ENB Comparison Shots 2.0

[guk]

Thanks. For "Grim and Somber", i suggest to take a look at "Hircine" and the other presets too.

 

"Azura" is a really extreme preset regarding colors, and not so easy for most people to create something good with.

With "Hircine" you can pretty much point the camera in a random direction anywhere in the game, and it will look great.

[ao2thend]

It would be interesting to see how each Grim and Somber ENB compares to the other.  

 

That's one (or I guess, what, like 7) ENB/s to cover already. 

[DurtyNelly]

Thanks. For "Grim and Somber", i suggest to take a look at "Hircine" and the other presets too.

 

Hircine is what I use. It's a beautiful preset. I love all of wolfgrimdark's presets, but I always come back to Hircine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Killing Joke]

And while i'm here, would anyone be interested in a 2.0 archive of Skyrim shots?  There are new ENB's out there as well as ones I didn't cover the first time around.

Yup, good idea. Also I've used quite a lot of ENB presets myself, I wouldn't mind to contribute with some screenshots comparisons too if you're interested. I'd only need places names/times/weathers to post the same.

[DurtyNelly]

Azura: 

 

 

 

 

 

Malacath:

 

 

 

 

[ao2thend]

 

And while i'm here, would anyone be interested in a 2.0 archive of Skyrim shots?  There are new ENB's out there as well as ones I didn't cover the first time around.

Yup, good idea. Also I've used quite a lot of ENB presets myself, I wouldn't mind to contribute with some screenshots comparisons too if you're interested. I'd only need places names/times/weathers to post the same.

 

 

Hmm.  That would be a tad difficult because any change in load order will result in a different looking shot.  I want to be as close as possible to having each shot be exactly the same.  I guess if you were to do your own sections of shots, then that'd be fine, but that would mean downloading and taking shots of each ENB that I do (and this could end up being a lot of shots).  

 

If your up for that, then i'm down with it.  

 

Hell, this could a community thing if people don't mind downloading and installing 15-40 different  ENB's and taking the shots.   

[Papermix]

K ENB always seems to stand out from the rest. It's just so... good. Nothing I've ever used comes close to it. I mean, that guy is incredible. Taking a look into his shaders just make my head spin. I just wish it didn't completely trash my system just to run it within a reasonable framerate, lol. I use 2x GTX 580s, and unfortunately it's just not enough. Especially since I only have 1.5GB of VRAM to play with.

[guk]

K ENB (...) that guy is incredible

Nexus mod page actually says the author is female

[ao2thend]

 

K ENB (...) that guy is incredible

Nexus mod page actually says the author is female

 

 

For K ENB?  This is what the author (Kyokushinoyama) always says with all his ENB's (its on the main page).  

 

I'm a 45 years old french divorcee with 4 kids I'm raising alone.

I'm writing it to clearly explain why I can't promise that I'll support my preset here night and day.

Actually, I won't. You need to help yourself before asking anything here.

I'm a gamer above all things, then a tweaker, then an amateur screenarcher, then a noob coder.

But please do remember I'm a father and real life matters first.

 

So unless there's some real gender confusion going on, I'm guessing Kyo is Male.  

[Rayblue]

Kyo's a dude. He's also present in ENBdev and Dead End Thrills.

 

 

A prime example of ENB creators changing their settings to make the perfect shot is Unreal.  Unreal has some of the best Skyrim shots ever, like EVER.  To achieve this, Unreal changes the ENB settings for every...single...shot...THAT'S CRAZY, but it works.  

(Unreal's work: https://www.flickr.c...ted/?view=lg/ )

 

Its also about the mods people use.  Textures, meshes, .ini tweaks, magic rituals, all kinds of things go into someone's Skyrim setup, and its hard to get the same quality as the person who made the ENB.  My "screens" Mod Organizer profile has around 122 mods that are Textures, meshes, or in some way directly connected to visuals.  And even with all that, I still can't compare to Prod with screenshots, even when using Prod's ENB.  So tweaking for the shots does come into mind.  Also, its the way someone makes the shot.  The FOV and framing of a shot can change the look drastically.  

 

Honestly, I think ENB presets can never be seen as the "finished product ready to be packaged, shipped and sent directly to your front door, all for one low flat rate" because ENB's change so many things and its never going to look quite as the creator intended.  The best way for people to use ENB's is for them to learn how to manage the settings and work with them to suit their own needs.  I have never had an ENB that I didn't change settings to.  And if I couldn't fix the problem, I moved on.  

