Skyrim mods for weak computers. Customizing Skyrim Graphics - A Detailed Guide

ENB is a small graphics utility for the game that improves picture quality. It helps to detail games that are 5-6 years old. There are a huge number of ENBs for different games, including Skyrim.

Most ENB utilities work with powerful computers, and owners of weak PCs can only sigh in sorrow. However, Skyrim ENB still has a place for weak computers, and fans of the fifth part of the ancient scrolls can bring the graphics to mind. The most recent versions of ENB for Skyrim are not designed for the most powerful hardware.

A very high-quality utility Real Vision ENB will help smooth out even the most angular graphics in the game.

The program in the archive contains folders injectorversion and wrighperversion. In wrighperversion, the d3d9.dll and endhost files are recommended, which can be copied to the folder with the Skyrim game with a replacement.

It should be copied to the folder with the Skyrim.exe file.

Then the Real Vision ENB folder opens, and the files from the folder are transferred to the game folder with replacement. The utility itself is very popular among users. Skyrim games... It is very easy to manage the settings of Real Vision END. For example, climate control can be improved with Option B Full, Option B Medium, Option B Performance file folders (settings suitable for Skyrim Association).

For weaker PCs, the Option B Medium folder will do just fine. The procedure for transferring files to the game should also be repeated. You can also transfer the Fantasy Effect add-on for those who like more colors. For a high-quality blur, you should transfer the enbeffectprepass file, which is located in Real Vision ENB. Further, to configure the characteristics, you need to open the enblocal text document in the game folder and change the Memory parameter from true (true) to fals (false). Also in this document it is worth setting the memory and bus parameters for the video card.

We do the same as with Memory for anisotropic filtering in the ENGINE section. After that, we save all the settings in a text document.

First of all, what gives ENB for the game. For starters, this is replacing shadows in the game without replacing FPS. Everything remains the same, only the shadows get better and the detail and quality increase. At the "default" settings, the shadows look hard, and this is visible, and the ENB enhancement gives antialiasing and softness.

To change the color scheme in Skyrim ENB for weak computers is a great find. Holders of Nvidia cards should change the global illumination setting in the card drivers. Global illumination improves the quality of the game, and the shadows are more realistic. It is also advised to monitor the settings of your computer and choose the most optimal settings.

In the game itself, the settings can be varied. When ENB is enabled, the game does not lose its advantages graphically, but the frame rate per second decreases without visual loss. This allows you to play the game with good settings with not too strong hardware.

The ENB menu can be turned on in the game by pressing the two keys Shift and Enter at the same time. All characteristics can be turned on and off in it without much difficulty, if suddenly the quality of light or shadows does not suit you. ENB itself can be disabled in the menu. The utility allows you to turn off the depth of field in scenes, which lowers the FPS (frame rate per second).

In the utility menu, you can adjust the light output, which determines how the characters will look in the game, nature and weather phenomena, as well as during transitions from dark areas to light ones. For example, indoor interior setup often suffers at low FPS. The utility eliminates this disadvantage at the expense of light. You can lower the glow of the items themselves in the game, such as fire and others.

After completing work in the menu, you must save your settings.

There are a huge number of mods that contain various ENBs, such as fimbulvinter, stakado cinematic, vibrant, climates of tamriel. They often add detail to the picture by overlaying the blur and color scheme.

Skyrim is a game with a very beautiful graphics... The landscapes encountered during the study of the world can be admired endlessly, and the battle scenes are completely breathtaking. But there is a downside to all this. Not enough powerful computers the game starts to slow down or refuses to start at all.

It would seem that owners of weak PCs can be fixed this problem only by buying new hardware. But there is still another way out - to make the game work better. In Skyrim, optimization can be achieved in several ways, and how to do it, there will be a speech below.

Standard settings

The developers have provided a number of settings to degrade the graphics in the game, thereby increasing performance. You can find them right in the launcher by going to the Settings menu. The most important parameters are:

• Permission. The lower the value of this setting, the better the game will perform. However, it is not recommended to select a resolution that is not supported by your monitor.
• Smoothing. It has a very strong effect on performance, therefore, if brakes occur, this parameter must be disabled first.
• Filtration. In general, it does not load the computer much, but nevertheless, by disabling this option, you will achieve an increase of several FPS.
• Detailing. Choose "Low" if you want to increase performance several times.

With all settings set to minimum, try launching Skyrim. Optimization of the game, of course, does not end there, but if the method described above helped, you can start playing calmly and not fool yourself.

Additional settings

Another way to improve performance is to tune advanced settings. This can be done by launching the launcher and clicking "Settings" and then "Advanced". A window will open with two tabs, in each of which you need to perform several actions:

• In the "Detailing" tab, you need to set all parameters to a minimum, as well as uncheck the boxes for reflections (there are four types of them here) and anti-aliasing. The most demanding are Texture Quality and Shadow Quality, so you should pay attention to them first.
• In the Visibility Distance tab, simply drag all sliders to minimum. In addition, reduce the quality of distant objects and turn on "Object fade".

The above settings will drastically reduce the graphics, however, this is Skyrim's best optimization for slower PCs. You can also try different combinations of parameters to achieve average picture quality and acceptable performance.

Editing the ini file

If Skyrim is still slow for you, optimization can be done by editing the SkyrimPrefs.ini file. You will find it along the way " My Documents / My Games / Skyrim”, And it should be opened with a notepad. Now you need to edit the following parameters:

• iShadowFilter - Change to 0.
• iWaterReflectHeight and iWaterReflectWidth - set to 256.
• iWaterMultiSamples - Must be zero.
• bTreesReceiveShadows and bDrawLandShadows - set to zero.

After you have edited all the parameters, close the file and confirm the changes. Now run The elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the optimization of which should increase significantly. If no noticeable changes have occurred, then you most likely did something wrong, so try again.

