Considered complete for now. Just needs copy editing and maybe some more additions to the lists.

Table of Contents

1. The original post.
   

   You are here. It consists of a guide for new players to get Morrowind running well.

2. Quick start guide and mod lists part 1.
   

   Mod lists for: Fixes, Landscapes, and Architecture.

3. Mod lists part 2.
   

   Mod lists for: head/body replacers and creature replacers.

4. I didn't post this.
   

   Move along, move along...

5. Mod lists part 3.
   

   Mod lists for: Weapons, Armor, Clothes, Miscellanea, and Lighting.

v2.0

Change Log
v2.0 Ha ha
-Completed the Clothing and Miscellanea and Lighting sections.
-Corrected a spelling error ("Equiptment?" What the hell?)
-Added a message warning about the addictive nature of mods.
-Declared the lists done.
-Kicked back.
-Had a cold one.
v1.3
-Added a lot of new entries to the architecture section
-Fixed broken links
-Finished Armor and Weapons section
-Added links to new replacers at the bottom of the "Characters" section
-Added a Table of Contents
v1.2
-Completed Creatures list
-Added link to Stebin's Unofficial World Retexture Thread
-Added notes and links about important tools
-Added note about Texture use and BSAs
-Added note on AlienSlof's work
-Added entries in Land, Sky, and Plants section for Vality's tree mods, Max's Vivid Morrowind Repaint, and Jarrod's Bloodmoon Texture Pack.
-Added Jarrod's Mod to the Large Texture Replacer section.
-The large texture packs now have the number of textures replaced next to the name of the pack.
-Added important new information about Vibrant and Darker Morrowind.
-Added "Initial Tweaks" section.
-Added a quick setup for the impatient.
-Changed note about Galahaut's Mod List to note that it has started updating again.
-Cleaned-up some syntax, grammatical style, and one or two spelling errors
-Added link to another Psymoniser replacer, at the bottom of the "Characters" section
-Added an incredibly helpful Change Log.
v1.1
-Completed Character list
-Made a new section for large texture replacers
-Corrected mistakes, clarified some explanations based on suggestions
v1.0
-Finished OP
-Completed Land, Sky, and Plants list
-Completed Architecture List

For completely new players: for the sake of your sanity, download, install, and learn to love Wrye Mash. You need this. There are other options for mod management, but Wrye Mash offers everything you need to keep mods and saves clean, along with its own leveled list merger (if you do not know what a leveled list merger is, learn fast, many Read-Mes in mods that need merged lists will describe the concept to you).

Other essential tools: TESTool, The Elder Scrolls Plugin Conflict Detector, Morrowind Enchanted Editor. On TESTool: you will very likely need to use TESTool's Merge Objects feature with some of these Mods (particularly those that use ESPs), so I really recommend that before you do anything, read and understand the help files of both TESTool AND Wrye Mash before use. They are powerful tools, but you need to be careful with them. If you don't want to bother with the sometimes-troublesome Merge Objects feature, just make sure you don't use two mods listed here that A> alter the same objects and B> use an ESP to do it.

If nothing else, remember this: Use TESTool to merge objects when two mods modify the same thing, but in different ways, and use Wrye Mash to create Merged Leveled lists for any and all mods that involve leveled lists. DO NOT USE MERGE DIALOGUES.

I notice that posts asking about graphical updates are more common here than water in the ocean, so I'm hoping that with this thread I can provide a universal answer for the graphically challenged. This isn't meant to be exhaustive, anyone looking for such a list should look through Yacoby and Galahaut's Face and Hair List, Telesphoros' List o'Mods (a bit dated), Galahaut's Morrowind Mods List (under the process of being redesigned and updated. Not completely functional or up to date yet, but once it's done it will likely rank as the most complete and up-to-date mod list out there. Let us rejoice), and of course Planet Elder Scrolls and this very board can be perused for many a mod (Note: when searching on PES, I advise you to make use of the "Advanced Search" option that shows up when you click on the "Search" link in the "Morrowind Mods" section, you will get a greater number of more accurate results that way, even if you enter the same thing you did in the normal search).

I never bothered to ask anyone about graphical mods and scoured the net looking for them on my own. This took a very long time and led to my finding several mods that were better than those I had just downloaded. The only way to really know which ones are for you is to search around the internet on your own, but I will try to give you a clearer picture of what's out there.

I'll start by running you through the "essentials" of making Morrowind pretty, and subsequent posts will describe some of the best and most renown graphics mods to date.

START HERE <--Click! (Thanks to Marbred for suggesting this, I should just add a "thanks" section)
This page recently went up courtesy of the mysterious Borrowind (who I hope does not mind my linking the page), and the step-by-step instructions are perfect for a new player looking to make Morrowind look younger than it is. HOWEVER, it is a bit dated and neglects to mention some of your equally good options. Let's go through it one step at a time.

STEPS 1-5: All good, just do as Borrowind says.

STEP 6: There is a more recent version of Timeslip's MGE here with even more efficient code courtesy of the inimitable LizTail. It does offer a distant land feature, and it is hardly "more trouble than it's worth"; the code for distant land generation is so efficient now that you'll be done in minutes, maybe seconds without any mods. The issue Borrowind mentions about distant land lacking a sense of, well, distance when compared to the vanilla fog effect is, in my opinion, non-existent. The fog is not only adjustable, but automatically adjusts with the weather. I highly recommend using distant land, but it's entirely up to your tastes. Further, the plugins mentioned later (Distant Land Fix and Foggy Weather) are in my opinion excessive with the latest MGE build. You can try them to see what I mean. Also, the water is at this point far from "horrid," with new shaders it puts Morrowind (and vanilla Oblivion) water to shame.



You should also keep a few things in mind when tweaking MGE:

1. Morrowind relies on your CPU for almost everything, anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering shouldn't affect your framerate too much with a decent graphics card.
2. Make macros for features you'd like to test or toggle in the macro editor under the "Input" tab. Make sure to map the "take screenshot" function to a key OTHER THAN "Print Screen" (thanks to Psyringe for the tip) since with MGE Morrowind's built-in screenshot function needs to be disabled. If you map it to the Print Screen key, Morrowind displays an annoying error message.
3. Very important: Open up whatever program your graphics card uses for graphics settings (Catalyst for ATI, nView for nVidia, there should be a button on the bottom right of your desktop for it), look for 3D settings, and ensure that any options also offered by MGE are DISABLED. This is to avoid conflicts, which can really slow things down. If you decide to use the option under the "Render State" tab called "Mipmap LOD Bias*," you will need to tell your graphics card to "allow negative LOD bias." Some cards either allow this function by default or do not allow it at all, so don't worry if you don't see this option.
4. You may use the FPS settings under the "Misc" tab, but I prefer to use the Morrowind FPS Optimizer, as it has more options, such as context specific minimum frame rates.

*This option is tough to explain. Suffice it to say a negative bias (-1 or -2 are both good, below that is a bit much) makes the distant land textures appear sharper, but with some pretty bad aliasing on the textures themselves. It looks "noisy" in motion. Some people like it, and you can set a macro to test it and see if you are one of those people.

Protip for those using an LCD display: use MGE to make your Morrowind resolution the screen's native resolution, if your graphics card can handle it (this is usually the maximum resolution your LCD monitor will allow, try right-clicking on your desktop, clicking on "Properties," then the "Settings" tab, and increase your resolution with the slider until your monitor tells you it can't handle it (either with a message or by displaying a distorted image). The point just before your monitor can't handle any more is your natural resolution. You should keep this in mind because if a resolution is too much for your desktop, it's too much for Morrowind.

STEP 7: Not Graphics related, but vital. Do not get Morrowind Script Extender unless you intend to make MWSE mods, it is included with MGE. Note however that there may be a newer version of MWSE than what is included in the most recent version of MGE, and mods that utilize a newer version of MWSE will NOT function properly without the newer version of MWSE. Such mods include MCA Companions Enhanced and Universal Companion Recall Ring (thanks to Fliggerty for the tip!). If you wish to use a different version of the Morrowind Script Extender than the one included with the Morrowind Graphics Extender, MGE provides an option to disable its version. You may get Morrowind Mod Manager if you prefer, but the latest Wrye Mash, linked above, has all that and so much more.

STEP 8: Vaguely graphics related, but also vital. Get the Unofficial Morrowind Patch mentioned, and I also recommend that you get the Unofficial "Unofficial Morrowind Patch" Patch as a REPLACEMENT for the UMP (Thanks tetchy!); it is more extensive and includes the changes in the UMP, though there may be some conflicts with mods that try to change the same information or move the same objects. Vality's Ascadian Isles for example comes with a compatibility patch for the UUMPP. Get the UUMPP if you're okay with dealing with the occasional minor conflict for the sake of a much more polished game without the spelling errors and logical inconsistencies. As for the Unofficial Morrowind Code Patch? You should remember that the "Allow Stealing from KOed NPCs" fix also allows you to start up conversations with hostile NPCs if you sneak up on them. I think it's hilarious, but if that bothers you and you don't think you'll be doing much non-lethal damage, leave this one out.

STEP 9: This is one of the best options for landscape texture replacers, but there are more that I will describe in a later post.

