Did you guys see this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo_tAtgdnIk
It seems like it's fairly old but it looks amazing.
It seems like it's fairly old but it looks amazing.
-
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Mod Discussion and News [Creation Kit released]
- Thread starter LiquidMetal14
- Start date
Just to reiterate. You can achieve some very good enhancements visually to Skyrim without having an uber gaming rig. Many of the texture packs have Lite versions and there are lighting and weather mods that don't take up many resources as well. I had a very nice looking Skyrim with tons of mods running well on a computer with a 9800gt for my nephew, albeit at 720p.
What are the best mods that you guys use for character models? Like the good looking females and maybe male versions of that too. I think I have enough mods now and that's the only thing missing.
Edit: well I found one that I kinda like. It's the v2 WSBP - Windsong Skyrim Beauty Project. Keeps it looking vanilla I guess but looks really nice. Don't know haven't tried it yet, just going by the pictures.
Edit: well I found one that I kinda like. It's the v2 WSBP - Windsong Skyrim Beauty Project. Keeps it looking vanilla I guess but looks really nice. Don't know haven't tried it yet, just going by the pictures.
UltimateIke
Member
Opethfeldt6 ENB is the first ENB I've tried that I like. I saw someone mention it in the thread about 'Skyrim with 100 mods' and decided give it a shot.
Opethfeldt6 ENB is the first ENB I've tried that I like. I saw someone mention it in the thread about 'Skyrim with 100 mods' and decided give it a shot.
Still has that weird bloom that makes everything glow and ruins the image clarity. can you remove it? Without the bloom and DoF I'd actually want to try it out.
UltimateIke
Member
Not sure. I just went with the default preset folder.
The glow is a bit much at times. My character has a pale complexion, so she is sort of luminescent in the daylight. Some armor (especially cloth) looks weird too, and if you try to read a book while outside in daylight the pages are super bright. It's mostly good though. No crazy DoF, and I can still see in the shadows and at night. All of the ENBs I tried a few months ago were terrible about dark areas.
Those first shots were from some time before noon. These are later in the day.
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
ENB is by its very nature completely configurable, which is why it's a little silly for people to complain about how it looks. You can have the game's colours and lighting look exactly the same whilst only adding effects, such as the vastly improved shadows or the SSAO and indirect lighting.
That seems pretty complicated though, why do all the pre-configs insist on massively overdoing the effects? Are there any that do what you say?
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
I'd say the reason that most configs are terrible is that it's actually not that hard to configure, so the barrier to creating and releasing your own setup is quite low. Isn't there a saying along the lines of "90% of everything is terrible"? When you're dealing with something like the Bethesda modding community, the percentage of worthwhile works shrinks to the decimals. There's got to be hundreds of enb setups on sites like the nexus, compare that number to the number of expansive texture, model etc... packs and the reasons for the low standard of artistic quality become apparent.
There are a few profiles that do what I mentioned, searching for something like vanilla enb should get you a few results. Another option could be to download a profile you think looks good apart from the extras, disable bloom, DoF etc... and then change the two lines in the ini about using original object/post processing from false to true.
There are a few profiles that do what I mentioned, searching for something like vanilla enb should get you a few results. Another option could be to download a profile you think looks good apart from the extras, disable bloom, DoF etc... and then change the two lines in the ini about using original object/post processing from false to true.
Xenius Character Enhancement is imo by far the best one - excellent modelling and good texturing. It's natural, stays true to the lore, and most importantly of all, is not sexual pandering (which so many mods are - seriously it's like wading through a sea of shit when browsing Skyrim Nexus).
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
Here's the basic hierarchy of effects that reduce performance with ENB on. If these are on in the ini, try turning them off or reducing the quality.
Skylighting
The Ambient Occlusion settings:
Complex Indirect lighting
Indirect Lighting
SSAO quality (filter, etc..). This is controlled by a 0 - 2 scale, 0 being the highest, 2 being the lowest.
Ambient Occlusion itself.
Depth of Field
All other quality settings use the 0 - 2 scale mentioned above. If you've disabled the more intense effects but still have performance problems, reducing quality settings from 0 to 1 or 1 to 2 could be your next step.
Skylighting
The Ambient Occlusion settings:
Complex Indirect lighting
Indirect Lighting
SSAO quality (filter, etc..). This is controlled by a 0 - 2 scale, 0 being the highest, 2 being the lowest.
Ambient Occlusion itself.
Depth of Field
All other quality settings use the 0 - 2 scale mentioned above. If you've disabled the more intense effects but still have performance problems, reducing quality settings from 0 to 1 or 1 to 2 could be your next step.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
Is there any reason anymore not to run Ugridstoload=11?
My system seems to be able to handle it (660Ti, 3570K). I want to switch back sooner rather than later to 7, what I was running before, if there are any issues I should be concerned about.
My system seems to be able to handle it (660Ti, 3570K). I want to switch back sooner rather than later to 7, what I was running before, if there are any issues I should be concerned about.