Please note that errors in the ini file may cause the game to stop working altogether. Therefore, in order to avoid such situations, make a backup copy of SkyrimPrefs.ini before you start editing it.

Patches

Developers periodically release patches with fixes for their games, and Skyrim is no exception to this rule. These updates, in addition to fixing all sorts of bugs, often increase performance, and in Skyrim the optimization has improved since the 1.4.21 update.

In the event that you have not yet had time to update the game before latest version, you urgently need to do this. Thus, you can achieve a noticeable increase in productivity (up to 40%). To do this, you have two options:

• If you have a licensed version of Skyrim, you can simply run the automatic update. After that, wait until all the necessary files are downloaded and installed, and then start the game.
• If you have a pirated version, you will have to either install all patches manually or download a repack that includes all updates.

In any case, the optimization of the game after installing all the updates will improve significantly, so do not neglect this method.

Special Edition version

In 2016, a re-release of Skyrim: Special Edition was released, the optimization of which, according to the assurances of the developers themselves, has been significantly improved. At the same time, the picture in the game is prettier, but despite this, it works much more stable even on weak computers.

This is made possible by the redesigned graphics engine, which has learned to use the power of multi-core processors more efficiently and become less demanding on hardware. Also, the developers have fixed errors in the system code that led to a drop in FPS.

Therefore, you can try to install the Special Edition, and it is possible that the performance in it will be higher. Judging by the feedback from gamers, most of them have new version FPS is noticeably higher than in the original.

In addition, all the optimization techniques mentioned in this article are valid for reprints, so you can feel free to apply them.

Fashion

Third-party developers have released a number of modifications for Skyrim. Some of them allow you to improve performance, while not significantly understating the graphics. To use any of these mods, you need to download it and then place it in your game folder.

For Skyrim mod for optimization (one of the most famous) is called ENB Series. It contains an antifreeze program that fixes freezes, increases contrast (the game world becomes brighter) and makes textures less resource intensive.

After installing ENB Series, you will need to activate it. To do this, you need to launch the launcher, go to "Settings" and select ENB instead of your video card. You must then restart the operating system for the changes to take effect.

Keep in mind that you can only download mods from trusted sources. Ill-wishers often disguise themselves as malicious programs, so do not be lazy to check everything you install with an antivirus.

RAM optimization

In the case of Skyrim, optimization can be a very demanding game, therefore, by freeing up a few megabytes, you can improve performance. There are several ways to clear RAM:

• Close all unnecessary programs. These include: antivirus (you can turn it off during the game), OneDrive, Skype and other applications running in the background.
• A lot of RAM is occupied by the visual design of Windows. Just turn off all kinds of decorations in the settings and see how much faster the game will start.
• You can use special one of these applications is Ram Booster, which automatically closes all unnecessary and increases productivity.

Please note that all methods described above should be used at the same time. This is the only way to achieve the most noticeable effect.

Updating Drivers

For Skyrim, the optimization can be increased by using. It is quite simple, but you can thus achieve an increase in FPS. Most of all, performance is affected by:

• Video card driver. You should pay attention to it first of all. The image processing speed depends on this driver, so go to the official website of your video card manufacturer and make sure that you are using the latest software version.
• Motherboard drivers. The speed of all devices on your computer depends on them. So again, make sure you have the most recent driver installed.
• Sound card driver. It does not affect performance so much, but it can still lead to freezes and microfreezes. Just update the driver to the latest version to eliminate the possibility of such problems.

Be aware that with some models, earlier versions of the driver may have a positive effect on performance. This should be consulted on the Skyrim forums.

OS optimization

Finally, Skyrim optimization for weaker computers can be achieved by improving performance. operating system... This can help:

• Defragmentation. Increases the speed of the hard drive and, as a result, allows the game to load textures faster.
• This can be done either manually or by using special program(for example CCleaner). Both the OS and the game will run faster after this procedure.
• Installing updates. They fix Windows errors and make the operating system more stable. As a result, Skyrim also improves performance.
• If errors are not periodically corrected, they can lead to freezes of programs, including games.
• Search and removal of viruses. Malicious programs can load your computer, so try to find and neutralize them in time.

By following these simple steps, you can achieve improved performance in the game, so do not neglect them.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the fifth installment in the epic RPG saga The Elder Scrolls. The new game features an expansive, detailed fantasy world that you can explore at your leisure. As in the rest of the games in the series, Skyrim allows you to choose your options for the passage of the game. You can be a warrior, magician, thief, or all three at the same time; you can be kind, evil, or neither; ignore the main quests and just go about random treasure collection. All of these capabilities (as well as many others) have become available due to the fact that Skyrim contains such unlimited possibilities that can only be found in a computer game.

When a game developer (Bethesda Game Studios) claims game content takes literally hundreds of hours, that's no exaggeration. The length of the gameplay depends on how curious and adventurous you feel. In terms of graphics, the world and its inhabitants look even more realistic and alive than ever before. The completeness of the picture is complemented by a wonderful musical accompaniment, written by the same composer who wrote the music for Morrowind and Oblivion. This makes an already outstanding game even richer.

The purpose of this guide is to enable you to better understand and put into practice all of the configuration options available in Skyrim, as well as familiarize yourself with special advanced settings to enhance your gaming experience.

• Processor: 2 GHz dual core CPU (Quad Core CPU)
• RAM: 2GB (4GB) RAM
• Hard Drive: At least 6GB of free space
• Video card: DirectX 9 compatible (GeForce GTX 550 Ti or GeForce GTX 260 or higher)
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• Internet connection: required to access Steam
• Operating system: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7

In this guide, you will find full descriptions for all settings found in the various game options menu. To compare the influence of a certain setting on the quality of the game picture, we have provided this material with game screenshots that clearly illustrate the action "before" and "after" the application of a certain effect. For each setting, detailed information is provided about the effects and possibilities that it achieves. Also keep in mind that the level of influence of a particular option specifically on your system depends on the configuration of the latter, as well as on other game settings and general system settings. Here we have tried to provide as much information as possible so that you can make an informed choice (which settings to enable and which ones to not) that provides the optimal balance of image quality and performance.

