The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim got two new mods that aim to improve its graphics. The first one brings large-scale ambient occlusion support to the whole game, whereas the second introduces cloud shadows.
Skylighting creates a soft ambient shadowing effect under structures and dense woods. This enhances contrast and realism in areas without direct lighting. As such, you’ll get a more realistic image with a more advanced lighting system.
In the past, players could enable AO via ENBSeries. The problem with this solution was that ENBSeries did skylighting from one direction. Community Shaders does skylighting from every direction. Moreover, SkyLighting does not depend on info on the screen. As such, it won’t change with camera movement. Only static objects (houses, trees, landscape, etc.) can occlude the light, and dynamic objects only receive the occlusion.
In short, this is one of the best ways to add AO to this old title. And yes, proper AO can do wonders for old games like Skyrim. Just take a look at the comparison screenshots at the end of the article.
As for the second mod, it does exactly what its title says. It adds shadows from the clouds. The cloud shadows are aligned with the sun, using the actual clouds system rather than a scrolling texture. The cloud shadows are also used for volumetric lighting, meaning that godrays from the sun can be occluded too.
You can download these two mods from here and here. For the best results, the CS Team recommends using them with the SSGI Mod we shared in December 2024.
Speaking of Skyrim, here are some big fan expansions for it. The First one is Wyrmstooth. Wyrmstooth will add new quests and dungeons to the game. Then there is this mod that brings elements from The Witcher games into Skyrim. Dragon Hall Tavern is a huge 2GB mod that adds quests, new places, an arena, and more. Then there’s Land of Vominhem, Apotheosis and Legacy of the Dragonborn. Don’t forget to also check out this Castlevania-inspired mod. Modders have also recreated the classic PSX game, MediEvil in Skyrim. Shumer and the Priest Kings is another DLC fan expansion mod with over 200 locations, 180+ quests and 8,500 lines of voiced dialogue. Oh, and here is another one that adds the cool Nemesis system from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor to it. Lastly, we have this mod that adds six new islands to explore.
And that’s not all. Skyrim has other mods that add lots of cool stuff.
For instance, this Call of Duty Mod adds 12 new fully functional weapons. Then we have this mod that brings epic battles with hundreds of infantry, tanks, and aircrafts. This is one of the best modern-day mods for Skyrim, so be sure to check it out. There’s also a cool mod that allows you to destroy a lot of objects. You can also download this mod that makes the NPCs smarter. With this mod, NPCs will now have a dynamic AI system, and they’ll seek for cover.
Let’s also not forget this mod that adds unlimited dynamic light sources. Or how about this one that adds a dynamic sanity system? Not only that but this mod adds a real-time dismemberment system. And then we have this cool World of Tanks Mod. Finally, these mods add Subsurface Scattering, Dynamic Cubemaps, Water Caustics and Parallax Mapping to the game.
So, lots of mods for Skyrim, right? And we have shared even more. Thus, be sure to check out our Best Skyrim Mods article.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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