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
Stability and savegame bloat (which adversely impacts the former). Just in case you aren't aware, any saves made at the higher setting won't work if you reduce it back down. To reset, you have to save using the console and reset your Skyrim ini. There are guides floating around, I remember that refreshing the ini through the console would cause all the loading screens to gain a red tint.
Save every 5 minutes while riding/sprinting in any area with more than 5 trees.
Because you will fuck up your saves and performance sooner or later.
Dont change ugrids but if you insist to do it do not go higher than 7.
Then change it...
People have different preferences, stop calling other peoples work shit while not doing anything worthwhile yourself.
(same goes for some other people in here)
Id recommend CBBE, it now has a slider that you can use to easily make the character models look exactly like you want and is one of the few character overhauls that has a never nude option and multiple different texture options (muscular, dirty, beautiful, etc..)
For males I use "better males" but that does not have a never nude option (some good texture options tho).
I then use geonox face textures because I dont like those that come with the model improvements.
You can change it back with a bit of trickery and I've not had any problems with saves getting broken after a bit over 100hrs on ugrids=9. 7's decent, but I think 9 looks best without ruining the performance (and possibly stablility; I only tried 11 for like an hour and it didn't crash once, but in longer stints it could have some issues).
It's a bit of work to lower the ugrids back, but not really hard. Refreshing the ini will give the red tint which I fixed using the previous ini, but with the desired ugrids. Also, in last maybe 50 hrs or so my saves have only increased by ~1MB with ugrids 9.
I was running Ugrids at 9 as well until my saves decided to not work anymore after ~130h
At that point there was no trickery, no magic, no nothing that I could do to save those files.
Feel free to do whatever you want just be aware that it comes with a risk.
Ouch, that sucks.
Still though, I'm not really concerned given that I had no problems with F:NV either and the game's given me no signs of anything going wrong (In over 130 hrs all I've had is 2 crashes caused by autosaving and one by conflicting mods, and the only bugs I've encountered are some z-fighting at places and AI being stupid). Back-ups should help too if my latest save gets corrupted.
Funny you mention the neck seams. I have learned to live with them. I prefer the vanilla body textures but enhanced facial textures. A lot of armor's cover up the neck seam regardless. But yeah.
Karak
Member
You can remove the DOF easily. I don't get much of an issue with bloom but I may have toned it down. For me it is the best ENB by a long stretch but again I don't have any lumi problems.
After the update ugrids 9 failed on mine as well. After doing it since almost day one. Not sure what changed but crash happy! Changed it to 7 and its stable as hell. Changing it to 7 just takes a couple seconds anyway and the difference wasn't all that noticeable.
Red Blaster
Member
Shit's probably not the right word since their work is rather...detailed. Hilariously tacky and gratuitous perhaps.
I there anything I can do to rectify ENB completely fucking underwater view? even Shift F12 does nothing.
Pitch black nights and unseeable underwater are the only main gripes I have with ENB stuff.
Also, since getting an ENB, the sun is fucking hideous. Not the sun itself, but the sun glare is no longer casting light or anything through trees. it's a flat fucking texture. Maybe i'll grab a shot of it. It's laughably bad.
Pitch black nights and unseeable underwater are the only main gripes I have with ENB stuff.
Also, since getting an ENB, the sun is fucking hideous. Not the sun itself, but the sun glare is no longer casting light or anything through trees. it's a flat fucking texture. Maybe i'll grab a shot of it. It's laughably bad.
ElfArmy177
Member
I second this, it helped me. There are some more tweaks that you can do also, Ill look around and see what they were.. I remember I had the same problem.
I remember Jasmine ENB doing this for me but The Wilds ENB doesn't.
BIG TEXT OVERLOAD AHEAD
--------------------
So, after reading topic about Requiem - The Oldschool Roleplaying Overhaul mod, i had to buy Dawnguard and start Skyrim once again. Thats the mod, i've been waiting since release. Me, like to me, couldnt just start game and play, i need the best optimized experience i can get, but being out of Skyrim Mod loop for almost a year, cost me few days of intensive research.
Thankfully, on Requiem project site, there is mod compatibility list that made some of my searching easier and because, i knew about ENB projects, Vurt's Flaura overhaul etc, i could install NMM [Nexus Mod Manager] and start downloading right away.
My first wrong assumption was that i had good enough PC [i5 2500k, GTX 560 and 8gb DDR3], because i can run Crysis 2, BF 3 and Crysis 3 Alpha on 60fps/high without problems and its been a year, so all those patches should fixed most of the issues [like fucking stupid shadows implementation! or stuttering], so i've downloaded all high textures mods that didnt brake art of Skyrim and ones that enhance gameplay
This my initial mod list, with Bethesda HD pack included: http://i5.minus.com/ib0EE1Ce0tL4Mp.jpg
Boring explanation
I've downloaded them, switch off two mods that causes crashes [Lighting during Thunderstorm and Khajit Speech] and run the game. I've used, not shown there, Alternate Start mod [great mod, highly recommended] and started near Solitude for testing.
