53 replies to this topic

[evok99]

You get the download here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20770

If you would like your ENB reviewed, please visit Prpnnightmare's thread and request it here:
http://enbseries.enb....php?f=17&t=859

Remeber - Always give credit to the ENB author! oh...an endorse those authors to show your support

In the download you will find over 200 screenshots comparing the following ENB presets:

1. akiro unred enb via trustinall
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20326

2. Beautiful Skyrim - Unreal Vibrancy - ENB via UnrealWarfare
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15998

3. Cinematically Realistic ENB via Tywele
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20654

4. Eldyvision enb beta via celarion
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20455

5. ENB Next Generation via The Radik
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15826

6. ENBPM 4.0 via Pmind
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4577

7. Fimbulvinter ENB via 1000stenar
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15386

8. Imvisio Cinematic via Matso
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19379

9. Kalicola ENB v6 via kalicola
http://enbseries.enb....php?f=11&t=625

10. Midhrastic 2.7RC via midhras
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20429

11. Opethfeldt6 ENB via opethfeldt
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/18941

12. Project ENB Climates of Tamriel via Bronze316
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20781

13. Quietcool via wolfstryder
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16998

14. RCRN Legacy via fedorrrz
http://enbseries.enb...tart=3820#p8407

15. SESFX 1.1 preview via tapoiks
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/822

16. SYNERGY via JoPinapples68
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20741

17. TKF Cinematic via tkfernando
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20350

18. True Vision ENB via Bronze316
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15983

19. TV ENB 2_5 vi trillville
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11930

20. Velvet enb 1.0 (wip) via evok99
Release: tbd

21. Vibrant ENB via Kyokushinoyama
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20570

22. Winterfell V3 via youngneil1
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19661

This is PART 1 of my screenshot comparison. PART 2 will have skin tone, shadows, and dungeon comparisons sometime next week.


*If any ENB author is dissatisfied with their screenshots, send me a pm and I will see what I can do to fix it.

**When I first started taking screenshots, I had the ATI Catalyst set to override any program and for AA Supersampling. It seems that was not happening, so some screenshots do not have AA. My apologies.

I will be giving my breakdown and review for the ENB's I tested after PART 2 is uploaded. I have become very familiar with each ENB.

This took me many many hours to complete...and endorsement will be greatly appreciated.

Edited by evok99, 21 July 2012 - 07:06 PM.

[charon711]

I would also like to recomend:

Enhanced Vanilla ENB - Does a good job at keeping the vanilla skyrim color tones and look while giving the ENB goodies.

Skyrim Enhanced Shaders FX - ENB - How can you not have the most endorsed ENB?

[evok99]

Skyrim Enhanced Shaders FX - ENB was already covered in the previous thread. I'll take a look at Enhanced Vanilla ENB

[Staind716]

We have a new standalone ENB being beta tested now that will be uploaded soon. I wouldn't mind seeing it added if you think that's something you would be interested in. Here's a link to our thread with a few screenies so you can see if it's something you might want to add. I think it is unique enough to toss in the mix.

http://forums.bethso...eries-thread-3/

Edited by Staind716, 13 July 2012 - 10:52 PM.

[Señor Cinco]

I think this is a great idea to have with the latest ENBs. I agree with Charon and would also add to that...

Why not include a poll once everything is in place. It would be interesting to see what people favor in the test. I looked through the other slideshow and positioned it so I could judge each one without knowing what ENB I was looking at. I marked each one and I was surprised at the results.

Turns out, I favored...A Realistic Hope. Then I realized what I had actually picked and wasn't that surprised after all.

I like the dark nights - dungeons - interiors, plus the days were amazing. A great comparison set up and I look forward to yours.

EDIT : Funny, I should have done a blind test when that thread first came out.

Edited by Señor Cinco , 13 July 2012 - 11:21 PM.

[evok99]

I will add that ENB and implement a poll. I'lll try to have this updated by late Sunday night.

*Haha, I already have that ENB in the list as #4. I will rename it.

Edited by evok99, 13 July 2012 - 11:26 PM.

[Razor66]

The poll is missing my all-time favorite ENB, the QuietCool ENB.
While it might not have gotten much attention, this ENB has to be one of the most well-rounded (and faithful to the original) ones available and the mod author is even working on Project Reality compatibility to get the most out of it.

[evok99]

I will add QuietCool ENB.

[JimReapa]

you should include the enbs from the other thread - they may have been updated

sharpshooters enb aswell

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15105

[omphaloskepsis]

That's a great list, and I'd like to see QuietCool comparisons, too. Thanks for taking this on.

A comment about the previous thread: it took a lot of work to do that, and I appreciate it, but the screenshots were too low-res for some of the shots, and there are a few other issues. CLENB, for example, has (slightly) longer days and shorter nights then standard, so you have to take a sunset screenshot later to do a decent comparison. And unfortunately certain high-res textures look better in some ENBs than others. I wouldn't expect anybody to put that much effort into ti, but in an ideal world, a comparison would be something like "this is what this ENB config can look like with a little effort". As I said, I appreciated the previous albums, but they convinced me to try a couple configs that clearly "looked better" than others (to me), but were a disappointment when they were actually running. It's a trickier project than it sounds.

