Creating a proper water simulation is quite complicated. So imagine 10 or 15 years ago what a nightmare it was! For this reason, we can’t fault Bethesda for the water physics & graphics included in Skyrim. But at the same time, we should be thanking all the amazing modders who created these even better additions that give us the purest waters Tamriel has ever seen.
6. Better Distant LOD Waterfalls
Check Out This Mod Having been released 10+ years ago, Skyrim isn’t exactly a good-looking game for today’s standards. If we’re talking about the vanilla release, that is. Better Distant LOD Waterfalls is a pretty basic mod that increases the level of detail of distant waterfalls, so that they look great even at high resolutions. Just don’t let the urge to dive in take control: as beautiful they may be, they’re still quite dangerous.
5. Skyfalls and SkyMills
Check Out This Mod Ah, yes. Skyrim, Skyfalls and SkyMills. A match made in heaven! Skyfalls and SkyMills further improves distant waterfalls by adding actual animations, so it works great in conjunction with Better Distant LOD Waterfalls. And it also works great mixed with some other Skyrim animation mods, too. In addition, this mod also introduces animated windmills. Which have pretty much nothing to do with water, but we’ll take it all the same.
4. Better Water
Check Out This Mod Creating proper water textures for video games can be a nightmare. And modders are here to help. The Better Water mod introduces massive changes to the waters all over Skyrim, by adding new textures that were generated from real-life water simulations. While more complex, these new textures will not impact performance at all. Even if you’re playing on a dated system. Don’t you just love when modders think of these things?
3. Realistic Water Two
Check Out This Mod Realistic Water Two goes way beyond what the previous mods introduce. This doesn’t just make water look more realistic. It makes it sound more realistic. Together with some of the enhancements seen in the other mods listed here, the Realistic Water Two mod brings different ambient sounds to lakes, ponds, and ocean waters. And these sounds can be fully customized with ease. And if this wasn’t enough, you can also add bobbing objects to any body of water. Yes, even absurd stuff like icebergs in ponds!
2. Watercolor for ENB and Realistic Water Two
Check Out This Mod It doesn’t take a lot to make some games look much better than in their vanilla state. A tweak here, a change there, and you’re done. This is exactly what we get in this mod: It changes the color of the water to make the sun-scattering effects of the ENBseries far more realistic. So simple, yet so effective. Wait for dusk near any body of water, and prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor.
1. Pure Waters
Check Out This Mod The Pure Waters mod delivers exactly what it promises: The purest waters ever seen in Skyrim. Or probably the purest waters out of most open-world RPGs, for that matter. The list of improvements here goes beyond anything that any other water mod offers. You’ll get color enhancement, realistic transparency, reflection improvements, and completely revamped underwater areas with different flow effects. Pure Waters should have been called “Perfect Waters”, in my opinion. It can’t get better than this!
