The graphics options screen is once again only available from the launcher, though there’s now a god rays option, along with options for snow shader, lens flare and 64-bit render targets, rendering things like colours, textures and the aforementioned god rays in 64-bit rather than 32-bit. It’s impossible not to take mods into account, since they are such an integral part of the PC version, so as well as comparing Skyrim Special Edition to the vanilla game, both visually and in terms of performance, I’ll be comparing it to a version loaded with graphics mods (I’ll link the most significant ones). Hopefully, a lot of these mods will eventually be reworked for this new version, but until then, it’s almost competing with a game that’s had five years of mod support and evolution.
The improvements are most dramatic on consoles, which get mods for the first time and the most significant visual upgrade, but on PC we’ve been using mods to transform the game since its launch.
