The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[Rhezuss]

To be fair, TPC is a reasonably complex mod that involves replacing the vast majority of environmental textures (thankfully with ones that are very much in the spirit of Vanilla). I'd say TPC represents about 75% of the modding I've done to my own game, given how expansive it is. It's really nice though. If all you do is TPC, you've got a great looking game. :thumbsup:

I'm still interested to know how those ENB works...don't know what it means and what it's doing to Skyrim but my understanding is that your pics are using this (these!?!??) ENB...

How complex/time consuming is it to add this to Skyrim?

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I'm still interested to know how those ENB works...don't know what it means and what it's doing to Skyrim but my understanding is that your pics are using this (these!?!??) ENB...

How complex/time consuming is it to add this to Skyrim?

Well, given that I spent around 3 hours downloading and placing all the files for TPC, running the batch file, zipping it up and installing it with NMM, and about 1 minute to download an ENB config and set up the file, I'd say that ENB was a LOT easier. You place 4 or so files in your main Skyrim folder and all told they're less than 1 MB. If you actually bother to go in and start changing the configuration values, yeah, it takes time, but I haven't done any of that. ENB is extremely easy to install and use.

 

[fabiencolombo]

If you like more fantasy night sky you can try the "bryce' nebula" mod, I think it looks great:

 

[RampantAndroid]

If you like more fantasy night sky you can try the "bryce' nebula" mod, I think it looks great:

What mods are you running for those character looks? What armor is that even?

 

[fabiencolombo]

 

[fabiencolombo]

RampantAndroid

On which pic?

Edit:
Since I'm tired and I'm off to bed, I leave you with this:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2252022

This is a thread I made with everything you need to know about my modding

And check my video (I'm actually quite proud of this vid, and it took me ages to record it...) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_y43-Q94zA

Sorry for the advertisment... But I think it's faster than detailling everything over again here (and that's not the place to do so)

 

[RampantAndroid]

RampantAndroid

On which pic?

Any of the ones with your characters - 1st,2nd, 3rd, 4th,8th.

Thanks!

 

[fabiencolombo]

I edited my previous post, you'll find what you're looking for, I think.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I edited my previous post, you'll find what you're looking for, I think.

Thanks, and sorry for asking you to write it all over again, didn't know you had a thread for it all.

 

[jsedlak]

I keep managing to break skyrim. It won't start anymore

 

[Agent11]

be more selective of the mods you use. If a mod doesnt have a master it is dependent on skyrim wont load while it is active.

 

[Face2Face]

I was just going to say your nights look a lot brighter than mine . I had RCRN installed before going ENB, and holy cow, talk about dark nights. Even the "bright" setting of RCRN is virtually pitch black at night (and unplayable in a well lit room). As it stands, my nights are still pretty dark...



As for the galaxy, I use the color version from Enhanced Night Skyrim, one of the mods from TPC. I know he recommends the Milky Way galaxy, but I really like the more colorful nebula-esque fantasy style of Enhanced Night Skyrim, so I just use that.

The nights seem really dark to me. I can't even play when it's really dark, so I couldn't imagine them being any darker.. The other galaxy's look really cool but I am more vanilla when it comes to the sky. I like the Milkyway the best - It's not overwhelming like some of the others.

 

[Face2Face]

I'm still interested to know how those ENB works...don't know what it means and what it's doing to Skyrim but my understanding is that your pics are using this (these!?!??) ENB...

How complex/time consuming is it to add this to Skyrim?

It doesn't take long at all - 5-10 minutes

I have always been on the fence about ENB's since I tried the most popular one (Sharpshooters) and did not like it at all.

I will say this one http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/18941 recommend by Playboy

Seems to be the most realistic. I am very happy with it and it makes the game look so real and amazing. There are a couple of settings I had to adjust, like remove the vignette and remove the blur that comes with the ENB stock. After those settings were removed I am in love with this ENB. I had to drop my AA to 2X to keep performance the same. Runs great -

 

[KaOTiK]

I apologize upfront as I have not kept up with the thread in sometime. I'm getting ready to start playing this again after a fairly long break.

Is there a list of like the best mods for the game for graphics?
Everything that would change it for the better graphically, be it adding more vegetation, texture packs, lighting, rendering, sky, water, improved models, whatever you get the idea. I want to make the game as pretty as possible.

I know it is a lot to ask and some of it might have been covered already (I'll back track reading this thread soon), but just looking for names of mods to go and DL basically. I really just want it to be graphical enhancements only, but if there is some other must have mod I am totally open to it as well.

Thanks much in advance for any/all recommendations.

 

[lkailburn]

I apologize upfront as I have not kept up with the thread in sometime. I'm getting ready to start playing this again after a fairly long break.

