ENB Shadows not softening properly?

[FelesNoctis]

Alright, so this is very odd. Now, back before PerMa came out, I was preparing my build. I had everything installed that I wanted. In particular, I had installed ENB to use Project Parallax Remastered. When PerMa was released and I got everything patched up, my shadows were looking like this:

http://i.imgur.com/3XXsCH8.jpg

 

Look how smooth and wonderful they were! It was also interesting to see, because if I toggled ENB off and on, I could watch the parallax drop and the shadows go all jaggy, then back again.

 

However, I discovered that I could install RCRN through Mod Organizer, so I figured why the hell not? I installed it, everything looked great, but my poor system wasn't handling the combination of the heavy shaders and all the various scripts that were running. I decided to uninstall RCRN.

 

So now it's after RCRN was uninstalled. I proceeded to repeat the process for Project Parallax's settings for ENB, and now my shadows look like this:

http://i.imgur.com/5vy5Ign.jpg

 

Now, no matter what I do, no matter how much I fight it, I can't seem to get the shadows to cooperate and go smooth again. The parallax is working just fine, but I've messed with every ENB shadow setting I can think of, and nothing seems to have any effect. I can't explain it. I've reinstalled the ENB back to default settings, I've used what I assume were the backup files the RCRN installed made (.ini.bak? The modified date looked right), nothing seems to fix it. I did a bit of research and "UseBilateralShadowFilter=true" sounds like it should be what helps the shadows, but I see zero difference when I toggle that. And I'm pretty sure it was the ENB that made the shadows look like that originally, as I haven't touched the SkyrimPrefs.ini shadow settings, and like I said, I could toggle them on and off before.

 

I'm pulling my hair out over here. Anybody got some wisdom they can unload on me?

 

enblocal.ini: http://pastebin.com/vAtxqkBP

enbseries.ini: http://pastebin.com/ySWGdUK2

Edited November 15, 2014 by UltimateZero

[camaro_69_327]

HI,

 

Most everything is turned off for your ENB, Open the IN-game menu [shift+Enter] and try changing a few things...i will point out a few.

 

From ENB local...

[ANTIALIASING]

 

EnableEdgeAA=false <<<Normal AA turn on, =True

From Series INI...

[EFFECT]

UseOriginalPostProcessing=true <<<this is disabling ENB's POst provessing...turn ON ENB = False

UseOriginalObjectsProcessing=true <<<same you are using Skyrim's Processing...set False

EnableBloom=false <<<Diffidently set this TRUE.

EnableLens=false

EnableAdaptation=false <<<Make it like eyes in real life...adjust to Bright lights.

EnableDepthOfField=false<<<Cost about 3 -8 FPS ...worth it.

EnableAmbientOcclusion=false <<Another that will cost FPS...5?

EnableDetailedShadow=false <<<The Shadows are not even set ON...?? Make this TRUE

EnableSunRays=false<<< Low cost per visual...worth it.

EnableSunGlare=false <<<<

EnableSkyLighting=false <<<<

EnableImageBasedLighting=false <<<<

EnableReflection=false <<<<

EnableSoftParticles=false <<<<

EnableParticleLights=false <<<<

EnableSubSurfaceScattering=false <<<<

EnableWater=false <<<<

EnableUnderwater=false <<<<

EnableCloudShadows=true

EnableVolumetricRays=false <<<<

EnableProceduralSun=true

EnableMist=true

<<<< Settings with this are low cost but visually stunning. Turn everything ON!!

Everything Above are the Global settings for ENB....Start turning things ON,,,AO and DOF are gorgeous, but do cost FPS...At the top of the ENB Window you can see your FPS Keep an eye on it while you turn things ON.

 

Turning everything ON can cost a total of 30 FPS...yes costly but Gorgeous!!

EDIT:

The 3 bolded lines are the important ones..the top two , when set true are using Skyrims processing and NOT ENB's processing...set them FALSE.

Edited November 15, 2014 by camaro_69_327

[FelesNoctis]

I'm aware that most of the stuff in the ENB is turned off, because I'm not looking to use most of it. I'm one of those weirdos that prefers framerate over special effects. I CAN tell you that I'm 99.9% sure that I had both UseOriginalPostProcessing and UseOriginalObjectsProcessings both set to true for the first screenshot, and I'm pretty confident that EnableDetailedShadow isn't a part of what's making the shadows look smooth. I messed with all of those settings in different configurations last night trying to see if they did anything, and even cranking every option to on (even the ones that didn't actually touch shadows) did nothing to fix the jagged edges. Which is why I'm at a loss.

 

Right now in fact I tried your suggestions and changed all the settings, just to make sure. And then I cranked it up all the way just to be COMPLETELY sure.

http://i.imgur.com/X0E1Z70.jpg

Not really a fan of the colors being faded out like that. Though I'm sure there are configurations to fix it. And just to doublecheck that shadow settings are set high.

http://i.imgur.com/dRLsm2w.jpg

 

But then I noticed something odd. Not something I care about too much, as I don't plan on using those settings, but still strange, and may be related somehow. Part of my world is missing.

http://i.imgur.com/t5I0PhW.jpg -> Most settings disabled

http://i.imgur.com/gFxhe4o.jpg -> Ambient Occlusion turned on

http://i.imgur.com/FIHt9W9.jpg -> Image Based Lighting turned on

http://i.imgur.com/4I01Djq.jpg -> Subsurface Scattering turned on

 

Now this is VERY weird. I've used more detailed ENBs before and never had this issue. I feel like there may be something wrong with the ENB itself, but we're talking a fresh install here, newest version straight from the zip. I even tried an older version, still getting those problems. And it gets better. I have my Nvidia Control Panel settings set to 'Force Alternate Frame Rendering 2', which prevents water reflections from flickering wildly (tip for nvidia users who didn't know, try that!). However, I'm 100% certain without a doubt that I would have noticed these issues before. My last playthrough back in August I had these settings turned on (and was running at about 20fps) and did not see this problem. RCRN did not do this when I had it installed yesterday, everything displayed just fine, however it uses some other DLL so that may not be a good sign. I'm starting to feel like my Skyrim is trolling me. Which may not be too far from the truth.

 

Regardless, all I really care about is the shadow edge softening, which I was pretty sure the ENB is supposed to be doing by default, as long as 'UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics' is set to false.

Edited November 15, 2014 by UltimateZero

[FelesNoctis]

Sorry for the double post, but I figured it out.

 

bDeferredShadows.

 

Apparently RCRN had this brilliant idea of setting bDeferredShadows=0 in my SkyrimPrefs.ini. Setting it back to 1 fixed the issue. Nice smooth shadows again! Interesting though that a setting for Skyrim itself caused so much havok with the ENB. If I hadn't decided to randomly check there again, I'd probably be flailing for days (or until someone answered.

 

Thank you for the attempt though, Camaro!

[JoyDoll]

Deferred shadows didn't do it for me. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/images/774678