"This Is Absurd': Game-Changing Skyrim Graphics Mod Is Already Causing a Commotion
Get Skyrim looking like a modern game, without spending thousands on a GPU
Has it been too long since you last heard the words, "You're finally awake!" from the back of a horse-drawn cart? Well, here's your next thinly-veiled excuse to start a new save file in Bethesda's classic RPG. As PC gamers tell it, this newly-released mod is a total game changer for Skyrim's graphics.
News of fancy Skyrim graphics mods is a regular occurrence, but this time is different. Sure, you can get Skyrim to look like a modern video game with all sorts of downloads, but most of them require heavy processing power. The better the game looks, the higher chance it will suffer performance issues. With most visual enhancers, Skyrim can look fantastic — so long as you're standing perfectly still, or own an expensive graphics card.
The mod of choice to achieve superior visual fidelity is Enhanced Natural Beauty, or ENB. ENB is a wrapper over the game that can visually enhance the game via options like HDR and depth of field. Players use the tool to enable visual presets that improve rendering of details such as clouds, water, and fire. ENB is not specific to Skyrim, and can be used to juice up the visuals of other older titles, like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Beyond the basic processing requirements, one major reason players begrudgingly used ENB was due to its creator, Boris. Boris has a long-standing beef with other modders, against whom he has threatened legal action. Boris is also infamous for his conservative views — though he insists that people actually discriminate against him due to his Russian heritage. ENB is also closed source, which means that other modders can't easily build upon it. Many users found themselves using ENB not because they wanted to, but because there wasn't a better alternative.
What's causing a commotion within the Skyrim community right now is the release of a new version of Community Shaders. The open source project was already popular, but now it supports many of the most popular ENB presets. CS can improve things like particle shaders, HDR, volumetric rays, procedural sun ray generation, terrain variation, ambient lighting, grass collision, and global illumination. The key difference is that CS can do all these things on an engine level, rather than acting like a wrapper on top of the game. This means that low-end rigs can make Skyrim look fantastic now as well. IThe mod offers the best of both worlds: the flexibility and choice afforded by ENB, and the performance characteristics of CS.
And with support for ENB presets, users can take advantage of the best graphical enhancement projects out there without forcing their computers to chug. According to the mod's Patreon page, this is the beginning of many enhancements to come. To say Skyrim PC players are ecstatic right now would be an understatement.
"You did it," one Nexus Mod user wrote on the Community Shaders comments page. "You crazy son of a bitch, you did it."
"This is huge," another user wrote, adding an O_O for emphasis.
"THIS IS A MOMENT IN HISTORY!" another exclaimed. "TAKE A PICTURE!!!
You can learn how to install the mod here.