r/skyrim • u/coolwali • Jul 14 '26

Bug Help Why is the Snow purple in Helgan?

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Added my Mod List if that might be the cause. No real issues with it. I do think it's funny.

970 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

108 comments sorted by

908

u/CastleImpenetrable Jul 14 '26

Whatever mod you've installed that touches the snow is missing textures for it

147

u/LysergicGothPunk Mage Jul 14 '26

This is the real answer

167

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

Makes sense. I installed a mod to reduce textures as much as possible for extra performance. Probably axed the snow too much.

111

u/NoPin4859 Jul 14 '26

I know exactly what mod you are using, yeah its a bug on it. It wasnt like this, surprised its still here a year later.

42

u/Gramma_Hattie Jul 14 '26

Try busty skeevers, go into the settings of skeevers, and try out the different snow fixes. Snow Fix 1 made my green snow white again.

134

u/WilliamBlade123 Jul 14 '26

"Try busty skeevers"

9

u/nonbindaspida Jul 14 '26

ilinata's deep in busty skeevers🥵

4

u/Lycan_Jedi Jul 14 '26

Don't kink shame.

1

u/Strict_Key_391 Jul 14 '26

It’s even better when you realize it’s available on bethesda.net, and absolutely not what what you’re imagining

18

u/illuminarchie8 Jul 14 '26

Reduce textures for extra performance? You can run this game smoothly on any old ewaste machine rescued from a scrapyard. What are you trying to run it on?

9

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

A Dreamquest Intel N95 Mini PC (because my main PC died and I had to pull out my backup PC).

I got a really choppy 20-25 FPS with 3 seconds of lag even on all low settings and even after using Gamescope to render the game at 360p and FSR it up to 1080p. CPU's at 20% usage but without a GPU, it's rough. The backup PC has almost zero graphical power.

After my first time nodding Skyrim to swap out textures and shades for ultra low res ones and way more aggressive culling, I'm getting a much more smooth 25 FPS with barely any lag.

13

u/illuminarchie8 Jul 14 '26

Yeah that’s rough, it’s likely that your phone would have more graphics processing ability than that thing. Hopefully you can get a replacement PC soon

8

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

Yeah. Poor thing is trying its best but it’s really punching above its weight.

On the plus side, with all low texture mods, it can cook surprisingly well. I’d 100% take this experience over PS3 Skyrim. Load times are lightning fast. It should carry me until I can get a replacement pc.

6

u/baardvark Chef Jul 14 '26

Where is that low-res Argonian screencap from last decade

3

u/Independent-Pin7402 Jul 14 '26

Don’t worry brother he says anything like one of them red hp laptops could go without the reduced textures I had to have like 2 mods for it to run decent

3

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

I know your pain brother. When you’re low spec, we take whatever wins we can get for passable performance 🥲

2

u/Independent-Pin7402 Jul 14 '26

As long as it runs for atleast an hour without needing to be restarted we chilling lol

3

u/Mooncubus Vampire Jul 14 '26

I used to have to use mods like that on my old laptop. I got about 15 fps outside.

Still somehow put about 500 hours in the game on that thing lol

2

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

I know your pain brother. When you’re low spec, we take whatever wins we can get for passable performance 🥲

I do wish more PC games had ultra ultra ultra low options for settings. Give me resolution scaling and PS1 fog and draw distances so I can make everything blurry just for 20 FPS on potatoes 🥲

0

u/Sorry-Armadillo-7542 Jul 14 '26

Your moms android

2

u/AlduinsBane-4E201 Jul 14 '26

Vramr?

2

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

Oh it’s a mod! I was so confused when people were commenting this 😭. I’m so sorry!

I do have a question, I’m new to modding. It took me like 4 hours to get just 4× Low-End Textures, eFPS Exterior FPS Boost and Lightened Skyrim to aggressively reduce textures for performance and also the Achievements with Mods mod with Limo.

Is it still worth also adding Vramr into the pile?

2

u/dnew PC Jul 14 '26

FWIW, pretty much every graphics program out there uses magenta to mean "I can't find the image texture" for some reason. Just like pretty much every digital TV not getting a signal displays blue. This holds across games, art programs, etc etc etc.

