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Question
begalund
First off, let me say that I've been a lurker for years and the step community (and the guides on here and elsewhere) are amazing at getting things up and running. I don't always understand everything discussed, since I'm more of a casual player/tweaker, but I've learned enough to be dangerous to myself which I guess is good enough.
I've got a fairly decent system. Nothing near top of the line, but more than enough for skyrim, and I've been able to run it successfully for years, playing with many different options and variants (such as trying out tropical for a while just for the change). I've been playing it off and on for the last few weeks while waiting for the expansions in FO4 to drop, and after wiping and reinstalling, figured I'd try once again to reinstall an ENB and see if I could fix it up how I liked.
Now let me say I can get the various ENBs up and running. I use MO, always start over with a new fresh save each time I test a new preset, completely wipe the old preset files and rebuild the enblocal each time - just to be sure I'm starting from scratch. But I'm still baffled by some concepts - various fascinations - and included effects - that seem to defy my understanding, and ability to fix. So I'm going to rant for a bit, and hope that the kind folks in here can help me out (in a relatively non-condescending way) and maybe lend me a hand in fixing what I either don't understand or simply don't like. So here goes:
1. DARKNESS - The debate between realism/immersion and fantasy/vibrancy and playability aside, the biggest gripe I have is with every ENB being tweaked for one or the other lighting overhaul, or simply tweaking the lighting aspects within the ENB itself. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the concept of wanting nights to be darker than twilight in a walmart parking lot. But if I've gone through the trouble of installing upgraded textures for enemies, dungeons, interiors, rocks, coffins, jugs, cobwebs, water, dungeon clutter, what-have-you, shouldn't I - oh I don't know - actually want to SEE it?
I'll explain my specific darkness troubles further down, but suffice it for now that even with a torch out, or casting candlelight, I can't see everything in a mid-sized room, so why in the hell did I go through the trouble of installing upgraded textures? Is the only time things are supposed to be decent looking (I'm avoiding the loaded word "pretty" here) when I'm outside at high noon on a fully sunny day? Cause that's stupid. I'm old enough to remember the original X-Files, and how everyone complained that the series was mostly filmed in the dark using flashlights and you could never see anything. I understand it was supposed to add to the "creepiness" but it mostly just pissed people off.
Otherwise, you've got two different problems. One, you've installed a bunch of extra high end textures you don't need, and in fact will just slow down your system and reduce your performance a ton - since you aren't ever seeing them. Just remove them. And since most of the time you aren't actually exploring in the wilderness in this game (unless you've turned off fast travel - which I know a lot of people do), then you don't really need the ENB in the first place now do you? Two, if you do still want those high end textures, then you need to pull out your light source and get really close to everything you want to take a look at. "Oh hey, it's a napkin! Look at that napkin I found. Isn't it pretty?" So now you are focused in on the damn napkin and completely missing the beautiful full length mural that takes up an entire dungeon wall - and which no light source in the game can completely illuminate (yes, I'm looking at you Alduin's Wall).
2. LIGHTING - So currently I'm trying out Skylight. I like this preset so far. It seems to be well laid out and VERY well explained. But the lighting in it (like almost every other ENB preset I've tried) has me baffled. I coc'ed to Riverwood and entered the inn. The interior was too dark, but I allowed the adaptation to run for a bit (about 3-4 minutes) and then I started testing out a torch. I haven't adjusted anything from the default settings - although I do have a few mods in place as per recommendations. Specifically: pure weathers, ELE and ELFX. Although the load order is exactly reverse that. I do not have the ELFX enhancer installed. Standing near the big fire in the middle of the common room, which has three what I would call large campfires burning, the room isn't completely lit up. There are lots of deep shadows, and I can't see details on the bard playing over by the chairs near the door.
Pulling out a SINGLE torch, doubles (yes, doubles) the ambient light effect in the room. It still doesn't light up the whole room, but one torch sheds as much light as three large campfires/small bonfires? Again, no adjustments to any of the mods or the ENB from default settings (as d/l from nexus). The same torch in my hand is many times brighter than the torch on the wall. Now i realize this might be because I haven't installed the Skylight optional torch d/l, but it was optional so I didn't grab it yet.