One possibility is an additional "best of" or "representative" album, that doesn't have to match, but shows off the highlights of a particular config.

Regardless, thanks for the effort, and I'll definitely be checking it out.

[godhugh]

I'll fourth the QuietCool recommendation, especially since he's in the process of putting together a version that will utilize Project Reality: Climates of Tamriel.

[evok99]

Winterfell, Sharpshooter, Skyrim Enhanced Shader FX added.

Edited by evok99, 15 July 2012 - 11:20 PM.

[Staind716]

Hi! Just wanted to ask you to use our new standalone Vibrant ENB instead of the Vibrancy in your comparison. We haven't yet updated Vibrancy with all the changes to 5.0 yet and it will be a massive overhaul. It will be a few days before we do and there will be a huge difference from what it is now. Thanks.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20570

[kalicola]

evok99: Great initiative. I know how much time it takes to do these comparisons, especially when some uses other lighting mods that requeres skyrim to restart..

I'm honored to see my ENB on the list, as I haven't done a prober release for it yet it will be interesting to see how it stands up to some of the big boys on that list.. I will do a prober release for it as soon as I got the time to do it. It has come along way since version 4 beta I might give you my beta 6, just so you have the latest version... I'm working on a trailer for it. Hope you don't mind me posting my work in progress trailer here.

Kalicola enhanced graphics enb trailer (work in progress)
http://www.youtube.c...e=youtu.be&hd=1

---

[Gram]

Excellent idea to run through more ENB mods - even though I have no clue what "ENB" stands for. I've been wanting something to visually enhance Skyrim for a while now, particularly with something to give me darker nights and underground areas, so that torches and lamps actually have a use. Nighttime doesn't need to be pitch black, of course, but vanilla nighttime is just too durned bright. Yes, in reality you can navigate pretty well with moonlight or even good starlight if you're on flat ground and you let your eyes adapt to the dark for a bit - but running around the hills or even on mildly uneven ground is tricky. Anybody sensible would use a torch or lantern unless they're trying to sneak up on somebody at night. Hell, with vanilla nights there's so much ambient light in the sky you can see features of buildings even when you're also looking in the direction of the full moon...which is highly unrealistic.

Several of those ENB mods in the original thread looked good, but having good and plausibly dark nights is key for me.

[Gram]

Hoo boy. I tried out A Realistic Hope and MAN did that slow things down. Still need to edit my INI files to their suggestions before I give it up, but it got unplayably slow.

[Señor Cinco]

Hoo boy. I tried out A Realistic Hope and MAN did that slow things down. Still need to edit my INI files to their suggestions before I give it up, but it got unplayably slow.

After my blind test of the first comparison, that one won out. It has a good effect and the nights are dark with a brilliant night sky. But it is a FPS hitter. As a matter of fact I think they all are. I usually take a 25% hit in certain areas and go from a constant 60 to 45. However, if you disable the SSAO, you will get a big boost in performance.

I don't mind a little FPS drop, once in a while, but the almost constant stutter is just too much. And I am too much of a tech idiot to trust in overclocking anything.

I am interested in seeing one that could be a potential complement to Project Reality.

[Karellan]

Great timing With features like actual parallax maps and sun rays, it's getting nearly essential to run ENB to get the highest quality graphics from Skyrim.

[Peter ID]

To throw in my two cents worth for a comparison:

Use only one texture pack (either DLC, Skyrim HD or Realistic Overhaul) so it is an equal comparison.

For those who do have a high end machine (and hopefully you do), I would like to see comparison on the highest quality settings.

Aside from that, whatever you do make, it is better than nothing So thanks up front.

[Gram]

After my blind test of the first comparison, that one won out. It has a good effect and the nights are dark with a brilliant night sky. But it is a FPS hitter. As a matter of fact I think they all are. I usually take a 25% hit in certain areas and go from a constant 60 to 45. However, if you disable the SSAO, you will get a big boost in performance.

I don't mind a little FPS drop, once in a while, but the almost constant stutter is just too much. And I am too much of a tech idiot to trust in overclocking anything.

I am interested in seeing one that could be a potential complement to Project Reality.

What's SSAO, precious?

This is the only ENB I've tried so far. Looks good, although I still haven't made their recommended INI edits yet.

And I could tell the frame rate was horrible even without anything to measure it beyond eyeballs. Very nice looking, but made only for the highest-end computers.

[omphaloskepsis]

What's SSAO, precious?

This is the only ENB I've tried so far. Looks good, although I still haven't made their recommended INI edits yet.

And I could tell the frame rate was horrible even without anything to measure it beyond eyeballs. Very nice looking, but made only for the highest-end computers.