 

 

Personally, instead of trying to replicate what they did (especially that they invested a considerable sum to get that perfect shot and to showcase the power of their hardware), I'm satisfied with my own caps despite system limitations, knowing that everyone's own configurations aren't made equal, not only with Skyrim but hardware setups.

[guk]

 

 

K ENB (...) that guy is incredible

Nexus mod page actually says the author is female

 

 

For K ENB?  This is what the author (Kyokushinoyama) always says with all his ENB's (its on the main page).

 

Hah alright... "divorcee" means "divorced woman" in my dictionary. Didn't read the rest.

[mindqontrol]

That is my main problem with a lot of ENBs.

 

Its like Mc Donalds photoshopping their hamburgers to look delicious and huge and perfectly made.

 

When you get it, they are tiny with little meat, taste disgusting and made really lazily.

 

Likewise, take Serenity/Tranquility ENB. He goes in and personally edits his own ENB and takes screenshots. But when you download them, they look nothing like his screenshots because essentially (I doubt he did, but same thing really) he photoshops his screenshots to look better to get more views and downloads. A lot of ENB creators do that, release lackluster settings and personally greatly enhance them for screenshots...so what the downloader get and what is in the screenshots by the author are two totally different things.

 

I don't know where you got that but that's totally baseless. prod80 doesn't do silent PS edits, nor he does do per-shot tweaks, afaik. he probably does use console stuff like setfog or whatever, but who doesn't ? The only reason it looks better in his shots than in your game is that he's running the game at obnoxiously high resolutions, which means essentially zero aliasing, a very sharp image and also totally unplayable framerates. He's also using extreme ini settings which are obviously very taxing too. Other than that, there's no hidden sorcery to what he's doing.

In fact, I'm willing to bet than on the first page of the most endorsed ENBs on nexus (that even includes the few shitty ones which Serenity definitely isn't a part of), none, or almost none of the creators do photoshop doctoring.

 

The ones that do photoshop edits - very often without saying it - are the screenarchers, not preset makers.

 

btw : when making comparisons you really have to make sure you're comparing at the same time of day and the same weather type (use fw xxx, or the weather control center mod, more user friendly). That technique of reloading the same savegame works for time of course, but I think it's not really foolproof for weathers, not too sure though. Anyway great job doing this ao2thend, that's a ton of work.

[NNS10]

If there is a difference in an ENB author's screenshots vs a user's in-game experience, one factor may be weather mods. They can affect lighting, which has a big impact on how the game looks.

[ao2thend]

 

That is my main problem with a lot of ENBs.

 

Its like Mc Donalds photoshopping their hamburgers to look delicious and huge and perfectly made.

 

When you get it, they are tiny with little meat, taste disgusting and made really lazily.

 

Likewise, take Serenity/Tranquility ENB. He goes in and personally edits his own ENB and takes screenshots. But when you download them, they look nothing like his screenshots because essentially (I doubt he did, but same thing really) he photoshops his screenshots to look better to get more views and downloads. A lot of ENB creators do that, release lackluster settings and personally greatly enhance them for screenshots...so what the downloader get and what is in the screenshots by the author are two totally different things.

 

I don't know where you got that but that's totally baseless. prod80 doesn't do silent PS edits, nor he does do per-shot tweaks, afaik. he probably does use console stuff like setfog or whatever, but who doesn't ? The only reason it looks better in his shots than in your game is that he's running the game at obnoxiously high resolutions, which means essentially zero aliasing, a very sharp image and also totally unplayable framerates. He's also using extreme ini settings which are obviously very taxing too. Other than that, there's no hidden sorcery to what he's doing.

In fact, I'm willing to bet than on the first page of the most endorsed ENBs on nexus (that even includes the few shitty ones which Serenity definitely isn't a part of), none, or almost none of the creators do photoshop doctoring.

 

The ones that do photoshop edits - very often without saying it - are the screenarchers, not preset makers.

 

btw : when making comparisons you really have to make sure you're comparing at the same time of day and the same weather type (use fw xxx, or the weather control center mod, more user friendly). That technique of reloading the same savegame works for time of course, but I think it's not really foolproof for weathers, not too sure though. Anyway great job doing this ao2thend, that's a ton of work.

