Bethini and ENB Fallout 4

[Malasoth]

So I ran Bethini, and it seems to have messed something up with my ENB in Fallout 4, and I'm not sure where to begin to diagnose it. The game has become MUCH darker, and light seems to have lost much of its effect. In particular sunlight seems to be severely hindered and become much more orange. I'm assuming it turned something on or off and I've been going through trying to determine what got changed that would cause this. Any thoughts or suggestions? I would have loved to have posted this on the ENB page or the Bethini page on nexus because but neither allow comments. Thank you. 

[DoubleYou]

The easiest way to find out what is changed is to view the Summary of Changes before exiting. I would recommend you restore the Before BethINI backup of your INI files to restore it to how it was (Setup tab, Restore Backup, Before BethINI) to ensure that fixes it. Then, when editing with BethINI, you can view the Summary of Changes for anything that it changes, which will help you find out what you need to have in order for it to be correct.

[Malasoth]

I appreciate the quick reply! There were a lot of changes and I don't know what most of it means or does. And trying to learn one line at a time from 100's of lines in 3 separate files each....eek. Definitely noticed an increase in performance but I don't think this will work for me unless I can find someone that has used it with fallout and enb without it destroying their enb quality. 

[DoubleYou]

You have it working correctly now then? That's the most important thing. If you pastebin your ini files, I can look at it and see if anything jumps out at me. However, you can consider simply not using a preset and simply tweaking a setting here and there, rechecking in game to test performance/quality. I have used it with enb. 

[Malasoth]

I do not. I kept Bethini edits and played with in game enb settings for awhile, trying to determine what was causing it. No luck. Although I think it's almost certainly something to do with light and shadows. It almost looked normal in some areas. In others, it was dark, but the bloom from lights seemed insanely high, and even an npc walking in front of a light source would darken the whole screen. It's like...light is more intense, but doesn't travel as far, if that makes sense. I'm assuming something with lighting/shadows/bloom is getting doubled up, something I had turned off before bethini got turned on. Should aliasing be turned off in game settings for enb, or ambient occlusion, or godrays? 

I posted all 6 INI's, 3 before and after Bethini, and tried to clearly label them.

https://pastebin.com/LdrxXgJp

 

[DoubleYou]

If reverting you INI files to before using BethINI doesn't fix it, then I would expect that you have another mod that has introduced this issue. I don't really see anything in particular that would cause your issue, although I would suggest that you don't disable precombines, as that is going to wreck havok on your performance, among other issues. Perhaps that is your problem?

[Malasoth]

I reverted and it was back to normal, sorry I should have clarified. Is that the busecombinedobjects=0? I've had it like that for awhile, if I recall it was for a tree replacement mod, it said to use that line as without it the tree foliage would be severely reduced. 

[Malasoth]

Would it hurt anything to turn precombines back on? Also, I'm going to try to narrow it down. I'll replace 1 of the bethini edited files with the original and see if there is one in particular causing the problem. If that works and I figure out which INI is the culprit, I'll then replace one section of the file at a time and narrow down further. I'll update if it works. And thank you again for your help.

[Greg]

I think bPreCulledObjectsEnabled=0 disables all previs (precalculated visibility or culling) and bUseCombinedObjects=0 disables all precombined objects in the game and may tank performance as a result. I generally suggest avoiding mods that break previs and/or precombineds and that do not have a patch compatible with Previsbines Repair Pack (PRP). If you're using something like Springtime Trees that requires disabling precombines, I suggest swapping this out for a more compatible tree texture mod.

[Malasoth]

Hrmm Ok thank you. And yes, it was springtime trees! I was playing around with Fungal Commonwealth as well, mashing together several different tree and grass mods to see what came out, and I don't actually have Springtime Trees active anymore, although I can't remember why. I also don't use PRP. Would you recommend installing PRP and turning combines back on? Or at this point would it cause problems in my save?

[Greg]

I highly suggest using both Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch and Previsbines Repair Pack (PRP) because these both fix different types of bugs in the vanilla game. Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch fixes issues with the game (such as wonky quests) that do not affect previs and precombines in the game. Previsibines Repair Pack fixes the issues with landscape, gaping holes and overlapping objects that are precombined and corrects performance issues in areas such as Hangman's Alley, Corvega Factory and downtown Boston. The result is a much better and performance friendly game.

The problem we all face is that mods like Scrap Everything that allows removing (precombined) leaf piles and mods that move, remove or add objects in the environment that are precombined effectively breaks the precombined meshes used by the game. You may not notice much of an impact in a small interior space, but it can have a huge performance penalty in exterior cells and large interior cells (e.g. the ginormous Vault that can be a settlement) and you may run into issues with objects (e.g. buildings, walls, overpasses, roads, etc.) that flicker in an out of existence as you move around.

I get the desire to enhance the landscape with better trees and perhaps even adding more trees in the environment, but you need to consider the overall cost and find a balance. The most performance friendly way is to use a mod that changes the textures of the existing trees. If you want more trees, these either need to be added as non-precombined objects to the environment or you need a patch to regenerate previs and precombineds for the affected cells (and this is a complex task).

I don't have solid advice since I'm trying to figure all this out as well. I have tried a couple of tree mods and found mixed performance and some minor stuttering in some areas. If you have performance or flickering issues, back it out and try another tree mod. Previs and precombined meshes really help improve performance in Fallout 4 but it can be a pain to deal with.