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About this mod
A performance-friendly ENB for Aurelia Weathers with vibrant, clear, and comfy visuals.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
What manner of beast is this?
A performance ENB with high fantasy aesthetics.
'Fantasy Aesthetics' sounds vague.
To be specific, the primary inspiration comes from the visuals of Witcher 3 (with some cue from Outer Worlds). Additionally, I have also taken the liberty to include a few weather templates with Morrowind-like vibes.
Are performance ENBs a real thing?
To some degree, absolutely. tl;dr, this ENB aims to give you as much performance as possible without skimping out on the visuals. Read the next paragraph only if you want a detailed explanation of this.
A performance ENB with high fantasy aesthetics.
'Fantasy Aesthetics' sounds vague.
To be specific, the primary inspiration comes from the visuals of Witcher 3 (with some cue from Outer Worlds). Additionally, I have also taken the liberty to include a few weather templates with Morrowind-like vibes.
Are performance ENBs a real thing?
To some degree, absolutely. tl;dr, this ENB aims to give you as much performance as possible without skimping out on the visuals. Read the next paragraph only if you want a detailed explanation of this.
I write this from my experience of tinkering about with ENBs (and making a few presets from scratch). As you may know, ENB in general is a cumulative package of post-processing shaders which can be individually enabled/disabled. When you enable the ENB post-processing, you WILL get a certain amount of FPS hit even if you have ALL these shaders disabled. In addition, these shaders themselves all have varying degrees of FPS hit when you enable them - some huge, some of them close to zero. Case study: Stakado Cinemascope ENB. That ENB has almost zero performance impact because it uses a very old binary (i.e. ENB version). As a tradeoff, it lacks most of the modern ENB goodies. This ENB uses a newer binary (0.292). What I have attempted (and possibly succeeded) is in squeezing the most out of the ENB shader suite while keeping it lightweight. As a result, I do not use Depth of Field, SSAO, Skylighting and Sun Rays - the four largest performance-hogs. To break it down individually, what you get is: fixed shadows with blurred edges and no bugs/flickering that look decent even at low shadow settings. Secondly, you get distant mist to cover the notorious horizon seam and additional volumetric fog during certain weathers. Thirdly, there are sweet real-time cloud-shadows and, the last but not the least: volumetric rays pouring out of the sun. The fourth effect may look rather unrealistic, but this is a fantasy preset, right? All of these eat up a few frames when enabled, but they are a bang for you bucks when you compare performance cost to visual facelift. I will have to admit that the last two effects I mentioned do eat up ~4-8 fps depending on your rig, but I believe them to be necessary to execute the vision I have tried to achieve. If you want an example of a TRUE performance ENB, refer to my older CHIMERA Gritty preset that uses only [Shadows] and [Mist].
The following two are HARD requirements:
1. Aurelia - Weathers and Interiors
2. Realistic Lighting Overhaul (latest version)
Only install the vanilla Aurelia with no darker dungeons or darker nights.
You only need the RLO Interiors module for the ENB to look right, but feel free to use any/all other modules if you want to.
In your load order, RLO-Interiors.esp should be below Aurelia.esp.
Additionally, here are a few recommended mods:
1. Realistic Water Two OR Pure Waters
1. Aurelia - Weathers and Interiors
2. Realistic Lighting Overhaul (latest version)
Only install the vanilla Aurelia with no darker dungeons or darker nights.
You only need the RLO Interiors module for the ENB to look right, but feel free to use any/all other modules if you want to.
In your load order, RLO-Interiors.esp should be below Aurelia.esp.
Additionally, here are a few recommended mods:
1. Realistic Water Two OR Pure Waters
1. Get ENB binaries v0.292 from here. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the download button.
Open the downloaded .rar archive, and go into the WrapperVersion folder. From here, you only want the d3d9.dll and enbhost.exe files. Copy these files into your Skyrim installation directory (the folder where Skyrim.exe is).
2. Download my preset files, and put everything in the Skyrim installation directory (same folder as the last step). If prompts come up, overwrite files.
3. You need some INI Tweaking, but this can be done easily with BethINI. I HIGHLY recommend this tool for general tweaking of game settings. You will only need to set it up once! Download BethINI and extract the archive anywhere. Can even be on your desktop. Start BethINI and follow its directions. Once you locate your Skyrim and settings directory with it, you are good to go. For our current purposes, you need to do only one thing: tick the 'ENB mode' box at the bottom left corner, and then 'Save and Exit'.
4. Start your game up. If you experience stuttering, try changing ReservedMemorySizeMb to 256 in enblocal.ini (in your main Skyrim directory).
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Open the downloaded .rar archive, and go into the WrapperVersion folder. From here, you only want the d3d9.dll and enbhost.exe files. Copy these files into your Skyrim installation directory (the folder where Skyrim.exe is).
2. Download my preset files, and put everything in the Skyrim installation directory (same folder as the last step). If prompts come up, overwrite files.
3. You need some INI Tweaking, but this can be done easily with BethINI. I HIGHLY recommend this tool for general tweaking of game settings. You will only need to set it up once! Download BethINI and extract the archive anywhere. Can even be on your desktop. Start BethINI and follow its directions. Once you locate your Skyrim and settings directory with it, you are good to go. For our current purposes, you need to do only one thing: tick the 'ENB mode' box at the bottom left corner, and then 'Save and Exit'.
4. Start your game up. If you experience stuttering, try changing ReservedMemorySizeMb to 256 in enblocal.ini (in your main Skyrim directory).
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If you find yourself struggling to maintain 45fps or so, you might want to tweak your game settings. BethINI is great for this purpose. Here are the three biggest ways to alleviate performance issues:
1. Reduce resolution. Seriously, a lower-resolution game with ENB looks much better than higher resolution and no ENB.
2. Lower iShadowMapResolution to 1024/512 and fShadowDistance to 2800/2000. In BethINI, these are 'Shadow Resolution' and 'Exterior Draw Distance' under the Detail tab.
3. Reduce grass draw distance and grass density. The first one is 'Grass Fade' under 'View Distance' (I recommend <5000). The second one is 'Grass Density' under 'Visuals'. As you increase this value, your grass becomes less dense (does not affect plants/shrubs). I recommend 55 ONLY if you are using vanilla grass with no flora mods. If you want modded grass but with very little performance to spare, you can read the related sticky on the 'Posts' tab of this page.
1. Reduce resolution. Seriously, a lower-resolution game with ENB looks much better than higher resolution and no ENB.
2. Lower iShadowMapResolution to 1024/512 and fShadowDistance to 2800/2000. In BethINI, these are 'Shadow Resolution' and 'Exterior Draw Distance' under the Detail tab.
3. Reduce grass draw distance and grass density. The first one is 'Grass Fade' under 'View Distance' (I recommend <5000). The second one is 'Grass Density' under 'Visuals'. As you increase this value, your grass becomes less dense (does not affect plants/shrubs). I recommend 55 ONLY if you are using vanilla grass with no flora mods. If you want modded grass but with very little performance to spare, you can read the related sticky on the 'Posts' tab of this page.
