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Please post in new thread [Skyrim] & [The Elder Scrolls]

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Posts

  • Ninja Snarl PNinja Snarl P My helmet is my burden. Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    MechMantis wrote:
    MechMantis wrote:
    rayofash wrote:
    My younger sister went through Skyrim without leveling once, it was actually a lot easier. Are there any mods that balance the game to make it more like Morrowind where leveling actually has value?

    Oblivion had the exact same problem. Mainly due to scaling in general.

    The exact same problem that Skyrim doesn't have.

    What, the enemies scaling off your level instead of your skill levels? The entire reason why sitting at level 1 the entire game turns you into a pocket god?

    No, the enemies having a minimum and maximum level range relative to your own. E.g., a dungeon might be 10-20, or 30-40, etc. If you go to the first dungeon at level 1, everything is going to be scaled at minimum to level 10, and if you go in the second, a minimum level 30.

    Have you played through the entire game without leveling? I find it hard to believe it makes you more of a "pocket god" than hitting level 50 and having a bunch of 100-skill perks.

    The warrior I made first and the mage I use now are both in the forties with essentially maxed relevant skills for them. The mage is damned nightmare; endless fireballs, double thralls, and doing crap like getting flying dragons down to zero health before they can even manage to crash-land. He can still die if I'm stupid, but otherwise he's just an unstoppable hellstorm. The warrior is just a monstrous tank. Barrels through most everything with no problem and is basically unkillable, either by magic or physical combat; constantly lopping off heads to boot.

    In either situation, I can't help but think of how lame it would be to lose all of those perks just to keep your level low. Without using the perks, you're losing out on most of what makes Skyrim an RPG. Sure, you can do that if that's your thing, but it's a waste if all you want is just to make yourself super-strong. 100 on Smithing and Enchanting with the right perks is way more fun in a game-breaking sense then enemies just being constantly weak. You wouldn't even have to use potion glitches to do it; Smithing and Enchanting are plenty game-breaking with what they can legitimately. For instance, my warrior and his axe are so strong thanks to perks that I gain soul charge on the weapon because he can kill things so easily (perk for recharging weapons from kills).

    Ninja Snarl P on
  • XeddicusXeddicus Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    I've been avoiding the game/thread waiting for the toolset to hit, but has this been posted yet?

    Smart Souls.

    It needs repeating if it has.

    Xeddicus on
  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    I just went cavorting around the southern forests and dammit I could take screenshots all day. There were some amazing little areas, too, such as a tiny pond of water hidden down a small slope in the middle of the forest. There was nothing of importance there, no books nor weapons to find; it was just gorgeous and believable.

    kxJkElxUtF8F6.jpg kBJoVLkHvDQe7.jpg
    k1qEoQsLtXwO6.jpg k4BPGyhtKKN2.jpg
    kbukg4YwJO6YUd.jpg kCepFyG4TBz39.jpg

    Dashui on
    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Spellsword all the way! One-hander and a spell in my off-hand has been extremely enjoyable thus far.

    I love setting fools on fire and then chopping them down. The extra damage done to enemies on fire has been pretty key so far. I'm thinking I'll go for the fire specialization that causes enemies to run scared when low on health.

    I tried for a period using a two-hander and swapping back and forth between spells and melee, but I kept getting wrecked by a group of tough thugs that came after me in town. It wasn't until I switched back to my primary setup that I was able to down them. It's a bit of a shame because I normally like swinging around massive hunks of steel.

    I haven't been playing long, but I just discovered how to bind things to the number keys. Should make my life a heck of a lot easier. That would have been nice if it were explained ingame. :S

    Ragnar Dragonfyre on
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  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Oblivion pretty much set every monster identical to your strength all the time no matter what. Skyrim doesn't work that way at all.

    No it didn't. People wildly, wildly exaggerate the problems with Oblivion's levelling.

    Personally I'm amazed that TES games are the only games in the world where people are enraged and confused by the concept of a game becoming more challenging as it gets closer to the end.

  • VedicIntentVedicIntent Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Oblivion pretty much set every monster identical to your strength all the time no matter what. Skyrim doesn't work that way at all.

    No it didn't. People wildly, wildly exaggerate the problems with Oblivion's levelling.