STEP 10: Not graphics related, but very good recommendations. Save these for after you get Morrowind looking fabulous.

STEP 11: All good, but there are other options I will describe in a later post, and I recommend reading those descriptions before settling on any replacers.

• To those who play on a family computer or prefer not to see nudity in the game, BETTER BODIES COMES WITH A PERMANENT UNDERWEAR OPTION. You have no reason not to get Better Bodies.
• Darknut's creature retextures are fantastic, all of his retextures are, and I recommend getting the rest, which you can find here. He is exceedingly thorough, so even if you decide you prefer a specific creature retexture over one of his, you'll still be seeing better textures on pretty much everything. There are other options, and I will desc... You get the idea.
• For the sky, miscellaneous items, and signs, all of Borrowind's suggestions are top-notch. Other options described later.
• As for the Better Books and Book Jackets mods, there are other options, but these ones are so brilliant I can't recommend any others besides Illuminated Books by Connary, but we'll get to Connary in a bit. If I've made a grievous error and missed a great one, please let me know.
• Vality's mods are among the most obvious recommendations one could make, though they may be a bit too much for some computers. About the grass: download it if you want it, but do not activate the ESPs, as the Morrowind Graphics Extender offers animated grass that also has a limited, FPS friendly radius around the player and adjustable density. This feature requires that you have installed the grass mods, but do not activate them in your mod manager. Go to the MGE thread to learn how to implement this feature if you so desire.
• Illuminated Windows is great. This and other lighting mods and tweaks will be described in a later post.
• The rest, though not graphics related, are truly the cream of the crop. Morrowind Comes Alive has a more recent version. Living cities of Vvardenfell is a very major mod, and should be handled with care. It is thick with scripting and apparently does not play nice with versions of Morrowind Comes Alive later than 4.1. As Borrowind says, don't bother with the text patch if you use the Unofficial "Unofficial Morrowind Patch" Patch (UUMPP). Using Where Are All the Birds Going, Water Life, and Morrowind Comes Alive is more likely to hurt your frame rate than anything the Morrowind Graphics Extender does, so try them one at a time and see how things go. If you do get Morrowind Comes Alive, I also advise that you get The Dialogue Request Mod (or it's more recent and much more involved incarnation, NPC Functionality) as some of the new NPCs have a tendency to get in your way in narrow corridors, and Casey Tucker's mods allow you to ask them to move (nudge nudge, Bethesda). If you do get Less Lore, it should go at the top of your mod list.

STEP 12: All good advice. Pay special attention to the section on the Morrowind FPS Optimizer's n-patch settings, especially if your card does not support n-patch.

As for the rest, feel free to peruse Borrowind's great suggestions, I will mention the many more graphics mods that you should not miss in a later post (and please, keep the suggestions and critiques coming!)

Post still being edited for accuracy and completeness...

Replacer lists start here, but...
*****IF YOU THINK I AM TOO LONG WINDED*****
******AND JUST WANT TO START PLAYING******
Here's a quick, easy, mostly painless setup, step by step. Look for mentioned mods in the lists below:

1. Install Morrowind, the two expansions, and the latest patch.
2. READALLREADMESREADALLREADMESREADALLREADMES!!
3. Download, install, and learn to use Wrye Mash.
4. Download and install the Texture Fix and UV Corrected Rocks.
5. Download and install the Morrowind Visual Pack.
6. Download and install Darknut's creature, Armor, and Weapon retextures.
7. Download and install any of Connary's textures that you prefer over what you have so far.
8. Download and install Better Bodies, Better Clothes, Beast Bodies, and Beryl's Head Replacer.
9. Download, install, and set up MGE and the Morrowind FPS Optimizer.
10. READALLREADMESREADALLREADMESREADALLREADMES!!
11. Start playing.

IMPORTANT NOTE:


Initial Setup

These mods are subtle tweaks that are meant to remove the seams in the game's visuals so that you don't have to notice them. These are basically essential.

Slartibartfast's Texture Fix
Nich's UV Corrected Rocks (WIP, but Nich has done an amazing job so far and the effect is a dramatic improvement.)

Large Texture Replacers

There are quite a few complete retextures of Morrowind's environment. Some of the most popular include:

Ayse, Lord Gabryael, Qarl, Raptre, and Zuldazug's Visual Pack (Replaces 853 textures)

An extensive retexture of everything you'll find in an exterior cell classified as land, static, or door. The pack does not try to go for any unique aesthetic, instead favoring a more life-like look.

Skydye and Headless Wonder's Vibrant Morrowind (Replaces 1576 textures and 182 meshes, with an extra 254 textures and 342 meshes requiring the ESP)

An unbelievably huge pack that turns Morrowind into a much more colorful place to look at, not just through new textures, but with options for more foliage all over Vvardenfell and unique light and weather settings. The light and weather settings and the trees are completely optional, but be careful if you decide to use them; the trees have a high chance of conflicting with other mods you may decide to add and the lighting may not work well or at all with some of the lighting mods and settings described in a later post. The pack also includes retextures of miscellaneous items, clothing, and armor which are described in the Read-Me and in one of the comments on the page linked above. The aesthetic can really only be described as vibrant.

IMPORTANT: This pack is not as easy to add new textures to, as it uses an ESP to change many of the objects in the game to reference a different texture and/or mesh. What this means is that if you use the ESP and later decide you want to replace some of the textures in Vibrant Morrowind with some from another mod, you may find that it doesn't work. This is because the new mod either: A)Uses the vanilla Morrowind name for a given texture which, due to the Vibrant Morrowind ESP, is no longer referenced by the object you wish to retexture, or B)The other mod you're trying to use also uses an ESP and you have Vibrant Morrowind loading later. If you don't want to bother with this, but still like some of the textures in Vibrant Morrowind, you can install only the textures that start with "tx_" (there are 1576) into your "\data files\textures\" folder and ignore the ESP completely. This way you're getting only the replacement textures from Vibrant Morrowind with none of the larger changes.

"But what if I want to use the ESP and modify some of the non-standard textures?" you whine? If you find a texture for something that you like better than the one in Vibrant Morrowind, but want to keep the changes of the ESP, copy the second texture to your "\data files\textures\" folder, find the texture that Vibrant Morrowind uses for the object you wish to retexture, copy the name of that texture, delete the texture, and rename your new texture by pasting the one you just copied. Make sense?

Michael 'HelioS' Bennett's Darker Morrowind (Replaces 1726 textures and 5 meshes, with an extra 158 textures requiring the ESP)

Be careful with this one, too, it's much more than a retexture. Darker Morrowind really makes the game darker in every visual sense, and is essentially the opposite of Vibrant Morrowind. Almost everything is retextured, including many of the clothes and armor, and it comes with extensive lighting tweaks. You need to be sure you like the look before you install it, so here are some screenshots, including a comparison with several other texture packs including the first three mentioned here.

IMPORTANT: The same things that apply to Vibrant Morrowind apply here (see the entry above). If you don't want to deal with ESPs, just copy all textures starting with "tx_" and the "_Land_Default.dds" file (that should make 1726) to your "\data files\textures\" folder.

Jarrod's Texture Mod (Replaces 236 textures)

This is an old one from 2004, and at the time it was probably the largest. It's not nearly as extensive as the rest. It is along the same lines as the visual pack, retexturing mainly the exteriors and architecture, but measures less than a third of the Visual Pack's size. I mention it because it's the only other large replacer I know of that I can recommend in good conscience. Jarrod also made an excellent retexture of Solstheim, listed in the next section.

Again, here are some screenshots, comparing several texture packs including the first three mentioned here.

For a more complete list that lacks descriptions, this thread has plenty of links. (Thanks to Ronin for the tip!)
Land, Sky, and Plants

Connary's Landscapes

Connary's textures are brilliant, though each texture pack comes specific to a given region. Consider these mods individually and see if you prefer one to your texture replacer of choice. Think of these as mods for the complete texture replacers.
Bitter Coast, Grazelands, West Gash, and Molag Amur (screenshot here), as well as Caves and Lava. Note that this is not all Connary has to offer and I've only included the most extensive retextures. You can go to this thread for the latest news on his textures.

Vality7's Bitter Coast Mod, Ascadian Isles Mod, and Balmora Mod

The first two mods do two things: replace existing tree meshes for the Bitter Coast and Ascadian Isles regions and add more trees to those regions. The new trees are similar to the SpeedTree tech, simulating a lot of leaves with several 2-dimensional planes, and you get these with or without the ESP. The Balmora mod makes Balmora look more like it is part of the Bitter Coast--Not technically lore friendly since Balmora is in West Gash, but veeeery pretty.

Max's Vivid Morrowind Repaint

47 new high-res textures for the land and roads. Some of these look very, very nice. Here are some screenshots to show you just how nice that is.

On Solstheim

Specifically for Solstheim, Slartibartfast created the amazing Bloodmoon Landscape Overhaul.

If you prefer just a texture replacer for Solstheim without the additional meshes and weather effects added by Slartibartfast's mod, Jarrod's Bloodmoon Texture Pack is another excellent choice.

Vality offers a new mesh for the Ice Caverns that won't replace your textures, but will make them shinier and more noticeable.

