clutter Improved is a rather large texture mod that focuses on the junk items found in dungeons.

Looking at the same ugly objects over and over again can become tiresome. Improved meshes and textures for objects that are seen almost constantly make them easier on the eyes. Combined with other mods on this list, dungeons will look better than ever.

Enhanced Night Sky

Downloads: 689,127

If Skyrim is going to look better, then the sky can’t be ignored. More specifically, the night sky deserves some attention. The aptly-titled Enhanced Night Sky mod makes stargazing a veritable feast for the eyes.

Stars, as well as nebula, are given high-resolution replacements, the effects of which are quite dazzling. The mod includes some customization presets, although the “Colorful” option is arguably the best choice. Stopping periodically to enjoy the night sky is hard to resist with this mod.

Skyland AIO (All-in-One)

Downloads: 2,266,503

One of the hardest things in Skyrim modding is keeping track of what mods do, which textures have been updated, and which ones still need an overhaul. With literally hundreds of mods just for textures alone, it can be a daunting task to keep everything organized.

Skyland AIO solves that problem to an extent by providing players with high quality HD retextures for basically everything in Skyrim in a single downloadable package. And the best part about it is that it creates a base graphical uplift that can be customized down the road. Meaning if players do find another texture mod for a specific aspect of the game like Northern Roads, for example, they can easily overwrite Skyland with the new mod to replace the textures and everything will still work perfectly.

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

Downloads: 11,779,941

The world depicted in Skyrim is filled with countless objects. Things the player sees all the time can benefit from a visual upgrade. The Static Mesh Improvement Mod, or SMIM as it’s popularly known, gives the game’s more mundane objects a fresh coat of paint.

According to the mod author, the goal is “to make the Skyrim architecture, clutter, furniture, and landscaping much nicer.” The sheer breadth of this mod is impressive. Tens of thousands of improved meshes for various everyday objects are included.

Book Covers Skyrim Updated

Downloads: 103,786

• Created by VishVadeva – DanielCoffey
• Mod Link

There’s no shortage of reading material when it comes to an Elder Scrolls game. There are hundreds of books, journals, and notes littered across Skyrim. It’s no stretch to say that players are likely to bump into a book of some sort every couple of feet. For objects in the game as prolific as books, it’s important they also look their best.

One of the best and most impressive mods for this game, hands down, is Book Covers Skyrim Updated. Every book, journal, and note is given a retexture that makes every one of these objects feel like a unique item. The covers on some of these books are so visually impressive, that it’s hard not to examine them for a few seconds just to admire the craftsmanship.

Enhanced Lights & FX

Downloads: 6,085,107

Older games often possess poor lighting effects, especially when compared to today’s standards. Lighting, however, plays a critical role in how a game is presented. Enhanced Lights and FX add some realism to Skyrim‘s lighting animations and effects.

One of the most noticeable features of this mod is how light shines through windows and underneath doorways. Burning candles will emit smoke. Shadows and reflections are given more detail. All of these things greatly affect the mood of the game. Inns are cozier. Dungeons are darker. It’s a mod that seriously improves the atmosphere in both large and small ways.

Underground 4K-8K – A High-Res Dungeon Texture Overhaul

Downloads: 79,719

• Created by T4GTR34UM3R – XilaMonstrr
• Mod Link

Dungeons make up a large part of the exploring in Skyrim. Underground 4K-8K – A High-Res Dungeon Texture Overhaul is the more modern successor to the original Underground Dungeon mod by T4GTR34UM3R.

Now, players can enjoy even crisper textures than ever before while exploring Skyrim‘s many dungeons. The mod also comes with performance options for PCs that can’t quite handle 8K textures. Overall, it’s an excellent addition to any player’s load order.

Majestic Mountains

Downloads: 5,968,174

The mountains that dot Skyrim‘s landscape are certainly majestic. Enter the Majestic Mountains mod, an enhancement that truly brings out their beauty. Mountain textures look less like they were painted on and more like actual rocks, especially when viewed from a distance.

Another cool little detail is the improved look of the moss that adorns certain rocky outcrops. How the lighting is reflected off the sides of the mountain is also reworked, which gives the environment a more natural feel to it. It’s a graphics mod that shouldn’t be neglected.

Blended Roads

Downloads: 4,763,202

If fans enjoy the Majestic Mountains mod, they’ll also love Blended Roads, made by the same author. Similar to the previous mod, Blended Roads makes Skyrim‘s thoroughfares less of an afterthought and more of a natural feature of the landscape.

Rocks and cobblestones now actually appear as such. Roads no longer look like low-resolution blobs sinking into the ground. The road and the ground itself appear more natural, akin to something one may see in real life. This mod goes a long way toward making the overall environment feel more immersive.

A Note Concerning ENBs

Graphics mods are all well and good on their own. But making the game really pop requires an ENB, or Enhanced Natural Beauty. ENBs are not graphics mods per se. Rather, they upgrade many of the game’s post-processing effects, such as Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing.

ENBs fit hand-in-glove with graphics mods, making details sharper and colors more vibrant. A player is cheating himself by only having one without the other. A good choice that works well is Natural and Atmospheric Tamriel. This particular ENB gives things a photorealistic quality, which makes the overall environment look awesome when paired with the above mods.