Game run in average 40-50 fps in 1280x1024 4x TRMSAA with ugrid 7, 4096 shadows, ultra settings most of the time. But it wasnt good enough for me, for two reasons: one because fps was unstable and could sink to low 40 in certain areas, even when i decreased shadows res to 2048, but mostly because even if fps was stable like 50-55, but i looked somewhere else, it would sink for a second to 20-25fps and then spike again to 55fps. I tried to lock game in 30 fps, but mouse motion was jerky at best. Motion blur would solve it, but ... why the hell there is no mod for it yet?! I've got some successes in locking game in 45fps to get better mouse and screen response, but it wasnt good enough with fps spikes every 30 seconds.
Now, it was time to realize why my PC isnt good enough. This game just doesnt have proper streaming and LoD tech, so my 1GB VRAM on GPU just wasnt enough for those textures packs. I knew in that moment, that i would have long research ahead of me, especially because there is almost no research about it anywhere.
So, i've redownloaded Skyrim and started fresh with save near Solitude. One by one, i was testing textures packs and options and this what i found out:
Essential part:
VRAM discussion
Rendering VRAM cost
* Render resolution doesnt affect textures VRAM cost [logical, but its Bethesda engine, i had to test it]
* 800x600 to 1280x1024 jump takes only 16MB VRAM more! and thats 2.7 times more pixels
* 800x600 no AA jump to 4x TRMSAA cost only 15MB VRAM, but 1280x1024 no AA jump to 4x TRMSAA cost 140mb VRAM
* 1024->2048 shadow res jump takes 20mb VRAM, 1024->4096 takes 215MB VRAM, all looks like crap, so bother going higher than 2048, i'll write later about better tool for enhancing shadows [ENB sections]
Textures packs VRAM cost
* Bethesda HD Pack takes 480mb of VRAM and looks like crap - turn it off!
* Vurt Fauna Overhaul 1024k [low res version] and W.A.T.E.R take 90-100mb VRAM
* HD Trees for Vurt's Overhaul takes 120MB VRAM
* Weapon and skin Mods like XCE, Jaysus or Immersive Armors or any situational textures [like food, cloth or furniture ones] dont take much in global scale, so use them freely
* Distant Textures HD - only 12MB, highly recommended
* Skyrim Realistic Overhaul 1024k version takes only 100-110mb, highly recommended and they are good enough in this resolution
Of course, You dont need to be below 1gb to dont have GPU stalls, because Skyrim loads textures much in advance and it not that keen to free them when You dont use some cells, so You can have easily 300mb overlap. I think, that my setup uses around 1.3GB VRAM max, but dont have any way to test it
Last important tweak regarding textures is to use Texture Optimizer tool. Just set it to Maximum and Skyrim in presets and set it for texture folder in Skyrim/Data/ - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12801
---
Performance tweaks:
Generate Skyrim ini's [My Documents/My Games/Skyrim] with this site http://online-source.net/tools/cfg-makers/skyrim-cfg-maker/
But remember to override Skyrim.ini with those values, because this tool generates it sometimes lower and it affects performance greatly
fMasterFilePreLoadMB=100.0000
iPreloadSizeLimit=209715200
Use Nvidia Inspector for framerate cap [ENB cap is bad], i recommend also to use higher Maximum Pre-rendered Frames, like 6 [default is 3]. It increases input lag, which isnt important as much in Skyrim, but decreases stuttering from GPU stalls.
What is strange, that my Skyrim is always v-synced, no matter what i use in ini, the only way to disable V-Sync is to force V-Sync off in Nvidia Inspector, but its not worth, because Skyrim lose syncs really badly. I dont care about v-sync in most of games, but in Skyrim, off-sync looks ugly.
I've read that its better to set Skyrim AA options exactly like in Nvidia Inspector to make it work correctly. This is my nvidia profile:
---
Lighting Tweaks.
Ok, this the point that is completely subjective, but probably all of You saw those mindblowing ENB shots with high Bokeh DoF, tweaked shaders and changed colors. The truth is that 99% ENB profiles out there are good only for screenshots in three maybe four lighting conditions and more likely better for heavy close ups DoF shots, than ingame vistas, not even mentioning gameplay.
Lighting mods
There are 4 essential:
Realistic Lighting With Customization - looks decent/great, but 3.5 version is outdated and 4.0 will be released in February, so its not really contender now. Although, screens from 4.0 looks amazing and i think that this will be the best lighting mod out there, just not now
RCRN v36 HDR Your AllinOne Lighting and Immersion - its hyped and endorsed by many, but for me it looks really poor. Its dark even in high sun and has awful contrast, to that degree that You cant see most of texture details on shadowed NPCs. It adds red-like filter to textures in most lighting conditions i've tested. Tweaking attached SweetFX doesnt help much. Do not recommend.
