RCRN, RLWC or ENB?

[Mookeylama]

i'm using Project ENB along w/ Climates of Tameriel and Dynamic Shadows now and really like it. but someone told me that Rlwc and RCRN were really good to and i bit easier on the FPS hit. think i heard that one or both have updated to where it has weather and shadows or something. anyway which do you folks like the best? do either of the R mods have DOF? thanks!

[Mookeylama]

bump

[JanusForbeare]

In order to get more responses, I'd try using the actual names of the mods. I, for one, have no idea what RLWC or RCRN stand for. There are so many acronyms floating around the modding community that it's impossible to keep track of them all.

[Mookeylama]

you're right. i just thought they were so popular. but the mods do show up in searches of the acronyms. but they are...

 

Realistic Colors & Real Nights

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/1875

 

Realistic Lighting With Customization

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/7654

 

the full names were a tad too long for the topic title

[ArtMurder]

I can tell you RCRN makes almost no visible changes to the look of the game, I use project ENB and Climates of Tamriel now, and in my opinion it is the best lighting combo with almost zero FPS hit. RCRN has less ofa n FPS hit, yes, but because it barely does anything. It really just makes it so things get 'blurry' if they are more then 15 feet away, and makes the light look a little more 'natural' in general, without making any strong visual changes to the game itself. I've had a lot of really annoying glitches since installing it, even after uninstalling it to, like seeing through trees and odd black auras around actors. I would suggest staying with your current build, if the FPS hit is so to much because your machine is kind of low end, I believe there is an alternate install of Project ENB for low end machines. Regardless, I've tried about a half dozen lighting mods, and the combo you have now is the most stunning, noticeable and and realistic, while having a very minimal FPS hit. I have a VERY high end machine, and I've had some other lighting mods that don't look as good that kill my FPS, dropping it to 30 or less. I still get an average of 45-55 with Project ENB and Climates of Tamriel. Also, the shadows look simply GORGEOUS with these two installed right, no other mod comes close to this, every other mod out there just 'blurs' them or leaves them all blocky and bland. Considering the minimal FPS hit, this is just stunning in my opinion.

 

I have never used RLWC though.

[Mookeylama]

thanks much^! yeah i tried well over a dozen enbs and the best for look AND fps has been Project. my new rig is about as high end as u can get without SLI. i7 3770k, gtx 670 4gb, 850wpsu, 16gb ram. kinda wish i'd got the 680 4gb for the extra 7% fps tho. as it is, i get about 40-50 fps w/ Project enb (dof, fxaa sharp, blursharp), COT, Texture pack combiner, almost everything hires. bodies, armor. Monster mod, Skytest, Automatic Variants, ugrids=7 (trying desperately to get ugrids=9 to work but can't get it stable). so i am very happy w/ Project. as you stated, i used many a enb that gave much worse performance for less visuals. i just was told that the R mods i asked about looked good and had been updated recently for better...something. i can't even remember now lol. just wanted to know what folks thought about those other 2.

 

as for the graphical glitches you mentioned, make sure floatpointrender (sp?) is set to 1 and not 0 in your Pref ini. that will stop the see thru trees and objects. and i disable the SSAO in enbs because it makes water totally transparent, but that also took care of the black auras around people. i run SSAO thru the Nvidia Inspector instead. no auras, good lookin water, AND better fps then using ssao thru the enb.

[JudgmentJay]

I can tell you RCRN makes almost no visible changes to the look of the game, I use project ENB and Climates of Tamriel now, and in my opinion it is the best lighting combo with almost zero FPS hit. RCRN has less ofa n FPS hit, yes, but because it barely does anything. It really just makes it so things get 'blurry' if they are more then 15 feet away, and makes the light look a little more 'natural' in general, without making any strong visual changes to the game itself. I've had a lot of really annoying glitches since installing it, even after uninstalling it to, like seeing through trees and odd black auras around actors. I would suggest staying with your current build, if the FPS hit is so to much because your machine is kind of low end, I believe there is an alternate install of Project ENB for low end machines. Regardless, I've tried about a half dozen lighting mods, and the combo you have now is the most stunning, noticeable and and realistic, while having a very minimal FPS hit. I have a VERY high end machine, and I've had some other lighting mods that don't look as good that kill my FPS, dropping it to 30 or less. I still get an average of 45-55 with Project ENB and Climates of Tamriel. Also, the shadows look simply GORGEOUS with these two installed right, no other mod comes close to this, every other mod out there just 'blurs' them or leaves them all blocky and bland. Considering the minimal FPS hit, this is just stunning in my opinion.

 

I have never used RLWC though.