    Personally I'm amazed that TES games are the only games in the world where people are enraged and confused by the concept of a game becoming more challenging as it gets closer to the end.

    Yeah, but Oblivion made that late-game difficult curve in a way that was weird, and stupid, and kind of lazy. Broke-ass bandits rolling up on you with gear that costs as much as a house? Wolves that take more than one swing of a sword that can drop a Minotaur? The wilderness ends up being a frustratingly difficult place to explore, in that almost everything is sort of a PITA.

    I like that in Skyrim a bear goes from monstrous poopants-inducer to an annoyance once you grow up. The difficulty ain't perfect, but at least I'm not thinking WHY THE FUCK DID THEY DO THAT constantly.

    Edit: Including the quote would be helpful...

    VedicIntent on
    VT09mOz.png
  • HeisenbergHeisenberg Registered User regular
    Dashui wrote:
    I just went cavorting around the southern forests and dammit I could take screenshots all day. There were some amazing little areas, too, such as a tiny pond of water hidden down a small slope in the middle of the forest. There was nothing of importance there, no books nor weapons to find; it was just gorgeous and believable.

    kxJkElxUtF8F6.jpg kBJoVLkHvDQe7.jpg
    k1qEoQsLtXwO6.jpg k4BPGyhtKKN2.jpg
    kbukg4YwJO6YUd.jpg kCepFyG4TBz39.jpg

    Why is your saturation/contrast so messed up?

  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    Heisenberg wrote:
    Dashui wrote:
    I just went cavorting around the southern forests and dammit I could take screenshots all day. There were some amazing little areas, too, such as a tiny pond of water hidden down a small slope in the middle of the forest. There was nothing of importance there, no books nor weapons to find; it was just gorgeous and believable.

    kxJkElxUtF8F6.jpg kBJoVLkHvDQe7.jpg
    k1qEoQsLtXwO6.jpg k4BPGyhtKKN2.jpg
    kbukg4YwJO6YUd.jpg kCepFyG4TBz39.jpg

    Why is your saturation/contrast so messed up?

    FXAA Post Processing mods... likely Realistic Colors and Real Nights: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1875

    steam_sig.png
  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Realistic Colors doesn't it make it look like that alone. It's mostly the ENB mod that does. Not a fan? It was also evening in those shots so it was darker than it otherwise would be. Here are a few different shots:

    k9BgvYqkUgFF0.jpg k1gjNmVA4MG6n.jpg ku6jA8R8D7OfK.jpg

    And here's a small comparison (I have more here) of vanilla, Realistic Colors, and Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB + Realistic Colors:

    kbrA7R4GZb4DV3.jpg kgmFY2hhJu4qA.jpg kbkAZsMXJAWmqd.jpg
    kXgjD8z4bUk54.jpg kVHq7Fhm2rwff.jpg k99Uaorm5YyrR.jpg
    kVQNdilxLOAM7.jpg kmRhH7XczYsMD.jpg kur0wBeXWhiRC.jpg

    The ENB-based mods aren't quite perfect yet, and there are a hundred damned configurations out there, but they do do some great stuff with light sources. Realistic Colors by itself is much more consistent and less system intensive, which is why I don't yet have an ENB mod in the OP.

    Dashui on
    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    I must have whatever mod combination resulted in the bottom right screenshot.

    must. have.

    Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB + Realistic Colors, you say?

    EDIT: Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB is one fuck of a mod name, I have to say.

    MechMantis on
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    Guys: What do I have to delete or whatever to reset my "save counter" to 0?

    This is a totally OCD question/issue but I restarted once already and noticed that my save counter remained at what it was before.

    I want to start over again and I'd like to start over at 0 saves.

    Also, how do I stop myself from overencumbering myself from the intro? I left the keep carrying like 400 pounds of imperial armor. How do I stop myself?

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    MechMantis wrote:
    I must have whatever mod combination resulted in the bottom right screenshot.

    must. have.

    Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB + Realistic Colors, you say?

    EDIT: Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB is one fuck of a mod name, I have to say.