Ultra Realistic World Lighting - didnt try it out, but its the least feature set from all 4 and it does not look great on examples.
Project Reality Climates Of Tamriel - it has vanilla Skyrim lighting and 2000 new ones, it alters nights with customizable settings, it adds atmosferic sounds and over 500 weather conditions. They've also announced that Realistic Lighting with Customization 4.0 will be compatibile with this mod, so You will have best of both worlds. I'm using it personally. They even have tested ENB profiles linked on their mod site on nexus too.
=====
ENB modifications
Most of them are crap as i said earlier, but tool is extremely uselful none-less.
First of all, it alters contrast and colors, which means that it can eliminate white haze of Vanilla Skyrim, enhance colors of textures and affect shaders too. It also fixes Skyrim shadows quite bit even on lowest settings. SSAO and indirect lighting is good, but its expensive and if You expect high performance, You will probably turn it off. Depth of field is another great addition, but You have to be aware that is performance hog.
I've checked 30 pages of ENB mods on Nexus and found only two viable profiles for color corrections. This is, how most popular profiles look like in real gameplay ;\
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/15105-2-1342971847.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/15105-4-1351219171.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/21123-3-1351625186.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/21123-2-1349680659.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/21123-1-1350131615.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/4142-1-1326045040.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/15105-2-1339857319.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/5253-1-1326027884.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/5253-1-1325935705.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/20781-3-1350507666.jpg
When it looks good, it looks amazing, but when it misses the lighting condition it was tweaked up for, it looks horrible. Its blurred, oversatured, overlighted and sometimes it has tons grain filter and even chromatic aberration added.
But then, i've found this gem -> Phinix Natural ENB http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24235
Its compatible with Climates of Tamriel and its tweaked for realism.
It has performance options too. I'm using highest performance preset and turn off Sun Rays and Detailed Shadows in ini. It takes max 5-7 fps from 60.
If You have better GPU or Your target is locked 30fps and want Depth of Field badly [cant blame You], download Franks ENB Dof and Shadows ENB[/link] and copy its enbeffectprepass.fx file to Phinix ENB. For fastest DOF use ENABLE_SMART_APERTURE and ENABLE_SIMPLE_DOF, it cost me around 5-7 fps, but looked good enough.
I would use it, if 50fps wasnt priority for me, or there was motion blur mod somewhere If You can lose about 15 fps, there is fast bokeh dof that looks outstanding
DYNAVISION mod is pure crap, dont bother with it.
Old comparison shots
http://i6.minus.com/iGjHvfatfl3mv.png
http://i4.minus.com/ibmbsxnIS8zPxQ.png
http://i6.minus.com/iPh90BjXxp12z.png
http://i1.minus.com/ibeUiImybYQGqJ.png
-----
I've made also some research on shadows with ENB enchantments, because i always hated selfshadowing in Skyrim.
Thankfully ENB is really powerful tool and helps with that. Look at this:
I've achieved that with shadow resolution set to 512! Self-shadowing is great overall, but there are some minor flickering issues in some situations, but they can be fixed completely by using 2048 shadow resolution which is still cheap [on my setup its 2-3fps max in heavy situations].
Ini commands
My skyrim.ini, skyrimpref.ini and enbseries.ini files
http://pastebin.com/qQHXwgM6
====
This what i'm playing in almost always locked 50fps on i5 2500k, GTX 560 and 8GB DDR3 in 1280x1024 with 4x TRMSAA
More here: http://kkrt.minus.com/mbu07o1BnxdICK
===
Must have texture mods: (remember about 1024k versions!)
* Vurts Skyrim Flora Overhaul
* TreesHD
* Enhanced Distant Terrain
* Skyrim Realistic Overhaul
* JaySuS Swords
* Immersive Armors
* Relighting Skyrim
* HD Furniture and barrels
* Enhanced Night Skyrim
* XCE - Xenius Character Enhancement
* WATER
* High Quality Food and Ingredients
* Texture Optimizer
All my mods:
===
TL:TR:
* If You have 1GB GPU and plan to get back into Skyrim or tweak its performance, definitely read this post
* if You hate ENB profiles, read this post
* If You are looking for cheap shadow improvement or Depth of Field, read this post
* If You are looking for nice lighting mod, read this post
* if You are planning to buy new video card, consider buying higher RAM version, it should pay off in future, although 3GB is enough for everything
--------------------
So, after reading topic about Requiem - The Oldschool Roleplaying Overhaul mod, i had to buy Dawnguard and start Skyrim once again. Thats the mod, i've been waiting since release. Me, like to me, couldnt just start game and play, i need the best optimized experience i can get, but being out of Skyrim Mod loop for almost a year, cost me few days of intensive research.
Thankfully, on Requiem project site, there is mod compatibility list that made some of my searching easier and because, i knew about ENB projects, Vurt's Flaura overhaul etc, i could install NMM [Nexus Mod Manager] and start downloading right away.
