Comprehensive ENB and Weather mod suggestion

[Katarsi]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm currently looking to switch from my weather & ENB setup to something more adapted to my eyesight, so any suggestions from users here are welcome.

Weather and ENB are affecting everything in the game, so I have made a comprehensive list of stuff I use and what I'd like to have.

I don't know how to make ENB preset from scratch, so if you don't know of an existing preset that would fit my needs, I am willing to learn how to make my own preset if you are offering to teach me.

 

This is what I'm looking for:

• Balanced colors, soft atmospheric feel. I am not a fan of oversaturation or any sharp transition. I like fog/mist, but I don't like when it's too white. I don't like when a single color dominates over all the rest.
• Nice skin shading. I absolutely abhor the plasticky look of skin, especially since I have invested a lot of time into making both male and female skins look beautiful by mixing several mods. I would appreciate ENB preset which is "skin-friendly". (Sad example: Mythical Rudy ENB for Cathedral has the most amazing skin lighting, but everything else is crap)
• Vivid nights - no crushed blacks and no thick darkness. I have an issue with various ENBs when it comes to this, since the majority are too friggin' dark at night and in interiors. I see very well in the dark naturally and my eyes adapt to darkness very quickly, so when I see a pitch black area in the game, I instantly get the feeling of wrongness. I'm using both Lux and Lux Orbis because they provide quality shading/lighting, so something compatible with these would be the best. I'm also using Embers XD Light version, and of course Particle Patch and ENB Light. No Lanterns or Tamriel Master Lights. I'm using Quick Light instead of torches to light the way if necessary, because I can dynamically adjust its intensity. I also have DVLaSS.
• Soft day lighting. My monitor is calibrated specifically to prevent sharp highlights, because too bright light literally hurts my eyes. I imagine this is inversely related to my ability to see well in the dark, so bright daily light is, well, bad. In other words, overall environmental contrast shouldn't be high - but it shouldn't be bland and monotone either. I will adjust this in ENB settings if necessary, although some ENBs have their contrast "hardcoded" and lowering the contrast causes ugly grayness.
• I don't want to use ReShade with ENB preset. I have a relatively good rig, it's a gaming laptop (specs on my profile), but I generally cherish my FPS like everyone else. I'm not looking for screenarchery, I want to actually play the game.
• I don't like DOF and I never use it (except when I make screenshots for my mods, but this is very rare). I also don't like Bloom. I'm indifferent when it comes to godrays, I can live both with and without. Lens flare is out of the question. I also don't use those annoying sun rays that mostly contain freaky images (like frogs and bunnies or whatever).
• I use RWT solely because it provides rain ripples. Water for ENB looks better, but doesn't have this feature. I tried to combine these two by letting only WENB's meshes and textures overwrite RWT, and it's a weird mix. Currently the only problems I see are LOD seams and super-shiny wet rocks in the streams. I'm trying to figure out how to tweak it better. If anyone knows how to implement RWT ripples into WENB, please enlighten me! Water is definitely the trickiest thing to adjust. And don't even get me started with overly bright waterfalls! Bright Waterfall Fix isn't functional anymore due to recent updates to both of these water mods, so I truly don't know how to go about that. It looks like every single ENB preset I try screws up water, it's either too bright or too dark.
• I will try any weather that goes well with the provided ENB, as long as they match. I'm not a fan of constant rain though, which is why I always tended to avoid Obsidian. I used Cathedral Weathers for the longest time, but opposed to Obsidian, it's somehow too bright. Its lighting is very difficult to manage because any ENB for Cathedral Weathers that I tried so far only capitalizes on Cathedral's super-strong brightness.
• As for landscapes, I'm using Cathedral Landscapes and Tamrielic Grass. My snow comes solely from Cathedral Landscapes, but I'm open to suggestions. I will consider replacing Cathedral Landscapes if you have a better idea. Tamrielic Grass must stay, I love how it looks and the variety it provides - especially green tundra. Cathedral also has green tundra, but it doesn't have as much of grass variety as Tamrielic. The rest is Noble Skyrim, along with HD LODs, and of course, SMIM as the base. I don't use Majestic Mountains, my rocks are covered with Northfire's Photoreal Mountains and I will not replace it. My flora is 3D Trees and Plants with Cathedral 3D Pine Grass, Depths of Skyrim for underwater, and trees are a personal mix of SFO, SBT and 3D Trees (don't ask, it's chaos). I'm using DynDOLOD 3 and No Grass in Objects.

