I play my video games on consoles. The SEGA Mega Drive, the Nintendo Game Boy, sometimes a PlayStation but come on, now, those will never catch on. So when I see people modding their games on personal computers, I am amazed that such a thing is even possible. You can break a game in so many ways, and so comprehensively, it's enough to make Mario's moustache fall out. I never get tired of seeing these things.
And here is one of those things. As picked up by Kotaku, reddit user u/ShoddyCover pumped The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim so full of mods that it not only looked incredible - well, incredible to anyone who thinks lifelike realism in video games represents an incredible feat of worthwhile note in the medium, and that's a whole other discussion for another time - but it also set their personal home computer on fire. Kinda. They could smell burning. Is what was posted.
Watch the heavily modded version of Skyrim in the embedded video, right below these words (unless there's an advert in the way, in which case, it'll be beneath that).
Advert
That sure chugs, doesn't it? Five frames per second? I'm sold. (It's more, yes, but it's not many.) But naturally, pumping a 10-year-old game like Skyrim so full of mods that it's got no room left for disappointing dragons and meme-worthy NPCs is bound to have some impact on performance. But yes, the trees look like trees. Like, really like trees. Kotaku notes that the modder here is probably using Vivid Weathers, Natural and Atmospheric Tamriel, ENB, and Enhanced Lights and FX. I, on the other hand, am using an Xbox 360 video games console to play Skyrim. I expect it makes more noise than this highly modded version, mind.
The modder themselves lists the mods used as follows (not checked any of the spelling, so don't shout at me on this one): "JediTrees, Origins of Forest, Folkvangr, Cg4 - 3DTrees &Plants, Beyond Skyrim: Bruma(Steel Axe), BDO Valoren(Armor + Wig), Apachii Divine Elegance Store(White Shawll), Vivid Weathers, ELFX, NAT, Natkv 6 ENB(Personak Tweak/Performance Heavy."
Some comments on the reddit thread read as follows... "Ouch that hurts right in the GPU." Imagine if they could feel, tho. "You've still got some frames left!" Good one, and yes, they do. "That moment when the FPS is the same as the game's age lol." Uh, I should have made that joke. "I thought it was a video for a moment." I mean, it is. A video. You're watching a video.
Advert
I have nothing more to add except, here's our own video of Skyrim wins and fails, for some fun-times viewing.