Breathe new life to the timeless RPG with our picks of the Best Graphical Mods for Skyrim in 2024.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been out for over a decade now, with its original release in 2011 and a major remaster in 2016. Even today, it is one of the best RPG games out there and has a huge active player base. However, as the years have passed, the graphics of the game have started to show their age. Thankfully, the vast modding community has been hard at work with a staggering 130,000 mods on Nexusmods and another 28,000 mods on steam workshop released, with a significant portion of them revamping the graphical quality of Skyrim.
This game is an absolute must-play even in 2024, and with a few of the graphics mods we’ll list below, it can look visually appealing like the modern AAA titles, with a better story to boot.
Top 10 Best Graphics Mods for Skyrim Special Edition
Let’s get started on the top 10 graphics mods for Skyrim Special Edition. We will be focusing on Nexusmods and Steam Workshop as they are trusted sites with the biggest collection of mods for Skyrim. You can install these mods via Vortex for Nexusmods or subscribe to them in the workshop for Steam. Most mods are compatible with Skyrim Special Edition (SE), Anniversary Edition (AE), and Skyrim VR.
So without further ado, let us dive right in.
10. Enhanced Lights and FX
Download Link: Nexus Mods
Lighting is one of the most important visual factors for Video games, and Skyrim is no exception. Starting off our list is this mod that completely overhauls the game’s lighting system and adds many new features and changes. Now, all light sources emit light, even the windows in interiors, along with shadows and reflections. It also darkens dungeons, nights and fixes light placements. This mod has over 5 Million downloads and 93,000+ endorsements on Nexus mods.
9. Vivid Weathers Definitive Edition – a complete Weather and Visual overhaul for Skyrim
Download Link: Nexus Mods
Get ready to be amazed by the breathtaking weather mod, Vivid Weathers. This extraordinary mod combines the best features from COT, ESS, SS, Vivid Snow, Vivid Clouds and Fogs, Real Skyrim Snowflakes, and many more, resulting in a mesmerizing weather experience like no other.
With Vivid Weathers, your Skyrim journey will be transformed into a visual masterpiece. With a complete overhaul, Vivid Weathers revamps the colours and atmospheric conditions of the game, resulting in breathtaking new effects. The best part is that you don’t even need ENB to experience its stunning visuals.
8. Ruins Clutter Improved
Download Link: Nexus Mods
As you embark on countless adventures in Skyrim, a significant portion of your journey will lead you deep into the dungeons that are scattered throughout the landscape. With so much time spent in the dungeons, you wouldn’t want low-poly objects with random clipping to disrupt your immersion. This mod fixes that by enhancing textures and meshes and correcting UV errors in various clutter objects. With over 3.7 Million downloads and 45,000+ endorsements on Nexus mods, enhance your dungeon experience with this upgrade.
7. Noble Skyrim Mod HD-2K
Download Link: Nexus Mods
In 2024 with more and more next-gen games coming out, Skyrim’s architecture and buildings appear aged in comparison, even for a world set in 800 AD. However, fret not, for this mod aims to revitalize Skyrim’s architecture with a massive overhaul. It changes all the vanilla textures into custom 4k ones, upgrading the visuals of every architectural element.
Not only that, but this mod also adds custom 4k textures to landscapes, dungeons, ruins, caves, clutter, etc. as well, ensuring a cohesive and immersive visual experience throughout the game. This mod has over 4.2 Million downloads and 50,000+ endorsements on Nexus mods.
6. Majestic Mountains
Download Link: Nexus Mods
Back in the day, Skyrim’s mountains and hills were praised for their visual appeal. Although they have aged over the years, this mod enhances their looks to be on par with modern games. With jaw-dropping 8k textures, this mod cranks the level of detail of Skyrim’s mountains up to 11.
The author of this mod added custom UV mapping, reworked vertex colours, prebaked ambient occlusion, an improved snow shader, and a whole lot more. Get ready to experience the epic Skyrim landscape like never before with this mod. It has over 4.2 Million downloads and 37,000+ endorsements on Nexus mods.
