Skyrim

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m1r4cul1x

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m1r4cul1x

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About this mod

Solution for too dark shadows with the Sharpshooter ENB. Recommended for usage with Bigger Trees, Ultimate Lush Overhaul etc.

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Changelogs


I don't claim that this is a perfect ENB or solves all of your problems. However, maybe it solves a few of them.
Also this is 'only' an adjustment - you could also say a correction - of the Sharpshooter ENB, which is based on the well known ENB postprocessing mod.


DON'T WANNA READ? JUST JUMP TO IMPORTANT, SOLUTION AND THAN PERFORMANCE & ADJUSTMENT

I CAN HIGHLY RECOMMEND USAGE OF THE FOLLOWING MODS
There are more, but I definetly won't list all my mods :D, just as a start, these should be used.

PERFORMANCE
  • Texture Optimizer plus INI & HowTo from Thorne67 - this reduces the micro stu-u-t-t-tering to a minimum or lets it even disappear completely!!! Highly recommended! However don't use it on BSA files (simply untick BSA) and make a backup of your Data folder before, just in case!
  • Skyrim Project Optimization - if necessary, gives fps boost in some places via occlusion.


TEXTURES


LIGHTING & WEATHER



IMPORTANT: DO THE FOLLOWING...

ALTER YOUR SkyrimPrefs.ini (C:\User\YOURNAME\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\) THE WAY IT GENERALLY IS ALTERED FOR ENB, MEANS IT MUST HAVE THESE LINES:

bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bShadowsjavascript-event-stripped1


Add these lines to your Skyrim.ini (C:\User\YOURNAME\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\) under 'Camera' if the DepthOfField annoys you in third person or on a horse:

fOverShoulderAddY=0.0 //non-existing
fOverShoulderPosZ=18.0 //non-existing
fOverShoulderPosX=0.0 //non-existing
fOverShoulderCombatAddY=0.0 //non-existing
fOverShoulderCombatPosZ=24.0 //non-existing
fOverShoulderCombatPosX=0.0 //non-existing
fOverShoulderHorseAddY=-72.0 //non-existing
fOverShoulderHorsePosZ=50.0 //non-existing
fOverShoulderHorsePosX=35.0 //non-existing
fActorFadeOutLimit=-100 //non-existing
f1st3rdSwitchDelay=0.95 //non-existing
iHorseTransitijavascript-event-stripped001 //non-existing


TURN YOUR INGAME BRIGHTNESS ALL THE WAY DOWN, THIS IS GOING TO BE MANAGED BY ENB
ALSO INGAME ANTIALISING AND ANISOTROPIC FILTERING CAN BE TURNED OFF -> ENB

AND INSTALL THIS PARTICLE PATCH BY MINDLUX

...OTHERWHISE THIS SETTING WON'T LOOK LIKE IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE.


____________________________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION
Main complaint about Sharpshooters ENB are too dark shadows.
This problem is caused by the great, very high contrast and saturation values in the ENB (which are main reasons for picking it -> wow effect).
The dark shadows don't seem that much of a problem, because they are only in a few spots really recognizable.


THE PROBLEM
However, as soon as you use mods as ULTIMATE LUSH OVERHAUL, Bigger Trees or both (looks awesome), the shadow problem increases together with the by the mods increased trees and their shadows. Most people just pick another ENB or stop using the named mods, although they greatly increase immersion.

But if you just don't want to waive them AND the clear and sharp immersion of a Sharpshooter ENB, then you start manipulating the enbseries.ini on your own. That mostly ends with many wasted hours and only little or none of the wished effect, frustration though. I went down that path myself several times. One solution I found on Nexus was a manipulated Sharpshooter ENB , which basicly just increased AmbientLighting and Brightness to an extent that the shadows very well turned transparent again instead of the dead dark deepness they were before.

But the clarity and sharpness in the carefully adjusted Sharpshooter ENB just drowned in blending light, too much saturation and cheesy colours. The problem, but also the greatness of ENB comes from its possibility to reach a goal in many different ways. That means that if you adjust a few values, as AmbientLighting/DirectLighting etc., you also have to patiently adjust and test most of the other values to keep a sharp and clear look.