 

You must have done something very wrong with your RCRN install. RCRN makes big changes to the overall lighting and colors in the game. With the pure preset nighttime and dungeons are extremely dark and shadows create some amazing contrast. Just look at the screenshots on the mod page. Also, there is no depth of field with RCRN, nor does the bloom add any blurring like most ENB profiles, so the blurring you spoke of is impossible. The black aura around people you speak of sounds like SSAO, which is a feature of ENB, not RCRN. My guess is that you had some files leftover from an ENB install conflicting with RCRN.

 

I've tried dozens of ENBs trying to find one I liked, and the only one I found that matched the overall quality of RCRN was Quietcool + Climates of Tamriel; however, even that looked mediocre in certain conditions. ENB is also a massive performance hit. As much as 50-60% FPS loss with all the bells and whistles. RCRN is ~5fps.

 

Of course the downside is you don't get the fancy processing effects that come with ENB. SSAO (which has more bugs in addition to the black aura), god rays, improved shadow quality, and depth of field to name a few. Personally the only ones I care about are god rays and improved shadows. Fortunately you can pair RCRN with a vanilla-like ENB and disable all the features except the ones you want. God rays and improved shadows should only be a ~10% FPS loss. RCRN is also fully customizable just like ENB and you can tweak the brightness, vibrancy, etc to your heart's content.

 

In the end it's all subjective. Judging from the sheer number of terrible-looking ENBs and their endorsements, people love an over-bloomed, ultra-saturated, and needlessly-blurry Skyrim.

[ArtMurder]

I can tell you RCRN makes almost no visible changes to the look of the game, I use project ENB and Climates of Tamriel now, and in my opinion it is the best lighting combo with almost zero FPS hit. RCRN has less ofa n FPS hit, yes, but because it barely does anything. It really just makes it so things get 'blurry' if they are more then 15 feet away, and makes the light look a little more 'natural' in general, without making any strong visual changes to the game itself. I've had a lot of really annoying glitches since installing it, even after uninstalling it to, like seeing through trees and odd black auras around actors. I would suggest staying with your current build, if the FPS hit is so to much because your machine is kind of low end, I believe there is an alternate install of Project ENB for low end machines. Regardless, I've tried about a half dozen lighting mods, and the combo you have now is the most stunning, noticeable and and realistic, while having a very minimal FPS hit. I have a VERY high end machine, and I've had some other lighting mods that don't look as good that kill my FPS, dropping it to 30 or less. I still get an average of 45-55 with Project ENB and Climates of Tamriel. Also, the shadows look simply GORGEOUS with these two installed right, no other mod comes close to this, every other mod out there just 'blurs' them or leaves them all blocky and bland. Considering the minimal FPS hit, this is just stunning in my opinion.

 

I have never used RLWC though.

 

You must have done something very wrong with your RCRN install. RCRN makes big changes to the overall lighting and colors in the game. With the pure preset nighttime and dungeons are extremely dark and shadows create some amazing contrast. Just look at the screenshots on the mod page. Also, there is no depth of field with RCRN, nor does the bloom add any blurring like most ENB profiles, so the blurring you spoke of is impossible. The black aura around people you speak of sounds like SSAO, which is a feature of ENB, not RCRN. My guess is that you had some files leftover from an ENB install conflicting with RCRN.

 

I've tried dozens of ENBs trying to find one I liked, and the only one I found that matched the overall quality of RCRN was Quietcool + Climates of Tamriel; however, even that looked mediocre in certain conditions. ENB is also a massive performance hit. As much as 50-60% FPS loss with all the bells and whistles. RCRN is ~5fps.

 

Of course the downside is you don't get the fancy processing effects that come with ENB. SSAO (which has more bugs in addition to the black aura), god rays, improved shadow quality, and depth of field to name a few. Personally the only ones I care about are god rays and improved shadows. Fortunately you can pair RCRN with a vanilla-like ENB and disable all the features except the ones you want. God rays and improved shadows should only be a ~10% FPS loss. RCRN is also fully customizable just like ENB and you can tweak the brightness, vibrancy, etc to your heart's content.

 

In the end it's all subjective. Judging from the sheer number of terrible-looking ENBs and their endorsements, people love an over-bloomed, ultra-saturated, and needlessly-blurry Skyrim.

