Frapsed abit of modded Skyrim:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EULY4f0_eJg

Originally posted by mindw0rk

Frapsed abit of modded Skyrim:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EULY4f0_eJg

wow, really nice looking man. Makes me want to upgrade my PC :P

Originally posted by TheScavenger

Originally posted by mindw0rk

Frapsed abit of modded Skyrim:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EULY4f0_eJg

wow, really nice looking man. Makes me want to upgrade my PC :P

Hmm, shouldn't adding those mods be a huge performance increase? My FPS is nearly the same, if at all different.

No matter what resolution I put Skyrim at (even really low), my FPS is pretty much the same too.

Taking off ENB, my fps is sorta the same (I get like 5 extra FPS).

Wonder if there isn't another reason for my lower FPS. Or if something on my PC is bottlenecking Skyrim.

I will comment later about the changes I did showing only a part of it on the last posted screenshot.

Alright, you all love immersion ingame and there is one thing we did not talk about:  SOUND

Therefore I was looking around and found a really amazing combination of mods. The first time I did try the new mods ingame was nighttime and since the nights are really pitch dark for me ingame, I almost did piss in my pants using the new sound + lightning strike modifications hehe.

1) SSO - Skyrim Sound Overhaul  which adds really new and additional sounds, really immersive.

(this mod was uploaded just recently and is new - overwrite this mod with the next mods I list. The smaller mods add special sounds which are really good)

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30864

2) Realistic Wolf Howls 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30636

3) Ultra Realistic Bow Shoot Sounds (very nice and really awesome when you are playing with bows)

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27208

The last modification adds a lot of immersion especially in the nighttime, it is compatible with the great major modfication "Climates of Tamriel" aswell. Seems like some of you are using this mod too and this additional Lightning Strike mod is a must have.

1) Lightning during Thunder Storms ( Lightning Strike Effects)

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15506

2) Lightning during Thunder Storms - Climate Of Tamriel patch

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25675

(make sure to install aswell the Patch Plus 5 from the optional files, these are some important fixes)

These modifications together will offer you really immersive sounds and the Lightning Strikes in addition to Climates of Tamriels are really nice, there is a compatibility patch offered for download. Walking around in the dark nights with just your torch, confronted with a thunder storm and loud thunder strikes, suddenly recognizing quiete realistic Wolf Howls is just amazing !!

Try it for sure......

By the way, I did found for me a good torch modification since I could sometimes see only 1-2 meter in the dark nights, using Climates of Tamriel and ENB unreal cinema. This modifiactin is perfect, you can see enough to walk around. 

Brighter Troches with bigger Radius

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/32156

Hope you guys like the new mod ideas, maybe not everyone of you know them already.

Already curious what do you say about your first thunder storm night.

These mods did improve my gameplay a lot.......really immersive. =)

Sweet, sound mods :D I especially like that one huge sound addition you linked. After Sounds of Skyrim died, there was quite a lack of sound. Let alone any mod that added a lot of ambience.

To be honest, sound is more important than graphics for me. So, thanks man :D Those are all great.

Plus that archery sounds...:D

Would a SSD help with performance in Skyrim? I'll be getting one.

In the process of upgrading my PC, I'm getting an SSD first (seems most bang for the buck), then a power supply (mines crappy), and then ram/motherboard and...I think I need a 3rd thing to go with that. I thought I have 3 hardware I kind of have to upgrade at the same time, since my current stuff won't be compatible with a new motherboard. Anyway, once those three are done...I'll be getting a graphics card last.

My current system:

Windows 7 64bit

8gig DDR 3 ram

Geforce GTX 260 896 MB

i5 3.3 GHz processor (its a crappy low end one)

a regular hard drive

The most expensive parts will probably either be getting a new motherboard (cause I have to buy other parts too), or a graphics card. I already have saved quite a bit of Amazon gift cards for a SSD drive, getting that for "cheaper" due to gifted cards.

