Improving visual fidelity and the overall graphics quality of Bethesda games is one of the most honorable goals any modder can set for themselves.
It’s what keeps the games fresh and relevant, long after Bethesda’s own people have stopped updating them.
After the utter failure that was Fallout 76, keeping Fallout 4 exciting and beautiful has acquired a whole new meaning.
We can’t give in to despair. And there’s no time to waste vilifying Todd Howard. We’re most likely not getting any new Fallout content in a while, and we’ve got to make do with what we have to quench the thirst for retro-apocalyptic adventures.
If people are still updating and enjoying Skyrim after almost 10 years, what excuse do we have not to do the same with Fallout 4?
If you’re looking to give your game a facelift but don’t know where to start your journey towards absolute immersion, our texture mods ranking below is sure to point you in the right direction.
I’ve always believed it’s the small things, the details, that make or break a game.
In this case, it’s the humble but ever-present PipBoy that’ll change to improve your experience.
This mod by prolific modder Gorgulla augments the resolution on the PipBoy textures greatly and adds much more detail to the model. Not only that, but it applies ambient occlusion to it as well.
If you’re up for it, you can also add a glass texture to the PipBoy’s screen or even crack it!
And don’t worry about it becoming harder to use. On the contrary, the mod will also enhance utility on the map so you have an easier time getting around.
Also by Gorgulla comes another similar improvement, this time to something quite a bit larger – Power Armors.
Much like the PipBoy overhaul did for the retrofuturistic smartwatch, this mod promises highly-detailed and crisp textures on all power armors including every paint job, although I find that it works wonders with the plain version.
The results are striking.
As an added benefit, users can choose whether to use 4K or 2K textures depending on their needs and the power of their system.
And if modifying the entirety of your exoskeleton arsenal isn’t enough, you may as well go ahead and overhaul the entirety of the synth species.
That’s exactly what MaaroTakai set out to do with their C.A.S.T mod, and the results speak for themselves.
The mod promises to add much-needed variety to the synths of the Wasteland and the Institute alike by introducing hundreds of new different armor variations including helmets, weapons, uniforms and more.
Not only do they change in color, but there are glowing and chromed armor pieces too.
After almost 300 years have passed since the bombs dropped, science suggests the environment in general and especially water would have recovered already – and yet, water in Fallout 4 is usually filthy or outright radioactive.
Thanks to modder Feyawen, that no longer needs to be like that.
With the Clean Water of the Commonwealth mod all bodies of water will look cleaner and fresher than ever before.
The mod includes three water color options, ranging from “just clear” to an unnaturally bright blue you’d associate with the beaches of Aruba, in the form of the Tropical Shaded version.
While the water of the Wasteland could use a little more realism to look better, handmade weapons would benefit from the contrary.
Really rusty things will indeed take on an unnaturally bright shade of orange color with time. But it honestly looks terrible on your handmade weapons.
That’s where user Mike_trx comes in with their improved textures that’ll take your handmade weapons from an embarrassingly ugly abomination to a more somber look of worn metal and aged wood.
If you liked the PipBoy overhaul feature that improved the visibility of the map, but couldn’t quite get around to accepting why you’d spend valuable resources making your PipBoy 4K, then this is the mod for you.
It’ll greatly improve your quality of life by swapping the map textures with new ones highlighting roads, train tracks, topography, and the waterline to help you get around without damaging your sight.
Some map markers have even been moved to better describe the actual in-game landscape!
The faces in Fallout 4 are notoriously better than those of previous Bethesda titles. But that doesn’t mean they can’t use a bit of improvement.
My favorite mod for better visages is Hi-poly Faces by SQr17, as it smooths out the edges and makes everything less pointy without changing the art style and overall feel of the game’s characters.
All animations continue to work just as well as in vanilla, and you shouldn’t really experience any FPS drops whatsoever unless you’re barely even running the game with your setup.
And if that’s the case, you’ll be pleased to hear that not all hope is lost.
You can get extra FPS through several means, and installing the Fallout 4 Texture Optimization Project mod is one of the best.
Modder Torcher realized the vanilla game uses many unnecessarily large textures that consume too many resources for their quality. So they set out to compress and resize textures individually in hopes of improving performance.
Who needs 2K grass textures, right?
The result is a significant FPS gain in most setups without any serious loss of graphical fidelity. Very nice!
There is, however, a mod that promises to both beautify the game and make the textures consume less V-Ram than the original ones… which seems too good to be true until you try it out yourself.
Vivid Fallout – All in One is a compilation of all Vivid Fallout mods by Hein84.
He’s been working ever since the game came out to overhaul all landscape textures including roads, rocks, bridges, and even concrete to make them look sharper and more realistic.
This is my go-to mod whenever I install Fallout 4 for a new playthrough.
And considering how heavily endorsed it is in the Nexus, I’d say I’m not alone in my praise.
But by far the most amazing texture mod is Fallout 4 Seasons, a modular install that lets you simulate the passing of seasons in Fallout 4’s Wasteland.
Modder FrogprincessQ4 and GameDuchess joined forces to create four different texture packs that will bring the green and lush of Spring, the dry heat of Summer, the bright colors of Autumn and the white snow of Winter to the Commonwealth.
Regrettably, rather than leaving it to an in-game season-cycling system, you’ll have to activate each season yourself.
But I can assure you the absolute makeover this gives your Fallout 4 is worth the little extra effort.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