    Yep, that's the combo I use. It does make Winterhold and other light sources look amazing. You'll want to first install Realistic Colors, then rename its d3d9.dll file to something else, such as d3d9injFX.dll. Then install the ENB mod, open its enbseries.ini file and change the lines under [PROXY] to this:

    EnableProxyLibrary=true
    InitProxyFunctions=true
    ProxyLibrary=d3d9injFX.dll (or whatever you renamed Realistic Color's .dll to)

    The cool thing about this is that you can toggle on and off each mod individually - ENB off but Realistic Colors on, Realistic Colors on but ENB off, both on, both off, for example. It makes it easy to compare the mods to each other, with each other and to vanilla, or turn off one half if I don't quite like what one mod does to a certain area.

    Dashui on
    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • Blackbird SR-71CBlackbird SR-71C Registered User regular
    I just can't figure out the timing on shadow warrior! I tried pressing both attack and sneak at the same time and with delays, I've tried attacking right when becomming invisible and it just won't work. Its weird because it worked almost fine a bit ago when I fough against a few Draugr and Imperial guards but now it doesn't work at all anymore. Is there a trick to this that I'm missing?

    steam_sig.png
    Steam ID: 76561198021298113
    Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird

  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    Dashui wrote:
    Realistic Colors doesn't it make it look like that alone. It's mostly the ENB mod that does. Not a fan? It was also evening in those shots so it was darker than it otherwise would be. Here are a few different shots:

    k9BgvYqkUgFF0.jpg k1gjNmVA4MG6n.jpg ku6jA8R8D7OfK.jpg

    And here's a small comparison (I have more here) of vanilla, Realistic Colors, and Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB + Realistic Colors:

    kbrA7R4GZb4DV3.jpg kgmFY2hhJu4qA.jpg kbkAZsMXJAWmqd.jpg
    kXgjD8z4bUk54.jpg kVHq7Fhm2rwff.jpg k99Uaorm5YyrR.jpg
    kVQNdilxLOAM7.jpg kmRhH7XczYsMD.jpg kur0wBeXWhiRC.jpg

    The ENB-based mods aren't quite perfect yet, and there are a hundred damned configurations out there, but they do do some great stuff with light sources. Realistic Colors by itself is much more consistent and less system intensive, which is why I don't yet have an ENB mod in the OP.

    That night shot looks AMAZING! Holy shit.

    That said, the daytime shot of the statue looks like the blacks are being crushed. Too much detail is being lost for my tastes.

    I really want to tinker with this myself... but I just want to play :( I may just install realistic nights alone.

    steam_sig.png
  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Realistic Colors makes ENB darker. Unfortunately I haven't taken any screenshots of Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB by itself yet. I can go take screenshots of those three locations again with only ENB for you. Just give me a few minutes and they'll be up.

    Dashui on
    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • JoolanderJoolander Registered User regular
    is there a link to Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB? I can't seem to find it

  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    Joolander wrote:
    is there a link to Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB? I can't seem to find it

    Here you go: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=822

    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    Oblivion pretty much set every monster identical to your strength all the time no matter what. Skyrim doesn't work that way at all.

    No it didn't. People wildly, wildly exaggerate the problems with Oblivion's levelling.

    Personally I'm amazed that TES games are the only games in the world where people are enraged and confused by the concept of a game becoming more challenging as it gets closer to the end.

    Yeah, but Oblivion made that late-game difficult curve in a way that was weird, and stupid, and kind of lazy. Broke-ass bandits rolling up on you with gear that costs as much as a house? Wolves that take more than one swing of a sword that can drop a Minotaur? The wilderness ends up being a frustratingly difficult place to explore, in that almost everything is sort of a PITA.

    I like that in Skyrim a bear goes from monstrous poopants-inducer to an annoyance once you grow up. The difficulty ain't perfect, but at least I'm not thinking WHY THE FUCK DID THEY DO THAT constantly.

    Edit: Including the quote would be helpful...