But mainly just wondering...would a SSD be a big difference in performance for Skyrim? I get 10-30 FPS as it is, 20 average. Even if it doesn't, it will still be first thing I upgrade to because I already nearly have enough for it through gift cards. I need one anyway for a new up to date PC.

The modification "Skyrim Bigger Trees" is a must have, saw this the first time in the posted video above. Thx for the video its really nice.

The mod changes the trees to such nice and huge trees, which fits a lot to the fantasy theme. Amazing.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17168

The lightning strike mod is really cool, there was an impact on the ground only some meters in front of me....in combination with the louder thunder noise from the new SSE sound pack.

@TheScavenger

I wonder why you have problems with performance, Iam running the game on a similar machine and have on average no real bigger issues. My FPS isnt that much higher than yours after testing it with fraps, but gameplay feels fluently for me. Outside of dense areas 25-30 FPS, dense areas average 15-20 fps without stutters. The lower FPS have no impact on my gameplay, was actually surprised to see that low FPS numbers after testing it with Fraps since it feels quiete smooth.

Iam running the game with lots of HD 2k textures and bigger graphic overhauls + ENB, altogether around 125 mods in the meanwhile.......so if you have such FPS numbers without them, I really wonder. The machine is quiete similar which I use for this game currently, except I use an E8400 chip and not i5.

I can recommand the Samsung HDD, the system response and loading time is much faster but not sure if this will influence FPS ingame by a lot. The only game I had problems so far with this older rig was Planetside 2, had to use my newer machine for it which I use only for multimedia actually and since PS2 is such a disappointment I did uninstall it again.

Try some of the skyrim performance mods, maybe some will help.

 Is still the craptastic, boring game that it was before.

 I also tried playing around with various mods (had at a moment around 60+). The game looked better. I do not disagree but it doesn't look like in those sss at the normal resolution you usually play.

 Skyrim Nexus has a decent amount of mods. You can sort them by popularity.

 !In case you want to install any major overhauls to the game itself (gameplay and stuff) be prepared to lose a bunch of days getting everything working right.

 I did it at the same time with a dear friend and we ended up with different armor and damage values. That was"What?!".

Well if you use mostly mods only for the "look" of course the game will stay boring. Try the modifications listed in pages before i.e. survival mods about weather or basic needs, weather/climate mods, no fast travel, Sykrim Redone and so on....those are actually the mods which offers nice adventure gameplay. Mods which slow you down and challenge you and where you are not a superheroe or too powerfull.

There are mods where you can own a farm and produce goods which you can sell, there are other mods which loads of professions, hunter guild/fishing guild.....I dont know them all and only using the hunter guild, but so many things which adds to gameplay. Cant say its boring with all these additional features, it would be boring actually when you fast travel around the game and just hack n slash without such mods Iam talking about or just playing Vanilla Skyrim.

Its like with all of the Elder Scroll games, without such mods the game is actually less exciting and this counts for all the Elder Scroll games inclusive Fallout.

 Had about 40+ mods for gameplay and such. Still boring as shit.

 3Dnpcs, deadly combat, deadly reflexes, dodge, skyrim overhaul with all the required patches for the aditional item mods (improved weapons/armors/elven weaponry/omega's armors etc. - they were LEGION) and many other mods.

 Played for a few hours. Was interesting at first. Became boring soon after. Why? Because it is the same dead world that doesn't make me want to play.

 And please, Fallout 1/2, Morrowind, Arena didn't require any mods to be extremely well put together and interesting games.

 The mod folder with the archived mods of the Nexus Mod Manager was over 8 gigs. Or were they decompressed. I can't remember.

All the mods you listed are mostly about combat, maybe you should try a different route like I suggested. Go with survival/weather mods and disable fast traveling, slow down your gameplay with challenges.

 For more life I have a mod installed where you see traveller/adventurer on raods, there are mods which add new npc with quests. There are companion mods when you dont want to play alone..... The gameplay with the mods I use is actually more exciting than most mass mmorpgs out there.

