» Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:27 pm Introduction:
For the longest time I was reluctant to jump on the ENB bandwagon. There were so many configurations out there, and none of the screenshots seemed quite right for my personal taste. I also wasn't a huge fan of the depth of field effect most seemed to feature, which adds a blur to objects, depending on how far they are from where you are focused. (I have included this option, however.)
Anyway, somewhere along the way I was directed to Dorian G's fantastic ENB Customizer utility (see credits), which allows you to tweak virtually all of the settings available in v0.133 of the ENB wrapper, and so my journey towards ultimate screen space perfection began!
"I don't claim to be the best", as Adrianne Avenicci would say. Ultimately, a choice of configurations comes down to personal preference and the situation you will use it for. The real credit goes to Boris Vorontsov, author of the amazing ENBSeries which makes all of these post processing effects for Skyrim possible. I have simply chosen to make my own humble offering to the cause.
What sets this ENB apart from others? While most seek to increase vibrancy and contrast (which is admittedly awesome for screen shots), I endeavored to keep this more in line with the original "mood," colors and hues of Skyrim. All of the brilliant effects are there: SSAO, SSIL, DoF (if you choose), and everything you would expect from an ENB, however the colors and intensity of effects are more in line with what I find personally comfortable playing with.
What does that mean? Shadows and dark areas will be appropriately dark but visible (without requiring you to carry extra torches), lighting will be realistic and natural, and while you can use this configuration with mods that alter weather, lighting, fog, etc., it was designed to take the need for such adjustments into account. So, dungeons and night time scenes will look good even without additional modification.
As always with these customizations, I will let the screen shots speak for themselves! Keep in mind, some will have Depth of Field on (mostly those focused on a single NPC) while the majority have it off.
Installation:
First of all, download http://www.enbdev.com/mod_tesskyrim_v0113.htm from the enbdev.com website. Copy d3d9.dll from the "WrapperVersion" folder to your main Skyrim folder, saying yes to overwrite (this will also make sure you are using the right version and not one from another ENB, which is important).
Next, copy everything EXCEPT the "_optionalDOF" and "_optionalContrast" folders from this mod to your main Skyrim directory (should end in \Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim) saying yes to overwrite when prompted. If you use a custom sun or sunglare texture they will be overwritten, so if you decide you would rather use the ones you are used to you will need to copy them back over these, which are the vanilla sun and glare (which oddly I find tend to look the best.)
Optional Higher Contrast: If you find the default version somewhat "hazy" I have included an optional version with slightly increased contrast. See comparison images http://www.iparadigm.org/images/pnenb/compare/pnenb1.html, http://www.iparadigm.org/images/pnenb/compare/pnenb2.html, and http://www.iparadigm.org/images/pnenb/compare/pnenb3.html. You can move your mouse back and forth to see the difference interactively (big thanks to http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1411532-screen-shot-comparison-software/page__p__21548308#entry21548308 for the code!) You will need to temporarily disable any script blocking software like NoScript for Firefox for it to work. To use this version copy the enbeffect.fx file from the "_optionalContrast" folder to your main Skyrim folder, overwriting the one from the above install.
Optional Depth of Field: If you would prefer to use Depth of Field, which actually looks pretty cool (especially for screenshots), copy the enbseries.ini from the "_optionalDOF" folder to your main Skyrim folder, overwriting the one from the above install.
NOTE: This ENB configuration uses http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16233 (included), which is better than FXAA with less performance cost! Since this is already handling anti-aliasing it is best to un-check FXAA in the Skyrim launcher advanced options and set Antialiasing to Off. Also, leave anti-aliasing for Skyrim set to "application controlled" in your video card settings. It won't destroy your performance to have multiple anti-aliasing processes running, but I don't recommend it. Also, if you would prefer to use a different screen space anti-aliasing (like a custom FXAA), you will need to change the PROXY setting in enbseries.ini to point to the correct .DLL.
Credits:
- http://www.enbdev.com, for the core ENB that makes all these amazing post-processing effects possible!
- PNENB uses SMAA (SubPixel Morphological Anti Aliasing), Copyright ? 2011 by Jorge Jhymanz, Jose I. Echevarria, Belen Masia, Fernando Navarro, and Diego Gutierrez.
- http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17400, author of the ENB Customizer, which I highly recommend you download and experiment with on this or any ENB v0.133 configuration. Among other things you can easily increase/decrease the quality level of shadows, SSAO, and SSIL to best match your system.
- http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21912, authors of Countervibe ENB, which served as an inspiration and provided several useful edits and shader effect strategies for the tweaking! (Click http://www.iparadigm.org/images/pnenb/compare1.gif for a comparison between Phinix Natural ENB, Countervibe, and Vanilla Skyrim.)
- http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/822, author of Skyrim Enhanced Shaders FX, for providing a library of shaders and post processing effect strategies as an essential baseline reference.
- http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8005, for the insightful and easy to read guide to ENB tweaking.
BETHESDA SOFTWORKS for the coolest game in history!
Permissions:
As always when creating derivative ENB configurations, please credit those who's work served as template or reference to your own. I have no claim to the core ENB that enables all such mods to exist, however I would ask you not re-post or mirror this exact configuration anywhere without asking.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24235/