SSAO is a form of ambient occlusion that is one of the big FPS killers. If you turn off depth of field and SSAO, you can probably run most ENB configs with only minor FPS loss.

In your skyrim parent directory (\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim), There's a config file called enbseries.ini.

A little down from the top is the [EFFECT] section.
EnableAmbientOcclusion=false
EnableDepthOfField=false

...this should return most of your lost FPS. SSAO essentially gives fancier shadows on objects that otherwise wouldn't have them. It definitely adds some depth to the game, and looks better, but it's not a requirement, and the vanilla game doesn't support the feature at all (though NVIDIA provided an even slower, unconfigurable SSAO option in their drivers shortly after Skyrim came out). You can google for SSAO comparison and look at screenshots, too.

[Gram]

Anybody wanna enlighten me on what the term "ENB" stands for and means?

A Realistic Hope is pretty unusable for me. Hellishly long load times, sluggish performance, and when I actually edited my INI files to their suggestions, caused an immediate CTD, no error message. Looks really nice, but God only knows how small the pool of people with the computing horsepower to run that mod must be.

EDIT: I'll try changing the SSAO then, and see how that works.

Edited by Gram, 16 July 2012 - 12:07 PM.

[evok99]

Hi! Just wanted to ask you to use our new standalone Vibrant ENB instead of the Vibrancy in your comparison. We haven't yet updated Vibrancy with all the changes to 5.0 yet and it will be a massive overhaul. It will be a few days before we do and there will be a huge difference from what it is now. Thanks.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20570

'

Done and done. BTW I started taking screenshots with your ENB first...very impressive.

[evok99]

evok99: Great initiative. I know how much time it takes to do these comparisons, especially when some uses other lighting mods that requeres skyrim to restart..

I'm honored to see my ENB on the list, as I haven't done a prober release for it yet it will be interesting to see how it stands up to some of the big boys on that list.. I will do a prober release for it as soon as I got the time to do it. It has come along way since version 4 beta I might give you my beta 6, just so you have the latest version... I'm working on a trailer for it. Hope you don't mind me posting my work in progress trailer here.

Kalicola enhanced graphics enb trailer (work in progress)
http://www.youtube.c...e=youtu.be&hd=1

---

That sounds great Kalicola! I would appreciate the beta 6, just send it to me over at the official enb series site.

I want to take these screenshots the right way. So, at the risk of embarassing myself...what do you mean restart Skyrim? How should I go about taking identical screenshots for each ENB? Any pointers on how I should do this in the most fair way possible?

[Gram]

I turned off the SSAO and left the DoF on, and it runs MUCH smoother now. Load times are still inexplicably long, but the game seems to otherwise work fine.

[evok99]

All screenshots will be taken as 32 bit, which is about 9mb pershot....BUT imgur will only let you upload 1mb files which means I will need to compress them. I will be taking most screenshots with 8x super-sampling AA. All settings maxed with many .ini tweaks for ultra detail. I will also showcase parallax mapping in solitude.

[Gram]

That sounds great Kalicola! I would appreciate the beta 6, just send it to me over at the official enb series site.

I want to take these screenshots the right way. So, at the risk of embarassing myself...what do you mean restart Skyrim? How should I go about taking identical screenshots for each ENB? Any pointers on how I should do this in the most fair way possible?

Make a save game in a particular location that has something you want to use to test an aspect of all the ENBs - water, the night sky and darkness, torches and other lights in dark places, sunrays, general daytime shots, dawn and dusk, and so forth. Install one ENB, load the save game, and immediately take a screenshot. Load another save highlighting something different, and immediately take another screenshot. When you've taken a screenshot for each save file for that ENB, exit the game, install a different ENB, start the game and repeat the process.

Keep each ENB's screenshots in their own folder, then post here with labels saying which screenshot is from which ENB.

It's a simple process, but tedious.

[Gram]

All screenshots will be taken as 32 bit, which is about 9mb pershot....BUT imgur will only let you upload 1mb files which means I will need to compress them. I will be taking most screenshots with 8x super-sampling AA. All settings maxed with many .ini tweaks for ultra detail. I will also showcase parallax mapping in solitude.

Won't compression kind defeat the purpose to some extent? Some ENBs' claim to fame seems to rest on their lifelike sharpness.

[kalicola]

That sounds great Kalicola! I would appreciate the beta 6, just send it to me over at the official enb series site.

I want to take these screenshots the right way. So, at the risk of embarassing myself...what do you mean restart Skyrim? How should I go about taking identical screenshots for each ENB? Any pointers on how I should do this in the most fair way possible?

I mean. If some ENB config is using URWL or realistic lighting or project reality or something like that. That means that you have to restart skyrim to make those esp files work, right? That means saving your game exactly where you want your screenshot, so it's at the right place when you reload that file right? Not totally sure about this... So if you can't just copy over the enb files, because other lighting mods are used, then it takes alot of time...

[Staind716]

'

Done and done. BTW I started taking screenshots with your ENB first...very impressive.

Thanks! Much appreciated and glad you like it.