I installed RCRN before any ENB, and I followed the instillation to a T. the 'blurriness' was over my entire screen, nto an 'effect', I noticed it when I disabled the mod, that I could see mt textures clearly. It was like looking at my game through glass or something. RCRN was the first lighting mod I installed, and the glitches it put in my game persist even now, after uninstalling every trace of it. Maybe I just had bad luck with it, but I've been doing this for a long time, so... ANyways, like I said, it did have some effects on lighting, but it didn't effect the overall FEEL of the game. It just made certain things slightly prettier, and certain things hard to look at. It's definitely a good choice if there was no other options, but with ENBs available, it's almost silly to go with something like RCRN unless you are running a very very low end machine, or simply like the original visuals of vanilla Skyrim. RCRN is good at what it does, but when compared to ENBs is mediocre at best, when put up against ENBs like Project ENB or Superb ENB-RL it has very minimal effect to the overall look and feel of the game. If the ENB you mentioned is 'mediocre' in comparison to RCRN, then you either installed it wrong, or don't understand the difference between a visual overhaul and a simple minor lightening mod. It's like saying SkyUI is mediocre when compared to iHUD, they both do really different yet similar things, iHUD is much simpler then the SkyUI, but both do what they do very well, but in the end SkyUI is the far more extensive and feature-full mod. You may not like SkyUI because it does TO much, but that doesn't make it 'mediocre' when compared to iHUD. The logic behind something being 'mediocre' for being more feature-full and having more overall effect on the game is just silly. Which, I'd never say iHUD isn't good, and I'd never say RCRN isn't good, they simply aren't 'in depth' enough to compare to their bigger more detailed, feature full cousins.

 

Also, if you get a 'over bloomed, ultra saturated, needless blurry' ENB, you are doing it VERY VERY VERY VERY wrong. My ENB adds almost zero blur, is the same general saturation as vanilla skyrim, and adds pretty minimal bloom. It's the overall way it makes one thing 'pop' over another, and how the general feel of the background feels like a painting, so realistic, it's almost surreal. The sun and the sky feel painted onto my screen, and faces look almost like real faces. RCRN... makes light a little prettier. But then again, I've spent countless hours editing and tweaking my ENB down to the smallest detail, there's all of what, 4 options to tweak RCRN? And a 'high low and off' for each of them? It's simply a lighting mod for people who want a basic, simple, no-fps, feature stripped lighting mod. I am not down-talking it, I am simply defending ENBs as being what they are, something in a total different class then RCRN. And lastly, I get a max of 10% FPS hit with Project ENB and CoT running, and I got about a 5% FPS hit with RCRN. To me, giving up over a dozen features and infinite customization or giving up 5% is a no-brainer.

 

Now if someone asked me "I want something that makes lighting prettier, but does nothing else, and has almost no FPS" I would tell them RCRN.

[JudgmentJay]

I installed RCRN before any ENB, and I followed the instillation to a T. the 'blurriness' was over my entire screen, nto an 'effect', I noticed it when I disabled the mod, that I could see mt textures clearly. It was like looking at my game through glass or something. RCRN was the first lighting mod I installed, and the glitches it put in my game persist even now, after uninstalling every trace of it. Maybe I just had bad luck with it, but I've been doing this for a long time, so... ANyways, like I said, it did have some effects on lighting, but it didn't effect the overall FEEL of the game. It just made certain things slightly prettier, and certain things hard to look at. It's definitely a good choice if there was no other options, but with ENBs available, it's almost silly to go with something like RCRN unless you are running a very very low end machine, or simply like the original visuals of vanilla Skyrim. RCRN is good at what it does, but when compared to ENBs is mediocre at best, when put up against ENBs like Project ENB or Superb ENB-RL it has very minimal effect to the overall look and feel of the game. If the ENB you mentioned is 'mediocre' in comparison to RCRN, then you either installed it wrong, or don't understand the difference between a visual overhaul and a simple minor lightening mod. It's like saying SkyUI is mediocre when compared to iHUD, they both do really different yet similar things, iHUD is much simpler then the SkyUI, but both do what they do very well, but in the end SkyUI is the far more extensive and feature-full mod. You may not like SkyUI because it does TO much, but that doesn't make it 'mediocre' when compared to iHUD. The logic behind something being 'mediocre' for being more feature-full and having more overall effect on the game is just silly. Which, I'd never say iHUD isn't good, and I'd never say RCRN isn't good, they simply aren't 'in depth' enough to compare to their bigger more detailed, feature full cousins.

 

Also, if you get a 'over bloomed, ultra saturated, needless blurry' ENB, you are doing it VERY VERY VERY VERY wrong. My ENB adds almost zero blur, is the same general saturation as vanilla skyrim, and adds pretty minimal bloom. It's the overall way it makes one thing 'pop' over another, and how the general feel of the background feels like a painting, so realistic, it's almost surreal. The sun and the sky feel painted onto my screen, and faces look almost like real faces. RCRN... makes light a little prettier. But then again, I've spent countless hours editing and tweaking my ENB down to the smallest detail, there's all of what, 4 options to tweak RCRN? And a 'high low and off' for each of them? It's simply a lighting mod for people who want a basic, simple, no-fps, feature stripped lighting mod. I am not down-talking it, I am simply defending ENBs as being what they are, something in a total different class then RCRN. And lastly, I get a max of 10% FPS hit with Project ENB and CoT running, and I got about a 5% FPS hit with RCRN. To me, giving up over a dozen features and infinite customization or giving up 5% is a no-brainer.

