Vanilla Skyrim graphics ain't so bad...

[Charlemagne]

I've been in a trip through various graphical enhancments for Skyrim: ENB, saturation boosters, dark nights, thicker fog, sky enhancers, moon enhancers, I've tried and dropped a lot of stuff (don't ask about my savegame- it must be pretty messed up) trying to find the perfect combination. For me, since it is a matter of taste. But every mod has its good and bad side, it makes something better but something worse. The setup that I've liked the most is pretty simple: Skyrim in Color, plus reduce brightness setting five points. However, the only problem with that one is with night lights in cities.
I finally landed back on vanilla Skyrim graphics, and I noticed something: It doesn't look too pretty, but nothing in it looks real bad. It's kind of refreshing in a way. Hmmm...

[ARmodder]

Yeah I hear ya I loved the Vanilla game but there were certain things it was lacking in, for me it was lacking in weapons and armor as far as styles and variants go, the only armor I really liked was the Iron' Bandded Iron, leather and steel the others were either too much or not enough same for the weapons! I liked how they did the variants of armor and weapons in Oblivion each quality of sword looked different and was realistic and added variety so for me weapons and armor mods were the path I chose though i did use some graphical mods and used a few home mods :D

[peppermint hollows]

I beg to differ. Some of the default textures & meshes in the vanilla game look atrocious. Perhaps the colors and such which are enhanced by ENBs aren't bad, but they look a little bland. If I want a bit more atmospheric and moody, I go for the Bleak ENB (which I use right now). If I want saturation and bright colors, I use the TK ENB.

[bobczes]

I have to agree that the base game is none too shabby. Most graphics mods promise a lot and deliver little.

Texture mods are only noticed when you put your face up against a wall. The ENB mods are notorious resource hogs. Sky enhancers are only for tourists who take a lot of screenies. Flora mods tend to put trees, grass and bushes where they don't belong.

I think the most worthwhile mods are content additions or specialty mods (weapons/armor).

And not to confuse the two, patches that correct scripting and code bugs are all good.

[ARmodder]

Originally posted by Bananaᴴᴰ ๖ۣۜKush:

I beg to differ. Some of the default textures & meshes in the vanilla game look atrocious. Perhaps the colors and such which are enhanced by ENBs aren't bad, but they look a little bland. If I want a bit more atmospheric and moody, I go for the Bleak ENB (which I use right now). If I want saturation and bright colors, I use the TK ENB.

I may be mistaken but coming from a place where it is very bland outside right now and the fact the majority of the game looks the same as where I live weather wise I think it is safe to say they wanted it to look bland after all snow is bland!

[Myrddrall9]

The worst part of vanilla Skyrim was the UI, I can live with low-res textures, bugs, crashes etc, but the console-based UI was terrible to manage.

[Charlemagne]

I changed the thread title... As what I meant was about Vanilla *graphics*. I haven't played Vanilla-Vanilla Skyrim without any mods at all in a long time. Although I would also say it wasn't so bad, but there are many mods that I have that I can't live without. But I might live without any graphics mods.

[ォジョロ]

I started a vanilla campaign a few weeks ago and hardly noticed a difference from having graphics mods on. I would even say it was better as vanilla (with high texture DLC & ultra high quality), but I might just be saying that because with no mods, I get a perfect framerate, which makes everything look nicer as oppposed to how even the most moddest mods lag my game.

[Solomon Hawk]

If you see green trees in snowbound land ... something is obviously wrong with the mod.

[Charlemagne]

What mod does that?

[Braden]

I find the vanilla body completely crap.. Always got to have mods.

[mpd1958]

I have tried several graphical mods/enhancers and find that I like Skyrim with just the hd/highrez packs the best no additional stuff. KISS is my moto.

[bronze_aged]

I just started getting into mods, and then realized I had been playing without the textures DLC. Doh. NOW the game looks pretty nice to me, and I haven't had to bother with any visual upgrades yet.