For years I've used Balmora Expansion, the features (in my opinion) overriding the immersion-breaking stuff and the grinding cut to fps. I'm less inclined to do this now, though, and want to look at alternatives that allow me to make a more attractive Balmora which doesn't kill movement, and accepts other mods (such as South Wall, Den of Iniquity). This is nota jab at Gorg, CanadianIce and Jeremy, who did such a fantastic job on BE. And, frankly, I'll miss Jeremy's Knights of Tamriel armors, though perhaps I'll load them at some time, in the future. But for now, I just want to make Balmora feel a little more like its old self, but with nicer trimmings.

So far, I've found Vality's Balmora Mod, Zif's VItiated Balmora, and Basswalker's Another Balmora. There may be others that are similar. I'm not asking for recommendations (though I won't turn any down), but am curious how they affect fps compared to vanilla Balmora. Don't want to try one out, only to find that it gives me the same problem as BE did, just with fewer people and much trees.

I started using Balmora Clutter Compilation (which includes Vitiated Balmora and another Balmora) a few months ago and have been very happy with it both in content and performance.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=9058

The mod fragonard just posted has some links to some others, too, in the "Related Mods"

Atmospheric Balmora. But no screens, or links to screens--and I'd like to get opinions about what overhauls people prefer, why they prefer them, and how the mods they like affect fps.

The Clutter Compilation doesn't look bad, Fragonard, but perhaps a bit too festive. Plus, the modder himself writes, "I get an average of 15 or 12 FPS on my 2,4 ghz core. At the river it gets worse sometimes." I'm trying to get away from that. What framerate did you get, using it?

Vitiated moves too much around, even the Dummer Temple. Vality and Another Balmora both look good, but I'm tossed as to which, and of course don't know how they each affect framerates.

I never get less than about 25 in Balmora with an Athlon II 3.0GHz and a 5770.

Well, I'm running 2.9 GHz on a Dual Core 5600+. Of course, there are other factors, but still, that sounds pretty good.

Slartibartfast made a lite version of Balmora Expansion which would reduce the FPS-hit.

I really like Hargreth's Walled City Balmora, couple that with Princess Stomper's Balmora Ghetto and I think you'd have a pretty good, low impact modded Balmora.

Walled City sounds great, but there's a conflict with Illuminated Order, which I want to run. Princess Stomper's Balmora Ghetto: perhaps I can fit that in with something else.

Just noticed that this also requires Necessities of Morrowind (according to PES), which I don't use.

I use a combination of Vality's Balmora Mod, PS' Balmora Ghetto, and http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6051 (but make sure you clean that last one, if you do use it--dirty refs ahoy) myself. The three actually blend very nicely together; no conflicts at all.

I've never noticed an FPS drain with Vality's mod--possibly there's a minor one. I do have a pretty fancy whiz-bang computer so far as Morrowind is concerned, though, so I'm probably not the best judge on that front. It's definitely got a much, much lower impact than Balmora Expanded, though. And now that I think of it I was able to run it on my old laptop without much of an FPS hit, too.

Here's some screenshots from my Balmora:

http://tyraarane.riumplus.com/gallery/d/1777-1/Balmora1.jpg
http://tyraarane.riumplus.com/gallery/d/1782-1/Balmora2.jpg
http://tyraarane.riumplus.com/gallery/d/1787-1/Balmora3.jpg
http://tyraarane.riumplus.com/gallery/d/1792-1/Balmora4.jpg
http://tyraarane.riumplus.com/gallery/d/1797-1/Balmora5.jpg

(The fountains, ovens, etc. are from NoM--everything else is from the three Balmora mods and various texture mods.)

I don't use NOM either. I think it's an optional esp.

Just for reference, I decided to go (for now) with Another Balmora:

1) It's fast. Hardly any drop in framerate from vanilla Balmora.

2) No conflicts with Illuminated Order.

3) Adds some nice detail, such as the open-air market, the outdoor blacksmith, and the various trees, but doesn't get rid of the fairly austere atmosphere of Balmora. (...which I'll be the first to admit might have been put in place to make virtue of a necessity, when RAM was typically less, and the game engine wasn't optimized for speed.)

I'll try it for now, along with a couple of merchant and roleplaying mods, and may change my mind at some point. Thanks for all your help!

There are screens for Atmospheric Balmora, they're on the forum RELz thread.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa289/spaceinvader91/AtmosphericBalmora2.jpg?t=1251237992
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa289/spaceinvader91/AtmosphericBalmora5-2.jpg
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa289/spaceinvader91/AtmosphericBalmora6.jpg

I really need to update it, though. It's completely incompatible with Vurt's West Gash trees in its current form (since they're such a radically different shape/size from the originals), and some of the merchants look a little silly lurking in the tall grass if you have animated grass enabled.

Thanks. Those screens do look good. I like your application of useful clutter. As it happens, I am using Vurt's Leafy West Gash Trees 2, so there would be issues. Is your version Illuminated Order-friendly?