General system optimization

Before proceeding to the settings inside the game, make sure how correctly you have installed Windows itself and the drivers. Because because of incorrect settings operating system and drivers, a large number of performance problems arise. In particular, slowdown, freezing or complete "ejection" from the game can be caused precisely by the internal settings of Windows and some old or misconfigured drivers. Use our dedicated PC setup guide for gaming, or at least make sure your graphics drivers are updated to the latest version available.

performance measurement

To assess the success of any innovation, you will need something that can objectively measure gaming performance in FPS (Frames Per Second). The most in a simple way to make such measurements is to use the FRAPS utility. Download, install and run this program even before launching the game itself. You will see a yellow FPS counter in the corner of the screen. Keep an eye on its readings throughout the game, especially during graphics-intensive scenes: massive battles over large areas, especially around cities. If at the same time your FPS level drops more than twice or to the level of single-digit numbers (0-9), then this is a sure sign that you need to adjust some settings so that the minimum FPS level does not fall below 25. Then you will be provided constant support of the optimal level of frame rate.

Remember that in Skyrim, vertical sync (VSync) is enabled by default and cannot be disabled via in-game settings. This means that your frame rate will be limited by the refresh rate level of the screen, which is usually 60 FPS. Mouse lags are also possible. Some of the ways to deal with the default preset vertical sync will be covered in the Advanced Settings section of this guide.

General Settings

Before diving into the various graphics settings that have the most significant impact on performance and image quality, let's take a look at the other settings. To get into the game settings, you need to launch Skyrim, load a saved one, or start new game... After that press the ESC key and select the "Settings" menu item.

Graphics options will be covered later, but for now let's take a closer look at gameplay, display and audio settings.

Gameplay

Invert Y: if there is a cross in front of this option, then when moving the mouse forward, your character will look down, and moving the mouse backward will make him raise his head and look up. If this option is not checked, then the character reacts to the movement of the mouse in a forward order: forward - up and back - down.

Look Sensitivity: This slider determines the level of sensitivity of the mouse: the higher the level of the slider, the more sensitive the mouse becomes to your movements. But remember: if the mouse "lags" even after you set this indicator to the maximum, you need to check the frame rate. If its value is constantly at the level of 20-25 FPS, then you need to adjust the settings to improve the FPS level. Only then will the mouse's response return to normal. In the Advanced Settings section of this tutorial, we'll go over some advanced settings to help mitigate mouse lag.

Vibration: if you have a gamepad capable of transmitting vibration and you are using it in Skyrim, then check this option to enable vibration transmission during the game. Otherwise, leave the window blank.

360 Controller: This option must be enabled if you play Skyrim with an Xbox 360 joystick. If the aforementioned joystick is connected to your computer, but you do not want to use it to play Skyrim, make sure this option is disabled and / or disconnect controller, otherwise it could cause hardware conflicts.

Difficulty: The game has five difficulty levels. They are named Novice (beginner), Apprentice (apprentice), Adept (expert), Expert (expert), and Master (master) in order from simplest to most difficult. The higher the difficulty level, the more difficult it is to go through the battles: in order to kill the enemy, he will need to inflict large quantity damage. However, unlike Oblivion, the level of enemies in the game the world of Skyrim will not automatically "pull up" to match your current level. Often, battles will take place with both frankly weak and very strong enemy units. Moreover, the difficulty level can be changed at any time and the changes will take effect immediately.

Show Floating Markers: In your Journal you can define, by pressing Enter or clicking the left mouse button on the names of the respective quests, which ones to make active. Over each active quest a small mark will appear in the log. In turn, on the compass at the top of the screen, such a quest will be highlighted with an arrow. If this option is active, then a smaller version of such an arrow will also float above the corresponding character (object, terrain) from the quest when he is nearby. Deactivating this option removes floating marks, but does not affect the display of other quest marks.

Save on Rest: If selected, whenever you sleep (Sleep), an autosave (state at the point in time before falling asleep) will be created.

Save on Wait: the same as the previous one. An autosave will be created every time until the "Wait" option is selected.

Save on Travel: similar to the previous one. The game will automatically save all the time you use the Fast Travel option. Save moment: before starting a journey to a new place.

Save on Character Menu: if this option is active, then it can be used to determine the amount of time (in minutes) that must elapse before creating an autosave after you enter the character menu (Character Menu, by default - the TAB key).

Created using one of the four options above, files Auto Save differ from Quick Save files, other "saves" created by hand and do not overwrite them. However, the total number of simultaneously existing Auto files Save is limited to three, so more recent "auto-saves" will replace previously created ones. Four different auto-save options are designed to make it easy to create auto-saves on a regular basis. So that in case you forget to save manually or using a quick save, you have at least one more or less fresh and good point to resume the game. If you frequently use Quick Save or Manual Save, then you do not need to activate these four options.

Display

Brightness: This slider adjusts the overall brightness of the game. Install it according to your preference. The position of the slider in the middle corresponds to the default brightness level.

HUD Opacity: allows you to set transparency for the main elements of the Heads Up Display (HUD): compass scale, crosshair, health, magic and stamina levels. The further to the left you move the slider, the more transparent these elements become, until they become completely invisible at the leftmost point of the slider. If the constant presence of the HUD seems intrusive or distracting to you, then you can reduce the transparency level of its elements, leaving them visible, but less expressive.

Actor Fade, Item Fade, Object Fade, Grass Fade, Light Fade, Specularity Fade: All of these metrics have an impact on performance and image quality and will be discussed in the relevant sections of this guide.