5. Skyrim Flora Overhaul SE
Download Link: Nexus Mods
Tired of the monotonous landscapes of Vanilla Skyrim? Well, don’t you worry because the mod “Skyrim Flora Overhaul SE” aims to fix just that. Say goodbye to the dull grass and trees as this mod adds 18 new tree models and 65 new grasses and plants to the game. Get ready to feast your eyes on the new visually satisfying world that comes with this mod and breathe new life into your Skyrim adventure. This mod has 116,000+ endorsements and over 6 Million downloads on Nexus mods.
4. Realistic Water Two SE
Download Link: Nexus Mods
This mod adds crisp and vivid textures to Skyrim’s waters and fixes its interactions with the environment. After Skyrim SE was released, its water system was revamped to show the flow of water depending on the environment. Although the rivers looked more immersive, the game added this flow to all bodies of water, including small ponds, which look bizarre. This mod fixes these issues by removing this flow effect from water bodies that shouldn’t have it and enhancing it for the ones that should.
This mod has over 130k Endorsements and 7 Million Downloads on Nexusmods, earning it the 4th spot on our list.
3. Enhanced Blood Textures
Download Link: Nexus Mods
Whether you’re swinging a greatsword or dual-wielding daggers, have you ever thought that there is not enough bloodshed? Well, look no further because the third-best mod from this list adds just that. This overhaul enhances all the blood and gore textures in the game so you can bask in the glory of all your kills. This mod adds 4k blood textures along with additional features such as kill-move animation spasms, low-health blood trails, damage-based blood spatters, blood pools, and green blood for spiders and oil for machines.
This mod has 6.5 Million Downloads with 120,000+ Endorsements on Nexus Mods and 88,000+ subscribers and 6000 favourites on the Steam Workshop. If you want more gruesome combat, then this is the mod for you.
2. Static Mesh Improvement Mod – SMIM
Download Link: Nexus Mods, Steam Workshop
The second best graphical mod on the list is the Static Mesh Improvement Mod – SMIM by Brumbek. This mod focuses on the appearance of 3D objects; giving them more depth and detail. The decade-old game has low polygon items and static meshes that comprise the architectural elements, clutter, furniture, and landscape objects.
This mod has over 9 Million downloads with 197,000 endorsements on Nexus mods and 600,000+ subscribers with 33,000 favourites on the Steam workshop. With over 1500 meshes and 100,000 placements, this mod is still being updated incrementally.
1. Skyrim 202X by Pfuscher
Download Link: Nexus Mods
Skyrim 202X, formerly known as Skyrim 2020, is a texture pack dedicated to improving almost every aspect of the game, starting from cities, dungeons, clutter, and landscapes to clothes, armour, and much more. This mod is compatible with Skyrim Special Edition, Anniversary Edition, and VR. It has 8k textures for most objects and also has options to download the 4k, 2k, and 1k versions for GPUs with lower VRAMS.
This mod has 17 Million downloads with 82 thousand endorsements, making it the most popular graphical mod on Nexusmods. With over a thousand hours put in and 2000+ textures, this is by far the most detailed mod pack out there. If you were to download just one mod from this list, let it be this one.
Bonus: Total Character Makeover
Download Link: Nexus Mods
Let’s say you have spent a lot of time modding the landscapes of Skyrim to look beautiful and immersive, but that immersion breaks the moment when you have to interact with the eyesore, low-poly characters of Skyrim. Well, fear not, as this bonus mod in our list will address the visual aspect of the NPCs of the game. It will improve upon the faces of the characters and add high-resolution textures while staying true to the Vanilla game. It features complete texture sets for all races, improved anatomy meshes, high-resolution face and eye textures, etc.
So that’s it for our favourite picks when it comes to the top Graphical Mods for Skyrim: Special Edition in 2024. It’s important to keep in mind that this list is subjective, and your opinions might differ from ours. Regardless if you’re a returning veteran or a first-time player, incorporating one or more of these mods into your game will elevate your visual experience playing Skyrim: Special Edition in 2024.