My first wrong assumption was that i had good enough PC [i5 2500k, GTX 560 and 8gb DDR3], because i can run Crysis 2, BF 3 and Crysis 3 Alpha on 60fps/high without problems and its been a year, so all those patches should fixed most of the issues [like fucking stupid shadows implementation! or stuttering], so i've downloaded all high textures mods that didnt brake art of Skyrim and ones that enhance gameplay
This my initial mod list, with Bethesda HD pack included: http://i5.minus.com/ib0EE1Ce0tL4Mp.jpg
Boring explanation
I've downloaded them, switch off two mods that causes crashes [Lighting during Thunderstorm and Khajit Speech] and run the game. I've used, not shown there, Alternate Start mod [great mod, highly recommended] and started near Solitude for testing.
Game run in average 40-50 fps in 1280x1024 4x TRMSAA with ugrid 7, 4096 shadows, ultra settings most of the time. But it wasnt good enough for me, for two reasons: one because fps was unstable and could sink to low 40 in certain areas, even when i decreased shadows res to 2048, but mostly because even if fps was stable like 50-55, but i looked somewhere else, it would sink for a second to 20-25fps and then spike again to 55fps. I tried to lock game in 30 fps, but mouse motion was jerky at best. Motion blur would solve it, but ... why the hell there is no mod for it yet?! I've got some successes in locking game in 45fps to get better mouse and screen response, but it wasnt good enough with fps spikes every 30 seconds.
Now, it was time to realize why my PC isnt good enough. This game just doesnt have proper streaming and LoD tech, so my 1GB VRAM on GPU just wasnt enough for those textures packs. I knew in that moment, that i would have long research ahead of me, especially because there is almost no research about it anywhere.
So, i've redownloaded Skyrim and started fresh with save near Solitude. One by one, i was testing textures packs and options and this what i found out:
Essential part:
VRAM discussion
Rendering VRAM cost
* Render resolution doesnt affect textures VRAM cost [logical, but its Bethesda engine, i had to test it
]* 800x600 to 1280x1024 jump takes only 16MB VRAM more! and thats 2.7 times more pixels
* 800x600 no AA jump to 4x TRMSAA cost only 15MB VRAM, but 1280x1024 no AA jump to 4x TRMSAA cost 140mb VRAM
* 1024->2048 shadow res jump takes 20mb VRAM, 1024->4096 takes 215MB VRAM, all looks like crap, so bother going higher than 2048, i'll write later about better tool for enhancing shadows
[ENB sections]Textures packs VRAM cost
* Bethesda HD Pack takes 480mb of VRAM and looks like crap - turn it off!
* Vurt Fauna Overhaul 1024k [low res version] and W.A.T.E.R take 90-100mb VRAM
* HD Trees for Vurt's Overhaul takes 120MB VRAM
* Weapon and skin Mods like XCE, Jaysus or Immersive Armors or any situational textures [like food, cloth or furniture ones] dont take much in global scale, so use them freely
* Distant Textures HD - only 12MB, highly recommended
* Skyrim Realistic Overhaul 1024k version takes only 100-110mb, highly recommended and they are good enough in this resolution
Of course, You dont need to be below 1gb to dont have GPU stalls, because Skyrim loads textures much in advance and it not that keen to free them when You dont use some cells, so You can have easily 300mb overlap. I think, that my setup uses around 1.3GB VRAM max, but dont have any way to test it
Last important tweak regarding textures is to use Texture Optimizer tool. Just set it to Maximum and Skyrim in presets and set it for texture folder in Skyrim/Data/ - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12801
---
Performance tweaks:
Generate Skyrim ini's [My Documents/My Games/Skyrim] with this site http://online-source.net/tools/cfg-makers/skyrim-cfg-maker/
But remember to override Skyrim.ini with those values, because this tool generates it sometimes lower and it affects performance greatly
fMasterFilePreLoadMB=100.0000
iPreloadSizeLimit=209715200
Use Nvidia Inspector for framerate cap [ENB cap is bad], i recommend also to use higher Maximum Pre-rendered Frames, like 6 [default is 3]. It increases input lag, which isnt important as much in Skyrim, but decreases stuttering from GPU stalls.
What is strange, that my Skyrim is always v-synced, no matter what i use in ini, the only way to disable V-Sync is to force V-Sync off in Nvidia Inspector, but its not worth, because Skyrim lose syncs really badly. I dont care about v-sync in most of games, but in Skyrim, off-sync looks ugly.
I've read that its better to set Skyrim AA options exactly like in Nvidia Inspector to make it work correctly. This is my nvidia profile:
---
Lighting Tweaks.
Ok, this the point that is completely subjective, but probably all of You saw those mindblowing ENB shots with high Bokeh DoF, tweaked shaders and changed colors. The truth is that 99% ENB profiles out there are good only for screenshots in three maybe four lighting conditions and more likely better for heavy close ups DoF shots, than ingame vistas, not even mentioning gameplay.