Crosshair: if you check this box, a round "front sight" of the sight will appear in the center of the game screen. If you uncheck the box, the sight will disappear. However, even if you turn off the crosshair display, an eye symbol will still be displayed in the middle of the screen during sneaking, indicating the level of “reveal”.

Dialogue Subtitles: When this option is selected, subtitles are displayed for the spoken responses of the characters with whom you are entering a dialogue. However, anything they say besides the direct conversation with you will not be displayed using subtitles.

General Subtitles: This option determines whether the words spoken by the characters of the game outside of dialogues with you will be shown in the form of subtitles.

The difference between the last two settings can be illustrated with this example: if you walk past the characters in the game and they mumble something indistinct, or when you fight them, their words will be shown as subtitles when the 'General Subtitles' option is enabled. ... If you are talking with a specific character and the dialog interface is open, then all the answers of the interlocutor will be duplicated with subtitles only when ‘Dialogue Subtitles’ is selected. If both options are active, then the text will repeat all spoken words.

Sound (Audio)

Master: This is the master control for the overall volume of all sounds in the game.
Effects, Footsteps, Voice & Music: These sliders adjust the volume level of the corresponding game elements.

Many aspects of the gameplay, interface and audio can be customized later (during the gameplay). This will be discussed in more detail in the Advanced Settings section of this manual. Now it's time to look at the various graphics related settings.

Video Settings

Full range graphic settings is available in the Options menu, which can be invoked whenever you launch a game from the Steam game server. In this section, we'll take a closer look at each of the graphics settings and see how they affect performance and picture quality.

We start the performance graph for each of the settings from the "basic level", where for all options high detail preset is selected, and VSync is disabled (how to disable it - in the "Advanced Settings" ). From this baseline, we varied specific settings to measure their effect on performance and image quality.

The parameters of the system on which we tested the game:

• GeForce GTX 560 1GB
• Intel Core i7 940
• 3GB RAM
• Win7 64-bit
• NVIDIA 285.79 Beta Drivers
• Resolution & Antialiasing

This chapter covers some of the common video settings found in the main Options window, available after Skyrim Launcher is launched.

Graphics Adapter: Your graphics card (GPU) is shown here. Check that it is correctly defined. If not, see the General System Optimization section of this manual. You can also read the beginning of the Advanced Settings section to learn how to reset all settings to their default values.

Aspect Ratio: This option determines the ratio of the height to width of your monitor and affects which of the options are available to you in the Resolution setting. To avoid image distortion, choose the aspect ratio that suits your monitor. Most modern displays are 16: 9 or 16:10, older models are 4: 3. The correct aspect ratio should be set automatically, but if you are not sure, then do a simple test: make sure that the round objects in the game (for example, shields) look really round. If such objects are flattened or stretched (have the shape of an ellipse), then the proportions are set incorrectly.

Resolution: This defines the resolution of the game image, expressed in the number of pixels horizontally and vertically (for example, 1920 × 1080 pixels). The number of resolution options is limited by the following parameters: the capabilities of your video card and monitor; Is there a check mark next to ‘Show all resolutions’; the 'Aspect Ratio' settings discussed above. The higher the resolution level you select, the more detailed the image will be on the monitor screen. Do not forget that too high a resolution can provoke and increase the load on the system (in particular on the video card), as a result of which the overall level of gaming performance will decrease. For a clearer image on LCD monitors, you need to select the highest possible resolution level (the so-called "native" resolution of the monitor). In the same case, when you choose a resolution lower than the maximum possible, put a tick next to the ‘Windowed Mode’ box, the value of which will be discussed further in the text.

The graph shows the changes in the FPS value depending on the changes in the resolution settings:

The graph shows that the FPS value is inversely proportional to the resolution level: the better the image, the lower the performance. But in our game, the FPS is not decreasing on such a large scale as in others. The thing is that in Skyrim the level of loading of the central processing unit (CPU) is forcibly limited. This means that if your processor is a little underpowered, but you have a powerful video card, then changing the resolution will not have any noticeable effect on the overall system performance.
Windowed Mode: if you want to launch Skyrim in a separate window on the Desktop (so that the game does not occupy the entire screen, hiding other applications and Windows elements), then check this item. Running the game in this mode is the best solution if you need to reduce the resolution of the game screen to improve performance while maintaining the clarity of the image. However, this can cause problems with memory allocation in the system, so if you observe any instability, then it is better to return to full screen mode.

Antialiasing: Antialiasing (AA) method is available for use in Skyrim in four variations: Off, 2 Samples, 4 Samples, and 8 Samples. This corresponds to 0, 2, 4, and 8 times Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA). The higher the level of smoothing, the less jagged the outlines will be. various objects game world... But the higher the potential level of FPS loss.

In the pictures above, notice the roof of the building and the wooden fence just behind the PC. When anti-aliasing is not applied, the outlines of these objects have a pronounced "jagged" effect. When the AA level is set to “2 Samples”, the roughness is already largely smoothed out. At 4 Samples, the lines are almost perfectly straight. All the charm from the choice of the "8 Samples" level with the naked eye is quite difficult to evaluate, at least in these static screenshots.

Regardless of the level of anti-aliasing we choose, some aspects of the game will still appear somewhat uneven, especially foliage. This can be corrected by using the FXAA filter (more on this later in the text), or by forcing Transparency Antialiasing, which is discussed in detail in the Video Driver Settings section of this manual.

The level of performance impact of changing this parameter is shown below:

Anti-aliasing can have a significant impact on FPS, but much depends on the resolution you choose. As you can see in the graph, using 8x MSAA overall has a significant impact on performance, resulting in only a marginal improvement in image quality. Generally speaking, if you want to use anti-aliasing, then the most optimal options are 2x or 4x MSAA. But if you need to increase your FPS, then MSAA is the first thing to disable. How alternative way FXAA can also be considered antialiasing, but we'll talk about it later. Note also that 8x MSAA caused artifacts at 2560 × 1600, so we did not measure performance with this combination of parameters.

