ENBs versus other graphics overhaul mods

[Deseoso]

My system:

 

 

CPU: Intel Core i5 4570

Mainoard: ASRock H87 Pro4

Memory: 16 Gb

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7970 (3Gb onboard RAM)

OS: Windows 7 - 64 bit

 

 

 

At the moment I am using the mod Enhanced Light and FX and I have seen many others such as RLO, Climates of Tamriel and many others. Am I correct in my understanding that these are not ENBs?

 

If my understanding is correct then I am interested in how they compare with using ENBs instead. I have not played around with ENBs yet but I am now tempted to try messing around with them as I think my new system can handle it. I never messed around with them before as I was running a dual core machine with 4 Gb of memory that would crash if I put more than a small handful of mods on it. At the oment I have 130+ mods o my game and I have still to see any performance issues.

 

ENB or not ENB, that is the question?

 

[tx12001]

By graphical comparison no mod compares to the graphics that you can achieve through the Use of ENBs, although many ENBs do make use of such mods as CoT and Enhanced lighting FX and are designed to be used along side them. Many ENBs are FPS intensive and can drop a games FPS dramatically but if your PC is strong enough to handle them I highly suggest using them over Vanilla graphics.

Edited September 23, 2014 by tx12001

[Oubliette]

ENB's are pretty much like a photo filter. It'll add some visual effects at the cost of FPS. You are correct none of the mods you listed are ENB's, they are actual graphically enhancing mods that change the atmosphere of the game in a lot of ways that ENB's can't. However people do enjoy using both types of mods together. Personally not a fan of ENB's myself as I think they're only really useful if you play more to take pictures (lots of pictures, hundreds of pictures) and want to share those images without doing any image editing - then find an ENB you like. If you're more interested in playing the game and trying out mods - skip the ENB.

[Mattiewagg]

I don't use it for a few reasons. One, the new NVidia drivers appear to have broken the use of most ENBs and I like the new driver features so I'm not going to get rid of those.

 

2 it caused some issues with the Creation Kit for me. 3 I only have 2GB of VRAM and while that's usually fine for most graphics mods I just don't care to have any lag on top of RLO, FXAA Post Process Injector, Imaginator and Skyrim 2k, Lush Trees and Grass and Grass on Steroids.

[soupdragon1234]

ENB's are not a substitute for good graphical overhaul mods, although most people seem to assume they are. In fact most ENB's require you to add said mods to achieve the look, the ENB itself doesn't add a lot its mostly improved shadows, sun rays and a few other mostly minor things and generally changes the brightness, contrast and saturation.

 

However brightness, saturation and contrast tweaks, sepia tones can be achieved by other things such as SweetFX and infact many ENB's actually incorporate SweetFX in its functioning and you can achieve the same effects yourself with SweetFX minus the framerate hit.

 

Personally I think ENB's are like a fad, and an indirect boast effectively saying "look at my PC its powerful enough to run ENB's! Bet yours cant!"

[PetPet]

While I was tempted to argue for ENB after seeing some misinformation (or at least outdated info...btw, the Nvidia driver issues, if referred to the green shade / sun ray problems, were resolved well over a year ago) posted by non-ENB users. I would rather mention the ENBoost feature that could help with managing system and Video RAM. Note that you can disable ALL ENB visual enhancement features. In fact, ENBoost and SSME (with or without SKSE) are highly recommended for a stable Skyrim setup. Certain reading material for stability improving:

 

http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/a-stable-modded-skyrim-is-now-a-reality.453744131/

 

Or if you prefer...ENB in general:

 

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB

 

Hope it helps.

 

P.S. My only suggestion is..."stabilize", then "enhance". Just my 2c of course.

[Mattiewagg]

While I was tempted to argue for ENB after seeing some misinformation (or at least outdated info...btw, the Nvidia driver issues, if referred to the green shade / sun ray problems, were resolved well over a year ago) posted by non-ENB users. I would rather mention the ENBoost feature that could help with managing system and Video RAM. Note that you can disable ALL ENB visual enhancement features. In fact, ENBoost and SSME (with or without SKSE) are highly recommended for a stable Skyrim setup. Certain reading material for stability improving:

 

http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/a-stable-modded-skyrim-is-now-a-reality.453744131/

 

Or if you prefer...ENB in general:

 

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB

 

Hope it helps.

 

P.S. My only suggestion is..."stabilize", then "enhance". Just my 2c of course.

Well no, those weren't the issues. It's a more current issue I've seen mentioned elsewhere that causes crashes after the Bethesda logo with an ENB.

 

No ENB, no problem. ENB - crash. Tried on vanilla (+ SKSE, and ENBSeries of course) and modded, same results.

 

The determining factor for me is the Creation Kit issues though. I like ENBs and they look great but it's not worth it for me.

[Browncoat22517]

Think of ENB as a pair of sunglasses.

 

First, there is the vanilla Skyrim world as Bethesda intended it to look. Then you have dozens of mods that add hi-res textures. Vanilla is 512 resolution, hi-res is 1024, and some retexture mods even go as far as 2048 (which isn't advisable unless you have a really high end system). Everything in gaming is basically a mesh/wire frame with a "skin" applied over the top, or texture. More detailed textures = more eye candy. There are all kinds of texture mods for faces, caves, clutter items, etc.

 

Then you have lighting overhauls, which add more realistic lighting to the game. These add a bit more depth and realism to those texture mods above. I suppose you could lump the water and weather mods like Climates of Tamriel into this category as well. I'm sure someone will be along shortly with a "but technically..." comment, but whatever. Point being, good lighting adds additional depth to the textures.

 

ENB is a filter that goes over the top of all that. ENB can add nifty eye candy like DoF (depth of field) that makes far away things blurry and out of focus, while objects closer to you remain sharp and in focus...kind of like a camera lens. There's lens flares, more enhanced lighting, sharpness filters, color saturation, etc.

 

My personal opinion is that ENBs are definitely not for the novice modder. The instructions included are often missing steps that will lead to an improperly installed ENB that looks like crap and has unnecessary performance problems. Even a properly installed ENB will drop your FPS enough to make you question if it's really worth it. There are a ton of settings that can be tweaked, but again, unless you really understand how all of it works, you could be hurting more than helping.

[PetPet]

Ah...then my apology. Since different PC / install got different quirks, I would say it is wise to keep video driver update-to-date and skip ENB.

[Deseoso]

I may not be a pro but I would definitely consider myself to be an intermediate to advanced mod user. I use Mod Organiser with multiple profiles. I am comfortable using Loot, Wrye Bash, the ReProccer and many of the other external programs that run along side Skyrim. I have recently started using an ENB manager so that I can easily change between one ENB and another to test them out.

 

At the moment I have my game running with a little over 150 plugins and I'm not seeing many problems or experiencing many crashes. My game does crash more often when I use an ENB but there is one graphical thing added by many of the ENBs that I have tried that I really like and that is the way everything in the background blurs while only what I am looking at stays in focus.

 

I find it gives my game a much more realistic feel. Is it possible to achieve this affect with a mod rather than an ENB? Other than this feature I am just as happy to play without an ENB and my system definitely prefers it but I really like the way it looks. Anyone know of a mod that can achieve this or is that pretty much restricted to ENBs?