Lighting mods
There are 4 essential:
Realistic Lighting With Customization - looks decent/great, but 3.5 version is outdated and 4.0 will be released in February, so its not really contender now. Although, screens from 4.0 looks amazing and i think that this will be the best lighting mod out there, just not now
RCRN v36 HDR Your AllinOne Lighting and Immersion - its hyped and endorsed by many, but for me it looks really poor. Its dark even in high sun and has awful contrast, to that degree that You cant see most of texture details on shadowed NPCs. It adds red-like filter to textures in most lighting conditions i've tested. Tweaking attached SweetFX doesnt help much. Do not recommend.
Ultra Realistic World Lighting - didnt try it out, but its the least feature set from all 4 and it does not look great on examples.
Project Reality Climates Of Tamriel - it has vanilla Skyrim lighting and 2000 new ones, it alters nights with customizable settings, it adds atmosferic sounds and over 500 weather conditions. They've also announced that Realistic Lighting with Customization 4.0 will be compatibile with this mod, so You will have best of both worlds. I'm using it personally. They even have tested ENB profiles linked on their mod site on nexus too.
=====
ENB modifications
Most of them are crap as i said earlier, but tool is extremely uselful none-less.
First of all, it alters contrast and colors, which means that it can eliminate white haze of Vanilla Skyrim, enhance colors of textures and affect shaders too. It also fixes Skyrim shadows quite bit even on lowest settings. SSAO and indirect lighting is good, but its expensive and if You expect high performance, You will probably turn it off. Depth of field is another great addition, but You have to be aware that is performance hog.
I've checked 30 pages of ENB mods on Nexus and found only two viable profiles for color corrections. This is, how most popular profiles look like in real gameplay ;\
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/15105-2-1342971847.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/15105-4-1351219171.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/21123-3-1351625186.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/21123-2-1349680659.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/21123-1-1350131615.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/4142-1-1326045040.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/15105-2-1339857319.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/5253-1-1326027884.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/5253-1-1325935705.jpg
http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/20781-3-1350507666.jpg
When it looks good, it looks amazing, but when it misses the lighting condition it was tweaked up for, it looks horrible. Its blurred, oversatured, overlighted and sometimes it has tons grain filter and even chromatic aberration added.
But then, i've found this gem -> Phinix Natural ENB http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24235
Its compatible with Climates of Tamriel and its tweaked for realism.
It has performance options too. I'm using highest performance preset and turn off Sun Rays and Detailed Shadows in ini. It takes max 5-7 fps from 60.
If You have better GPU or Your target is locked 30fps and want Depth of Field badly [cant blame You
], download Franks ENB Dof and Shadows ENB[/link] and copy its enbeffectprepass.fx file to Phinix ENB. For fastest DOF use ENABLE_SMART_APERTURE and ENABLE_SIMPLE_DOF, it cost me around 5-7 fps, but looked good enough. I would use it, if 50fps wasnt priority for me, or there was motion blur mod somewhere
If You can lose about 15 fps, there is fast bokeh dof that looks outstanding DYNAVISION mod is pure crap, dont bother with it.
Old comparison shots
http://i6.minus.com/iGjHvfatfl3mv.png
http://i4.minus.com/ibmbsxnIS8zPxQ.png
http://i6.minus.com/iPh90BjXxp12z.png
http://i1.minus.com/ibeUiImybYQGqJ.png
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I've made also some research on shadows with ENB enchantments, because i always hated selfshadowing in Skyrim.
Thankfully ENB is really powerful tool and helps with that. Look at this:
I've achieved that with shadow resolution set to 512! Self-shadowing is great overall, but there are some minor flickering issues in some situations, but they can be fixed completely by using 2048 shadow resolution which is still cheap [on my setup its 2-3fps max in heavy situations].
Ini commands
bShadowsOnGrass=1 can be costly [max 6 fps], but adds a lot to image quality.skyrimperf.ini said:
enbseries.ini (EnableDetailedShadow=true) said:
My skyrim.ini, skyrimpref.ini and enbseries.ini files
http://pastebin.com/qQHXwgM6
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This what i'm playing in almost always locked 50fps on i5 2500k, GTX 560 and 8GB DDR3 in 1280x1024 with 4x TRMSAA
More here: http://kkrt.minus.com/mbu07o1BnxdICK
===
Must have texture mods: (remember about 1024k versions!)
* Vurts Skyrim Flora Overhaul
* TreesHD
* Enhanced Distant Terrain
* Skyrim Realistic Overhaul
* JaySuS Swords
* Immersive Armors
* Relighting Skyrim
* HD Furniture and barrels
* Enhanced Night Skyrim
* XCE - Xenius Character Enhancement
* WATER
* High Quality Food and Ingredients
* Texture Optimizer
All my mods:
===
TL:TR:
* If You have 1GB GPU and plan to get back into Skyrim or tweak its performance, definitely read this post
* if You hate ENB profiles, read this post
* If You are looking for cheap shadow improvement or Depth of Field, read this post
* If You are looking for nice lighting mod, read this post
* if You are planning to buy new video card, consider buying higher RAM version, it should pay off in future, although 3GB is enough for everything
Great post!