The skies of Morrowind have three good makeovers that I am aware of:

3vil l33t's Enhanced Sky
starwarsguy9875's Skies
Thann's Better Sky

Architecture

All of the major packs above include textures for at least the exteriors of architecture in the game, but some have made really nice textures for specific types of architecture that you may prefer, including:

Connary's Architecture

Connary strikes again. You'll be seeing this name a lot when talking about textures, in case you hadn't noticed. If you like his brilliant landscape textures, I have no doubt that you'll love these, too. So far he has retextured the Imperial forts and houses and Dunmer Strongholds, along with Hlaalu, Redoran, Telvanni, Velothi, Indoril, Dwemer, and Daedric (1, 2) architecture. Note that this is not all Connary has to offer and I've only included the most extensive retextures. You can go to this thread for the latest news on his textures.

Daedric

If you're looking for a complete departure from the original Daedric look that doesn't lack in quality, I reccommend Shannon's more terrestrial variation.

Dwemer Ruins

Darknut also strikes again with his own variation on the Dwemer Ruins, which are more faithful to the original.

Westly, too, offers a Dwemer Ruins variant, and it's one of my favorite texture packs. It's different than the originals, but only in all the best ways. The floors for one look a lot less painful.

HedgeHog-12, a name you'll see mainly in the Armor section, has made a retexture of the Dwemer ruins with his usual bump and reflect maps in all the right places.

Hlaalu

Keldyn offers up a clean, gravel-tempered concrete look for House Hlaalu

Vality7 has created a retexture of the Hlaalu architecture. The textures are part of Vality's Balmora Mod, but I like them so much I use them with or without it.

Imperial

Jarrod adds a little age to Imperial garrisons with new textures with moss and vines growing in the cracks of the walls.

Indoril

Clavis brings a compelling color scheme of tan, brown, and turquoise to Mournhold.

Plangkeye shows those who thought Mournhold couldn't look any more decadent that buildings made entirely of green marble can send an even more powerful message to the poor, huddled masses: "No, seriously, we are so much wealthier than you, you have no idea. Watch us make coasters out of ebony and rubies just because we can."

Redoran

Of course it would be remiss of me not to mention my personal favorite, Pekkas's Redoran Wood Replacer, a full Redoran architecture retexture.

Telvanni

For the Telvanni lover in all of us are the ever-popular Hi-Res Telvanni Textures created by Plangkeye. These are hi-res textures that remain faithful to the original. Even better, Plangkeye just finished a mod that fixes the seams and other issues with the Telvanni architecture.

Velothi

Calvis shows us what Vivec would look like with more grey.

Vagabond Angel crafts a Vivec made out of what looks like fired sand and white marble for an interesting rainbow effect.

And the Rest

Calvis has her own take on the Dunmer Strongholds tha makes them look a little less dreary and a little more livable.

Sotha Sil get's some better looking equipment courtesy of Sandman101.

As with all things mod related, your options are effectively limitless. If you feel the need for something different or don't like what's offered here, then you're best bet is to search the seedy depths of the internet yourself!

Post still being edited for accuracy and completeness...
Characters
Warning: Some of the links listed here contain visions of loveliness depictions of nudity. I will warn you with a red asterisk * which links those are.

This section will give you links to mods with which you can customize your appearance and that of the game's NPCs, as well as a number of tips for how to make the best use of them and the advantages and disadvantages of each one. I will not be listing every single hair and head pack, the main purpose of this section is to bring the appearance of the humanoid life in the game up to a more modern standard. For a list of head and hair mods I suggest you look through Yacoby and Galahaut's Face and Hair List, linked at the top of the original post.

Better Bodies 2.2

This mod is the source of those smooth bodies you make have seen in screenshots, it replaces the bodies of all of the non-beast races. Perhaps you think you'll never be walking around naked and have no need of this, but remember that many NPCs have something against clothing. Perhaps you play on a family computer or prefer not to see naked people (especially Nords) walking around, and believe you must forego this mod. Not so, as the mod comes with a permanent underwear option. This mod also unlocks a world of custom clothing mods for you to really give your character a unique look (also make sure to get Better Clothes, which modifies most of the original game's clothing to fit the Better Bodies mesh). There is no good, sane reason not to get this.

There have also been retextures of these meshes.

Westly created his Fit Body Textures to go along with his head packs (I know, I know, you see those screenshots and now you have to know where to get his headpacks, in a second I promise).

Westly again (man, don't you just love this guy?) took up the unfinished work of Cappucine and released new Hi-Res Female Textures for Better Bodies*.

But what about our Khajiit and Argonian friends? There are several options for this, all of them impressive. This may be a tough choice to make.

Alien Slof created her Better Beasts* mod quite some time ago (fair warning: Alien Slof is not a modest person, she does not offer a censored version and her site is a celebration of the human (male) figure (and H.R. Geiger), so do not click on that link if this bothers you). She used the Better Bodies meshes and applied them to the beasts, then painted several custom skins and even made custom heads! This creates an aesthetic very consistent with Better Bodies. She also made a version of the female Argonians without mammalian mammaries, and another version of the beasts with the humanoid animations. Very sad update: Much to the dismay of her numerous fans, myself definitely included, AlienSlof has decided to remove all of her mods, and has asked that they not be distributed by anyone else. I disagree with her choice to remove the mods and her desire to stop all circulation of said, but in accordance with her wishes I will not share any of her mods that I have, so do not ask. For those of you that missed the boat, I'm sorry--You missed a great boat.

LizTail offers another fantastic variation in Beast Bodies, also fully compatible with Better Bodies clothing. This mod does come with a de-genitaled version for those who prefer not to see a Khajiit's dangly parts, and also includes a version with the humanoid animations instead of beast ones, as with Slof's mod if you also get LizTail's Animation Replacer (found on the site); the difference is that LizTail's version includes animated, instead of just physiqued, tails.

I've always had a fondness for Sabregirl's work, and you'll find her take on beasts here, with both censored and uncensored versions, new skins, and an optional download for new faces. The textures aren't has hi-res as the other options here, but SG has put a lot of care into this one. It's another excellent option.

What about the faces? Your options here are countless, and which faces you want to use for your character are really up to you, so I recommend that you search the face and hair list linked in the OP. I will tell you about the best head replacers, all of which add their faces to your options for character creation anyway, but the player-only head packs are for you do find through the links provided in the OP (with the exception of Westly's head packs, because I promised ). Your options include:

Rhedd, Allerleirauh, Gorg, Arathrax, Motoki, ecc. Better Heads

An old standard. This pack replaces the heads and hair of all the NPCs in the game with sexy new ones made by the modding community. Of particular note are Rhedd's heads, which you will see in just about every head-replacer out there. Rhedd was a particularly talented artist with an uncanny ability to design and create beautiful heads that were unique, interesting, and had a lower polycount than the original heads. He's disappeared from the seedy slums of the internet, but thankfully his work has survived. Whenever you use a headpack, give thanks to old Rhedd. In fact, just add a credit to him to every link listed here. The heads included here work well with Better Bodies, as the name would suggest, and the choices are all made with the original appearance of the character in mind. Caius Cosades still looks like Caius Cosades, but moreso.

Beryl's Head Replacer

I've tried to remain neutral in this guide, but I think I'd be more helpful here by telling you that this is the one that I use, and I have very good resons for that. Beryl was kind enough to take what the Better Heads mod did and add even more faces and hairstyles from Emma, Don Salus, Qarl, Harvester, Khalazza, and Opethgirlie. Not only that, Beryl went ahead and altered the heads of the new NPCs found in the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansion packs. Beryl's choices here are spot on, and I have a preference for it that I am trying as hard as I can to force onto you.

Telesphoros's Vvardenfell Visages

Notable for being the only head replacer on this list that replaces the original Morrowind meshes and textures entirely, meaning you don't need an .esp file. It also means you'll never see the original faces again, even if they're referenced by another mod and conflicts just won't happen. It includes the Better Heads collection and then some.

Leeloo's Changing Faces

Leeloo went into this project with tender loving care and apparently complete insanity. Every face has been hand-picked from the mountain of custom faces made by the modding community to be just right for each NPC, and you'll almost never run into twins, and it's even more extensive (and recent) than Beryl's head replacer. It is a beautiful thing, so why do I recommend Beryl's more strongly than this one? In my opinion, it's a matter of too many ingredients spoiling the pot (is that the right expression?); the heads all look good on their own, but put them all together and there's a certain lack of consistency that can be a bit jarring. Plenty of people disagree with me, though, and the only way to really know if you're one of them is to try it for yourself. Either way, this is an excellent choice. Leeloo also offers a plugin that adds new unique faces to vampires, Sixth House dreamers, and someone else. If you don't want spoilers about that someone else, here's the direct link, and don't read the description of the Read-Me (DO read the installation instructions and conflicts section, always).

THE Team's THE Morrowind NPC Makeover

This one goes even further than Leeloo's Changing Faces. Each NPC not only has a unique head, each head has been custom made for that NPC specifically, so you won't see any clones. "That sounds great!" says I, upon hearing this. And it is indeed great, but for one thing: the modders took a lot of artistic liscence with the changes, and some of these changes may not be to your taste. Fortunately, the link above includes plenty of screenshots, so you can look over the changes and decide whether or not it's for you. Keep in mind that there are some mods included in this one that add scripts to many NPCs, so you should be very careful to watch for conflicts.

