1. Go to the settings tab (or click on the gear icon on the left panel).

2. Go to the "Visual Style" tab.

3. Find the Saturation setting. Set the value to 2 (maximum value).

4. Find the "Tone mapping" setting, then select "AGX Punchy" as the selection. It is very pleasing to look at when you enable it.

5. Find the "Scale" setting. Set the value to 0.5.

6. Find the ''Overbright'' setting. Set the value to 1.5.

7. Find the ''Planet points style'' setting, and set it to ''motion blur.''

8. Switch to the ''Camera'' tab.

9. Find the ''Deep-sky objects'' setting. Set the value to ''7m20.''

10. Find the ''Self emission'' setting. Set the value to 1.585.

6. Subscribe to "The Milky Way Overhaul" and ''The Andromeda Overhaul'' addons by author WildSirius on the SpaceEngine workshop if you do not already have it. These addons replace the default textures of the Milky Way and Andromeda with more cinematic and better-looking ones. These addons are not required, but i highly recommend you subscribe to them as they greatly improve the appearance of the Milky Way and Andromeda in SpaceEngine. Subscribe to the Milky Way one here, and the Andromeda one here.

7. You should download all of SpaceEngine's Solar System planet DLC that it has (HD textures). This is again not required, but if you want to make the Solar System look better, then you should do this. You should already have some/if not all of these textures already installed.

8. Install Rodrigo's Mod. It is a mod that greatly improves the appearance of terrain and clouds on planets and gas giants. It aims to make planets look somewhat realistic. You can find Rodrigos mod here. Though it is the unofficial version, as the official one was removed.

After you install Rodrigo's mod (if you find a working version of it), you will need to delete the "cache" folder in your SpaceEngine directory in order for the mod to work the next time you boot SpaceEngine.