 

Thank you everyone who have read through all this and are considering to advise :)

[Deleted135840173User]

Intrigued is a very good and balanced option if it works with Cathedral but i haven't tested it only with Obsdian. Bit of effect experimentation required. Nightime will depend on Monitor Calibration i guess. Saturation may need a bit of tweaking if too much. Still may not look properly with Cathedral.

 

Not sure about NVT or Re-Engaged with Cathedral, they do look well with Obsidian though.

 

An alternative would be to try Dolomite Weathers its definitely balanced and has some good Distant Detail Light Blending. Wether too bright or not depends again. I remember avoiding it because its changes were too subtle compared to what i like.

 

Azurite is a great option i would say the best but there is no ENB designed for it that focuses on just enhancing it which may result in oversaturation and such.

 

You could also try out NAT and PRT-X Presets. Maybe you'll like them or hate them. I always found NAT turning the Game into a Plastic Wax Museum.

 

Latest Cathedral is what i prefer myself with Driver Settings: 67 Brightness - 50 Contrast - 0.77 Gamma and 35% Digital Colors and Monitor i keep at 50-50 for less Eye Strain. That with Default BethINI Settings so there is alot of room for Tweaks. I even found Azurite with these settings Balanced (not too bright nor too dark at night) Cathedral looks Dark with them but not Pitch Black and depends on Weather and Environment (Snowy Terrain makes everything more visible) same with Obsidian.

Night Skies also look clean and realistic its the Terrain that may not be that visible if far ahead and Cloudy Weather.

 

The biggest issue is finding ENBs that simply enhance a Weathers effects. Most just change it too much.

 

Regarding Light Sources combo. Relighting Skyrim has been my foundation with Windows Shadows. 0 Performance or Flickering issues. Its compatibility with ELE (Introduces a Fire Source Pulse effect as well which looks great with Embers HD/ XD) allows using ENB Light to highly customize and Enhance Light Sources as much as you like.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Guest

[Katarsi]

Thank you for all the suggestions, extraterrestrialvoidghost :smile:

 

Yeah, it's very tricky to adjust brightness because my monitor is already "specially" calibrated. I'm not gonna change my monitor calibration which is set up for use of everything, for it only to work properly on Skyrim. Wouldn't make sense. Mods and utilities exist precisely to accommodate to the user's setup, not the other way around.

 

Intrigued ENB looks very nice, but it also suffers from dark shadows so I guess thorough tweaking would be required - if I manage to tweak it at all. Like I said, some ENB presets have this contrast hardcoded and lowering it causes ugly grayness and washed-out feel of everything.

 

Dolomite Weathers looks interesting! It's like a tweaked version of Cathedral? I also discovered eisVogel v2 ENB preset along with it. If I can tone down the saturation it could be a good combination, if either its default setting or one of its LUTs doesn't capitalize on a single color. I really don't like it when a single color is dominant everywhere (like the blue is in featured images).

 

I looked over Azurite, it looks beautiful but it seems like it isn't finished yet. I'll track it for now.

 

No NAT. Plastic Wax Museum impression here as well. Nice skin and soft shading on everything is a priority, so...no NAT anything.

 

I also found Vulturian Shades ENB for Haze Weathers, it seems very good, what do you think? It has a downside though - something is off with the sky. I'm not sure whether it's an issue with the weather mod or the ENB preset.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Katarsi

[Deleted135840173User]

Yeah Haze Weathers does have such an effect.

Don't know really i could never replace Cathedral or Obsidian with Dolomite because i lost alot of their magic and ever since i upgrade to Cathedral i can't change. I liked Intrigued or ReEngaged more when i used Obsidian with a very Ominous Theme but it was nice while it lasted now i want something balanced so Cathedral all the way for me now.

Its been really troublesome to find a good ENB that increases all its effects without changing it or as you said Shadows becoming too black.

Rudy is good but may need some tweaks to be perfect for what we like. Maybe i'll try one day again.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Guest