Westly's Master Head Pack, as promised.

Yeah, I'll let those images speak for themselves. Not a replacer, but who cares?

Finally, there are some NPCs who are actually classfied as creatures, and they have their own makeovers. These ones are spoileriffic, and I regretted not heeding the spoiler warnings of those who linked to them. I advise you not to make the same mistake I did, but I can't stop you from clicking anyway, and these really can't be missed.

There are replacers for Vivec (1, 2, 3), Almalexia (1, 2, 3, and yet another coming soon!), and Azura (1, 2)

Creatures
This section includes links to some of the best retextures for both friendly and hostile creatures, from Guars to Ash Vampires. This section does not include mods that add new creatures or adjust the behavior of existing ones. Most of these do not require a plugin, but I will warn you if there are any that do.

DarkNut's Creature Textures for Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon with Addendum.

DarkNut took the liberty of retexturing nearly every creature in the game. Using the original textures as a base, he made new textures with higher resolution that still look like the originals. He offers two options: 512x512 or 1024x1024, along with screenshots depicting each choice and the originals. Just choose whichever one you think your computer can handle. NOTE: DarkNut mentions this in the link, but it bears repeating: in the original Morrowind pack you will need to delete a texture called "tx_kwama_foragerspit.dds" from the "\Morrowind\Data Files\Textures\" folder or you will receive an error when you play the game.

I start with DarkNut's textures because they are the most complete and least painful to install, as the textures come in multi-creature packs instead of individual ones. Even if some of these aren't to your taste, I reccommend installing all of them, that way you'll get better textures all around and can replace the ones you don't like with other, more specific retextures.

DarkNut's Unique Ash Vampires.

In Vanilla Morrowind, all of the uniquely-named Ash Vampires lacked unique appearances. This retexture addresses that.

Connary's Creature Retextures.

Rather than list each creature Connary has retextured, I'll let you peruse the thread linked above. It includes screenshots and download links for all of them. Keep checking back to see what progress Connary has made. My personal favorites are his Guar (I really reccommend it above all other Guar retextures, it's that good) and his Kwama. However, the best reccommendation I can make is that you look at the screenshots and judge for yourself. Note that if you cannot see the images in the PhotoBucket links on that page, the downloads include screenshots and are fairly small.

HedgeHog-12's Better Creatures.

There are a few things you should know about this Russian virtuoso's mods. First of all, he tends to use BSAs, so make sure you have BSAreg (linked in the OP) if you plan on using them. If there is an ESP (as is the case with all of these creature retextures), it will follow Russian naming conventions, and while it may be a pain you will likely need to use the Enchanted Editor to change some "FNAM" or "CNAM" entries from Russian to English, using Morrowind.esp as a reference (unless you have the same Cyrillic font used in the Russian version of Windows, the problem entries will look like random gibberish WHICH AIN'T MUCH DIFFERENT FROM THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET ANYWAY HA HA. Sorry, sorry, I don't really mean that). If this is a problem for you, but you really want these mods, PM me and I'll see if I can walk you through the process.

An important note about the screenshots: for some reason, all of the screenshots Hedgehog-12 has posted of his creatures and armor are distorted, making them look a lot wider than they are. This is more obvious in the armor screenshots, but keep in mind that they don't make everything fatter (the dremora's for example, don't look quite the same in game as they do in the screenshots).

Anyway, The creatures Hedgehog has retextured so far include: Atronachs, Clannfears, Daedroths, Dremora, Golden Saints, Hungers, Kwama, Rats, Scamps, The Undead, and Winged Twilights. Hedgehog-12 even went so far as to give summoned creatures and unique versions of the standard creatures their own appearances. As such these mods all require ESPs and all use BSAs. Note that the meshes and textures are high-poly and high-res, respectively, and Hedgehog-12 often uses several texture maps for additional effects, these mods may slaughter weaker computers.

Neoptolemus's Unique Creatures.

This gives creatures that have unique names but share another creature's look unique appearances. Every one of the additions are, in my opinion, excellent and consistent with the game's look, but not all of the changes are included in those screenshots, so you may want to test this one before you commit to it. This requires an ESP, and as Neoptolemus says may conflict with other mods that modify the same creatures in any way and also use an ESP to do it.

Psymoniser and Westly's Better Bodies Golden Saints.

Psymoniser and Westly = OHMYGODHOLYCRAPYES.
Ahem, sorry about that. This replacer uses the meshes of Westly's Golden Saint race to make the Golden Saints look more natural, but still faithful to the original. Quite a feat.

Alan's Stiltstrider Retexture.

Alan took a different approach to the Stiltstriders, making them look more like rocks, only a fff8 lso like bronze statues... Bronze, craggy statues. It's an interesting effect, and the link above includes screenshots.

There are a few creature replacers that I remember using but don't remember the name or location of. If I have missed some good ones, someone please let me know.

I see why you'd want to make such a thread, yet as a significant portion of the information you provide consists in your personal recommendations rather than generic advice, I don't think the title is really justified.

Best,

Swiveller

Armor and Weapons

This list includes only texture and mesh replacers for the standard Weapons and armor, no mods adding additional weapons and armor are included. I also try to avoid mods in which the change is mostly stylistic rather than being a marked improvement (like a pallete change), but I do not consider this a rule. Some mods on here are just slight changes rather than improvements, and these were included because they are fairly extensive or a large enough number of people really do consider them improvements (see the first mod on the list, for example).

Plangkeye's Pluginless NoGlow

If you, like so many others, loathe the "plastic-wrap" glow on enchanted weapons, this is your absolute best choice to get rid of it. No-Glo Revisited and Improved No Glow, two mods that do the same thing, both require ESPs and have some limitations and issues. This is painless, plugin-less, conflict-free, and easy to uninstall without affecting your save if you so desire. While we're on the subject of Plangkeye, she also made a replacement for the Dagger of Symmachus.

Darknut's Little Weapons Mod Complete and Unique Weapon Redesigns

For the weapons, Darknut went into a bit more detail than usual, going as far as to give some of them new meshes as well as textures, still thorough, still pluginless. As a result this mod is very slightly less faithful to the original designs, but I think you'll agree that most every change is an improvement, and you can see side-by-side comparisons of the old and the new in the screenshots included in the link. The Umbra redesign included in this mod is hands-down my favorite Umbra replacer.

However, apparently still not satisfied with the work he's already done, Darknut created alternate replacers for the Adamantium Claymore, the Ice Blade of the Monarch, and Umbra. Outstanding.

Darknut's Armor Retextures (512x512 and 1024x1024)

If you've been paying attention to what I've been saying about Darknut's mods, you know the routine: this mod is extensive, faithful to the originals, and pluginless. Even if you don't like some of the textures, start with this as a base for a painless installation and thorough upgrades.

HedgeHog-12's Better Armor and Weapons

There are a few things you should know about this Russian virtuoso's mods. First of all, he tends to use BSAs, so make sure you have BSAreg (linked in the OP) if you plan on using them. If there is an ESP (as is the case with all of these retextures), it will follow Russian naming conventions, and while it may be a pain you will likely need to use the Enchanted Editor to change some "FNAM" or "WNAM" entries from Russian to English, using Morrowind.esp as a reference (unless you have the same Cyrillic font used in the Russian version of Windows, the problem entries will look like random gibberish WHICH AIN'T MUCH DIFFERENT FROM THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET ANYWAY HA HA. Sorry, sorry, I don't really mean that). If this is a problem for you, but you really want these mods, PM me and I'll see if I can walk you through the process.

An important note about the screenshots: for some reason, all of the screenshots Hedgehog-12 has posted of his creatures and armor are distorted, making them look a lot wider than they are. This is more obvious in the armor screenshots, but keep in mind that they don't make everything fatter (the imperial armor, for example, doesn't look quite the same in game as it does in the screenshots).

HedgeHog-12 is arguably most well known for his redesigns of armor. They are known for being graphics intensive, the always extensive bump and reflection mapping, and for being a major stylistic departure from the original designs, but most of all they are known for being of extraordinarily high quality. So far he has redone the Bone (and esp fixed for the English version courtesy Painkiller_rider), Chitin, Daedric, Dwemer, Ebony, Glass (you'll need to translate this one with the proceedure described above), Imperial, Indoril (and esp fixed for the English version courtesy Painkiller_rider), Iron, Leather (you'll need to translate this one, too), Orcish, Steel, and Templar armors and the Daedric (need to translate), Dwemer(ditto), and Imperial weapons. Many people, myself included, find some of the changes to be too much, but don't let one mod you don't like dissuade you from trying the others--every one is unique.

NOTE: HedgeHog-12 has in the past expressed dissatisfaction with his Daedric Armor and is giving it another shot. The new and much improved version should be available soon, and he's already uploaded images of his progress. Also, about the bonemold mod: in the screenshots you can clearly see the eyes of the person wearing the armor through the eye slit in the helmet, but it seems some head replacers do not cooperate with this feature. I use Beryl's Head Replacer and I get people with invisible heads while using HedgeHog-12's Bonemold replacer, if anyone else is experiencing this problem please let me know.