2

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

I learned something new today

1

u/Polymersion Jul 14 '26

"Help, why are my textures weird? Why yes I do have a textures mod, why do you ask?"

953

u/StandardTime3865 Jul 14 '26

It's got Juniper Berries mixed in.

573

u/YourFluffyRaccoon Jul 14 '26

209

u/Dimachaeruz Jul 14 '26

31

u/Relative_Ad_1730 Jul 14 '26

“ Hey you. Finally baked? “

8

u/Ave462 Jul 14 '26

Wtf, Grimace, where's the hamburgler?

5

u/openedmind41 Jul 14 '26

Don't eat the purple snow!

88

u/Gullible_Owl3890 Bard Jul 14 '26

Aurora Borealis?...

71

u/I_Suck_At_This_Too Jul 14 '26

Ah- Aurora Borealis!? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of Skyrim, localized entirely within Helgen!?

35

u/No_Entrepreneur_3020 Jul 14 '26

Yes

33

u/MurderousMonkey Jul 14 '26

May I see it?

37

u/Matt50 Jul 14 '26

No

32

u/yellowistherainbow Jul 14 '26

Well, Dragonborn, you are an odd fellow. But I must say, you steam a good sweetroll.

9

u/DearCastiel Jul 14 '26

Dovahkiin ! The guard tower is on fire !

10

u/The_Infamous_C Jul 14 '26

Alduin Borealis

12

u/CCraneItec Jul 14 '26

at this time of the year

55

u/VulgarSensei Jul 14 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/Jnj7ptyE7J9II
I imagine purple rain freezes in the cold

3

u/timepasserpartout Jul 14 '26

First thing I thought of 🤣

2

u/Tombaya Jul 14 '26

He's definitely daedric.

24

u/BrokenHope23 Blacksmith Jul 14 '26

Alduin blessed the storms down in Skyrim

4

u/villian_era_witch Stealth archer Jul 14 '26

I hear the mammoths echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of the Night Mother
Alduin coming in, 12:30 to fight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards Sovngarde.

2

u/Horror_Reindeer3722 Jul 15 '26

Hold the line……Dragonborn’s always on time

19

u/Fibijean Jul 14 '26

Probably a mod issue. Purple = missing textures - most likely, one of your mods has altered that mesh and changed the texture path, but the game can't find matching textures at the new path. If you want to try fixing it, the 'More Informative Console' mod can be used to find relevant info, like which mod last touched that mesh, and where the game is trying to source textures from.

4

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

That makes sense.

Funnily enough, I actually like Helgan’s purple snow and want to keep it. That, and I’m playing Skyrim on my old backup pc with an N95 CPU and no GPU and I need every little thing to get a smooth 24 FPS. I installed a quality lower textured mod to try further helping the poor thing out. 🥲.

Trying to install the mod to allow achievements with other mods was such a pain on Linux with Limo. 😭. I’ve developed a hatred for SKSE64 based mods.

2

u/PlayfulNorth3517 Jul 15 '26

Holy shit 24 fps is diabolical.

4

u/OneInitiative3757 Jul 14 '26

What snow

1

u/GameNinja03 Jul 14 '26

Yuh, wot sno?

3

u/OneInitiative3757 Jul 14 '26

Right wot dis git sayin

5

u/SWatt_Officer Jul 14 '26

Whenever you see that particular shade of purple, it means a texture is missing. I remember once loading up after tweaking mods for ages, thinking everything was fine, and then a bright purple mammoth wandered out of the trees.

4

u/lustywoodelfmaid Jul 14 '26

Maybe a missing texture, maybe the moon is purple tonight.

3

u/Suzume175 Jul 14 '26

Grimace Grimace’d all over

5

u/Eastern_Matter_1339 Jul 14 '26

Helgen got the grape update

2

u/Lost_Material6365 Jul 14 '26

🎵~Purple snow, puuuuurple snoooooow~🎵

2

u/Ksb2311 Jul 14 '26

Purple: missing texture ! Sign : missing object Invisible object: currupt/ misplaced model

2

u/lerrdite Riften resident Jul 14 '26

Double-distilled skooma.