3. SUNRAYS (or as FO4 calls them, godrays). These are one of two personal pet peeves of mine. I never see these in real life unless I am squinting when looking sunward. I do see what are known as jacob's ladders during certain cloud configurations - but this is a much different effect. in third person mode I would not expect to see these at all, since when I am playing the game I take on the role of the character. Hence, I give some leeway to minor sunray effects in various presets (and I know how to turn them off). My favorite version (decently done) of this so far was the way it was implemented in Tetrachromatic - but the rest of that preset was way too vibrant for my tastes. But I simply don't understand the fascination with turning them on and especially with cranking them up so high.
4. But even worse is LENS FLARE and the associated RAINDROPS on the lens effect. Both of these bother the holy crap out of me. They are bad in 3rd person. They end up establishing the 4th wall by showing me the "camera." In effect, suddenly I know I'm in a game or inside a movie. But to have them show up in first person? WTF! I never see lens flare while I'm walking around in real life. I only see flares if there is actually glass for the damn sun to reflect off of. My eyeball's own lens doesn't do that, since it is physically impossible to focus on it.
And raindrops? I'm actually getting raindrops to stick to my eyeballs in first person mode? I haven't blinked them away? I understand this is entirely an effect of the particular weather overhaul being installed, but most ENBs have a "recommended" or "required" weather overhaul needed, and most of them have this issue. Why are raindrops sticking to my eyes and running down them like a camera lens? ARGGGG!
5. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot that everything in this game except you can see in the frigging dark. Obviously you can always turn into a werewolf or vampire, but if you aren't, you seem to be screwed. So I'm wandering along, and it starts to get dark (or worse, I have to explore a dungeon or crypt). I have two choices: Pull out a light source so I can see where I am going and not fall into the crevice and die, or don't and hope that there isn't a crevice that will kill me. If I pull out the light source, I can't sneak and everyone for miles can see me. I get that. Logical.
But if I don't pull one out, please explain to me how the normal Nord archer standing on the battlements of the tower can not only see me, but can see me well enough to hit me with a damn arrow - when I can't even see the TOWER? And the tower is like 400 times larger than either the archer or me? So I'm all for realism, but at least make it fair realism - and not require me to download yet another mod to adjust the world to correct for the fact that I want to have pretty trees that move in the wind and clouds that drift past good looking snow-covered mountain peaks, and to see the lighting effects take on a reddish hue when the sun starts to set. Cause again, I shouldn't need to add more mods to fix things just cause I paid for a nicer video card and more memory.
Okay, so back to darkness. How do I fix this issue? I've read what I can find, and I'm reading through the Skylight ENB guide to figure it out, but I've got to say it is just generally too dark for my taste. I'm going to try removing all the lighting overhauls and running with just vanilla Skylight - but I'm expecting that it will still be dim and still suffer from the odd torch behavior. I'm not asking for vanilla non-ENB lighting, but I at least want to be able to see the whole room if I bring in or turn on a light source. Enter Whiterun's grandhall, and the Jarl is sitting in the dark. But walk outside and the world is just amazing and beautiful. Why the hell is anyone sitting inside on a day like today. Balgruuf, go outside and play.
My machine: MB - sabertooth 990fx, AMD 8320 8core, 16 gb ram, two AMD r9-200 2gb video cards
Skylight ENB for ELFX presently
pertinent mods and load order: attached
So that's it. Any advice, input, or follow up? Feel free to weigh in. I've got pretty thick skin, but by the same token, since this is my rant, unless you are following up with something technical, corrective, helpful, or suggestive, I'll likely just take it as your opinion and move past it. Some people might like dungeons that are dark as hell, and lots of lens flare. More power to them. They aren't me, and I just don't get it. Now if there is a technical basis for it, I'd love to hear it. But if it is just a personal preference - that's nice, whatever, to each their own.
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