    Yeah, Oblivion was screwed up. I remember I did a ton of sidequests before starting the main quest because I heard the main quest started opening the Oblivion portals and kind of fucked with the main world. When I *did* try to start the main quest, I was so ridiculously high level that the NPCs (which for some reason didn't scale) would be one-shotted by monsters. Monsters that hit like trucks, but were so trivial for me because I had 100% chameleon and poisons that could knock them out in one shot without them ever seeing me. At that point the game stopped being fun and I kind of gave up. I never did end up beating it because of that (though I was the leader of all three guilds :P)

    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Alright, I've taken those three shots of Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB by itself. From left to right, they're vanilla Skyrim, Realistic Colors 1.5 by itself, Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB 102e + Realistic Colors 1.5, and then Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB 102e by itself:

    kbrA7R4GZb4DV3.jpg kgmFY2hhJu4qA.jpg kbkAZsMXJAWmqd.jpg kLToy5QHsXXbw.jpg
    kXgjD8z4bUk54.jpg kVHq7Fhm2rwff.jpg k99Uaorm5YyrR.jpg kbt2uKI0aIPrcJ.jpg
    kVQNdilxLOAM7.jpg kmRhH7XczYsMD.jpg kur0wBeXWhiRC.jpg kCjbyMLNa1gHY.jpg

    Dashui on
    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    At this point I'm just gonna wait another 20 minutes.

    Dashui's gonna pull ANOTHER mod combination out of his ass that makes everything look even better based on the last current while.

    MechMantis on
  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    Dashui wrote:
    Alright, I've taken those three shots of Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB by itself. From left to right, they're vanilla Skyrim, Realistic Colors 1.5 by itself, Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB 102e + Realistic Colors 1.5, and then Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB 102e by itself:

    kbrA7R4GZb4DV3.jpg kgmFY2hhJu4qA.jpg kbkAZsMXJAWmqd.jpg kLToy5QHsXXbw.jpg
    kXgjD8z4bUk54.jpg kVHq7Fhm2rwff.jpg k99Uaorm5YyrR.jpg kbt2uKI0aIPrcJ.jpg
    kVQNdilxLOAM7.jpg kmRhH7XczYsMD.jpg kur0wBeXWhiRC.jpg kCjbyMLNa1gHY.jpg

    Niice! That fourth row looks fantastic. I'll be trying out the Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB 102e tonight.

    steam_sig.png
  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    MechMantis wrote:
    At this point I'm just gonna wait another 20 minutes.

    Dashui's gonna pull ANOTHER mod combination out of his ass that makes everything look even better based on the last current while.

    I have gone a little mad recently testing and taking screenshots of various ENB mods. I've only shared the results of ES FX Pure ENB here. There are so many God damned different user configurations uploaded on the Nexus that keep getting linked around or endorsed and I've tested a good portion of them.

    I've had complaints with most, such as nights being too dark or too bright, water glitches, fucked up grass colors, etc. The Enhanced Shaders ENB configuration is the only one that's been visually consistent for me, and it's also the most popular. There's also a Vanilla Plus version of Enhanced Shaders FX, but I'm currently more a fan of what Pure ENB does with light sources than Vanilla Plus.

    Realistic Colors is an FXAA Post Process Injector-based mod with a few sprinkles of its own tech. I've had absolutely no problems or complaints with it, it's the best of that bunch, and so I'm done experimenting with other FXAA PPI-based mods.

    Dashui on
    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • JoolanderJoolander Registered User regular
    Thanks @Dashui

    ok, someone please explain to me what "Ambient Occlusion" is

  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Joolander wrote:
    Thanks @Dashui

    ok, someone please explain to me what "Ambient Occlusion" is

    That's SSAO. You can think of it like extra shadowing, and it absolutely kills performance. I leave that option off.

    Edit: Rangar explained it better. It looks good, but it really does tank my framerate.

    Dashui on
    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    Joolander wrote:
    Thanks @Dashui

    ok, someone please explain to me what "Ambient Occlusion" is

    It better simulates the way light radiates in real life.

    Say you're looking at a really bright spotlight, then you move behind a tree. That spot light, if it's powerful enough, will bleed around the edges of the tree. That's ambient occlusion at work.

    steam_sig.png
  • SoundsPlushSoundsPlush yup, back. Registered User regular
    Looks like I'm going to have to pick up the ENB series - the warmth of the lighting in that Windhelm combo shot is perfect. I have realistic colors/nights and love it during the day, and how it makes night look like night instead of eagle-eyed twilight, but I toggle it off in dungeons because it's too dark at times. Everything looks so washed out without it though so it never stays off long.

    s7Imn5J.png
  • JoolanderJoolander Registered User regular
    hmm

    would leaving that out be what makes the shadows look kind of blurry and blocky, and characters in sunlight have white outlines around them?