Anisotropic Filtering

Anisotropic Filtering: Anisotropic Filtering (AF) is a texture enhancement technique designed to improve image clarity on surfaces that are angled to the viewer. Similar textures are visible in the pictures below when looking at the road that opens up in front of us. Here, anisotropic filtering is turned off at first, and then its magnification is increased from two to sixteen times. The higher the AF ratio used, the clearer and more distinguishable the road surface becomes, moving away into perspective.

In these game screenshots, you can see how the picture quality changes when a certain AF level is applied. This effect is most noticeable on the main path of wood blocks and on the parallel road of stone: with increasing AF, they become clearer. Already with an anisotropic filtering factor of 2, the overall improvement in detail looks significant, and when using 4x AF, the clarity of textures at medium distances is noticeably higher than before applying the filter. With a factor of 8, the most distant surfaces become clearer, while 12 and 16 make only subtle improvements in comparison with the previous level.

If you want to improve the quality of textures even more using anisotropic filtering, then this indicator can be forcibly activated through the control panel of the video card. In this case, the image quality will be much sharper compared to applying AF directly through the game's graphics settings interface. This issue will be discussed in more detail in the "Video driver settings" section of this manual.

Performance versus changes in AF scores is shown below:

Anisotropic filtering has very little effect on the performance of modern graphics cards. Basically, level 8 AF is the best choice, while level 16 AF should be chosen for those who want the best image clarity with little loss in performance. If you have an outdated video card or you have to literally "rip out" every FPS unit with your teeth, then 2 AF is quite enough to feel a noticeable improvement in the quality of textures compared to the complete absence of such a filter.

Detail Presets

Detail: In the game, you have four main auto-settings for the graphics quality level: Low, Medium, High and Ultra. Each preset affects a wide range of settings, as well as the effects of Antialiasing and Anisotropic filters. In general, such a composition has a significant effect of improving performance and image quality. Nevertheless, do not forget that all the installations were made for you and are supplied as a ready-made kit. Therefore, using presets is not an option when you need to customize the graphics in Skyrim exactly for yourself with pinpoint accuracy.

The figures above show the differences between the capabilities of each of the presets:

• at a low level (Low) the image looks generally acceptable, but the details of the game world are frankly sparse. The textures are very blurry even though the Texture Quality is set to "Medium", which is not the lowest possible value. Grasses and foliage are almost invisible, objects seem unusual for the game world, the shadows are very short: therefore, everything that is already behind the character does not cast shadows at all. In the water, except for the sky, nothing else is reflected. Also, Antialiasing and Texture Filtering are not applied, which manifests itself in jagged contours and blurring of distant images.
• at Medium, Texture Quality is set to the highest. However, this does not significantly affect the level of clarity of the overall picture due to the parallel activated FXAA and quadruple multi-antialiasing (Multisample Antialiasing). The latter filters are used to reduce the jaggedness of the textures. Increased shadows, trees and other details in the distance add more depth to the overall picture. The water already reflects not only the sky, but also the main elements of the terrain, which looks more realistic.
• at the High level, subjects look significantly clearer because FXAA, 8x Multisample Antialiasing and 8x Anisotropic filtering are active at the same time. Together, these filters improve picture quality while minimizing blur. Grass and leaves look much more believable, as do nearby objects. Sheds, tree stumps, stones and a bridge stand out for their realism on the right, and the surface of the earth (both nearby and in the distance) acquires sharper contours. The shadow from the character is much clearer (because its resolution has been increased), the rest of the shadows have increased to normal length. Water already reflects everything, not just the sky.
• at the Ultra level, noticeable differences are visible on distant objects. Most of the objects on the right began to cast shadows, the number of trees on the top of the mountain increased, and the mountains themselves became more detailed. The surface of the water has undergone minor changes, becoming more similar to the color tones of the sky. By increasing the Anisotropic filtering level to 16, distant textures are also noticeably clearer.

The dependence of the performance level on changes in the detail settings is shown below:

The graph shows how significantly performance can change depending on different detail settings. The transition from Medium to High turns out to be very significant at low resolutions, reducing the frame rate by almost half. But in any case, the set of settings for each of the presets is far from ideal. We advise you to start with the detail setting that works best for your system (without overloading it), and then adjust each filter individually to achieve the optimal balance of performance and game quality.
In the next section, we begin a detailed look at all of the graphical settings that are available by clicking on the Advanced button in the Skyrim Options window.

Texture & Radial Blur Quality

Texture Quality: Textures (in general) are images that cover the surfaces of all objects in the game world, giving their appearance an effect of depth and detail. This setting adjusts the level of detail for textures and provides options for Low, Medium, and High. As they change from low to high, the visual depth and detail of the structures increases, improving the overall perception of the picture.

In the screenshots above, you can see how the use of one degree or another of this effect affects the image quality. At the Low level, surfaces and objects are very poorly detailed. This is done primarily to ensure that the game runs even on the weakest system configurations. On Medium, the overall picture already looks much more detailed: the leaves become more distinguishable, the bark on the trees is more realistic, and the road is structured and deep. The rocky hill, seen in the distance to the right, also acquires pronounced detail. When using High, the difference with the previous level is also quite noticeable: the bark and leaves become even clearer, the road becomes clearer, and the rocks (regardless of distance) are "overgrown" with new details.

Try to use anisotropic filtering (AF, discussed earlier in the tutorial) in order to improve the clarity of the textures. Also keep in mind that FXAA settings (discussed later) tend to blur the overall picture slightly and can therefore reduce the clarity and clarity of textures. Therefore, if very crisp textures are important to you, FXAA should not be used.
The effect of this metric on the performance level is shown below:

As you can see from the graph, this setting has a very moderate impact on the FPS level. However, the graph cannot show that if your video card has a small amount of RAM (Video RAM; VRAM), then you may experience slight "slowdown" or periodic "lags" when using the High level. The minimum level we recommend is Medium, as on Low the details are still too blurry to enjoy the game.

