[LE] ENB, why does it effects performance so much?

[cryckan90]

Hi.

 

I love the colors that all the ENB mods give you, but my FPS decreases by 60-80 fps. I usually get 110+ fps and with this mod I get 40-60. Unplayable IMO. So, what is it the makes it effects the fps so much? I really don't care for the depth of field. Nor the ambient occlusion. All I want are the shadows and colors. Like this, but without the DOF:

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/images/11650-1-1331014781.png

and...

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/images/11318-5-1331379278.jpg

 

Dark blacks, but a sort of mat black. Meaning, much contrast, but sort of grey blacks. Vibrant colors...

 

Not sure if it's the AO that makes it look this good, but as stated, all I want is the light/shadows and the vibrant colors but WITHOUT any loss of that's above 10-20 fps.

[meh12345]

I personally find 40-60 to be very playable. That aside, though, there's something abnormal about your characteristics. A machine beefy enough to get 100+ should manage with maybe 30 FPS loss. Perhaps some more specs would help, if playing with NVidia Inspector (or CCC) doesn't help.

 

Single biggest thing you can do will be turning AA down.

 

Aside from that, try Realistic Lighting With Customization, maybe combined with FXAA PPI.

Edited March 24, 2012 by meh12345

[cryckan90]

I personally find 40-60 to be very playable. That aside, though, there's something abnormal about your characteristics. A machine beefy enough to get 100+ should manage with maybe 30 FPS loss. Perhaps some more specs would help, if playing with NVidia Inspector (or CCC) doesn't help.

 

Single biggest thing you can do will be turning AA down.

 

Aside from that, try Realistic Lighting With Customization, maybe combined with FXAA PPI.

Unfortunately I dont know how to these mods. What I would like is a mod with nice graphics tweaks that doesnt effekt the performance that much.

 

I got a EVGA GTX 680 and a clocked i5 750 @ 4.0. I use a 120Hz monitor so 90+ fps is important to me. I can still play in 1920x1200 and max settings (2x AA) with 100+ fps.

 

I just wonder why ENB is so heavy :/

[Rennn]

Okay, here's what you do.

 

Download CLO and use whatever setting looks best. I use CLO Vintage, though I'm not sure it's still available as a setting. The best part about it, I think, is that it gives your game (and your shadows) a very subtle change of tint that stops the world from looking so washed out and sterile.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11479

 

If you haven't already, install Nvidia Inspector and run it. Use it to set Skyrim's AO compatibility to Fallout 3, and turn on Quality AO. I'm not going to post a link since the Nexus doesn't like off-site linking. You need to be in Fallout 3 AO compatibility because the latest patch/drivers broke regular AO for Skyrim.

 

Set a preset for your monitor (if your monitor supports that), which increases saturation. Just switch to that preset when you play Skyrim. That'll make Skyrim look less gray as well.

 

You may want to install this as well, to make colors richer and less hazy at a distance.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9930

 

Between those four things, only AO will hurt your framerate, and it only dropped me about 5 fps outdoors, and slightly higher than that indoors.

 

 

Personally, I don't care for 'Realistic Lighting With Customization' at all. It's complex to set up, unforgiving to tweak, and it doesn't even look much better than vanilla. Sometimes, like at sunrise for example, it looks worse than vanilla Skyrim.

 

From what I understand, ENB runs separately from Skyrim and carries out its processes using a different method, without using Skyrim's engine. That, I would guess, is why ENB is such a disproportionately high framerate hit.

Edited March 25, 2012 by Rennn

[cryckan90]

Okay, here's what you do.

 

Download CLO and use whatever setting looks best. I use CLO Vintage, though I'm not sure it's still available as a setting. The best part about it, I think, is that it gives your game (and your shadows) a very subtle change of tint that stops the world from looking so washed out and sterile.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11479

 

If you haven't already, install Nvidia Inspector and run it. Use it to set Skyrim's AO compatibility to Fallout 3, and turn on Quality AO. I'm not going to post a link since the Nexus doesn't like off-site linking. You need to be in Fallout 3 AO compatibility because the latest patch/drivers broke regular AO for Skyrim.

 

Set a preset for your monitor (if your monitor supports that), which increases saturation. Just switch to that preset when you play Skyrim. That'll make Skyrim look less gray as well.

 

You may want to install this as well, to make colors richer and less hazy at a distance.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9930

 

Between those four things, only AO will hurt your framerate, and it only dropped me about 5 fps outdoors, and slightly higher than that indoors.

 

 

Personally, I don't care for 'Realistic Lighting With Customization' at all. It's complex to set up, unforgiving to tweak, and it doesn't even look much better than vanilla. Sometimes, like at sunrise for example, it looks worse than vanilla Skyrim.

 

From what I understand, ENB runs separately from Skyrim and carries out its processes using a different method, without using Skyrim's engine. That, I would guess, is why ENB is such a disproportionately high framerate hit.

Thanks for all the info.

 

I didn't really get AO working, maybe I used the wrong version, but either way I don't really like it.

 

I've used Imaginator, works great, wont have to change the settings in my Nvidia Control panel. Still, I cant get those matt/brown dark spots that all the ENB's give you. It's a shame :(

[eltucu]

First because its an injector. It isnt shader code compiled along with the other shaders but a shader applied after all other shaders have been applied. Post process only.

 

So, imagine you have a very slow car, but since you cant touch the car insides, the only way to make it go faster is to assemble a faster car, and use it to tow the slower car. Horribly inefficient but its the only way exept maybe if you know (and are willing to) how to code shaders in GPU assembler.

 

And second, because Boris codes very nice SSAO, its not that "light" SSAO that you find in other games like STALKER or that AO forced in nVidia's drivers. It looks very good, and it has some form of indirect lighting that lightengs it up in places that makes sense so you dont have that overdone blackness in plain daylight.

 

Boris has been doing this stuff for a while, he knows his stuff. Take in mind that there isnt another popular injector that does what ENB does, there is a reason as why ENB dll often is triple the size of FXAA injectors and stuff like that, because there is a lot of code stuffed in for various advanced effects like DoF, SSAO, color correction algorithms, AF, and very dynamic stuff that depends on a lot of variables (thats why you see more people downloading configs than ppl making them).

 

Though projects like graphics extender could breath more life into Skyrim's graphics, ENB works with a lot of different games, so thats a thing to have in mind too.

 

Performance impact depends on the game though, in Deus Ex Human Revolution, i had like a 5 fps impact, which is nothing compared to the kind of perf loss you can have in GTA IV, Skyrim and other games that ENB support.

 

Then there is the issue of level design oriented to each game's capabilities. If the game has pre baked lighting, there are some effects that wouldnt work nicely thanks to the lack of dynamic lights, or if the lighting system of some game has some limited lighting capabilities, there could be issues with lights looking good in the vanilla scene, but bad with some other post process applied over it that depends on it. If you read boris updates, you can see some of the stuff he complains about :D

 

Anyway, my two cents.

[Deleted90116108User]

ok