Finally, some of these mods change more than just the appearance of armor. Please read this thread thoroughly to understand what you are getting into with these mods.

Orphier's Weapon Replacements

(These all require ESPs)
Orphier is an unfortunate man: born in the wrong era for his kind much like H.P. Lovecraft, a time in which melee weaponry of even the decorative variety has been supplanted by guns as the killing tool of choice. Fortunately for Orphier, and even more fortunately for us, he's found an outlet for his genius in modding. Orphier has made a number of from-scratch, lovingly crafted redesigns of the game's unique weapons. My words cannot do them justice, so I leave the screenshots to speak for themselves.

Thus far Orphier has redeisigned Chrysamere, the Fang of Haynekhtnamet, the Fork of Horripilation, the Ice Blade of the Monarch, SkullCrusher, Spirit Eater, and Umbra.

Reavance's Better Daedric Armor for Better Bodies

(This requires an ESP)
Creating a mesh from scratch is a frustrating but rewarding process. Getting one mesh to look good when overlapping another mesh is just an excersize in pain, especially when both of thes meshes have to move together. Bethesda's solution was to make the bodies of characters segmented instead of physiqued (meaning the mesh deforms with the movement of its skeleton) which made the idea of mixing-and-matching armor-types easy since body-parts can just be turned invisible and replaced by a piece of armor. The problem with this is that when the seamless Better Bodies meshes have certain parts "switched off" as it were, the armor that replaces that body-part might not cover the whole limb.

Enter Reavance with the patience and moxie (that's an American word meaning "gusto" for all you European types) to tweak the Daedric armor to properly fit the BB meshes. With this mod, wearing Daedric armor will no longer lead to Invisible Elbow Syndrome. You won't notice the effects, and that is exactly the point.

GhostNull's Glowing Daedric Weapons and Armor

(This requires an ESP)
If you were unaware, game lore describes Daedric weapons and armor as ebony equipment with the soul of a Daedra forcefully bound to it. GhostNull's mods add a subtle glowing effect that really supplements the sense that within Daedric equipment lies the consciousness of a Daedra. Also, it looks cool.

As GhostNull says in the readme, you can use this mod with any texture replacer for the Daedric equipment as long as you install the textures after this mod. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE MODS THAT USE AN ESP! You cannot use this with Reavance's mod or Hedgehog-12's Daedric armor, you must choose one.

GhostNull's Particle Arrow Replacer

This is my favorite of GhostNull's offerings. This mod replaces all of the enchanted or otherwise special arrows in the game with new meshes that sport fantastic-looking particle effects. The effects are not overdone, but classy, subtle, and framerate-friendly. Fire arrows look like they have tips that are actually alight, for example. Ghostnull didn't stop there, though, the mod includes the official Bethesda "Area-of-Effect Arrows" plugin with more of the GhostNull touch. Skip the official plugin and grab this excellent addition to the game.

Khan Raider's Oriental Weapons Pack

A pack that completely changes the look of, Katanas, Dai-Katanas (AKA "Scythes" when enchanted), Wakizashis, and Tantos giving them better meshes and sharper textures. These new meshes give the blades the more recent sori shape as opposed to the the chokuto sugata seen in the original meshes, for you Japanophile nerds who know what that means; for those that don't, it means they now have a slight curve. Most importantly, they look absolutely beautiful. Just get this, trust me.

millinghordesman's Clear Glass Equipment

It is what it sounds like.

Jeremy McGuinn's Divine Domina 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and Darknut's Retexture

WARNING: I couldn't avoid voicing some strong opinions on this one in my description of this mod, so you may wish to click on the links to get a taste before you read my view of it.

To be honest, I can't personally endorse this one, but it is very popular and extensive. The mods use the mesh for the Domina armor from Bethesda's official "LeFemm" add-on as a replacement for every standard armor in the game. That is, I think, the biggest problem with it: every armor looks very similar despite the great pains taken to give them each a unique look. My personal issue with it is that I just don't like the Domina mesh, I think it looks like a (very uncomfortable) skin-tight outfit that someone painted to look like armor. My opinion has nothing to do with Jeremy's textures, they're very well done and consistent with the originals (in fact, seek out his custom armors, they are excellent). The mod itself is of high quality, I wouldn't link to it otherwise.

If you like the Domina mesh (the link to Darknut's retextures has the clearest pictures of what you'll end up with) as many do, then ignore me completely and enjoy, just keep in mind that it replaces more that just the curiasses and you do have another option, which is...

Avenger's Female Armor

Much more subtle than Divine Domina. The meshes in this mod weren't made to look skin-tight, as the Domina mesh was, they were simply made to look like armor that is more comfortable for a woman to wear. A few meshes are reused several times, but there is more variety. If you plan to use a mod that adds unique female versions of armor, I believe this is your best choice.

Clothes and Miscellanea

This section includes mods that replace the original clothing in the game, signs, things you can pick up, and other miscellanea. It does not include mods that add content unless said mods also replace existing content. There are so many little things in the game that have been retextured, and I don't intend to cover all of them. If you want more, Planet Elder Scrolls and TESNexus are there for you.

Please note that both Vibrant Morrowind and Darker Morrowind include many replacers for these objects, some of which borrow from the ones listed here. You can always pick and choose retextures you like from any mod by searching through them with programs like InfranView for textures and NifSkope for Meshes (which is true for any replacer that doesn't use an ESP file).

Most of the clothing mods you'll find add new clothing rather than replace the standard clothes (hint: search for "Keazen" and "Korana"). However, you still have a few options.

CanadianIce and NoLiv created theirModular Robe Replacer, each providing their own take on every robe in the game and letting you decide which one you prefer. Both offerings are an immense improvement on the originals, and installation is easy. I really recommend that you get this.

NelothsMouth created sharper clothing textures which provide a much needed upgrade to the clothing in the game. The folds in particular look much better. Note that robes are included, so if you want to use CanadianIce and NoLiv's robe replacers with this you should install this one first.

There are more, which I hope to write up soon. Darknut, for one, is working on a replacer of his own, and there are some smaller replacers of high quality that are easy to miss if you don't know where to look, so look back here later.

"Miscellanea" is a vague grouping, and as such you have quite a few options.
Daleth's Book Jackets

For Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon, all of which require ESPs. Not only are these new book textures an enourmous improvement over the originals, each book has a clearly legible title on the texture itself.

William the Taffer's Better Books

Like the above, but without the need for an ESP. It covers some that Book Jackets does not, so you can use both. If you decide to use the optional ESP included with this and Book Jackets, make sure this one loads after Book Jackets.

Connary's Illuminated Books

With this mod Connary redesigned the Morrowind books to look like hand-bound, medieval tomes...

Connary's Elder Scrolls

...This for the scrolls...

Connary's Wood Furniture

...And wooden furniture...

Connary's Bed Fabrics

...Beds...

Connary'sCeramic Plates

...Plates...

Connary's Mixed Pottery

...And pottery (no, the ceramic plates mod is not included in this one).

Qarl's Misc Items Replacer

Qarl does very good work, and this mod is a good place to start for Misc Item replacers.

Qarl's Bottle Replacer

Bottles now have transparency and reflect maps, some even have liquid in them.

Qarl's Flask Replacer

Replacers for flasks found in the game, the cleanest, shiniest flasks you'll ever see.

GhostNull's Silverware Enhancer

Very well done. The silverware has reflect maps, but used in a subtle way that looks more like specular maps. One of the best replacers you'll find.

Astion's Oblivion Septims

Like the Oblivion mod of the same purpose, this replaces in game coinage with meshes based on the collector's coin released with the special edition of Oblivion. The vanilla gold is, let's be honest, terrible, so this should be a no-brainer.

NelothsMouth and Infectious Moon's Soulgem Replacer

Infectious Moon started with NelothsMouth's soulgem replacer (which I'm having difficulty locating) and altered the textures to be closer to the original textures. High-res textures and reflect maps abound.

Earth Wyrm's Souly Soulgems

What can I say? Soulgems look better with this mod. Here's a screenshot.

More forthcoming, I hope.

Lighting

You'll have to face a few facts before you try to alter the lighting in Morrowind. There's only so much that can be done with mods, as they must work with the game's engine, and that engine is about 6 or 7 years old. Many of the lighting effects seen in modern games are accomplished with post-process shaders or functions (i.e. plane/vector functions and projection geometry, critical to getting great lighting effects like real time shadows and crepsucular rays) not availible in the Morrowind engine. Many of these effects can be achieved with external programs like MGE or the ebn series, but many of these effects are experimental or even just theoretical, and most are very taxing on your system's resources. Some utterly insane and skilled artists are finding ways to make effects like crepsucular rays and ambient occlusion (relative to the light source, occlusion relative to the viewer is already possible with the ebn series) a possibility in Morrowind, but getting involved in this sort of thing means getting sucked into the world of modding, and isn't conducive to getting into the game itself. Of course, once one of the open-source Morrowind projects is completed, that may well change.

So let's start with what can be done with the engine on its own, without MGE or the ebn series.

