If you’re not sure how old a game is, look at the water graphics.
It’s not easy to make a good simulation of water. So think about how bad it was 10 or 15 years ago.
Because of this, we can’t blame Bethesda for the way water moves and looks in Skyrim.
But at the same time, we should thank all the amazing modders who made these even better additions that give us the cleanest water Tamriel has ever seen.
8. Blacksmithforge Water Fix
Now all forges SkyForge in Whiterun included will finally have real water, not a static/barely animated texture.
I think nobody ever loved the fake static water used for the blacksmith forges across Skyrim…
Some modders have tried with decent workarounds giving some forges (not all of them) a fake pseudo-animated water texture.
This mod finally adds real water for ALL the blacksmith forges across Skyrim, SkyForge at Whiterun included!
7. Collect water from wells RND Compatible
Take bottles of water from wells. Fill your empty bottles and waterskins when using Realistic Needs and Diseases. Dragonborn option also available.
This mod adds activators to water wells around Skyrim that will give you a bottle of water.
- If you do not have RND installed, use the Base version.
- If you have RND installed, use the RND version.
- The optional Dragonborn file only adds activators to the wells on Solstheim. If you want to use wells in Skyrim AND Solstheim you will need to install RND version + Dragonborn version.
6. Better Distant LOD Waterfalls
Since it came out more than 10 years ago, Skyrim doesn’t look good by today’s standards.
That is, if we’re talking about the “vanilla” release.
Better Distant LOD Waterfalls is a pretty simple mod that makes distant waterfalls look better even at high resolutions by giving them more detail.
Just don’t give in to the urge to jump in. They may be beautiful, but they’re still very dangerous.
5. Skyfalls and SkyMills
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
Getting the water in video games to look right can be a nightmare.
Modders are here to help.
The Better Water mod makes big changes to all of Skyrim’s water by adding new textures that were made by simulating water in real life.
Even though these new textures are more complicated, they won’t slow down the game in any way. Even if you play on an old computer.
Don’t you love it when modders come up with these ideas?
3. Realistic Water Two
Realistic Water Two adds a lot more than what the first two mods did.
This does more than just make the water look real. It makes it sound more like it could happen.
With some of the same improvements as the other mods on this page, the Realistic Water Two mod adds different sounds to lakes, ponds, and oceans.
And it’s easy to change everything about these sounds.
And if that wasn’t enough, you can also put things that bob up and down in any body of water. Even crazy things like icebergs in ponds!
2. Watercolor for ENB and Realistic Water Two
Some games don’t need much to look much better than they do by default.
Make a few small changes here and there, and you’re done.
In this mod, we get exactly this:
It changes the color of the water to make the ENBseries’ sun-reflection effects look much more real. So easy, but it works so well.
Wait until dusk near any body of water, and get ready to pick your jaw up off the floor.
1. Pure Waters
The Pure Waters mod does what it says it will do:
Skyrim has never seen water this clean. Or, for that matter, the cleanest water in most open-world RPGs.
The list of changes here is much longer than what any other water mod has to offer.
You’ll get better colors, more realistic transparency, better reflections, and redesigned underwater areas with new flow effects.
I think that the name of the book Pure Waters should have been “Perfect Waters.”
This is the best it can get!