THE SOLUTION
Long story short, I think I managed resolving the too dark shadows and keeping the Sharpshooter look. Additionally I did the ENB seperation in enbseries. ini and enblocal.ini to the Sharpshooter V3, which is done in ENB 0.227. I also slightly mindered saturation to make the overall look a bit more realistic, but without killing the Sharpshooter-WOW-effect.
____________________________________________________________________________________________


PERFORMANCE & ADJUSTMENT!
  • Shift + Enter (opens enb settings ingame for live adjustments)
  • Shift + F12 [turns it off/on]
  • Shift + * (turns on a fps counter)

Of course you can also use a Text Editor, however that's way more complicated.

In case the performance sucks for you, turn off these under effects:
EnableAmbientOcclusion (can give you 5-10fps boost and doesn't change the overall appearance that much)
EnableDepthOfField (performance boost is not that strong - 1-2fps - wouldn't turn it off, because it has a major effect on the appearance)

Or you can try experimenting with the antialising in the "Global" window above all the other settings (you have to scroll down, till antialising):
EnableEdgeAA
EnableTemporalAA
EnableSubPixelAA
EnableTransparencyAA


In case You want/have to adjust this setting further the key terms are:
  • SKYLIGHTING (Not really used by sharpshooter, although it is the problem solver for the shadows. I think the sharpshooter settings - although they get updated - don't always go along with the changes in how ENB processes things.)
  • AMBIENTLIGHTING (light all things give off)
  • DIRECTLIGHTING (light from the sun/above)
  • POINTLIGHTING (light from sources as fires)
  • GRADIENTINTENSITY (sky lighting intensity)
  • GADIENT DESATURATION (sky color richness)
  • CLOUDSINTESITY (clouds lighting intensity)
  • CLOUDSDESATUARTION (color richness of the clouds)


If you want to adjust overall Contrast and Saturation better leave the enbseries.ini be, but use the values in the enbeffect.fx:
EIntensityContrastV2
EColorSaturationV2



FINAL WORDS
Feel free to give feedback and improvement suggestions. Now have fun with this ENB.



CHANGELOG
1.4
If you guys don't consider something wrong or not fitting, this is probably going to be the final release for a while. Maybe only some minor chanes/fixes. Now the ENB should be mostly apropriate to all times - inside and outside, at sunrise, sunset, day and night - some weathertypes from mods might not look totally perfect, but somewhere there has to be made a compromise between all the different weathers/places/daytimes.

  • updated to ENB 0.229
  • added water parallax settings from ENB 0.229
  • added ENBboost (now you can pick enblocal.ini for your graphic card)
  • based on Enhanced Lighting and FX now
  • overworked the whole sky settings to all times
  • readjusted sun, moon and star
  • lowered adaption massively (as it made you literally blind when you carried a torch at night or used a fire spell... not to speek of being roasted by a dragon)
  • changed fire a bit
  • strongly decreased lens reflection
  • readjusted volumetrcifog
  • slightly raised ambient lighting during night
  • slightly increased SpecularAmount
  • readjusted pointlighting
  • readjusted particle settings
  • finally adjusted distant landscape settings (no more bright blue mountains in the morning or overly foggy distant landscape to daytimes, evenings or in the night)
  • sometimes when you climb a mountain: The border between sky and that thing what Skyrim considers earth, but actually is hundreds of meters above it -.- this boder can be reduced by ENB, but then distant landscape looks crap. As you do not see that border so often ingame, I considered the landscape more important. Sorry for that, but this is a game issue.


1.3
Did a lot this time, now the different settings fit way better to different times/weathers.
  • reworked clouds and gradient settings (now appropriate to day, sunset, night and sunrise)
  • adjusted star intesity
  • adjusted aurora (night) settings (now lower, was way over the top)
  • reworked particle settings (smoke etc. now appropriate to day, sunset, night and sunrise)
  • reworked fire settings (now better (appropriate?) to day, sunset, night and sunrise)
  • reworked lightsprite settings (affects fires, candles and lanterns etc., now appropriate to day, sunset, night and sunrise)
  • adjusted pointlighting (was too strong, recognizable at night, sunrise/sunset)
  • tried to adjust subsurfacescattering properly (affects the appearance of skin)


1.2
  • balanced ambient lighting for days/nights/interiors again (day shadows were slightly too dark)
  • slight performance tweaks (quality of filters etc.)


1.1
  • less ambient lighting (now less glowing grass/ground, appropriate to all times)
  • altered pointlighting (more intensive, now also apropriate during night, sunrises and sunsets)
  • altered adaption (less intensive during day)
  • altered volumetricfog (less glowing, appropriate to all times)
  • altered direct lighting during night
  • altered fire during day
  • altered reflection (little bit less and more blurred)
  • turned off rain effects -> usage of rain mods which give a better look