Creating a Separator in MO2

1. Right-click the empty space in the left pane of MO2 and select Create separator.
2. Name the separator Visuals.

Static Mesh Improvement Mod - SMIM

Improves the look of many models.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - SMIM SE 2-08
• You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
  1. Install
• A Dragonborn's Fate Resources
  • Miscellaneous Files - Static Mesh Improvement Mod - USSEP Patch

Assorted mesh fixes

Fixes various issues with vanilla meshes that causes them to render incorrectly.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Assorted Mesh Fixes

Static Mesh Improvement Mod Improvement Mod

Improves some meshes from SMIM.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Static Mesh Improvement Mod Improvement Mod
• You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
  1. Dwemer post alternative
  2. Next
  3. Install

Load Screen Shading Fix

Fixes the shading of many loading screen models.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Load Screen Shading Fix

Better Vanilla Weather

Various improvements and changes to vanilla weathers, making them match the old LE look while retaining some SE changes.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Better Vanilla Weather
• You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
  1. SE saturation + bloom and eye adaptation
  2. Next
  3. Install
• A Dragonborn's Fate Resources
  • Miscellaneous Files - Better Vanilla Weather - USSEP Patch

Splashes Of Skyrim

Adds projectile based water splashes, ripples, and underwater explosions.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Splashes Of Skyrim
• You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
  1. Install

Simplicity of Sea - Water Mod with ENB Displacement Textures

A water retexture with parallax support.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Water Mod
• You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
  1. 2K defaultwater.dds
  2. Include Water Tweaks - Vanilla Colors
  3. Install

Grass Sampler Fix

Makes grass look sharper and more lush by forcing it to use anisotropic filtering.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Grass Sampler Fix

Unique Map Weather

Allows unique weather to be added to world maps.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Unique Map Weather
• Unique Map Weather - Vanilla Additions
  • Main Files - UMW - Vanilla Additions

Enhanced Worldspace Maps

Enhances existing worldspace maps and adds missing ones.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Enhanced Map
• You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
  1. Next
  2. Next
  3. Skyrim Cut Content Restoration Patch (only if you installed it during the section).
  4. Next
  5. Next
  6. Install

Smooth Terrain

Subdivides the terrain mesh, making it look smoother. You can view benchmarks and comparison sliders here.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Smooth Terrain

XPMF - Extended Projected Materials Framework

Adds more features to the projected material system (snow and ash in vanilla) and fixes some jarring visual problems. Simplicity of Snow Sulfur Ash Moss makes use of XPMF, making the same materials look better on certain meshes.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - XPMF
• Simplicity of Snow Sulfur Ash Moss
  • Main Files - Simplicity of Snow Sulfur Ash Moss
  • You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
    1. Install

Community Shaders is a framework that fixes rendering bugs and allows adding new graphics features through addons. The performance impact depends on which modules are used in addition to the main one, which, by itself, doesn't have a significant impact.

Installation instructions

First, install Community Shaders, then pick any of the following addons:

• Wetness Effects - Rainfall creates realistic wet surfaces, puddles that persist and evaporate over time, and dynamic ripple effects, while precipitation occlusion ensures raindrop visuals appear only on exposed areas.
• Screen Space Global Illumination (SSGI) - Simulates ambient occlusion and indirect lighting using screen space information.
• Skylighting - Simulates large scale world-space ambient occlusion.
• Terrain Variation - Fixes tiling in landscape textures.
• Terrain Blending - Makes terrain realistically blend into objects like rocks, plants, and buildings.
• Grass Optimizations - Optimizes grass rendering and optionally allows to extend it far into the distance. More information here.

Currently, Grass Optimizations causes Grass Sampler Fix to not do anything. This, in turn, makes the grass not look as good as it could, paired with the fact that the addon's defaults are under review to improve visuals. The addon is still recommended, but expect it to look noticeably better once updated. You can see the issue with lack of anisotropic filtering (what the sampler fix does) very clearly in the screenshots here.

---

Mods Enabled by CS

Community Shaders enables the use of grass mods that include normal maps, which improve their look and lighting accuracy. You can choose between Merethic Grasslands and Vanilla Complex Grasses if you wish to keep vanilla grass.

Merethic Grasslands - Vanilla - Faultier's - Vanaheimr

A lore-friendly, logical, and lightweight complex grass mod that blends perfectly with vanilla landscapes.

Installation instructions

• DrJacopo's - 3D Landscapes and Grass Library
  • Main Files - DrJacopo's - 3D Grass Library - Meshes
• Main Files - Merethic Grasslands - Vanilla Landscapes

When it comes to weathers, Community Shaders adds support for advanced tonemapping, as seen in Vanilla Weathers for CS. In order to use it, first you need to disable Better Vanilla Weather if you installed it earlier (both the main file and the patch).

Vanilla Weathers for CS

Tweaks vanilla weathers with Community Shaders features in mind.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Vanilla CS
• You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
  1. Vanilla CS - True to Vanilla
  2. Install

Upscaling is a technology aimed at improving the flexibility of a game's performance and visuals.

The internal resolution of your game is expressed as a preset that ranges from Native to Ultra Performance. Each preset progressively lowers the internal resolution that is fed to the upscaler. The upscaler then uses machine learning to reconstruct it back to the game's resolution. Native mode is the exception, improving the image without lowering internal resolution.

All 3 of the main GPU vendors have their own implementation of this same idea:

• DLSS from Nvidia - the most advanced one, but locked to RTX GPUs.
• FSR from AMD, GPU agnostic up until its latest iteration, FSR 4 (RDNA 3 and RDNA 4 only).
• XeSS from Intel - GPU agnostic, although it favours Intel's Arc GPUs and is not as widely supported.

Input your game resolution below and hit Apply. The table's color coding will indicate how viable the various presets of a given upscaler are. Green would indicate that the upscaler has enough pixels to reconstruct a stable and accurate image. Orange and red entries should be considered only if performance is paramount - DLSS 4 in particular can get away with those lower sources if you don't pixel peep.

Internal Resolution	Native	Ultra Quality Plus	Ultra Quality	Quality	Balanced	Performance	Ultra Perf.
DLSS 4	100% (Native aka DLAA)	N/A	N/A	66%	58%	50%	33%
FSR 4	100% (Native)	N/A	N/A	66%	58%	50%	33%
FSR 3	100% (Native)	N/A	N/A	66%	58%	50%	33%
XeSS ≥v1.3	100% (Native)	77%	66%	58%	50%	43%	33%
XeSS <v1.3	100% (Native)	N/A	77%	66%	58%	50%	N/A

In numerous games, including Skyrim and Fallout 4 with the respective upscaling integration, upscaling has become a no-brainer. Compared to these games' traditional AA options (mostly TAA), upscaling massively improves visual clarity, fine detail resolve, sharpness, and performance (if not running in native mode).

---

Upscaling - Community Shaders

Implements the latest DLSS 4 and FSR 3.1 (upgradable to FSR 4 with OptiScaler), but not XeSS. The presets mentioned earlier are in the Community Shaders menu, accessible with the End key on your keyboard.

Installation instructions

• Main Files - Upscaling

LOD Guide

A guide to generating better LODs, improving the look of distant terrain and objects. This will also improve the look of world maps and generate new heighmaps, as mentioned earlier.