Before getting into lighting mods, I need to explain the light settings in the .ini file (Morrowind.ini, found in your main Morrowind folder). The most control you'll get over the light in the .ini is under the "[LightAttenuation]" settings, explained in detail here. Some mods ask you to adjust these settings, so for those who wish to know I will try to explain them. Those who do not care can scroll down until they see this:

I use settings suggested by an Elder Scrolls Forum member here (6th post) which are:

I don't know his reasons for using a fibonacci ratio for the constant (math nerd) and the quadratic value of 2.619 mystifies me (I assume it's just personal preference), but his reasons for using all three attenuation methods are very good. Allow me to explain in detail. Grab a graphing calculator (a search on google for "graphing calculator" will help you there).

The equation he presents for attenuation in his post is merely how the Morrowind engine crunches the numbers, for our purposes a simplified equation that ignores the radius variable will do. With the default settings, attenuation is linear only, or 1/x (meaning distance and brightness have an inverse relationship). With Jeoshua's values, the equation for attenuation would be 1/(2.619x^2+x+0.382) Try entering both into your calculator and see what you get (you only care about positive values, ignore the left side of the graph). You'll notice a few things...

• The default settings allow the Y value (the light intensity) to increase endlessly while the custom settings cap it at (as Jeoshua says) phi^2 (like I said, math nerd).
• The transition from bright (high Y values) to dim (low Y values) is more gradual with the custom settings. That is, at the beginning of the curve the change between Y values between two X (distance) values is greater with the default settings.
• The light with the default settings extends over a greater distance. In other words, the light attenuates more slowly.

All very interesting, but the real questions are "Why?" and "How do I tweak it?"

The answer lies in understanding what you are looking at, which is a simple polynomial that anyone with a decent grasp on algebra can understand: ax^2+bx+c If you know your graphs, you already know what effect altering each value (a, b, c) will have, but let me spell it out in terms relevant to Morrowind.

Altering a (QuadraticValue) will make the transition between bright and dim more or less gradual; higher values make it more sudden, lower values make it more gradual. Decreasing b (LinearValue) will cause the light near the light source to maintain more brightness before making a sudden transition to dimmer light (there isn't really any reason to raise the LinearValue above one). Altering c (ConstantValue) will either raise or lower the brightness cap; lower values mean a higher cap with 0 meaning no cap, and if you wish you can try lowering the ConstantValue until you start seeing oversaturation, which usually means the game is trying to portray a level of brightness too high for your monitor and is the reason Jeoshua uses constant attenuation in the first place. So play around with the values on your calculator to get a visual for what your tweaks would do.



Now, onto the Mods!

Sensei's The Lighting Mod

If you want one mod that will just make the lighting in Morrowind look better, this is the mod for you. I cannot overstate the immensity of what Sensei set out to do with this mod. First, he had to alter the ambient light and sunlight settings for every cell in the game, and then he had to alter the many settings for each light in the game. It was a ridiculously huge project, but the results are fantastic.

In a general sense the mod makes places without light sources dark, as one would expect. This means that a room is lit not by the ambient settings of the cell, but by the candles and torches within the room itself. I could spend another paragraph describing the level of awesomeness such a change can achieve, and how it makes Morrowind look the way it should have looked to begin with, but I'm sure the reader already understands why this mod is a must-have.

What I do need to explain is that the mod must be loaded last and it comes in two flavors: complete and modular. The complete version includes every change the mod offers, which has the potential for conflict with other mods. Necessities of Morrwind users, using this mod and NoM together means fires won't let you cook on them anymore, but fear not! It is safe to merge this mod and NoM using TESTool--in fact, I made a merged-objects ESP specifically for these two mods. This allows you to keep the effects of the NoM fires and the settings of TLM fires. Just make sure that the merged-objects ESP loads after both mods.

What this comes down to is that you must read the ReadMe thoroughly. And don't forget to bring plenty of torches.

Spuzzum's Interior Daylight

This mod is essential if you use TLM. Spuzzum went to great lengths to make not just coded sunlight with an on/off switch, but an entire sunlight system that changes the intensity and brightness of sunlight pouring into a window based on the time of day.

Dark Angel's Illuminated Windows

Now this is a mod that makes Morrowind come alive without as much heavy processing as Morrowind Comes Alive or Children of Vvardenfell. Windows at night will glow with flickering light, suggestng movement inside buildings, and windows indoors will grow brighter during the day. One may wonder if it is okay to use this with the other two mods listed above, or even whether it would make much of a difference. Not only can this, TLM, and Interior Daylight all be used together, I highly recommend it. The interior lighting may seem redundant with Spuzzum's mod, but this mod focuses more on lighting the windows themselves, while Spuzzum's focuses on lighting the interior of a building. The exterior lighting effects this adds are also very nice, especially those on Solstheim.

But what about bloom? HDR? Friend, if you really want to make a game as old as Morrowind wow you with these kinds of effects, look for information on the Morrowind Graphics Extender and the ebn series and prepare for a very long journey into the teeming underbelly of Morrowind modding. This thread will get you started. Bloom and HDR are easy enough to get with MGE and a good shader if you have a system that can handle it, but I don't, so my knowledge ends here and I can't help you.

A final note: I have never beaten Morrowind. Ever. Every time I try I get so absorbed in the modding community that I never find the time. Mods are great, but get too involved and you'll forget there was ever a game to be played. Once you like how the game looks, just play it. And let me know how it is.

Those who start threads asking for "the best graphics mods" are asking for just that: personal recommendations.

The purpose of this thread is to not only provide links to graphics mods that are A)expansive, for ease of installation and B)highly popular and often recommended, but to warn new players of the many pitfalls involved in installing mods. This is especially important with something like MGE. I hope to make the process of setting up MGE in particular much less mystifying. You'll notice that I do not dictate what settings are "good" or "bad," I am simply trying to explain them so that players can make an informed decision about the most basic functions of MGE without spending all day researching it.

Furthermore, there are many top-notch mods that satisfy conditions A and B that are easy to miss if you don't know where to look. I seek to help those looking for only graphical improvement.

However, if you consider something I wrote to be false or misleading, please let me know what so that I can correct it.

Certainly not misleading. I just don't think you should make personal recommendations in a general introduction. Personal websites are much more fit for that kind of purpose.

Just to be clear: I do not think there is anything wrong with giving examples or providing links to popular mods.

Best,

Swiveller

I'm just trying to help. If it no one finds it helpful I'll just delete it or let it die. If you mean the line about Mash at the start... That's not an opinion, that's just a fact.

I think there can never be enough guides to help people making the best out of their Morrowind, or returning to it in the first place. BramblesMarlow, I'm curious which mods you will list, especially because you said you're basing them on your own research and not just on second-hand ino from various lists.

Mr. Swiveller, I may be misunderstanding your point, but I can't really see a connection between your criticism and the posts of the OP. If you're talking about objectivity in guides vs. personal opinion, then (imho) there are *much* more worthy targets then the OP. After all, he *does* clearly state which parts of his recommendations are opinion, and I also think that he's orrect in saying that opinions are what the readers of this guide will be after. Perhaps you just misread something?

Edit: Also, just or the record, imho every person who invests the time and effort to write a guide to help other people has a right to propagate his own opinions a bit. It just shouldn't get in the way of the guide and its purpose. Reading how careful BramblesMarlow worded his statements in the OP, I'm not worried about that at all.

Actually, I think quite a few people find this type of thread useful.



No disagreement there.



I don't want to blow this out of proportion, but I don't think I misread anything. I just don't think the title fits the actual topic. That's all.

Best,

Swiveller

Hmm, I still fail to see why - but as you said, let's not blow it out of proportions, so I guess we'll just agree to disagree on this.

BramblesMarlow:

Thanks for the information about the "Allow negative LOD bias" setting. I was not aware of that, and I'll update the MGE documentation with the respective info.

Also, I notice that you recommend this:

As outlined in this small guide, I wouldn't recommend the PrintScreen button due to the error message caused by pressing it.

There are other parts of the MGE documentation which may be worth a link (several guides, including one for distant land creation, troubleshooting help, etc.) - feel free to link to anything you find useful in the context of your guide. If you think that some page could be *more* useful than it currently is, just write down your suggestions, and I'll see whether I can update the respective page.

Just a quick heads up here...

UUMPP includes all of the changes and supersedes UMP - maybe clarify that and use the UUMPP instead.

It's also possible to converse with hostiles during combat if you can position the PC where the hostile stops pursuing (i.e. hover above them thru levitation). Even more odd than sneaking up and conversing.

Whoo, sorry about taking 24 hours to complete the first section, my Valentine's day was busy.


I don't know what you mean, but it looks like it's too late now. The forums won't let me change the title.

I've also found that some cards do not allow this, while others don't have an option for it and allow this by default. However, it seems many modern cards have this as an option so it is good to know for those who want to use this setting.

Of course! I've changed it, thanks for catching that.

And as for the MGE guide, I'm still reading through it myself. I fear that if I add too much to the OP it would defeat the purpose, which is to expedite the graphical upgrade process for the ever-common "new player looking for graphics mods." I'll gladly accept your offer if I decide something more need to be said, though.

Thanks a lot for catching that. It is very important to mention that as I didn't realize it at first myself.