 

Now if someone asked me "I want something that makes lighting prettier, but does nothing else, and has almost no FPS" I would tell them RCRN.

 

Again, RCRN adds absolutely 0 blurring. If you had blur then you installed it incorrectly. Here is what RCRN should look like (my screenshots):

 

http://www.forgottenaspects.com/iorek/01_rcrn.jpg

http://www.forgottenaspects.com/iorek/02_rcrn.jpg

http://www.forgottenaspects.com/iorek/03_rcrn.jpg

 

As you can see, there is absolutely no blurring. Everything is crisp and clean and appropriately vibrant. You are right in that RCRN doesn't add a ton to the "feel" of the game. It simply lifts the fog present in vanilla, improves vibrancy a bit, and depending on the preset, greatly increases shadow/darkness depth. Of course it also has more advanced features such as the dynamic interiors that change brightness depending on weather conditions, volumetric fog, and improved weather systems, but I won't get into that.

 

And here's Project ENB (taken from Project ENB's nexus page):

 

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/20781-3-1350507666.jpg

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/20781-1-1350507859.jpg

http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/20781-1-1342712729.jpg

 

While these screenshots look nice (especially the interior shot), they contain heavy bloom, and as a result the image is very clearly softened. There is also a loss of texture detail (Whiterun ground texture in the first image). This is what a majority of ENB profiles look like when I install them. You can minimize the effect by reducing the bloom strength, but the profiles are built around having a certain level of bloom and if you alter them you will get darker-looking image. I know how to install ENBs, and I've spent 10+ hours tweaking them in an attempt to get something I'm content with. Thus far Quietcool is my favorite because it adds little to no bloom, thus the resulting picture is crisp and clean if not a touch too vibrant.

 

...and how the general feel of the background feels like a painting, so realistic, it's almost surreal. The sun and the sky feel painted onto my screen, and faces look almost like real faces.

 

You use the word realistic and surreal in the same sentence to describe the same thing. Real life doesn't look like a painting or some high fantasy movie. ENBs very much remind me of the movie Legend. It has a very bloomy haze over the picture that looks very surreal. While pretty to look at, it's far from realistic. RCRN provides a much more realistic picture than most if not all ENBs.

 

Also, I've also done extensive controlled FPS testing with a dozen+ ENB profiles, and I can say with 100% certainty that my FPS hit for a full-featured profile is ~50%. I think it's safe to say that my PC is more powerful than most (specs in signature), and with a clean Skyrim install, ultra graphical preset, 1600p, max graphical .ini settings, FOV=80, Texture Pack Combiner (max resolution, almost all optionals), USKP, and a handful of other texture mods I go from 130 FPS to 67 with Project ENB using all its bells and whistles. With no features enabled it's 115. That's a 12% FPS loss from simply having ENB installed while using none of its features. Similar numbers were found across all ENBs I tested. SSAO and DoF were by far the biggest FPS hogs, typically resulting in a ~20 FPS loss each. These numbers also reflect what the author of SkyRealism ENB states on his ENB page found here. Everyone I've spoken with regarding ENB performance has also reported similar numbers. It's possible that the performance hit is less if your base settings and/or resolution is lower, but those are the numbers I see. With the same settings + RCRN I go from 130 to 126 FPS.

 

Finally, RCRN is customizable beyond the provided GUI. Its configuration files are not as extensive as ENB's, but there is plenty to tinker with behind the scenes.

 

ALL THAT SAID, I'm not bashing ENB in the slightest. It does exactly what it intends to do. It gives Skyrim a facelift. A new appearance. It is, as you say, a visual overhaul. It has a ton of great features like god rays which I very much love. But I personally prefer realism over eye candy. Many don't. Many people want their game to look like Legend. As I said, it's entirely subjective. The point of my first post wasn't to bash other lighting mods, it was mainly to stress to you that your experience with RCRN may not have been working as intended.

[TheUninvitedGuest]

@JudgementJay : that was a really informative post from a laymans perspective. Thank you!

 

On a related note - your PC specs make me want to cry. If you don't mind me asking - what do you tend to do with it day to day ? Is it exclusively a gaming PC ?