Texture Overhauls
These mods are MASSIVE texture packs that hold many refurbished, redone, and even reimagined textures. They can range from the smallest of things like a cup to the largest of landscapes like a castle wall! Here we have listed the best overhauls to start off with. You can customize and switch between textures to find the best looking one's that fit your taste. Don't forget that these are just general texture packs. There are smaller one's that sometimes look better than the overhaul's but don't have a lot included since the packs are only for a specific item or area. This means that these overhauls are mearly bases to cover most of the game's textures while the other smaller mods focus on improving smaller or more random objects such as only ingrediants or even just certain pieces of furniture. If you want the BEST results don't use the official 2k textures by Bethesda.
 Nordic Snow (aka HQ Snow Texture)Norwegian viking mod author, thought the snow in the game looked like shit, decided to make his own. |  Skyrim 2017 TexturesComplete texture overhaul of everything in the game |  SSE Texture Pack - OsmodiusCovers landscapes and cities. |
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 Serious HD Retexture SkyrimA big texture pack like Skyrim HD, only this one focuses more on terrain....and Riften for some reason. |  NobleSkyrim HD-2KThe aim of this mod is to give all of Skyrim's architecture a complete new look by changing its textures to custom ones. Beside the architecture, several other things, such as landscape, dungeons (ruins, mines, caves etc.), clutter stuff etc. have been re-textured as well, to match the rest of the mod. |  Static Mesh Improvement Mod - SMIMThis mod remakes many of the games objects to have a higher polygon count thus making the objects smoother and less pointy. This mod is recommended for people who even don't have a strong rig. The mesh replacement alone makes your game look much better. This also includes the No Stretching fixes for mesh fixes so you don't need that mod anymore. |
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 Realistic Water TwoA graphical water overhaul. Not only does it make water look better, this mod changes some of the game cells and adds new types of water! So now still ponds, rivers, and ocean water won't all look the same. This also comes in plenty of different quality options depending on how well you can run the mod! |  Enhanced Blood TexturesBlood was always meh in Elder Scrolls games, but this mod fixes that. Enhanced Blood adds new HD blood textures as well as new variants. So now if you're hit with a sword, you get a cut shaped blood splatter. Blood also drips out more and spreads across the floor where a dead body is. |  Vivid LandscapesHein has made many texture mods for Skyrim. Most of his work is focused on rocks. As seen in his mods, he has some of the best mountain, ruins, and rock textures you can get! We suggest you replace whatever you have right now and use these mods instead! They are all top notch and come in different resolutions for how well you can run these. Now in one convenient pack to install and download. |
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 Skyrim Skill Interface Re-TextureOverhauls the skill interface with brand new textures and options.
Now back on Nexus! |  Enhanced textures detail (UV-tweaks)This mod will increase texture quality for all your existing textures and any other new textures that you will download. This also fixes a lot of the texture stretching on buildings. WARNING: This mod is only recommend for high end computers since this will take a toll on your game's performance. |  Bellyaches Animal and Creature PackRetexture pack for almost every animal in Skyrim. There are many variants you can choose and customize with. |
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 Bellyaches Dragon Texture ReplacerWith this mod, you can choose from 19 textures for each of the following dragons
Choose either this or the UHD Dragon Textures. This is 1k to 4k and UHD is 4k to 8k. |  Splendor - Dragon Variants784 Dragons (from 14 in vanilla game)
Greatly enhanced visual diversity
Using no external resources
Extremely Compatible |
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And here are some notable texture authors that either make random textures with no rhyme or reason and are not all in one pack or download link. It's recommended you download all of their works but it's not necessary.
 GamwichKnown for the RUSTIC series. Has a lot of textures ranging from random objects to clothes and robes. |  KajuanDoes a lot of undead and monster textures. Horncandles is really good too. |  PfuscherAt the moment he only has the complete texture overhaul linked above, and a vine mod, but he is a mod author to keep an eye on. |
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These are non-specific collections of mods that you can use to customize your game. You can interchange these textures to make the game the way you want it to. Now for even better looking textures, you gonna have to get some specific overhauls that work on one or two aspects of the game itself.