A Dragonborn's Fate

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Visuals

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

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

Azurite Weathers and Seasons

A complete rework of vanilla weathers.

Installation instructions

  • Main Files - Azurite Weathers III
  • Azurite Weathers - MCM and Settings Loader
    • Main Files - Azurite Weathers - MCM and Settings Loader
      • You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
        1. Azurite III
        2. Install

      If the FOMOD defaulted to Azurite II, that means you installed Azurite II instead of III, delete it and get the right file.

  • Azurite III - HDR
    • Main Files - Azurite III - HDR

Dynamic Interior Ambient Lighting (DIAL)

Dynamically adjusts interior ambient lighting based on the time of day.

Installation instructions

  • Main Files - Dynamic Interior Ambient Lighting (DIAL)
  • A Dragonborn's Fate Resources
    • Miscellaneous Files - DIAL - USSEP Patch
    • Miscellaneous Files - DIAL - Misc Bugfix Compilation Patch

Security Overhaul SKSE - Lock Variations

Adds new visual variations to locks and acts as a framework for other mods.

Installation instructions

All Security Overhaul mods use the same FOMOD options: select 1K resolution and click Install.

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, No Flow Map
      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

Weather of World

Redone weather and lighting for the world maps.

Installation instructions

  • Main Files - Weather of World

Community Shaders

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, improves performance.

CS requires a DX11.1 compatible GPU, you can check if yours is compatible by looking it up here, then refer to the Graphics Features list.

Installation instructions

The DBF Configuration file applies the following settings:

  • FSR 3.1 AA as anti-aliasing method, replacing TAA and massively improving visual clarity for a tiny performance hit.
    • If you are using an RTX GPU, you should switch from FSR 3.1 AA to DLAA, which gives a similar result with better performance.
  • Increased sample count for Screen Space Shadows.
  • SSGI set to quarter resolution - the full and half resolution options are too heavy to be recommended on most systems.
  • Enabled contact shadows for LLF.

Recommended Addons:

  • Grass Lighting - Improves grass visuals with directional lighting, subsurface scattering, and fixes UV-mapping issues for complex grass. Includes normal and specular map support.
  • Grass Collision - Makes grass collide with the player and NPCs.
  • Screen Space Shadows - Adds extra shadow details to objects, plants, and your character that wouldn't normally cast shadows
  • Light Limit Fix - Removes the game's light limit (not the shadow limit) while adding particle lights and contact shadows.
  • Subsurface Scattering - Adds screen-space subsurface scattering to characters to simulate realistic skin.
  • 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.
  • Water Effects - Simulates water caustic effects and adds optimised parallax support.
  • Terrain Shadows - Enables rough terrain shadows with infinite distance, in game and on world maps.

    • Unless you are generating new heightmaps (part of the LOD Guide, linked right after this section), install the optional file as well!

  • Cloud Shadows - Allows clouds to cast shadows.
  • Skylighting - Simulates large scale world-space ambient occlusion.

Each feature, save a few, has a different performance impact - the heaviest ones are SSGI, the AA replacement, and Light Limit Fix. The rest are close to negligible.

CS Particle Patch

Fixes lighting on water effects, smoke particles, cloud meshes, and more.

Installation instructions

  • Main Files - CS Particle Patch
  • You will be prompted with a FOMOD installer:
    1. Next
    2. Next
    3. SMIM
    4. Azurite III
    5. Install
  • No Camera Attached Smoke or Fog (Improves performance when using the CS Particle Patch)
    • Main Files - No Camera Attached Smoke or Fog

Distant Objects

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.