Gallery: 150 Mods at Once (And a $1,500 PC) Give Skyrim a Next-Gen Makeover
01depthoffield
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, with its vast, detailed world, was a ground-breaking achievement when it was released in November of 2011. "Plenty of games have set out to create open, lively worlds that feel just as human as the one we inhabit," wrote Jason Schreier in his [review for Wired](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gamelife/2011/11/skyrim-review/). "Perhaps none has come as close as Skyrim." __One Rig to Rule Them All__SkyrimTuner hand-built this custom PC for about $1,500, but he says a machine capable of running his souped-up Skyrim mod cocktail can be had for as little as $1,200. \* Intel Core i5-2500K 4.3 GHz \* Corsair H60 Watercooler \* NVIDIA GTX 680 OC GPU Boost 1200 MHz \* 16 GB DDR3 \* 120 GB SSD for Windows 7 64-bit \* 60 GB SSD for *Skyrim* \* 1 TB HD, 7200 RPM Now, only a year and a half later, a community of hundreds of fans in the modding community have proven that Skyrim's world had plenty of room for improvement. By creating mods to alter everything from the function of the sun's light to the prevalence of pretty flowers, these hobbyists have developed the tools to transform Bethesda's role-playing masterpiece into a game that looks more impressive than anything ever released by a traditional publisher. Why wait for PlayStation 4? You, too, can use these mods to turn Skyrim into a next-generation game. All you'll need is about $1,200 and a little time on your hands. Like many in the modding community, the modder by the name of SkyrimTuner prefers to remain anonymous, although it's clear that the Austrian gamer spends a lot of time tweaking his machine to get his visuals looking as incredible as possible. Over the course of three months, SkyrimTuner worked to find and test hundreds of mods created by fans. After extensive research and trials, he developed a list of over 150 mods which, when used in tandem, turn Skyrim into a completely different beast, which he likes to show off in [YouTube videos](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCupJTFm3-4). He's posted [the list online](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30936), with specific instructions for others to follow. SkyrimTuner estimates that people will have to download about 10 gigabytes' worth of mods to get all of the main visual upgrades out there. Once you've done that, installation can take as little as 30 minutes. But of course, you'll likely need a custom-built, high-end machine to get the most out of it. Read on to see more Skyrim mods in action, and hear about them from the modders themselves. *All images courtesy SkyrimTuner*
02hd1
There are a lot of mods going on all at once in these screenshots, but one of the most impactful is [Skyrim HD - 2K Textures](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/607) by NebuLa. It replaces many of the vanilla Skyrim textures with reworked, high-definition files that are 400 to 800 percent larger than the originals. In this particular shot, you may also notice unusually attractive mountains. Those belong to an artist named AnOldFriend and his gorgeous [AOF Detailed Mountains](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4805) mod, which reworks Bethesda's mountain textures with added detail.
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Skyrim modding isn't just about enhancing the great outdoors. The [Realistic Lighting Overhaul](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30450) mod is developed by a group of gamers calling themselves The Realistic Lighting Team. The developers warn players that the purpose of the mod is to make the game more immersive and realistic -- not to make it stand out in screenshots. Thus, areas in the game which are poorly lit will no longer be filled with magical blue sunlight. Instead, they'll be truly, terribly dark. "It would appear that while the artists \[of Skyrim\] devoted a large amount of time to create the races, creatures, armors, weapons, and major buildings," writes Brumbek, the maker of the [Static Mesh Improvement Mod](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8655), "the more 'boring' 3-D models that make up the game world were severely neglected." Brumbek's quest is to fix those boring models, and as you can see in the shot above, he's doing a hell of a job of it. Combine his work on random villagers with the new indoor lighting engine created by The Realistic Lighting Team, and Skyrim's homes become a much more welcoming place.
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The [W.A.T.E.R. - Water and Terrain Enhancement Redux](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13268) mod, developed by SparrowPrince, gets rid of the game's standard pixelated water and adds high-resolution textures for foam and rain. It even changes the way that waterfalls flow. Notice that the two mountain peaks in the distance in this shot actually cast proportionately sized shadows on the water. Patches of the lake which are blocked from the sun by rocks or other obstructions have a deep, rich, blue color, while water in full view of the sun reflects light more brightly.
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The mod [Project Reality - Climates Of Tamriel - Weather - Lighting](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17802) by modder JJC71 has an impressively long name, but that's not nearly as impressive as what it does to Skyrim's weather and lighting systems. In this shot, dynamically generated clouds hover through mountaintops and float in front of the sun, masking the power of its rays.
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[Skyrim Flora Overhaul](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/141), by a modder named vurt, fertilizes Skyrim's fields and beautifies them with a much wider array of flowers and plants. It seasons stumps with mushrooms and litters the ground with clovers, moss and other exquisite details. This mod may make side quests involving finding and collecting specific types of flowers infinitely more difficult and annoying than they already were, which is saying something.
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Along with the Flora Overhaul mod, this screenshot features another enhancement by SparrowPrince, the aptly named [Lush Grass](http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3288). The newly thickened foliage reacts realistically when players walk through it. The mod alters almost every shrub and tree in the land of Skyrim. Bushes get bushier, oaks become hardier and leaves fly everywhere when you install it. Despite this, SkyrimTuner tells me that the mod causes little to no performance loss.
