'Better Third Person Selection' is the final piece in the Skyrim third-person mods puzzle

Skyrim, and all the earlier Elder Scrolls games, for that matter, were designed with the first-person point of view in mind first.

Individually moving physics-enabled clutter objects in the world is something that no other RPG franchise had captured, save for Arx Fatalis and Bethesda's Fallout games. This design approach also spills over into Skyrim. However, just like Morrowind and Oblivion, Skyrim also has a third-person perspective that can be switched to at almost any time.

As satisfying as it can be to look at your custom-made personal dragonborn in Skyrim with all their bling on, third-person gameplay used to be a minority choice to play the game.

Skyrim improved it over Oblivion by adding diagonal movement animations, but the combat remains janky and unsatisfying in the third person. Thankfully, ten years of modding has done much to completely erase the jank and introduce feature-complete Souls-like mechanics, for example.

Mod author Shrimperator has finally introduced what can be considered the final piece of the third-person gameplay puzzle with their latest 'Better Third Person Selection.'

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Interact with the world without dismounting from your horse in Skyrim

Better Third Person Selection provides an alternative way to interact with objects in the world of Skyrim. The Elder Scrolls games allow the player to interact with every in-game object, from tiny soul-gem fragments to worthless miscellanea-like ladless. To do so, the crosshair must be aligned with the object properly for the prompt to appear.

This behavior also goes for the third-person perspective. However, as the camera pans out for a broader third-person view, it gets further away from the small objects laying around in the world. Things such as loose septims become small enough that it becomes a hassle to individually point at them and pick them up while in the third person.

Better Third Person Selection addresses this with a system inspired by The Witcher 3. Instead of the player pointing the camera manually, the prompt to interact with nearby objects will come up as the player gets closer to them.

This includes an object priority system that will preference more valuable and functional objects and interaction prompts over useless clutter. Players can either move around the camera slightly or use the object cycling feature in the mod to snap to other nearby objects.

As a side-product, this also improves mounted gameplay. Like in Elden Ring, the player can interact with and pick up objects with the usual interact button while on horseback. To dismount, the player must now hold down the button instead of tapping it, complete with a handy widget to show how long they need to hold it down.