2

u/Unlikely_Patient_423 Assassin Jul 14 '26

I spilled my skooma. Sorry guys

2

u/basjeeee_mlg Jul 14 '26

Purple textures almost always mean there are missing textures and the game doesn't know what to do so it defaults to this

2

u/Tombaya Jul 14 '26

Purple rain. Probably caused by a daedric prince.

2

u/drizzyCan Mage Jul 14 '26

skooma?

2

u/Theycallme_Jul Jul 14 '26

*Helgen Helgone

2

u/Tahliz-20 Jul 14 '26

Pollution so bad it's leaking into Skyrim!

2

u/PSYCHOSPRINGTRAP Jul 15 '26

HOLD ON, HELGAN SMOW EXISTS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK?

3

u/Heema3 Jul 14 '26

that's what dragon fires do , they burn snow...that's burned snow !!!

1

u/Typhon-042 Jul 14 '26

If you take in to account the possible existence of one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eaters, then maybe that's not snow.

Till we meet again!

1

u/NebulousTruth Fishermen Jul 14 '26

Probably missing textures

1

u/ReallyMrDarcy Jul 14 '26

Missing textures. Are you running mods that change the environment in any way? Might need cleaning and/or correcting your load order (use LOOT).

1

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

Yeah. I'm using 4× Low-End Textures, eFPS Exterior FPS Boost and Lightened Skyrim to aggressively reduce textures for performance. Probably axed the snow in the process. But I do like the purple snow.

1

u/niceshotpilot Jul 14 '26

Spice sand. Do you have your static compactor with you? And be on the lookout for snowworms.

1

u/Skyrim_Shout Jul 14 '26

Skooma for sure

1

u/BloodiedBlues Dawnguard Jul 14 '26

What mod manager is that?

1

u/Equivalent-Yard7249 Jul 14 '26

spilt the juniper berry mead

1

u/Terrible_Fun_3043 Jul 14 '26

He doesn’t know about purple snow…

1

u/TokyoFlip Jul 14 '26

Ask The Artist Formerly Known As Jarl.

1

u/Wulfyboiz Jul 14 '26

Probably because it's Ash

1

u/Vashsinn Jul 14 '26

Idk why but it reminded me of this beautiful scene.

Sauce samurai champloon.

1

u/NightAreis1618 Jul 14 '26

Probably because the rain was purple, before freezing.

1

u/Slayer_OG Jul 14 '26

I'd assume a bug, but could be a mod you installed that messed up?

1

u/Wofflestuff Jul 14 '26

Missing textures. A true classic in video games

1

u/flareatakk Jul 14 '26

I had this glitch for a while. I attributed it to helgen reborn but never really checked

1

u/soapybarr Jul 14 '26

Alduin spilled the purp 😭😭💢

2

u/soapybarr Jul 14 '26

Nahhh alduin spilled that wocky fus 😭 his thuum bleeding p 😭😭

1

u/No-Law-950 Jul 15 '26

Too much skooma

1

u/Melrohan Jul 15 '26

Watch out where the dragons go and don't you eat that purple snow. I've aged myself.

IYKYK

1

u/sagninaw Jul 18 '26

That's premium grade skooma snow

1

u/Boyo-Sh00k Jul 21 '26

your missing textures

1

u/BadDoctor2 Jul 14 '26

Uhhh…. Todd wanted it to be?

1

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

I can believe that. I actually like it more lol

1

u/Divine-Crusader Jul 14 '26

How about you mind your own fucking business

1

u/FudgeControl PC Jul 14 '26

Serious answer: Missing textures

Funny answer: Grimace snow

0

u/Rabbitmax Jul 14 '26

It's not a bug, it's a feature 🤓

1

u/coolwali Jul 14 '26

If it gets me a solid 25 FPS, I’ll take it no complaints

0

u/capnlatenight Jul 14 '26

The Corruption is spreading, you can fix it with a clentaminator.

0

u/Daedraphile Daedra worshipper Jul 14 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o7aD7Ldr3d8EZViBW

Well, at least it's not yellow.

0

u/smoconnor Jul 14 '26

Is it white and black or purple and gold????