 

 

Well to my knowledge, loading up a game that has previously used vanilla weathers will keep whatever weather was previously in that save.  So a "clear" day will still be a clear day, just with whatever changes the enb/weather plugin might make to the vanilla "clear" day.  At least that's what I found in my experience.  I also forced the weathers with SS Assist tools (clear, cloudy, rainy, snowy, etc).  And the third and final check to ensure that nothing was screwy with the weathers was to take the shot within the first 5-10 seconds of loading the save, so it didn't change on me.  That's about as scientific as I can get without making anything too complicated. 

 

As far as work load, the most time consuming part was waiting for the game to load.  Putting in the ENB, enabling the plugins and taking the shots were easy.  And posting it here took awhile (Like two freaking hours   ).  

[ao2thend]

Alright folks, it looks like the wheels are in motion.  I have downloaded all the ENB's I plan to look at.  Some ENB's will still be shunned even though they fit the criteria.  The reason for this is that all total I plan to compare 56 ENB's.  Yes, that's a lot.  

 

Some ENB's will be "related" meaning that they are made by the same author and similar by their very nature (the Grim and Somber series, Tundra, Aeon, etc). Some will be rather new and some are old classics.  There will be 8-15 shots for each ENB (depending on how many different things I want to compare).  

 

I won't be able to put these shots in a post like I did before because that's way too many shots.  Instead, I will put only one set of comparisons up, and put the rest in a archive that can be downloaded.  I don't know if the Downloads section of LL will allow for a file of that size but I also won't know just how big the archive is until i'm done so there's no way of knowing until i'm finished with the shots.  

 

So that's the plan anyway, lets hope it works.  

[Gumihoyah]

What intrests me the most during these enb comparisons is how it affects my character btw (inside and outside) so it would be sweet if those are compared aswel xD.

[guk]

If there is a difference in an ENB author's screenshots vs a user's in-game experience, one factor may be weather mods. They can affect lighting, which has a big impact on how the game looks.

 

Actually all ENBs have precise instructions about which lighting and weather mods they are designed for.

 

That is my main problem with a lot of ENBs.

Its like Mc Donalds photoshopping their hamburgers to look delicious and huge and perfectly made.

When you get it, they are tiny with little meat, taste disgusting and made really lazily.

Maybe some authors do photoshop, but it's more about finding a spot where you - first of all - have none of the lighting glitches in the picture that are native to the skyrim engine.

After that, you can sometimes spend an hour trying to find the perfect camera angle so the image composition and perspective are optimal.

 

Other than that, the whole idea behind ENB is to provide so many post-processing effects that the images already look like photoshopped. Just that they aren't.

 

One huge factor is downsampling, because none of the AA methods provide comparable quality. You also might notice that the downscaled images in the mod sites always look fantastic, but when you see them in original size you can see all the same glitches and imperfections like on your own screen.

[mindqontrol]

 

 

That is my main problem with a lot of ENBs.

 

Its like Mc Donalds photoshopping their hamburgers to look delicious and huge and perfectly made.

 

When you get it, they are tiny with little meat, taste disgusting and made really lazily.

 

Likewise, take Serenity/Tranquility ENB. He goes in and personally edits his own ENB and takes screenshots. But when you download them, they look nothing like his screenshots because essentially (I doubt he did, but same thing really) he photoshops his screenshots to look better to get more views and downloads. A lot of ENB creators do that, release lackluster settings and personally greatly enhance them for screenshots...so what the downloader get and what is in the screenshots by the author are two totally different things.

 

I don't know where you got that but that's totally baseless. prod80 doesn't do silent PS edits, nor he does do per-shot tweaks, afaik. he probably does use console stuff like setfog or whatever, but who doesn't ? The only reason it looks better in his shots than in your game is that he's running the game at obnoxiously high resolutions, which means essentially zero aliasing, a very sharp image and also totally unplayable framerates. He's also using extreme ini settings which are obviously very taxing too. Other than that, there's no hidden sorcery to what he's doing.

In fact, I'm willing to bet than on the first page of the most endorsed ENBs on nexus (that even includes the few shitty ones which Serenity definitely isn't a part of), none, or almost none of the creators do photoshop doctoring.

 

The ones that do photoshop edits - very often without saying it - are the screenarchers, not preset makers.

 

btw : when making comparisons you really have to make sure you're comparing at the same time of day and the same weather type (use fw xxx, or the weather control center mod, more user friendly). That technique of reloading the same savegame works for time of course, but I think it's not really foolproof for weathers, not too sure though. Anyway great job doing this ao2thend, that's a ton of work.

