I don't know what to do. I spent 300 bucks so I could upgrade my PC so it could run Skyrim and not look like it's [censored] console versions. It doesn't except for one thing: the LOD on everything in the distance is still [censored]. It looks like early PS1 graphics. I'm sure you all know this by now. I can't play this game with the distance looking like that, and I especially can't play it when my game physically loads all of those objects at one time. I've started 6 playthroughs playing with my SkyrimPrefs file trying to change the uGrids settings, the blockdistance or whatever lines, and I can't get any of that nonsense to work. I don't see a change at all. I even installed Skyrim on an SSD to see if the visual assets would load faster in the distance, and it hasn't done [censored]. I just uninstalled Skyrim for the third time, so I can be sure I have a clean SkyrimPrefs file. I need help getting the distance in this game 1) not looking like a polygonal abortion and 2) transitioning smoothly between levels of detail, not spawning new meshes all at once in my entire FOV.

Also, all of these places on the web talking about .ini files, I've been tweaking the SkyrimPrefs file because it looks exactly the same as these .ini files people are talking about, but I've yet to find any files with .ini in their name.

I really want to love this game, really I do. I just can't get past this problem, it annoys the living daylights out of me, it's monstrously immersion breaking, which ruins my whole experience. Anyone, please, help me fix this.


Also: Worldshadows are pissing me off. I need to know how to make them update in realtime, like Read Dead Redemption's, not this "all of a sudden move all the shadows at once and hope I don't notice," nonsense that's going on now. Cause I notice. Every time.

Here is a tweak guide(below) even if you have an ATI card most of this stuff applies just make sure to read the guide it covers U grids and the potential issues that can happen if you bump them up past 7. Also the .ini files you want to modify are in documents/mygames/skyrim and some changes will be in skyrim.ini and others in the skryim prefs.ini. These may need to be set to read only via the properties tab after you make your changes for some systems. DO NO alter the .ini files in your steam directory.

As far as LOD if you are talking about texture switching like the moss level of detail changing as you get closer to a stone wall there really isn't any way that I know of with .ini tweaks to change that.
As far as making realtime shadows as opposed to the annoying strobing that is covered in the guide below as well.

http://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide/#1

The LOD texture switching I'm referring to is the massive load of like, 12 trees, 4 big rocks, and cliff faces all at once when I'm 20 feet away from them and getting closer. My biggest problem it seems is that I've been editing the Steam .ini files, which did absolutely nothing. I've been reading that GeForce guide for 3 days, I'll see if it works now that I think i've found the correct .ini files to use.


EDIT: I've gotten most of the distant objects to render where I want them to, now my biggest problem is getting trees and rocks and the like to transition between LOD's smoothly, or slower, rather than instantly. If that makes sense. Seeing a bunch of trees and rocks all of a sudden pop into high-detail is hardcoe annoying.