Radial Blur Quality: This setting adjusts the visibility of the Blur effect, which is most often seen when you want to simulate disorientation and pain if you miss hits in battle. It's called "Radial" because the jitter and blur appear to radiate out from the center of the screen. There are three options (levels) available for this effect: Low, Medium, and High. As practice shows, there is no significant difference between these three levels.

Comparative shots of screenshots were intended to demonstrate the difference in applying each of the levels of this setting, but it is quite problematic to see it due to the fact that this is a dynamic effect in itself. And despite the fact that in the screenshots the Medium and High levels look more "shaky" than the Low, but during the dynamic gameplay the overall degree of jitter for each level looks about the same. With this setting, you won't be able to turn off the effect completely (if you don't like it). For more information on how to do this, see the Advanced Settings section of this guide.

The performance dependence of changing this setting is shown below:

The graph confirms that changing the Radial Blur Quality parameter does not have a noticeable effect on game performance (mainly due to the fact that changing the levels of the parameter itself does not greatly affect the visual image).

Number of decals and details of shadows (Shadow Detail & Decal Quantity)

Shadow Detail: This parameter determines the overall resolution of most shadows cast by players, objects and buildings in Skyrim, as well as the length of those shadows. There are four levels available: Low, Medium, High and Ultra.

In the pictures above, you can see that at the Low level, the hero and the tree near him cast fuzzy shadows due to the choice of their low resolution in order to maintain game performance. At the Medium level, the contours of the shadows become more visible. When using High, they get even more detailed outlines, although some blurring still remains. Additional shading becomes noticeable at medium distances. There is a subtle improvement at the Ultra level appearance shadows, they also appear on rocks and a canopy located in the distance.

Due to the specific nature of the game shadows, their quality will differ markedly depending on the distance and light source. For example, a shadow cast by an indoor subject from a nearby fire will have smooth edges and appear more detailed. And the shadows from objects farther from the fire will remain "square". By the way, we noticed a small game "glitch" (not only in this game moment) and it can be seen in the pictures above: after the level of shadow detail changes from High to Ultra, additional leaves appear on far-away trees.

There are several ways to add and customize shadows using the set of commands described in the Advanced Settings section. You can also add beauty to the game atmosphere by rendering the shadows even deeper using the preset Ambient Occlusion. To learn more about this, see the section "Video driver settings".

How the game performance changes depending on the change in the shadow detail setting can be seen in this figure:

The graph demonstrates the significant effect of shadow detail level on FPS. This is not surprising since shadows are widely used throughout the game world. In practice, the effect of this parameter on FPS can be even more significant in some game episodes, so use it sparingly so as not to harm performance and get rid of lags in some specific episodes. For example, simply switching from Ultra to High can dramatically increase FPS without any loss in image quality.

Decal Quantity: This parameter determines the number of decals that can be seen at the same time. As a rule, decals are small images that are additionally applied to characters, objects and the surrounding area. These can be bits of dirt, blood, or charred marks. The options are None, Medium, High, and Ultra. However, it seems that in Skyrim this option does not affect blood spatter in any way, since even with the option off, your weapons, enemies and screen (with back side) still remain fairly bloody during the battle.

The main differences when varying the different levels of this setting were seen in the appearance of a large number of black charred spots on the ground after using destructive spells. They are not present when the Decal Quantity parameter is not enabled at all; at the Medium level, there are already a lot of them; switching to High and Ultra levels does not noticeably increase the number of decals that appear on the screen at the same time. Despite the fact that in practice it is quite difficult to count the number of decals that appeared in most scenes, the theoretical values maximum number these additional images are: None - 0, Medium - 100, High - 250, and Ultra - 1000.

The performance dependence on changing this parameter is presented below:

It can be seen from the graph that this setting has very little effect on the game's performance, although it can slightly "load" the system in massive battles, when spells are used and many decals are generated (like blood, soot, etc.). Since in most cases high levels of adjustment do not make drastic changes to the appearance, we recommend setting this value to Medium for the optimal balance of performance and picture quality.

FXAA and reflections in water (FXAA & Water)

FXAA: NVIDIA's FXAA (short for Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing) is a jagged edge alignment technique that has proven to be very powerful and moderately effective. There are four options to choose from: Off, Low, Medium, and High. FXAA can be used in place of or in conjunction with the standard game Antialiasing filter discussed earlier in this tutorial.

The screenshots above show the basic combinations of the various anti-aliasing filters available in Skyrim. In the first pair of images, the standard Antialiasing was not used at all, only the effect of FXAA is visible. When this filter is turned on, the total number of jagged lines becomes much less, such as the outline of the top of a bridge in the distance, bushes and trees, the outline of a horse and rider on it. However, this filter also blurs the overall picture a little, making it a little hazy and reducing the definition of textures, as seen in the example of the wooden planks of the bridge in the foreground. In the third image, FXAA is already off, and 8x standard anti-aliasing (8xAA) is turned on instead. When comparing the third image with the first and second (where only FXAA was used), it can be seen that the 8x AA level eliminates the "jagging" on most objects without blurring them like FXAA. The overall picture itself looks much clearer, but it is worth noting that 8x AA does not smooth foliage. And the last one is the image where FXAA and 8x AA are included together. It looks extremely smooth. Be that as it may, but the overall picture is still not as blurred as with the effect of only FXAA, and the fog is more noticeable.