 

 

Well to my knowledge, loading up a game that has previously used vanilla weathers will keep whatever weather was previously in that save.  So a "clear" day will still be a clear day, just with whatever changes the enb/weather plugin might make to the vanilla "clear" day.  At least that's what I found in my experience.  I also forced the weathers with SS Assist tools (clear, cloudy, rainy, snowy, etc).  And the third and final check to ensure that nothing was screwy with the weathers was to take the shot within the first 5-10 seconds of loading the save, so it didn't change on me.  That's about as scientific as I can get without making anything too complicated. 

 

As far as work load, the most time consuming part was waiting for the game to load.  Putting in the ENB, enabling the plugins and taking the shots were easy.  And posting it here took awhile (Like two freaking hours   ).  

 

 

Aright, was really not sure to be honest, i just recalled that i did that once (reloading the same savegame multiples times) and it changed the weather type after a few times, so i assumed there was some sort of randomization going on. If you want to be 100% sure the fastest way is to open the ENB GUI, in profiler / stats (one of these two) and you can see the code of the current weather type. Anyway, good luck, that's a long endeavour

 

 

If there is a difference in an ENB author's screenshots vs a user's in-game experience, one factor may be weather mods. They can affect lighting, which has a big impact on how the game looks.

 

Actually all ENBs have precise instructions about which lighting and weather mods they are designed for.

 

That is my main problem with a lot of ENBs.

Its like Mc Donalds photoshopping their hamburgers to look delicious and huge and perfectly made.

When you get it, they are tiny with little meat, taste disgusting and made really lazily.

Maybe some authors do photoshop, but it's more about finding a spot where you - first of all - have none of the lighting glitches in the picture that are native to the skyrim engine.

After that, you can sometimes spend an hour trying to find the perfect camera angle so the image composition and perspective are optimal.

 

Other than that, the whole idea behind ENB is to provide so many post-processing effects that the images already look like photoshopped. Just that they aren't.

 

One huge factor is downsampling, because none of the AA methods provide comparable quality. You also might notice that the downscaled images in the mod sites always look fantastic, but when you see them in original size you can see all the same glitches and imperfections like on your own screen.

 

As I said, none do until proven otherwise. There are quite a few people doing it on flickr, in nexus top images or whatever, but they're not presets authors, just screenarchers. I'm pretty sure preset makers have more valuable stuff to do with their time than that.

[ao2thend]

Ok everyone, version 2.0 is online!  I edited the main page and added the archive there.  A few things to read and note so make sure you look at what I said.  

[guk]

Something's wrong with Mediafire, been waiting forever for the page to build and then it asks for some "authorize download" (still not finished loading though).

[ao2thend]

I was afraid there'd be some kind of issue with mediafire.  Did you that whole "type in the words on screen" thing?  I've tested it twice now and it works.  

[fizzybutt]

Just got done looking through them all, Really nice job. Thanks for showing framerates as well. Some of those enb's go so much into the DoF effect, my eyes did the happy dance on the ones that were more clear. 

[guk]

I was afraid there'd be some kind of issue with mediafire.  Did you that whole "type in the words on screen" thing?  I've tested it twice now and it works.  

 

Well the page is at least loading now within ~10 seconds, but the download speed says "8 days 12 hours remaining", so if it works fine for you then there probably is a bandwith issue from Mediafire <-> EU

 

 

MF usually runs with 0.5-2.0 MB/sec for me.

[ao2thend]

Just got done looking through them all, Really nice job. Thanks for showing framerates as well. Some of those enb's go so much into the DoF effect, my eyes did the happy dance on the ones that were more clear. 

 

No problem.  I myself enjoy a nice DOF, as long as it's not always in your face (which some are).  

[fizzybutt]

 

No problem.  I myself enjoy a nice DOF, as long as it's not always in your face (which some are).  

 

 

I like a tiny bit of DOF, but you're right, some of those were serious on the blur. With this new hardware I might be able to pull off using an ENB, though the gemFX/imaginatior/dynavision setup I have right now works pretty good. The only thing I really want is the bokeh and pretty rays of sunshine.  Everything else I love about it. The bf already runs Tundra (warm) and he likes it. Based on what you did, he might actually try Organic and see which one he likes better. (I'm partial to snapdragon and organic).