I'm thinking of getting back to Skyrim (probably won't before Dragonborn) because in ~150hrs I've barely scratched the surface and even though I already have it, I haven't done any of the Dawnguard content either. Only thing that I'd love is a way to limit the fps with an ATI card (5850) because I hate the little stuttering and 30fps would be just fine for me.
I'm thinking of getting back to Skyrim (probably won't before Dragonborn) because in ~150hrs I've barely scratched the surface and even though I already have it, I haven't done any of the Dawnguard content either. Only thing that I'd love is a way to limit the fps with an ATI card (5850) because I hate the little stuttering and 30fps would be just fine for me.
Thank you for this.
I also started replaying with Requiem as well.
It's a love-hate relationship with that mod.
Certain things are great, then others are baffling like fucking with the flow of caverns. 1-2 dude encounters throughout, then the last room will have 10-20 motherfuckers waiting to push your shit in.
I will now read your list as skimming through it, it will certainly be pertinent to my interests.
Thank you again.
I also started replaying with Requiem as well.
It's a love-hate relationship with that mod.
Certain things are great, then others are baffling like fucking with the flow of caverns. 1-2 dude encounters throughout, then the last room will have 10-20 motherfuckers waiting to push your shit in.
I will now read your list as skimming through it, it will certainly be pertinent to my interests.
Thank you again.
Keep in mind that for at least one or two weeks most mods wont be compatible with Dragonborn and can cause some issues.
I also started replaying with Requiem as well.
It's a love-hate relationship with that mod.
This mod is fun and hard as hell
I had mind fuck moment today, because i couldnt sell anything. Everything i owned had 0 value. I've searched for mod compatibilities and so on and finally found a post that said that when You are naked, Your social status decreases drastically and NPCs wont trade with You, and by accident i sold my fine cloths on vendor and didnt bother to rebuy them till i find some light armor Man I did the changes to the ini files but my game doesn't look like that. And it doesn't run that smooth either. Though I am playing at 1080p so maybe these settings aren't meant for me. Also might be because I'm not running the same mods. Fuck.. let me see how I'm supposed to clean up my mods and install the ones you listed.
Can I just disable mods from the NMM and enable new ones and it'll be as if I never had the old ones there?
Can I just disable mods from the NMM and enable new ones and it'll be as if I never had the old ones there?
What ENB are You using? Whats Your specs and what graphical mods do You have?
i7 930
GTX 570
6GB RAM
I just installed the ENB you mentioned above, Phinix. My mods are as follows:
Currently downloading the Skyrim Realistic Overhaul that you mentioned in your post.
Ok, Unpack that ENB somewhere and go to PNENB\3-Options\_optionalPerformance\2-HighestPerformance and copy that enbseries.ini to Your \skyrim\ folder
Then open that enbseries.ini in skyrim folder and edit it like this
Turn off all anisotropic filtering options in nvidia enhancer, like here http://i7.minus.com/jbiIk10G8D4gEl.jpg
In Documents\My Games\Skyrim in skyrimpref.ini
Instal Climates of Tamriel and enjoy 60fps Your 570 should be around 20% faster than my 560, so You should handle 1080p similar me in 1280x1024, so locked 50 fps most of the time with 4x TRMSAA, but i'm not sure.
Download XCE too, its basically one mod that changed most of characters models and textures to better ones
Ps. My skyrim.ini, skyrimpref.ini and enbseries.ini files
http://pastebin.com/qQHXwgM6
Then open that enbseries.ini in skyrim folder and edit it like this
Turn off all anisotropic filtering options in nvidia enhancer, like here http://i7.minus.com/jbiIk10G8D4gEl.jpg
In Documents\My Games\Skyrim in skyrimpref.ini
Instal Climates of Tamriel and enjoy 60fps
Your 570 should be around 20% faster than my 560, so You should handle 1080p similar me in 1280x1024, so locked 50 fps most of the time with 4x TRMSAA, but i'm not sure.Download XCE too, its basically one mod that changed most of characters models and textures to better ones
Ps. My skyrim.ini, skyrimpref.ini and enbseries.ini files
http://pastebin.com/qQHXwgM6
Piercedveil
Member
I appear to have made the fatal mistake of messing with my uGrids.. which is quite a coincidence since I see some of you guys have been talking about problems with uGrids
Anyway, I had my uGrids set at 7 for some reason (I don't even remember messing with them) and thought I'd set it back to 5 to see if my performance would be a little better. Followed a guide telling me to go in-game and switch it through the console. Easy enough. Did that and when I finished and tried to play the game, I saw that red tint you guys were talking about. First loading screen crashes the game every time now. Reinstalling the game since I tried some fixes but none seemed to work.