Is there a list of like the best mods for the game for graphics?
Everything that would change it for the better graphically, be it adding more vegetation, texture packs, lighting, rendering, sky, water, improved models, whatever you get the idea. I want to make the game as pretty as possible.

I know it is a lot to ask and some of it might have been covered already (I'll back track reading this thread soon), but just looking for names of mods to go and DL basically. I really just want it to be graphical enhancements only, but if there is some other must have mod I am totally open to it as well.

Thanks much in advance for any/all recommendations.

I think it's back on page 164 or something. Atomic made an EXCELLENT list of texture mods. After finally finishing most of the mods, my game looks completely different. such an improvement.

 

[KaOTiK]

I think it's back on page 164 or something. Atomic made an EXCELLENT list of texture mods. After finally finishing most of the mods, my game looks completely different. such an improvement.

Thank you very much, something like that is perfect to start off with, if anyone has more to add to it please tell

Thank you Ikaiburn and Atomic Playboy

 

[hg321]

I used to be a mighty adventurer like you until I took an arrow to the knee

oh and thanks Atomic for the list of mods

 

[Qbah]

I think I figured it out... I'm running out of system RAM :awe: I only have 4GB... The freezing is so random, there is nothing common between the situations. So I ran windowed a few times and was looking at resource usage. The freeze always happens when the available RAM drops to almost zero.

Also, 2GB on the GTX670 is not enough for all the texture mods. I had to download a "streamlined" version of the Bethesda official one (texture resolution dropped to 2048). Now the game tops at 2010MB I think I've seen the most and there's no stuttering anymore even in the worst places. But I can see the armor resolution is not so awesome as with the original one I know it's there (even though I don't see that detail in the heat of battle) and I can't fully enjoy the game. Sometimes I stop and just look around, observe stuff in the environment and then I can clearly see the difference So I wrote to the shop and they agreed to exchange the GTX670 to another one, a 4GB model (same ASUS DCII)

So next week, extra 4GB of RAM and 4GB of VRAM on the card :awe:

 

[lkailburn]

Sweet deal on the exchange. I wonder if I'm runnin low on system memory as well then since I'm also only using 4gb

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Sweet deal on the exchange. I wonder if I'm runnin low on system memory as well then since I'm also only using 4gb

The game is also very CPU dependent. A core 2 quad is pretty old; they don't fare as well as newer Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge parts. That and only using 4 GB of RAM will definitely limit your performance.

 

[Agent11]

Haha, yup. Where are all the grognards who would chastise us on never needing so much RAM now? lol

 

[Qbah]

The game is also very CPU dependent. A core 2 quad is pretty old; they don't fare as well as newer Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge parts. That and only using 4 GB of RAM will definitely limit your performance.

Yep. I'm gonna upgrade with Haswell earliest though. Mine's running at 3.2GHz and games still run fine for the most part - I do get the occasional bottleneck situation in Skyrim in some areas (game running at 20-30 FPS with low GPU usage), but the majority of cases it's still GPU limited or capped at 60.

 

[lkailburn]

The game is also very CPU dependent. A core 2 quad is pretty old; they don't fare as well as newer Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge parts. That and only using 4 GB of RAM will definitely limit your performance.

Yeah I hear ya. Maybe an x-mas upgrade!

-Luke

 

[The_Golden_Man]

I experienced CPU bottlenecking in Oblivion with a Q9650@4GHz. Outside Anvil, standing in the tall grass by Anvil farm was a good location to test this.

I tested both with a GTX 260 and a GTX 570. Both was in the low 30FPS at that spot. This was at 1920x1200. Most places it ran at Vsync 60FPS though. Obviously, Oblivion is an old game and a GTX 260 was really enough to run it. Then I tried both the GTX 260 and GTX 570 in a 2500K@4.5GHz system. In the same spot I got 60FPS. There where several other CPU bottlenecking locations in the game too.

Oh, and turning down the resolution made no difference.

Pretty funny when you think about it.. GTX 260 to GTX 570 made no difference, it was the CPU bottlenecking this old game. Q9650 is not older than this game, it just goes to show how poorly coded it's game engine is. And that a CPU released 5 year later was able to get much better performance in it, due to raw power.

Skyrim uses a more modified graphics engine VS Oblivion, but still I would guess anything like a Q9xxx or AMD Phenom will bottleneck this game too. Not everywhere, but in some locations.

 

[Face2Face]

Skyrim would definitely benefit from a Sandy or Ivy bridge. I am waiting for Haswell too. My Phenom II along with my 7950 run Skyrim great @ 1080P with ENB and 40+ mods. I have a video memory usage of 2.2-2.5 GB. I am loving the fact I have 3GB of vram and some quick overclocking without adjusting the voltage to get me into the GTX 680 realm.


http://media.bestofmicro.com/X/N/323915/original/Skyrim.png