People often ask how to make their Skyrim look awesome. The thing is, graphics are highly subjective and up to personal taste. That being said, we will offer some essential mods to use as a base, and then offer a few examples of texture overhauls along with some relevant authors. We'll also cover landscape, lighting, and other categories. Remember that these lists aren't exhaustive!
To begin your graphics overhaul, we recommend installing mesh improvements and at least one large texture pack.
Static Mesh Improvement Mod (SMIM) - A massive project to greatly improve the appearance of countless static 3D models in Skyrim. 3D ropes. Did you even know there were ropes wrapped around farmhouse posts? No? That's because they're flat. This mod fixes that, among many other things. You should also grab this add-on, and this as well.
High Poly Project - Taking SMIM to the next level. Adds insanely high quality models to many objects in the game. You should install this and this to fix a few things.
Skyland AIO - A collection of all Skyland mods bundled together featuring high quality and resolution texture overhaul covering architecture and landscapes. One of the most popular and modern options out there, and our personal favorite.
Skyrim 202X - High Res Textures for cities, dungeons, clutter, armors, landscapes and much more. Uses parallax. Downscaled version.
Skyrim Realistic Overhaul - Another option that retextures the majority of the base game. This one is different in the sense that it sticks to the aesthetic of the vanilla game while providing enhanced texture fidelity and overall more pleasing visuals. This mod comes in 3 parts, along with an “update” file. That’s four total files; download manually, and add to your mod manager through the “add mod from archive” button.
MystiriousDawn's HD Skyrim Overhaul - Covers landscapes, mountains, architecture, etc. Very beautiful textures.
Noble Skyrim - A texture overhaul primarily focusing on architecture, but has retextures for landscapes and dungeons as well.
CleverCharff's AIO - Covers towns and locations, and a few miscellaneous things.
Project Clarity AIO - Essentially vanilla HD.
These upgrades cause a massive change in the atmosphere of your game. Some of them may also cause a decent performance hit.
Cathedral Landscapes (includes extra features, refer to mod page)
Due to the nature of grass mods, we recommend that you install Landscape Fixes For Grass Mods to prevent grass growing in places that it shouldn't. You can also use No Grass In Objects.
Additionally, if you use ENB, you may need a patch for your grass mod from here. If you want to sacrifice grass density for performance, consider Grass FPS Booster.
Septentrional or Skyland or The Omnibus or Majestic or Vivid or landscape textures
Blended Roads (included in Cathedral Landscapes and Skyland AIO)
Majestic or Rustic or Northfire's or CC's mountains
Realistic Water Two with the Better Water retexture or Water for ENB (more on ENB here)
Hyperborean or Nordic or Fluffy or Cathedral snow
ELFX or ELFX Shadows
ELFX, RLO, and RS all have exterior modules