So basically, is my save gone for good? I made a backup of my folder first, btw.
Anyway, I had my uGrids set at 7 for some reason (I don't even remember messing with them) and thought I'd set it back to 5 to see if my performance would be a little better. Followed a guide telling me to go in-game and switch it through the console. Easy enough. Did that and when I finished and tried to play the game, I saw that red tint you guys were talking about. First loading screen crashes the game every time now. Reinstalling the game since I tried some fixes but none seemed to work.
So basically, is my save gone for good? I made a backup of my folder first, btw.
I appear to have made the fatal mistake of messing with my uGrids.. which is quite a coincidence since I see some of you guys have been talking about problems with uGrids
Anyway, I had my uGrids set at 7 for some reason (I don't even remember messing with them) and thought I'd set it back to 5 to see if my performance would be a little better. Followed a guide telling me to go in-game and switch it through the console. Easy enough. Did that and when I finished and tried to play the game, I saw that red tint you guys were talking about. First loading screen crashes the game every time now. Reinstalling the game since I tried some fixes but none seemed to work.
So basically, is my save gone for good? I made a backup of my folder first, btw.
uGrid 7 is basically safe and You shouldnt have issues with reverting it back. Use script, save on new slot, exit game, change ugrid in ini and load save and it should be fine.
Piercedveil
Member
But I can't even access that save now. I try to play my save, loading screen appears for about 2 seconds, and then crashes to desktop. I've even tried making a new save and changing back to 7, but it still won't let me access my original save
Karak
Member
But I can't even access that save now. I try to play my save, loading screen appears for about 2 seconds, and then crashes to desktop. I've even tried making a new save and changing back to 7, but it still won't let me access my original save
So if you change it in the ini back to 7(without the game running), save the ini file, and then start the game, load that save it still crashes?
But I can't even access that save now. I try to play my save, loading screen appears for about 2 seconds, and then crashes to desktop. I've even tried making a new save and changing back to 7, but it still won't let me access my original save
What about auto-saves? You shouldnt lose too much with only one save corrupted.
Piercedveil
Member
Okay, I figured it out! There was another ini created for some reason in my Data folder and I dragged it out on to my desktop, loaded my game up, and it works fine now. I tried that earlier but it didn't seem to have an effect. This time I also disabled my mods completely. I will have to try putting my mods back on and see if that has any effect.
Glad my 110 hour save is not lost
Ok I did all of that. I just downloaded Climates of Tamriel and I'm not sure what option to choose. It sounds awesome to have it as dark as it should be during the nights but I don't have much experience with the game. Won't having to carry around a torch make fighting hard? Won't me carrying a light source mess up my stealth game?Ok, Unpack that ENB somewhere and go to PNENB\3-Options\_optionalPerformance\2-HighestPerformance and copy that enbseries.ini to Your \skyrim\ folder
Then open that enbseries.ini in skyrim folder and edit it like this
Turn off all anisotropic filtering options in nvidia enhancer, like here http://i7.minus.com/jbiIk10G8D4gEl.jpg
In Documents\My Games\Skyrim in skyrimpref.ini
Instal Climates of Tamriel and enjoy 60fps
Download XCE too, its basically one mod that changed most of characters models and textures to better ones
Ps. My skyrim.ini, skyrimpref.ini and enbseries.ini files
http://pastebin.com/qQHXwgM6
BTW KKRT00 thanks a lot. Game looks fantastic and runs great now. I followed your instructions and it worked like a charm.
Now I'm having trouble with that mod, climates of tamriel. It's awesome, I was in a crazy heavy snow storm and was amazed at how it looked. What I don't like is that inside dungeons and outside late at night I can't see jack shit. It's waaaaaay too dark. I'll try using the level 3 option or whatever the last one was (i have it at lvl 1 right now) but I'm not too sure it will make the nights bearable.
For nights, i'm using setting level 3 and for rest vanilla CoT settings, but i also have modified a little interior lighting in enbseries.ini
[ENVIRONMENT]
PointLightingIntensityInterior=0.92
DirectLightingIntensityInterior=1.75
This mod is nice too
Relighting Skyrim - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17609
[ENVIRONMENT]
PointLightingIntensityInterior=0.92
DirectLightingIntensityInterior=1.75
This mod is nice too
Relighting Skyrim - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17609
BIG TEXT OVERLOAD AHEAD
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Thanks a lot for this post. I'm new to pc gaming and modding so this was a big help.
Thank you for that great post.
Nonetheless some of those ENBs look like they were thrown at a skyrim-version which was already tweaked with lighting mods (like realistic lighting: CoT etc.) and thus gave such bad results.
That or the ENBs in question were just really bad.
A good ENB is tweaked for almost all possible weather + light situations, thats the reason why most of them require you to either install specific lighting mods or to have installed none.
