Introduction


The problems with Skyrim's vanilla inn signs.

•1• Firstly, they are low res and it looks as though none of the innkeepers bother to maintain the condition of their signs. The names on the signs are very faded and quite hard to read especially from a distance. It feels like the same artist did the artwork for all of the signs, because of the same 'black and white/washed-out' drawing style. Some signs like the Vilemyr Inn do not even have distinct logos or artwork at all, making them look a little plain. Also having the same 'frothy pint of mead' logo on several of the signs was just cliché and generic (namely The Ragged Flagon and Dead Man's Drink and also Black-Briar Meadery if you count that as an inn).

•2• Secondly, the inn owners all, coincidentally, used the same low res weathered, moudly wooden background for their signs (you know that cardboard-ish thing) - hardly realistic or immersive Bethesda. We love you, but duplication does not equal realism nor immersion.

•3• Lastly, some of the sign artwork made little sense according to the lore of its inn, and instead Bethesda just came up with some random Norse design to make it look a bit more interesting. In some cases, the similarity of some of the inn logos to real-life ones is uncanny - compare the sign logo for Nightgate Inn with the logo for the real-life Premier Inn (you know the chain with the Lenny Henry ads - watch it here if you are interested). Having a real-life inn chain in my Skyrim was not particularly immersive.

How this mod fixes these problems (check the Features section for more details).

•1• All sign artwork is now 2k HD quality. All signs now have their own logos. The sign paintwork including lettering is all fully restored and redesigned (some are more redesigned than others). Duplicated artwork has been removed so each sign is more unique.

•2• Each sign has its own 2k HD unique background texture based on real-world HD photographs (Metal, Paint or Wood). Unique art style for all signs. Condition of background material is different for each sign, depending on the climate of the location and the standard of maintenance of the location (look in the Features section below for more information).

•3• I have tried to make the artwork fit better in to the lore of the inns, especially the signs with very generic, random artwork. Hopefully this will add that much-needed unique touch to the inns of Skyrim.

The following inns are those that I felt did not convey the theme of their lore very well and were way too generic. The lore-themes for the inns are now as follows:

• Braidwood Inn has a Mining theme as it is in a mining settlement, Kynesgrove;
• Silver-Blood Inn has a Dwemer/Mining theme as it is in Markarth and owned by the silver-mining family, the Silver-Bloods (instead of the vanilla's vampiric and bloody theme which I found slightly disturbing and unwelcoming. Travellers and visitors to the city would probably not be very attracted by this);
• Windpeak Inn has a Pale Hold theme (with the four Pale stars representing each of the Old Holds);
• Old Hroldan has a Tiber Septim theme as Eydis the inn-owner states that this is where Septim defeated an army of Reachmen in the Second Era and consequently rested;
• Vilemyr Inn and Frostfruit Inn both have Rural/Natural themes as they are out in the countryside.

Features

• New 2k HD custom textures for all inn signs in Skyrim. Uncompressed to ensure minimal loss of quality and minimal texture artifacts (blockiness).
• Unique inn sign background texture for each individual sign (Metal, Paint or Wood). No two inn signs use the same textures now (as opposed to vanilla Skyrim's duplicated wood texture for all of the inn signs).
• Custom handcrafted painting for each sign (in many of the signs you can see the watercolor brushstrokes).
• Sign name lettering now clearly legible instead of the old 'faded' style of lettering.
• Unique, distinctive and lore-enhancing theme for each sign.
• Background textures are based on real-world HD photographs.
• Background textures are unique to the architecture style of the settlement where the inn is located.
• Background textures vary in their condition depending on the region. For example, inns in Imperial zones are well-maintained, like the inns in Dragon Bridge and Solitude. On the other hand, inns in harsher climates like those in Dawnstar and Winterhold or those in poorly-run settlements like Riften, have a more weathered and run-down look about them.
• This mod is lore-friendly and does not hurt FPS!

Installation

Use NMM or if installing manually just drag the data folder into your root Skyrim folder (the one with the.exe's).

Credits

• No assets from other mod authors are used in this mod, as the textures are all made from scratch, using real life photographs.

SkyFix • Series



Other Skyrim mods by the author:

Other mods by the author: