Skyrim Graphics Mods I CAN'T Play Without! (2023 Modlist)

In today’s video, I’ll showcase the visual mods that I can’t play without. And trust me, I have tried! All of these 21 mods listed today are some of my absolute favorites ever, and definitely the best I can offer on the graphics side of modding this game. I do hope you like them too! Let me know in the comments how you like your Skyrim: maybe with an ENB, maybe without, maybe with community shaders?

MOD LINKS:

Rudy ENB SE for Cathedral Weathers

Lux

Dyndolod

JK’s Skyrim

Lux Via

Noble Skyrim

Skyland - Markarth

Skyland - Windhelm

Skyland - Solitude

Glorious Doors of Skyrim

The Omnibus - Terrain Complex Parallax AiO

Fabled Forests

Vinland Grass Patch

Water for ENB

Natural Waterfalls

Majestic Mountains

Dibella’s Blessing

Sons of Nirn - Whiterun

Pandorable's NPCs - males

Pandorable's NPCs - males 2

Project ja-Kha'jay- Khajiit NPC Diversity Overhaul

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@sleepybard

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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
1:04 - Base Graphics Essentials intro
1:16 - Rudy ENB for Cathedral Weathers
2:02 - Lux
2:30 - DynDOLOD
3:04 - Environmental overhauls intro
3:16 - JK's Skyrim
3:49 - Lux Via
4:34 - Textures intro
4:55 - Noble Skyrim
5:39 - Skyland city textures (comparing vs Noble)
6:46 - Glorious Doors of Skyrim
7:34 - The Omnibus AIO (comparing vs vanilla)
8:11 - Fabled Forests
9:08 - Vinland Grass Patch
10:06 - Water for ENB
10:50 - Natural Waterfalls
11:22 - Majestic Mountains (comparing vs Noble)
11:55 - NPC overhaul intro hehe
12:12 - DIbella's Blessing
13:08 - Sons of Nirn
13:50 - Pandorable's NPCs Males
14:30 - Project ja-Kha'jay
15:23 - Support & sneak peek
15:54 - Outro

🖱 RIG + TECH SPECS:
RTX2080, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, 32 gigs RAM
OBS for recording, Adobe Premiere for editing, MO2 mod manager
Monitor 144hz 2560 x 1440
Game version: Skyrim Special Edition 1.6.353.0
ENB: Rudy's with Cathedral Weathers

🎵 MUSIC by Adrian Von Ziegler

[RicoLen]

Great list! The crazy thing is these are just the graphics mods! The range of mods this game can have is astounding.

There's so many overhauls to the gameplay (ordinator is probably the single best mod available, Sekiro-style fighting is fantastic, spell overhauls, etc.), that make the experience better, new locations like Bruma, and the entirety of the contiguous continent of Tamriel all being worked on in Beyond Skyrim, new characters fully voiced and integrated for the game, there's multiplayer (still buggy, but it definitely works).

Oh, and now they're working on making it so you can literally talk with your NPCs using voice recognition input mods and AI vocal reconstruction and text-to-speech mods to turn all NPCs into a fully voiced AI chatbot that uses a database containing information about the NPC you're talking with, your current location in the game, as well as information about all accepted and completed quests, and a little bit of extra leeway to come up with lore-friendly responses that can at times be quite relevant. Granted it's got all the ups and downs of being an AI chatbot, but it's one that's also 'sworn to carry your burdens' and will kill things alongside you.

This may be a very old game, but it doesn't feel old once you get it fully modded with 4k graphics, a new contemporary battle system, and talent trees that make class-building an absolute joy.

This game will still be alive and well when Elder Scrolls 6 finally arrives in another 10 years.

[The-Skyking]

Awesome video! Thanks for the Skyland shoutout. I really do appreciate it.

[elcat]

You did it again, I have so much respect for creators like you who present the comparision of every mod showcase. Ik it takes a lot of time and effort to record and edit these and I appreciate that. Thanks for an amazing showcase❤

[zalturionberxes]

your videos are so crazy underrated.
you include a before and after to every mod and your editing is also super fun to watch. keep up the good work and hopefully you'll get the recognition you finally deserve !

[ironicarc]

This channel is a blessing, thank you so much for these sooo well made videos.

[chuckchuk]

I'm setting up my first modded playthrough of Skyrim, I've already added 300 mods, and through ALL the videos on modding that I've found on youtube, yours are probably the best. You have consistently fantastic, neat, and to the point videos. I can't thank you enough, you've been incredibly helpful.

[sonnymastrangioli]

There IS a way to get all those frames back!

Community Shaders. Same ENB effects without the framerate hit, more features are getting added to the framework and you can control it all in game which saves having to close the game, fiddle around with config files, reload the game, then change the file again.

The Light Limit Fix is nearly done too!

[therexman]

I used to be sad that a YouTuber I liked doesn’t do Skyrim mod showcases anymore. But now I’m really happy that nowadays there are a lot of YouTubers like you who are making videos because they’re always highly polished, covering mods I’ve never heard of or have in my mod list (which is really validating because it makes me feel like I’m in the know), and are always presented beautifully! Thank you for your hard work your videos are always fantastic to watch!! Also me saying there’s a lot of mod showcases being made is not supposed to be disrespectful towards you. I’m really really glad people are passionate about Skyrim modding like me and are making videos and I’m glad that you’re among them!

[EnglishAndFilm]

Wow... the editing here is on another level! Fantastic comparison shots to go with the list. Hat's off to you!

[inkyGhosty]

The lighting in your game is beautiful

[dovarmahdesign]

I never left comments on videos but you clearly deserve one, i've also been editing videos and the quality of yours is just incredible, huge respect to you for the before > after, recording must be hard as you have to able/disable some mods, i've subscribed to your channel not so long ago but damn, I enjoy your content, hope you'll continue to post videos of skyrim for a long time !

[ddra]

your voice is so calming thanks for the narration

[samyakroy]

It's amazing to see that even though Skyrim modding has come a long way, yet some of the OG mods like Rudy ENB are still in use. Just shows how amazing these mods are.
BTW amazing video as always.

[nightwind]

Lots of lots of time, I remember modding this game couple of years back ago, the time consuming for every detail is stunishing, of course it was very fun and addictive to improve every aspect of the game mod to mod, until you finally make the perfect environment and atmosphere that Skyrim has, I can say that I didn’t get there, that’s why I thank you for doing this modlists so much effort here, just amazing.

[DaveyWavey]

My favorite mountain textures are "Authentic Mountains and Rocks 4K" and i love it. it looks so subtle and background-ish :)

[stratocasterHZ]

I'm new in modding and this video helped me a lot in discovering new visuals and gameplay. The fun about mods is that you can create your own mixes. For example, I dont use grass or terrain textures cause the vanila gives me a oldschool gaming vibe lol. But the water ones is a must have. I also prefer vanila characters and npc. Great vid!

[zangdarv]

I'm happy to see the preset is still used, great video :)

[Controlled_Insanity_]

I love your videos, you should mention how various mods make the game more immersive

[yokaipr]

Superb job! Everything was easy to understand, and all my questions were answered without my even asking! Lots of work and passion poured into this video, very high quality! Thank you.

[Monstervolging]

Considering the fact that lilson hasn't yet further polished the male side of Skyrim's NPCs, I suggest checking out nightmarezome over at nexus. For the NPC replacers outside of Whiterun region I use her overhauls since they closely resemble the realism which lilson creates with his own Dibellas Blessings mod for the female NPCs.