ENB Ambient Occlusion: yes or no?

[Modd3r]

Hello guys, this is actually my first "real" topic (besides the pics I regularly upload) and I want to discuss about something that really bothers me.

As you can read in the topic title I'm talking about ENB ambient occlusion.

I suppose most of you use or at least tried an ENB configuration and you've surely noticed how it lowers the framerate from 60~ to 40-45, but I've noticed that ambient occlusion is the main cause when it comes to my pc.

But my question is: ambient occlusion is really worth this framerate drop?

I've done some tests (+comparison screenshots) and to be honest I don't see that huge improvement to sacrifice 15~ fps, Am I the only one who thought this?

What do you think about ENB effects and framerate drops?

 

P.S sorry for my bad English, I hope it's understandable

[stabbykitteh]

AO does give the world a bit more depth but the cost is a lot more stress on my GPU and much lower framerates, so I've been disabling it. Disabling skylighting in the .119 ENB will give you a good boost as well.

[Staind716]

The ENB SSAO is much better than Nvidia's in my opinion. But you are right, it is also the most fps intensive setting as well. There is a mod that allows you to toggle SSAO and/or DOF ingame while still keeping the other effects and boost your performance dramatically. When you want to take a screenshot simply hit the button to toggle them back on for a gorgeous pic. This way you still get the performance you want for gameplay and the beauty you want for screenies all at the touch of a button without having to Alt+Tab out and change the enbseries.ini manually. As far as the SkyLighting, not a big fan of it myself and don't use it in my game.

 

This little beauty should be a must have for every ENB user who doesn't have a monster rig. :thumbsup:

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13306

[Ragicka]

I've tried three different configs and have never really been happy with SSAO. Besides the huge fps hit, it darkens the environment and makes my characters look old and haggard. I can probably fix that by tweaking the settings. Until I find the time and inclination to do that, it's SSAO: off.

 

@Staind716, Nice find.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Ragicka

[Modd3r]

@Staind716 that's a very useful utility but it doesn't work very well, it disables SSAO/DoF but it doesn't re-enable them O.o

 

However, here's a comparison screenshot with(left) and without(right) SSAO:

http://imageshack.us/a/img826/8034/ssaocomparison.jpg

 

This is my config (I use trustinall's ENB):

[sSAO_SSIL]

UseIndirectLighting=false

UseComplexIndirectLighting=false

SamplingQuality=1

SamplingRange=0.4 //ROUGH 0.2 //0.25 //DESAT 0.3

FadeFogRangeDay=10 //DESAT 12.0

FadeFogRangeNight=10 //DESAT 12.0

FadeFogRangeInterior=10

SizeScale=0.5

SourceTexturesScale=0.5

FilterQuality=1

AOAmount=0.6 //0.7 //1 //ROUGH 0.75 //DESAT 1.0

ILAmount=1.4 //2.8 //3 //2.5 //2.75 //DESAT 3.0

 

I mean ok, there are some complexes shadows but I don't see it worth big fps losses, I would only switch it on/off just when I'm doing screenshots and I'm not even sure the difference would be that great. (I will find out thanks to the utility post by Staind doing 2 screenshot of the same subject)

 

P.S What about skylighting? I don't even know what "really" does, anyone so kind to explain?

Edited September 14, 2012 by Modd3r

[Otoky]

Interesting topic ;)

 

Im playing on a mid lvl PC so usualy i have about 30fps.

But when i saw the beautiful screenshoots from other players and the ENB tools, i just wanted the same experiences. Than i found this ENB tool and i can confirm, its dosn't have any fps lose.

Not as shiny than other ENBs but this is the deal :sleep:

Stakado Cinemascope ENB - Near to zero performance loss

[Modd3r]

I have to try a "soft" ENB config, maybe with Imaginator for contrast-saturation stuff :)

Oh and I'm testing ENB without skylighting but I don't see improvements in fps, so I think I will leave it enabled :)