Distant textures look like butt

[Demetrus]

As the title suggests, my Skyrim game has me gazing upon the stunning vistas and valleys in the distance in amazing 240p quality. Picture for reference:

http://i.imgur.com/jhY0WUS.jpg

I use SKSE to run my game and have a bunch of mods running through NMM, as you can see here:

http://i.imgur.com/PfliZLv.png

And I'm out of ideas. I've fiddled with the graphics settings, tried downloading other mods that supposedly fix it, but it just still looks like dirt. Surely it's not meant to look like that, right? I mean, I know it's not exactly a new game but I'm sure I remember the far distance looking a whole lot better than it does now.

So, short of wiping everything and starting with a Vanilla install, do you have any ideas of what could be causing this, and how to fix it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[bob]

Get a TITAN and set your grids to 12.
Other than that, your only options are minor improvements.

[Peahatche]

or you can just download some textures that are ment to be seen long distace from the nexus. I wouldnt go playing with grids get some weird problems with it.

["lil" poon]

Enhanced Distant Terrain
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1598/?

I just checked and that's really all i use to improve distant textures. Can't say i've experienced it looking as bad as in your example to be honest.

[Demetrus]

Thanks for the suggestions. Was Vanilla Skyrim this bad, or could there be a mod combination I'm using that would be causing this?

EDIT: I tried the mod suggested above, along with its 'sequel' EDT2, and it's actually made zero noticeable difference. That's not right, right? Seems strange that it hasn't changed at all.

[Shrapnel]

VS was nowhere near as bad as that screenshot, that is totally on the limitations of your PC

[Demetrus]

Originally posted by Shrapnel:

VS was nowhere near as bad as that screenshot, that is totally on the limitations of your PC

I absolutely guarantee you my PC hardware is not the issue, unless there's a driver issue that's causing this. I've got an i7-3770K, 32gb Ram and an AMD 7970 Ghz edition - I was running Skyrim on ultra settings with my previous PC, and this one is a step up in every way.

[Shrapnel]

then you've got one serious problem before you, that screenshot looks like you're playing on an NES. Next thing I would assume is a mod conflict, maybe the load order is off...
Im no expert but one quick look at your load order and I can already see one problem, core game files(skyrim.esm/ Update.esm) and beth updates and patches should always be loaded before mods.
I would recommend you get BOSS

["lil" poon]

Originally posted by Demetrus:

Originally posted by Shrapnel:

VS was nowhere near as bad as that screenshot, that is totally on the limitations of your PC

I absolutely guarantee you my PC hardware is not the issue, unless there's a driver issue that's causing this. I've got an i7-3770K, 32gb Ram and an AMD 7970 Ghz edition - I was running Skyrim on ultra settings with my previous PC, and this one is a step up in every way.

Have you checked your graphics settings? I just went over to the same location and noticed large differences in terms of quality, especially concerning the shrubbery and trees nearby.

[Demetrus]

Originally posted by Ponyta:

Originally posted by Demetrus:

I absolutely guarantee you my PC hardware is not the issue, unless there's a driver issue that's causing this. I've got an i7-3770K, 32gb Ram and an AMD 7970 Ghz edition - I was running Skyrim on ultra settings with my previous PC, and this one is a step up in every way.

Have you checked your graphics settings? I just went over to the same location and noticed large differences in terms of quality, especially concerning the shrubbery and trees nearby.

I have, and that's what's really got me stumped. I know it should look better, and by all rights it should as I have everything set to high/ultra where possible. Hmm, I'll try updating my graphics drivers and see if that fixes anything.

EDIT: Drivers did nothing :( I'm out of ideas.

["lil" poon]

Found a mod you might appreciate, OP

Detailed Terrain and Tree LoD
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/17984/?


To show you

before
http://i.imgur.com/MipM9hK.jpg
Couldn't get the weather to stop fooling around, so no clear sky in this one - but i suppose the problem is clear (no pun intended) enough.


after
http://i.imgur.com/rnVfk47.jpg


Still wondering why your textures are of such lower detail though, but at least this solves most of the distant lod issues.

[Nilicaal]

I noticed you don't have the unofficial Skyrim Patch, even though you've got all the other unoffical patches. You could look into that and maybe download that one too. Other than that, indeed check out BOSS, it is an easy to use program that sorts your mods automatically

[Shrapnel]

Originally posted by Bonder:

Originally posted by Shrapnel:

VS was nowhere near as bad as that screenshot, that is totally on the limitations of your PC

I disagree, that terrain is pretty far, vanilla has really bad textures at that medium/far distance. I think that's just vanilla being vanilla. Don't forget this game was designed around the old Xbox 360 in 720p.

Its so confusing to have a discussion on steam. Why are you bringing consoles into the mix?
I dont have a photographic memory but I can bet my next paycheck when I installed in 2011 and did view/distance checks, I never got something that looked like that. Maybe if your PC graphic settings cant handle the higher quality settings or if one were to manually modify their skyrim video settings it might...also, we're not talking about consoles or vanilla skyrim here, dont know where you're going with this or why you brought it up

[Zefram Cochrane]

Vanilla LOD's are rubbish, try

Enhanced Distant Terrain
HQ LODS
LOD_Trees_Improved

etc

[mpd1958]

Demetrus, as several people have stated, your load order is incorrect and is more than likely the cause of your problem. Download LOOT and have it set your load order. If you still have a problem after that let us know. Load order is VERY important!!!!

[Shrapnel]

Originally posted by grimus:

Use LOOT successor to BOSS which is no longer supported:
http://loot.github.io/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzoyWugzZAw

When did this happen, In stopped gaming for the summer (Julyish).
So LOOT is the new BOSS?, thanks