Skyrimtuner has the perfect mod compile for a photorealistic Skyrim.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30936

Just check out the videos to be blown away, make sure you watch them in 1080p.

You will need a 680gtx videocard and a i5/i7 cpu to play the game modded this way.

 You don't seem to understand. What do you want me to do? List all the mods?

 Just go to the nexus, see the first 80-90 mods that were popular and imagine I had most of them. I included "etc." because the list would be to extensive.

 I had the follower's overhaul (stats, level-up etc.), guild overhauls, crafting overhauls, the survival mod, the wild life overhaul, deadly dragons, alternate start, races overhaul, oblivion character creation, birthsigns and many others.

 It was almost the same experience.

 Besides some random giggles that I got from interacting with the new npcs added by 3dnpcs (the +3 gigs mod or smth like that), I got bored fast.

 It is the same game. Maybe if the skyrim world was created by the ones that did that mod.. Who knows? Maybe it would have been a totally different experience.

 And the compatibility process was CRAZY. CRAZY  I tell you. Took me a few days to get everything working together. The "graphic" stuff was easier to fix but to get all the gameplay changes to properly work together? I think I fracked up my hdd.

 It is a "cool" thing to do if you don't have anything else to do. See how long it takes for you to brake the game and require a fresh install to get everything back together again.

 And Skyrim modding is so much easier than Oblivion. For all the fluffy things out there, I thought I was going to end up killing somebody during the days I was into modding Oblivion and getting all the mods to work together. The crew behind BOSS must hate me by now.

Well for me there is a huge difference in gameplay between Vanilla and using the mods Iam talking about. I have a lot to do caring about my player character instead of jumping from combat to combat. In the cold weather zones I need to take care about firewood, placing a tent and open fire to warm up when its getting too cold. I have to walk a lot without any fast travel. First I did install aswell basic needs, where you have to eat and sleep. This was almost too much for me at the beginning and I did uninstall it again, maybe I will try this later again. Some in this thread using such a mod for longer already. I did join the Hunter Guild and we build them up currently, delivering the goods. There is one interesting mod which adds many different professions, maybe I will try this aswell. And there is the dlc/mod where you can build your own house....so there is so much to do besides exploring the world and fighting for survival and doing the quests. And last but not least, Iam playing the game not for hours every day.

With Skyrim Redone there is always a challenge since you dont know how strong will be the next opponent you encounter in the wilderness or npc´s in new areas.  I dont have any issues so far with the around 125 mods Iam using currently, gameplay is fine.

For me the gameplay expirieence is one of the best when it comes to rpg games. Most mmorpgs are more boring or single player themepark rpgs. The only downside is the Theme, Fallout did offere here something new and refreshing. Fantasy settings for games are stale.

First you just follow this guide.

http://wiki.step-project.com/STEP:2.2.1#STEP_1

then use

http://www.skyrimgems.com

Only attempt what Skyrimtuner did if your PC is badass enough to handle it.

Modding Skyrim out is easy, just takes time.

Originally posted by mindw0rk

Frapsed abit of modded Skyrim:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EULY4f0_eJg

Nice work, looks amazing.

One of my most prefered modification when it comes to changing landscape and general immersion is a real nice and I would say a must have mod called: Skyrim Bigger Trees.

The nature changes are so dramatically and adds a lot of immersion. You feel a lot more in touch with a fantasy world.

You will walk through areas where you have been before but you want almost not regocnize it again.....its fantastic.

SKYRIM BIGGER TREES -  an amazing "must have" mod

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17168

This image is maybe not the best example since the woods look really really coool with the bigger trees, but thats how Whiterun looks for me ingame and you see the huge size if you comapre it to the size of the people walking along the town road.

Cant imagine to play without this mod anymore.....just awesome.

Course of a River with Skyrim Big Tree mod

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8214/8417636995_7a885da04f_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8505/8417642993_bb0f117836_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8327/8417638487_ba9b7476c0_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8097/8418727786_54b2ef86b6_b.jpg

some of the lighting overhauls make it so you have to use torches