The performance impact of changing the metrics of this filter is shown below:

FXAA remains true to its reputation as a moderately efficient filter, with minimal impact on FPS at various resolutions. This makes it an indispensable assistant for those players who are looking for sparing resources and enough effective tool antialiasing lines instead of the more resource-intensive Antialiasing filter option available in the game menu. On the other hand, if the blurriness from FXAA is a concern for you, but you still want to achieve anti-aliasing of the foliage, you can activate Transparency Antialiasing, which we will discuss in more detail in the section "Video Driver Settings".

Water: There are four options for the reflection that appears on the surface of the water: Reflect Land, Reflect Trees, Reflect Objects, and Reflect Sky. If desired, you can turn off all reflections by unchecking the corresponding boxes (Reflect None), or vice versa, enable them all together (Reflect All). Depending on the selected reflection option, the color and realism of the water in the game will change.

The screenshots above compare the main options for water reflections. Note the water around nearby ruins and water far enough away. When all reflections are off, the water looks fairly flat, pale blue in color. When Reflect Land is on, the general contours of the landscape are visible in the water. By activating Reflect Trees, you can clearly see the reflections of trees in the water. In the screenshot with Reflect Objects enabled, you can see that rocks and more detailed elements are already visible in the water the earth's surface... Reflect Sky affects the appearance of the water surface, giving it realistic highlights and changing color. When all these options are selected together, in comparison with the Reflect None screenshot, the Reflect All image clearly shows the depth and realism of the picture achieved thanks to the various reflected elements.

The dependence of performance on changing the parameters of the reflection options is shown below:

This graph shows that when the reflection options are enabled individually, they do not have any measurable effect on gaming performance. However, when they are all turned on together, there will be a small jump in frame rate. Considering how noticeably these options can improve the realism and depth of bodies reflected in the water, it is generally advisable to leave them on. At least not if you are not fighting for every FPS unit during the presence of large water surfaces in the game scenes.

Objects and characters in sight (Object & Actor Fade)

There are a number of settings on the View Distance tab of the Advanced Options window. They determine the distance between you and an object (character, object), necessary for this object (character, object) to come into your field of vision (or disappear from it). It is important that the effect of getting / disappearing from the field of view, obtained with various combinations of the options described below, directly depends on whether you are approaching a specific object (character, object) or moving away from it. For example, if you approach a rock with the lowest Object Fade level set, then this rock will appear instantly in front of your eyes, just a few steps away. But when you move away from her, you will need to overcome twice the distance in order for her to disappear from view again.

Object Fade: This slider determines the distance at which secondary game objects, such as fences, stones, paths, and others, become visible. When this setting is at the minimum level, some objects in the distance will not be visible and will only appear in the field of view when you start getting closer to them. The distance at which they begin to appear is determined by the position of the slider: the more to the left it is, the closer you will need to be to the object in order for it to appear in front of your eyes.

The images above show the effects of the slider at the Minimum, 1, Medium, 8, and Maximum, 15 positions. Moving from Minimum to Medium, a number of additional objects become visible, including some new rocks in the middle of the screen, a path to the left in the distance, as well as many dry branches, rocks and small boulders throughout the landscape. At the Maximum level, the main changes concern an increase in the details of small bushes and stone protrusions, respectively, in the far left and far to the right of the center of the screen.

The effect of this setting on game performance is shown below:

The graph shows that as the Object Fade level increases, FPS starts to decrease, but this is not the main thing. The main reason why this setting should not be underestimated too much (preferably leaving it at Medium - 7 or 8) is to avoid missing interesting objects and objects standing nearby during your wanderings around the game world.

Actor Fade: This slider adjusts the distance at which characters and creatures can be seen. Similar to Object Fade: the lower you move the slider, the closer you need to be in order for these creatures to become visible to you.

The screenshots show the slider positions corresponding to the Minimum, 2, Medium, 8 and Maximum, 15 levels. There are four different people and a chicken in the situation. At the minimum level of Actor Fade, none of this is visible. On average, an elderly woman and a chicken in the middle of the screen are already visible, while the other three people are still not visible. When switching to maximum at the end of the path, two adults and a small boy are now visible, although they are quite difficult to distinguish.

The dependence of performance on changes in this indicator can be seen below:

The graph shows a slight drop in FPS with increasing Actor Fade metrics. The battles and interaction of the protagonist with other characters is one of the key ideas of Skyrim, so we strongly recommend not to underestimate this indicator, unless there is an urgent need to "pull" FPS. Alternatively, using the Minimum level will cause you to literally collide head-ons with other characters or creatures that suddenly appear right in front of your nose.

Grass & Specularity Fade

Grass Fade: This slider adjusts the amount of grass and small bushes that appear in the respective game locations (forest, meadow, etc.). The lower the level of this parameter is set, the less vegetation is visible on the surface of the earth.

The images clearly show the difference between the three positions of the slider: "minimum" (Minimum, 0), "average" (Medium, 3) and "maximum" (Maximum, 7). At the Minimum level, the ground in front of us is everywhere without grass. Rare spots of grass are visible only in the immediate foreground, and several lonely fern bushes are visible in the distance. When using the medium level, the amount of small vegetation increases markedly: grass and small grassy bushes cover almost the entire road, up to about the middle of the field of view. At the Maximum level, the entire field (even at a fairly large distance) is densely covered with grass. But still, in the farthest corners, small "bald" pieces can be seen.

The dependence of performance on the settings of this parameter is discussed below:

The graph shows that the Grass Fade parameter has an impact on game performance, but in many cases it is insignificant. And since grass is not the most important thing in the game (and sometimes it can even obscure some objects and areas), it will be appropriate to reduce this parameter within reasonable limits if you need additional performance in outdoor scenes.

Specularity Fade: This slider is designed to adjust the brightness (glitter) level of many objects in the game world. However, in practice, its influence is almost in no way manifested.