Ha! I've noticed that, too! I really like it, actually, it's kind of like you're messing with their heads by sneaking around and pausing to ask them how they're doing.

continu your hard work I find this very usefull

Ooh, I'm glad to hear it!

I realized that I still don't have enough information for this, so I've been testing all of the mods I plan to link so as to provide more information on them. I'll be updating the character and creature section soon after a little more testing.

Just looking for a little clarification... Are these textures taken from other texture pack or modder resources and combined, or are they unique textures made by the french community? Is the resolution of these textures as high as the Visual Packs?

I'm just wondering to stop myself from installing redundant replacers.

Has anyone here tried this pack yet, and how does it hold up to the Visual Packs?

Thanks

I need to clarify this point somewhat; I would hope you also add this info to the bullet point I quoted.

MCA Companions Enhanced and Universal Companion Recall Ring, both by grmcdorman require MWSE v0.9.4a. They will not run with MGE.

If our moderators would be so nice to stick this thread, then we are rid of all the useless threads with: "I reinstalled morrowind and..."

Yeah i use UT Complete. And in my opinion it suits me better then Visual Packs. Although that
one is great as well. Remember, texture packs are personal preferences. What i like...you may not.

As for how he put together his texture replacers, i do not really know. There where rumors about
how UT Complete was done but i can not say whether this was true or not?

The problem with Ultimate Textures is that grVulture used resources without giving credit. The evidence of that can be seen in the op here where it's stated that the source of most of them is unknown. When he first started releasing them, he claimed to have made them until it was brought to everyone's attention that he did not. After that, when the whole compilation was released, it was noted as a compilation. Credits were still missing though. That's the story. And that's why you can't find the mod on PES.

Oh nice.

This thread will certainly be useful to me.

Thanks so much. Everytime I start to play Morrowind I get caught up in the "Mod Game". I just want to make the game look as good as possible, and then fix any glaring major things that don't work. Sometimes it's better just to have a person with some info say "this is fine, try this one". And since I am not about to become a modder I need all the help I can get making them run. Thanks.

I just wanted you to know that this thread has been my main referance tool when ive been modding my newly installed morrowind. Good work! You just spared this forum alot of irretating basic questions topics

The 7Zip I have (dwemer_ruins.7z) is pluginless

I will try to clarify in the OP. I have been looking through the textures myself and I've already recognized a number of them as being from other mods; I have seen some from Qarl, Connary, and Darknut as well as several others I recognize but cannot place. The choices are sound but if he really tried to take credit for these... As to the quality I would say I saw some interesting choices in there that don't entirely make sense to me and would rate the Visual Pack higher in terms of consistency and quality, and the Darknut textures are even lower quality that what Darknut himself uploaded. I also noticed that some textures had apparently been put through some grainy filters (specifically the decorative walls you see in the canal works of Velothi cantons) and re-compressed. That's not to say that it's bad, just that some of the textures could be better. The armor textures include some amazing work that I do not recognize and would very much like to know the source of.

Man, will they ever stop upgrading this stuff!? I will add this, and could you tell me if it sounds clear enough?:

Note however that there may be a newer version of MWSE than what is included in the most recent version of MGE, and mods that utilize a newer version of MWSE will NOT function properly without the newer version of MWSE. Such mods include MCA Companions Enhanced and Universal Companion Recall Ring (thanks to Fliggerty for the tip!). If you wish to use a different version of the Morrowind Script Extender than the one included with the Morrowind Graphics Extender, MGE provides an option to disable its version.

If I can get this completed and enough people find it helpful, I think anything that cuts down on the number of posts people have to make is a good thing. Regardless, it will give me a fast answer to such posts by simply linking it.

Really? That really makes me mad. If that's true then I may just delete that entry. He may have just been a kid, though, and kids do stupid things sometimes, but that still really gets under my skin. How many people would miss that link?

Happy to be of service. I'll see if I can finish the rest quickly.

I know what you mean, getting into the mod game was what made me give up on ever beating the game last time. Now, 6 years later, I still haven't beaten the game and I'm even more involved in modding than I used to be!

Grazie mille. Glad to be of help.

...
..........
.................
I must have been thinking of a different HH mod! I will correct it!




I'll try to get the rest done ASAP, I've been busy with RL and with trying to find any issues with MGE, not to mention my own mods in progress, but hopefully this will be complete in short order!

Man, thats really [censored] behaviour. Not a very respectfull thing to do. Stuff like that makes me mad. Specially since I just installed the mod 30 minutes ago and declared for myself that I love it. Im still gonna keep using it thou. But every now and then thats going to bugg me when I think about it.

That does suck indeed. After i downloaded it i threw in all of the textures from
Connary, some of Darknuts and all the others that i really like. So i never noticed
there where already texture in there from both of them?

But like you Nosferatu_D i like UT complete way to much, so i will continue to use
it but it still sucks. Especially since i provided the link to UT Complete v3.0.

There is a pluginless version of Hedgehog-12 Dwemere Ruins? Where if you
do not mind me asking?

EDIT: Sorry for the Double post.

EDIT 2: Nevermind, since i saw that the edit date in the post for that replacer showed
February 15 i thought you hat not changed it yet. But since it is a direct download i guess
you just changed the package.

As for how it looks...well..in most places it looks really cool i have to admit. But it is kind
of weird looking when you enter the dark places of a Dwemer ruin, or rooms where there
is lava. I guess that is just because of how bumpmaps work. I am not sure yet if i will keep
using it, but i will see.

Well, that's a little unfortunate.


With that being the case, I think I'll just stick to the Visual Packs and whatever else I can toss in.


Thanks Fligg, Bramble, and Illius!

This thread has been most helpful in locating some key textures. I thank you.

I decided to update just the characters section, cause I figure that's what a lot of people are really after. Creatures forthcoming.


No problem.

I could use some tips concerning the lighting in morrowind. For example, Illuminated Windows dosent seem to work for me. And I would like to see some brighter lightsources and more need for them.

I'll get to that eventually, I'm just a little tied up at the moment. For now, my advice would be to ensure that any lighting mods load last. Also, using "The Lighting Mod" will give you brighter lights, as well as the actual need for them as everything will look darker.

No rush, we all can't sit infront of the computer all they. Thats just how the world works. ^^

I followed your advice and loved the mod. But it would be nice to see some info how to manualy alter the effects, seems to me that it takes alot of polishing of yer own to get it perfect. Im looking forward to see the rest of your little toturial.

I just wanted to let you know I find this thread very useful, as I do most mod lists. Please keep up the good work and I hope you can complete this topic sometime soon. I'd also like to add my humble voice to the request to sticky some kind of unofficial official mod list...if an inclusive & detailed enough one can be compiled. In the long run I'd be much easier than constantly seeing & reading new threads about the same topic.

Glad to hear it's been some help. I'll try to get it done soon, my life just got really hectic really quickly.

It is very useful, thank you.

As is this one by Stebin - The Unofficial World reTexture Thread

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for this thread!!!!!

ESPECIALLY the link to the CODE Patch, I KNEW I wasn't crazy when I remembered being able to loot a knocked out NPC,
Finally the feature is back!! YAY!!!!

P.S. And don't let some Anal-Retentive person get you mad because they can't deal with a Title and Contents.
They didn't contribute anything to the thread, other than their obsession with semantics and bloating
the thread with several unecessary posts

BYW, you CAN get the thread title changed if you want buy "Reporting your first post"
and typing in what you want the thread title changed to

This is a really useful guide! Thanks for making it.

Excellent descriptions of the various options for mods. You obviously put a lot of thought into this. Good job!

A suggestion, if you'd like:
Let people know that "Start Here" is a link. I actually thought it was just a heading the first time I read it. Maybe something like: Start Here <--click

Well then, excuse my long absence, Real Life her minions Finances and Employment hit me like a sack of bricks and my life has become unpleasant. I've added quite a bit with this update, including a note on AlienSlof's mods, a quick-start guide for the impatient, and some notes for newbies about using texture replacers, as well as important information on Vibrant and Darker Morrowind that should have been there in the first place. Just three more sections to go. I was also hoping to finish at least the Armor and Weapons section and start a WIP thread for my custom armor mod today, but I don't have time. Hopefully I can call this done soon.

Also, I need an opinion: Should I try to alter the OP to be independent of Borrowind's blog, or has that been working well enough for everyone?


Thank you for the compliment and the link!


More than happy to help.

And I don't begrudge Swiveller for his opinion, I see where he's coming from.

Thanks for the tip on the thread title, though that sounds like bugging the mods for no good reason. It's good to know.

No problem.


Thanks! And that's a good suggestion, I was worried from the start that there would be such a misunderstanding, I shouldn't have ignored that little voice in my head. I've changed the OP accordingly.

Well, I have no problem with the way it is now.

That is a relief.

Thanks very much for this guide, I'm working through it now and MW had never looked so good!

I would recommend that you retain the link to the blog, I personally have founds it quite useful to have regard to both and I think that those who don't find the blog useful can ignore it while others will gain a benefit from it.

