Why is ENB not "enough" on its own?

[GlassDeviant]

Is there no decent looking ENB in existence that doesn't require you to either:

 

Install 57 (or any other number) of other mods to make it look "right".

Use SweetFX, because for some reason ENBSeries just isn't "enough".

Use some other effects mod like DynaVision, again becase for some reason ENBSeries just isn't "enough".

 

or do something "else" beyond the ENB settings themselves to make it look good?

 

[Psijonica]

There are plenty of them. But which game are you talking about? Midhrastic is an ENB configuration for use with Fallout 3 and also FOV. I have used it with no other mods and it looked great. I am now playing a vanilla TTW install and using SunnyDs Eirene ENB by SunnyDelight.

 

I have heard of people using Midrastic in Oblivion.

 

Some people go overboard but if they have a system that can handle all these things then why not go crazy if that is what make em happy. Some people get more enjoyment from playing around with these configuration than actually playing the game!

 

Edit: I see now this is for Skyrim. I don't know, I found Skyrim to be the worst of all the TES games and I quickly removed it off of my SSD. It was just too much work to get it playing and keeping it in a state that could be played. In fact out of all the major RPG games I have played it ranks last for me. Obviously I am in the minority but my friends and I have higher standards than most gamers. We like our games to actually work ;)

Edited September 10, 2015 by Psijonica

[PetPet]

There are plenty of ENB presets that look great without relying on 57 (or 56, or 55 for that matter) other mods to make your screen to look pretty.

 

There are plenty of ENB presets (e.g., Rampage moving away from SweetFx since ver1.5 I believe) that do not need SweetFx.

 

There are only a handful of people using DynaVision (a DoF mod) with ENB. But a whole lot of people using other lighting effect mods (e.g., ELE) with ENB. But then I am weird and have installed "Unofficial Skyrim Patches" but also installed other mods because USKP isn't "enough".

 

Well, think ENB (the tool) is just another TV with many dials...I am bored watching "Real Housewives of Orange County" but I don't blame the TV...

[GlassDeviant]

Sorry, I should have specified Skyrim. Mileage varies, I still play TES4 and 5 but can't get into TES3 because every npc conversation is a wall of text and my ADD conflicts with that. Skyrim "works" as much as I need it to, at least until I overload it with too many mods and have to trim down again. Trust me, I can break Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout NV just as easily as Skyrim from overmodding, and it's not hard.

 

I should make it clear though, I am not criticizing ENBSeries, I am just trying to find a settings file that doesn't require me to use a bunch of other mods that I don't want to use in order to get it (the settings file) to work the way the author intended it to.

 

I also use ELE, I use it because I choose to, not because some ENB settings author has specified that it has to be used to make his/her ENB work properly.

 

I use the particle patch and subsurface scattering patch as well, because I like them, not because they're "required" for a particular ENB.

 

I have since gone back to Skylight ENB simply because it works fine with whatever I decide to use with it, but it's a case of not really doing what I want yet coming as close as I can find so far. Might try that Rampage one, it looks very nice, though that depends on how well it works without the SMAA proxy. My computer does not like SMAA.

 

I dropped ELFX because of a conflict and replaced it with CoT + RLO, and also replaced Lanterns of Skyrim with Relighting Skyrim ( if I am remembering correctly, I do things late at night and the next morning the memory is fuzzy, which leads to endless hours of troubleshooting "entertainment" ;p ). This creates some other problems, like brilliant, immersion-breaking lights in distant caves that vanish when you get closer, but I haven't found any other substitute yet nor figured out why it happens.

[Laereal]

I don't think you should be using RLO with Relighting Skyrim as they're both lighting mods and would probably conflict with one another. Relighting Skyrim + ELE seems to be the preferred combo, along with any other outdoor lighting mod.

 

Funny you should say immersion-breaking lights. Mine pops in only when I get within a certain distance from a light source, but that's probably has something to do with an SkyrimPref.ini setting I need to tweak. More research for me, yay! :dry:

 

Add: There are a lot of atmospheric mods that provide their own lighting settings and they usually advise not to use other lighting mods or it will ruin the intended effect. The ENB I use, True Vision ENB (not really atmospheric), also recommends that I don't use lighting mods if I want my Skyrim to look like the mod author's screenshots. Still have RS + ELE + Pure Weathers though because I want to do things I want to do, doodly doo.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Laereal

[Sevenplagues]

Take vividian - looks awesome, near 0 impact on fps, has many choices in the installer already implemented, doesn't needs anything else (though i'd recommend Purity & ELFX at least) +! it uses a pretty new enb so it doesn't needs sweetfx anymore.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Sevenplagues

[FiftyTifty]

New Lighting And Atmospherics is pretty sweet. I swapped the ENBBloom.fx file for ProjectENB's, and it looks rather swanky. I advocate doing the same.