The available levels for this setting range from the minimum (Minimum, 2) to the maximum (Maximum, 15). V additional settings you can also choose the "ultra" level, then the Maximum value will become 20. Anyway, and the screenshots above make it clear that there is absolutely no difference between the minimum (2) and maximum (20) effects of this setting. And this despite the fact that the room is full of shiny and shimmery surfaces. Barely visible changes are visible only in the thickness of the smoke rising from the torches.

How this setting affects game performance is shown below:

The graph confirms that "out of nothing and there will be nothing": since this setting does not produce visible visual effects, it almost does not affect performance in any way. This is a great reason to set it to a minimum in order to win an extra couple of FPS units without feeling this on the quality of the game picture.

The appearance of heat from fire and small objects (Light & Item Fade)

Light Fade: This slider adjusts the distance from which the fire becomes clearer from various sources(bonfires, torches, etc.). In practice, this effect establishes the realism of the heat emanating from the fire and the rarefied air in its immediate vicinity. The effect is best seen indoors.

The images show different levels of this effect: Minimum (2), Medium (18) and Maximum (35). Upon closer examination, subtle changes are hardly distinguishable, and during the gameplay they are not visible at all. If you take a closer look at these pictures, you can see that the fire on the torch on the right has become more distinct, and in the brazier, in addition, the rarefied air rising up from the flame is clearly visible. The overall picture in the room becomes a little brighter.

The effect of this effect on game performance is depicted below:

The graph shows that the Light Fade effect has negligible impact on the performance level. Since this effect affects the game picture in about the same way, it can be safely minimized if it is necessary to increase the FPS level. As much as possible, it would be wise to turn it on when the action takes place in dark dungeons to make them a little lighter.

Item Fade: This visual parameter sets the distance from which small objects (weapons, armor, potion bubbles, scrolls, etc.) fall into your field of view. The lower the level of the slider, the closer you need to be near the object so that it becomes visible to you.

In the game episode, captured in the pictures above, we see a large number of various objects, densely scattered along the entire length of the road, on the bridge and near a small shack standing in the distance. When the minimum level (Minimum, 1) is set, only nearby objects are visible: a few mushrooms, a book, a scroll and a couple of potion bottles. At an average level (Medium, 8), absolutely all objects become visible, including barely distinguishable weapons, scrolls and shields in front of the barn. At the Maximum level, there are no cardinal changes with the previous image: all / p objects are just as clearly visible and just as poorly distinguishable. But the ambiguity of the outlines is rather due to their microscopic size at such a decent distance.

Performance versus Item Fade can be illustrated below:

The graph shows that this parameter leads to a noticeable, albeit insignificant, jump in the FPS level, especially at its higher levels. For gaming purposes, we strongly recommend that you do not lower the value of this parameter below the average level. If you set it to a minimum, then you will simply lose sight of very important and useful items while exploring the game world just because you will not notice them.

Object Detail

Distant Object Detail: This setting adjusts the level of detail for distant game objects. As a rule, these are hills and mountains: they surround almost any game landscape. The available levels are Low, Medium, High and Ultra. The lower the level you choose, the less detail will be seen in the distance. However, it should be noted that this setting affects more realism and game atmosphere than gameplay.

The screenshots above show the changes that each LOD change brings to the distant landscape. Pay special attention to the mountains in the distance. At Low they are mostly naked, angular and devoid of any vegetation. At the intermediate level, they are already beginning to gradually fill with content, taking on shadows, shape and a detailed surface. At the High level, the main innovation is the trees at the foot of the mountains. When Ultra is selected, trees fill the entire mountain surface, making it more believable. An important point is that this setting does not affect human buildings in any way (as can be seen from the building on the far right).

How this setting affects gaming performance is shown below:

The obvious consequence of a cursory analysis of the graph is that as the level of this effect increases, performance decreases. This is especially noticeable when using the Ultra detail level. Since this setting has no effect on gameplay, you can easily drop it down to High or Medium to win extra performance in large open areas.

Object Detail Fade: The purpose of this effect is to provide additional options for adjusting subtle details of objects in the game world. When enabled, non-essential details will be hidden to provide improved gaming performance. But if you like higher detail images, then you should uncheck the box next to this option.

At first, it is difficult to find any differences between the two images. If you look more closely, it becomes noticeable that ivy disappears on the mountain slope in the distance to the left and in the center when the effect is turned on. A small patch of moss and a stone in the far right also disappear. In other words, the effect does not make any tangible changes, changing only very minor details.

How this effect alters gaming performance can be seen below:

The graph illustrates the lung increase in FPS when this effect is on. It makes sense to use it if you need to score multiple FPS points. Especially considering that it has almost no effect on the game picture, removing objects, the loss of which is not immediately easy to notice.

Afterword

For those players who are used to spending time plunging into the exploration of numerous quests and secrets, Skyrim provides a world of almost endless game possibilities. Try to avoid the temptation to rush through the game, and have an unforgettable enjoyment of sharp and detailed gameplay.

In terms of general gaming performance, it is advisable to play in Skyrim with a good video card and processor in order to achieve a consistently high frame rate when using maximum settings. Sometimes the game can be limited by the level of load that it has on the central processor, so sometimes "braking" will be simply inevitable, especially on weak system configurations. On the other hand, such an enforced limitation on the use of CPU resources benefits owners of powerful video cards: they can significantly increase the level of visual effects without any loss of FPS. However, certain new graphical settings which are available in Skyrim ( it comes First of all, the Shadow Detail settings are very resource intensive. Shadows, along with anti-aliasing, are the first two settings that should be limited to avoid overloading weak systems. Everything else is for the most part a matter of taste for each player. Of course, if you like to experiment, then the possibilities of advanced settings allow you to more accurately set the compromise line on which performance and quality of the game image are constantly balanced.

If after reading this guide you still have questions and difficulties with the game settings, need some gameplay tips or just want to know more about the upcoming patches and new downloadable content (DLC) for Skyrim, welcome to the official Skyrim forum. ...