    (like in this picture)
    gooddeath.th.jpg

    because Id like to fix that if possible

  • JoolanderJoolander Registered User regular
    Joolander wrote:
    Thanks @Dashui

    ok, someone please explain to me what "Ambient Occlusion" is

    It better simulates the way light radiates in real life.

    Say you're looking at a really bright spotlight, then you move behind a tree. That spot light, if it's powerful enough, will bleed around the edges of the tree. That's ambient occlusion at work.


    oh ok that makes sense

  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    Looks like I'm going to have to pick up the ENB series - the warmth of the lighting in that Windhelm combo shot is perfect. I have realistic colors/nights and love it during the day, and how it makes night look like night instead of eagle-eyed twilight, but I toggle it off in dungeons because it's too dark at times. Everything looks so washed out without it though so it never stays off long.

    If you have both installed, you could leave ENB enabled but toggle Realistic Colors off when you're in dungeons. That way you'll get slightly darker and more vibrant dungeons without blinding yourself. And then you can turn Realistic Colors back on when you get outside.

    It's fun to experiment with the both of them in your game. SHIFT + F12 will toggle the ENB mods on and off, and PAUSE will toggle Realistic Colors on and off.

    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    So, Dashui...

    Just so I don't end up spending as much time as you have (because fuck, I obsess over visual tweaks too), can I just drop the Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB into my data folder and go without any tweaking to get the results you did in the fourth column?

    As much as I love modding my gaming experience, I just don't want to spend a ton of hours that I could use to be playing. :lol:

    EDIT: I should add that, in essence, occlusion is what allows an object to be blocked from the players view by another piece of geometry.

    At it's most basic form, without occlusion everything in a video game would be a huge transparent mess.

    Ragnar Dragonfyre on
    steam_sig.png
  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    So, Dashui...

    Just so I don't end up spending as much time as you have (because fuck, I obsess over visual tweaks too), can I just drop the Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB into my data folder and go without any tweaking to get the results you did in the fourth column?

    As much as I love modding my gaming experience, I just don't want to spend a ton of hours that I could use to be playing. :lol:

    Yes, that's all you have to do.

    The ENB mods do include an FPS limiter, though, that you may want to enable if you've noticed your game stuttering. Gamebryo is kind of a fucked up engine, and ATI/AMD cards don't entirely play nice with it, either, and so the game can visibly stutter if the framerate drops even by a single digit (modded or not). It was driving me crazy. Enabling the limiter and setting it to 32 frames fixed that issue for me.

    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    Dashui wrote:
    So, Dashui...

    Just so I don't end up spending as much time as you have (because fuck, I obsess over visual tweaks too), can I just drop the Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB into my data folder and go without any tweaking to get the results you did in the fourth column?

    As much as I love modding my gaming experience, I just don't want to spend a ton of hours that I could use to be playing. :lol:

    Yes, that's all you have to do.

    The ENB mods do include an FPS limiter, though, that you may want to enable if you've noticed your game stuttering. Gamebryo is kind of a fucked up engine, and ATI/AMD cards don't entirely play nice with it, either, and so the game can visibly stutter if the framerate drops even by a single digit (modded or not). It was driving me crazy. Enabling the limiter and setting it to 32 frames fixed that issue for me.

    I haven't experienced any stuttering, but I'll definitely keep that in mind if the mod causes any. Thank you!

    steam_sig.png
  • KoldanarKoldanar Registered User regular
    MechMantis wrote:
    I must have whatever mod combination resulted in the bottom right screenshot.

    must. have.

    Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB + Realistic Colors, you say?

    EDIT: Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB is one fuck of a mod name, I have to say.

    Is there a performance hit to using these?

    3DS friend code : 1375 - 7258 - 4504
  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Koldanar wrote:
    MechMantis wrote:
    I must have whatever mod combination resulted in the bottom right screenshot.

    must. have.

    Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB + Realistic Colors, you say?

    EDIT: Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB is one fuck of a mod name, I have to say.

    Is there a performance hit to using these?

    I read on the mod page that the creator took a hit of losing at most of 3FPS... but lots of users get no hit whatsoever. YYMV basically.

    Ragnar Dragonfyre on
    steam_sig.png
  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Koldanar wrote:
    MechMantis wrote:
    I must have whatever mod combination resulted in the bottom right screenshot.

    must. have.

    Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB + Realistic Colors, you say?

    EDIT: Enhanced Shaders FX Pure ENB is one fuck of a mod name, I have to say.

    Is there a performance hit to using these?

    I read on the mod page that the creator took a hit of losing at most of 3FPS... but lots of users get no hit whatsoever. YYMV basically.

    Realistic Colors doesn't cost me anything. ENB mods do, however, but the impact is greater because I have an ATI card. It's anywhere from five to ten frames, depending on the location. That's partly why I haven't added an ENB mod to the OP until recently. If you have an Nvidia card, though, the impact is negligible.

    Anyway, I just finished taking the rest of the comparison screenshots for Pure ENB by itself. I'll be uploading them shortly. You can view all the comparisons I take here: http://minus.com/ambitious_pen

    Dashui on
    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • gilraingilrain Registered User regular
    I have a question about these d3d9.dll tweaks. I'd like to try using the setup @Dashui has, but I'm currently using that old d3d9.dll tweak that increases performance a ton. I can't find it anymore, and it never seemed to catch on, for some reason, but it drastically improved my framerate and allowed me to play on Ultra (with only shadows on High), when before I had to play on Medium.

    Is there a way to use both that d3d9.dll, for its performance enhancement, while still using these visual tweaks?

  • DashuiDashui Registered User regular
    gilrain wrote:
    I have a question about these d3d9.dll tweaks. I'd like to try using the setup @Dashui has, but I'm currently using that old d3d9.dll tweak that increases performance a ton. I can't find it anymore, and it never seemed to catch on, for some reason, but it drastically improved my framerate and allowed me to play on Ultra (with only shadows on High), when before I had to play on Medium.

    Is there a way to use both that d3d9.dll, for its performance enhancement, while still using these visual tweaks?

    I'm not sure if the d3d9.dll files the lighting mods include those optimization, but ENB lets you run two d3d9.dll files simultaneously. I'm guessing you could set the performance file as the proxy. However, you then wouldn't be able to use Realistic Colors with the ENB mod.

    Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
  • Free Giraffe Rides!!!Free Giraffe Rides!!! Registered User regular
    Joolander wrote:
    Thanks @Dashui

    ok, someone please explain to me what "Ambient Occlusion" is

    It better simulates the way light radiates in real life.

    Say you're looking at a really bright spotlight, then you move behind a tree. That spot light, if it's powerful enough, will bleed around the edges of the tree. That's ambient occlusion at work.

    Your example describes bloom lighting. It does not describe ambient occlusion.

    Ambient lighting is uniform background light. When it is occluded, shadows result. For games, these are not the same as shadows cast by specific light sources, like a flashlight.

    To determine whether a point is shadowed under AO, the computer must answer, "how much of the 'sky' is visible from this point?" If none of it is, that point is completely shadowed from ambient light. If all of it is visible, it is completely bright.

    It can add a whole lot of depth to the image:

    ssao.jpg

    It's not too amazing in Skyrim. You can see it in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Z8RKcCnJA

    In that video, there are multiple types of shadows. The AO is responsible for the sort of blobby ones underneath the grass.

  • gilraingilrain Registered User regular
    Dashui wrote:
    gilrain wrote:
    I have a question about these d3d9.dll tweaks. I'd like to try using the setup @Dashui has, but I'm currently using that old d3d9.dll tweak that increases performance a ton. I can't find it anymore, and it never seemed to catch on, for some reason, but it drastically improved my framerate and allowed me to play on Ultra (with only shadows on High), when before I had to play on Medium.

    Is there a way to use both that d3d9.dll, for its performance enhancement, while still using these visual tweaks?
    I'm not sure if the d3d9.dll files the lighting mods include those optimization, but ENB lets you run two d3d9.dll files simultaneously. I'm guessing you could set the performance file as the proxy. However, you then wouldn't be able to use Realistic Colors with the ENB mod.

    Thanks for the response. I actually just tried my game without the performance DLL, and... it runs great, still. I'm wondering if TESVAL is enough on its own, or maybe one of the updates improved performance and I didn't realize... not sure, but whatever! This frees me up to try these visual tweaks.

  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    I really like Enhanced Shaders by itself. Thanks Dash. Gonna install that bad boy and see where things go.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
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