I had a quick question, which could probably be answered by anyone, my original plan was to start a new game only once I had installed all of the graphics mods I wanted but now that I've been testing the game with a new save I really want to make a real start so I was wondering if there's any disadvantage in starting a new game and then adding in mods on the fly, as it were?

Thanks again.

Oh man, i just saw it in the OP...first Korana and now AlienSlof.

Ugh, not again. Last time that she removed them because of some stupid trolls we were able to convince her to put them back up but I guess that the trolling never stopped and that it has taken its toll on her now... Doesn't look like she's coming back this time. What a shame.

Hope to be done with Armor, Weapons, and Miscellanea tonight.

Also: Mitch Hedberg reference added.


Thanks for the input, I'll leave it as is, then. A ToC might help, though...

Yes. I knew that going in and I still did it, and I payed for it with a dirty save. I managed to go far in that game regardless because of good preparation, but my preparation wasn't good enough and I failed to test many mods that ended up not working for me and bloating my game. I'm starting over now, but here's some advice for you so you don't end up with a game-ending bug.

First, get Wrye Mash and read the online manual carefully. You should also understand how to properly use TESTool. The best diagnostic tool you can use for quick conflict detection is TES Conflict Detector. These are all linked in the OP. I assume you have limited time as I do, so here's what you really must understand, first about Mash:

1. Before anything else, right-click on the header for the "File" column under the "Mods" tab and click "Lock Times." Any time you alter a mod in any way with another program (such as the CS or TESTool) open up Wrye Mash and it will put the mod back into the position in the load order you had set before the alteration. The manual will explain if that doesn't make sense.
2. Make sure you understand what the colors for checkboxes and lines mean for each tab, the colors are there to help you diagnose any problems.
3. Understand how to control mod order and why.
4. When you click on a mod in under the "Mods" tab, a list of its master will show up to the right. Most of the time you can fix an issue (such as a yellow colored by simply clicking on this list
5. When you first start it up, right-click on various places in the UI to see what menus come up, and refer to the manual so you understand what each option does. The obvious ones come up for the mods and saves when you right-click on them; for mods the big ones are "Repair Refs" and the options under the "File >" rollout, for saves you should especially pay attention to the "Repair All" option and the options under the "Remove >" rollout. However, some of the most useful--in fact, essential--options show up when you right click on the column headers for each list (i.e. "File | Modified | Size |..."). The headers on the "Saves" tab offer the absolute essentials for a game in progress, you need to understand:
   
   • The main header offers several options including the very useful "Profiles" option. I really recommend making a main profile and a "TEST" profile that only has the three Bethesda ESMs activated to test any new mod in game, and another based on your main profile to test how any mods you decide to add interact with your existing ones. I also like to make profiles for load lists that I know for sure work well, in case I mess something up and have to go back (at least, I do now, this would have saved me a lot of trouble and I plan to do it from now on).
   • the list of saves and the list that shows up on the right when you click on a save (it contains the list of mods that save has running) has its own menu, and the options under that menu, particularly "Sync to Load List" and "Update," are important to understand, you always want to make sure that your save shows up as purple if possible, and these options help you do that. The "Update" option is executed automatically when you click on the list itself. Always remember to save your changes.
6. Learn how to use the "Mashed Lists" feature.
7. As for the "Installers" tab in the newest version, it makes it a lot easier to install new mods and more importantly uninstall mods you decide you don't want, but I prefer the precise control of a manual installation.

To recap, with Wrye Mash you should fully understand at least Lock Times, the meanings of the colors, controlling mod order, where to find right-click menus, updating master's lists for mods and mod lists for saves, using Mashed Lists, and profile management. It's a powerful tool, and learning it ahead of time will save you a lot of pain down the road.

TESTool serves a different set of purposes, and is a much easier program to use as it's all automated, but because of this you need to watch it very carefully and make sure it doesn't do anything it shouldn't. The main tools you'll be using are the Merge Objects feature and the Clean ESPs feature (it should go without saying, but always use the Clean ESPs option that puts the clean versions in a separate folder, it's option #2). Merge Objects is to be used when several mods change the same objects, but in different ways. For example, say you want to use Schwaa's "K Potion Upgrade" to change the appearance of potions, and Srikandi's "Potion Sorter" to rename them; since Srikandi's mod doesn't touch the meshes or textures, but K Potion Upgrade also renames some potions, you'd want set the Potion Sorter to load after the K Potion Upgrade with Mash and then use TESTool to merge objects, this way you'll get the Potion Sorter's names and the K Potion Upgrade's look. There are many explanations for exactly how this works online, but basically it looks at the original Morrowind data for an object that more than one mod changes and goes down the list adding any changes to the original data and ignoring any data that is identical to the original data (any time two mods alter the same data the mod that loads later wins).

Any time you add a mod, read the ReadMe (!) and test it thoroughly, starting with a conflict check with the conflict detector. Hope that helps. Oh, also, if your game is slowing down, the first culprit is scripting, cut back on the script-heavy mods if your computer can't handle them.



I'm under the impression that the mods prefer that we not talk about it, but I will say this: I really wish she could ignore the petulant whining from insecure children who aren't even offering up valid criticisms of her work and focus on those who love the art she produces. I say this knowing I don't know the whole story, but I have to agree it's a real shame.

I'm trying to ind a specific texture replacer and I'm hoping this thread can help me. Specifically, it replaced Daedric architecture, making it much redder, more like Daedric armor. I've been looking everywhere for it and have searched pretty much all of the major texture replacers.


Anyone remember this one?


BTW, the link for Jarrod's textures is broken.

You don't mean this one, do you? If this isn't it, could you be more specific?


Thanks for catching that, I'll correct it.

The Daedric textures that I'm talking about are just black and red, no gold. Primarily, they're black, but some of the stone textures are red. It's seriously like I said before though; the textures look like they were created specifically to match the style of Daedric armor. A black background with a few wavy, red stripe patterns interspersed throughout the design.

Actually, I think it may be the other Daedric retexture Connary made, I forgot to link that one.

In fact, I forgot to link a lot, the Architecture section needs a lot of additions...

Yes, that's exactly what I was looking for. I spent a lot of time looking for those, and I had almost reached the point where I was convinced that I had dreamed them up with my nostalgia or something.




Thank you.

Since you already list Plangkye's Hi-Res Telvanni textures, I feel you should list his wonderful Green Marble Hi-Res Mournhold textures ( http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View...128&id=6267 ) - probably my fav Mournhold retex.

I'm going to take DivinePanda's recommendation here. i was looking for a Mournhold texture replacer and since he says that one is so good, I think I'll try it out as well.

I hope it doesn't dissapoint. I was very frustrated trying to find one that looked nice without going too far off the beaten path. Tbh I actually mix and match a few of Connary's MH one in as well. IT's very rare a texture pack suits my tastes in its entirety.

Real life is a beast. I haven't even had time to play for 15 minutes lately. Here's hoping I can finally finish this soon. Soon...


No worries.

Done and done, the Architecture section should be more complete now.

I added that and another one for your consideration. Keep in mind that Mournhold architecture is in the Indoril tradition so you don't miss Connary's excellent offering.

This thread is just what I was looking for. Good work; keep it up!

Thanks for the suggestions, BramblesMarlow. I've discovered quite a few new or overlooked things because of you that are going to add whole new dimensions for me to enjoy.

I'm quite interested in seeing your chapter on Lighting, as that's always been an area I have trouble visualizing differences. Shifting to quadratic is an easy choice; bringing mods to play and making it really stand out is amazing, but becomes just mind-boggling to me. With INI edits especially, like radius multipliers, getting mod merging to work ... hope you touch on that.

I'll be looking forward to your guide.

This is a great thread, thank you BramblesMarlow

I've printed it off and read it through in detail, to the extent that I feel motivated now to fire up a brand new Morrowind GOTY installation, mod it to the max, and get back into playing what I still think was the best ever RPG....

You should consider adding "Red Skies" to your list of Sky makeovers. I've just started using it and it's really cool!

Brambles, do you mind if I copy this over to GHF? It's right in line with the sort of informational threads that I'm collecting and pinning.

I have been having a lot of real life trouble lately, and it doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon, and I haven't had time to try out the mods I wanted to, play Morrowind (or games in general, unless you count poker), or finish this. Today I figured I'd just get it done with. I have found a new job at least, but my troubles don't end there, so I will once again be absent for some time to come. I was planning on making several mods myself, including animation replacers, and though I have made a few mods and mesh replacers, along with other small things, I won't be able to do anything like that for a while. Cosí è la vita.

The lighting section is finished. It contains a thorough explanation of what exactly each light attenuation setting does, so I recommend giving that a quick read.


Glad to help.


I've finished the lighting section now. I've provided what I hope is a good explanation for the INI settings available. It turns out to be pretty simple, actually. I didn't explain radius multipliers, and maybe I should, but they really aren't necessary and don't add anything to the function that can't be accomplished with the other variables alone, except that it causes one attenuation method to treat the radius settings of a given "light" entity differently than the other methods, but that difference is small.


Sorry for being so long-winded, but I'm glad it helped. Have you started playing yet?


I'll try it out, thanks! It seems like more of a major change than a strict upgrade, but if I like it enough I'll gladly recommend it.


You don't even need to ask, I'm flattered.