Capture Warmer (Dynamic Cubemaps)

[Mercury71]

Discussion topic:
Capture Warmer (Dynamic Cubemaps) by doodlum
Wiki Link

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SKSE plugin which upon entering cells, captures reflection data used for ENB Dynamic Cubemaps and future projects, to significantly improve reflection quality.

This mod seem to make reflecting stuff actually reflect stuff. 

Best pictures is the ones with bread on the mod web page.

(It needs ENB (or Community Shader) so only interesting for those using that part of STEP Guide)

[TadasTalalas]

Wow this is great mod. Mods like these makes the game polished. Feeling is much better in a polished game.

[z929669]

It's not clear what the requirements are. ENB and Community Shaders are not mentioned in the Description 'Requirements' section.

Is there a specific version of ENB this works with? I don't know of any ENB effect called "Dynamic Cubemaps"

[Greg]

41 minutes ago, z929669 said:

It's not clear what the requirements are. ENB and Community Shaders are not mentioned in the Description 'Requirements' section.

Is there a specific version of ENB this works with? I don't know of any ENB effect called "Dynamic Cubemaps"

ENB Dynamic Cubemaps has some more information that indicates this is apparently a feature in ENBseries. It looks as if this mod (ENB Dynamic Cubemaps) just provides the cubemap textures for various objects.

Release notes on the ENBSeries 0.494 page.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, Greg said:

ENB Dynamic Cubemaps has some more information that indicates this is apparently a feature in ENBseries. It looks as if this mod (ENB Dynamic Cubemaps) just provides the cubemap textures for various objects.

Release notes on the ENBSeries 0.494 page.

Thanks. I suspected that the compatible cubemap textures would be required (like complex grass requires compatible textures). This then calls into question the compatible textures (or lack thereof) for the Step build, so it sounds great but potentially impractical to expect that ALL reflections will suddenly be great somehow.

Maybe if ENB Dynamic Cubemaps includes ALL vanilla cubemaps, it would be OK ... but what if a scene departs from vanilla? Maybe still OK, but you see where I'm going (I hope).

[Mercury71]

5 hours ago, z929669 said:

Thanks. I suspected that the compatible cubemap textures would be required (like complex grass requires compatible textures). This then calls into question the compatible textures (or lack thereof) for the Step build, so it sounds great but potentially impractical to expect that ALL reflections will suddenly be great somehow.

Maybe if ENB Dynamic Cubemaps includes ALL vanilla cubemaps, it would be OK ... but what if a scene departs from vanilla? Maybe still OK, but you see where I'm going (I hope).

Installed ENB Dynamic Cubemaps. Made eyes look to shiny. So i installed also Subtle eye cubemap and it fixed it.

So i am now testing with these three mods. Installed in STEP 21 - Post Processing section.

[z929669]

First, I am in no way against this mod or the functionality it brings. It sounds great and may well be superior to the imperfect default game mechanics of 'reflectivity'.

Just throwing out an example for the sake of debate:

We have valid SSE builds that include or exclude Tundra Homestead from the landscape. Since Tundra Homestead is an optional vanilla feature of the landscape, it is valid to have cubemaps supporting it or excluding it. What I don't know is if the cubemap is actually really dynamic (constructed on the fly by the reality of any given scene in the game). From Greg's explanation, it seems like the game would require two different but analogous cubemaps for the landscape with or without Tundra Homestead. I know it's not possible to have a default set of cubemaps that account for all such objects in the game (there are thousands if not millions of combinations of objects). Like LOD, reflectivity cubemaps would need to be dynamically generated for the load order to be 100% accurate.

Again, vanilla-only cubemaps may well be superior in the end, because the vanilla mechanic is only fair at best. I am making a lot of assumptions here, because it's not clear how this mod works or exactly what it relies upon. I don't see any technical documentation explaining the mechanics, so as Mercury is doing, testing before/after impact on the Step setup is the only thing to be done. I'd love to see some examples of reflections with/without this mod.

 

I wonder how the Raggod Flaggon reflection is impacted as per this post, which was fixed via plugin changes. Is it fixed regardless of the plugin 'patch'? I just dont know enough about this mechanic to speculate one way or the other.

[ButchDiavolo]

I think there is a bit of confusion about the term "ENB Dynamic Cubemaps". First and foremost, it is a SETTING in ENB Series 0.494 (the umpteenth update). But it is also the name of a mod on Nexus. The MOD adds dynamic cubemaps for several objects.

I have no idea how the "magic" works under the hood, but a dynamic cubemap is a 1 pixel black texture file, which then gets dyna-magically turned into a reflective cubemap in game. As far as I understand it.

I have been using the setting in ENB since it became available and later installed the mod as well. And it makes things look shiny and pretty [pupils dilate]. Ahem, sorry, anyway, I haven't noticed any weird or overly bright reflections in game, apart from the eye cubemap, which can be fixed with "subtle eye cubemap" (as mentioned by Mercury), or by adjusting the "EYE"settings in ENBseries.ini (see under spoiler).

Spoiler

ReflectionAmountMultiplierDawn=0.2
ReflectionAmountMultiplierSunrise=0.2
ReflectionAmountMultiplierDay=0.2
ReflectionAmountMultiplierSunset=0.2
ReflectionAmountMultiplierDusk=0.2
ReflectionAmountMultiplierNight=0.2
ReflectionAmountMultiplierInteriorDay=0.5
ReflectionAmountMultiplierInteriorNight=0.5
ReflectionFresnelMin=0.1
ReflectionFresnelCurve=2.0

(fiddle with these settings until you get the effect you like best)

As far as the Ragged Flagon image goes: a check showed that the raggedflagon_e.dds I have, comes from ELFX. And I have never seen that hyperbright reflection.

Now, about this mod (Capture Warmer): I have tried it briefly in game and it does this really weird camera "wobble" when switching cells. Apparently that is "supposed" to happen if you have "disabled the fade in effect that vanilla has". As you can see, very clear instructions from Doodlum on how to fix it. So, I am holding off until that is either clarified or fixed for ENB users.

[ButchDiavolo]

Despite wanting to hold off until the above is sorted, I decided to try the mod anyway, to see if it is even worth using compared to the ENB setting and ENB Dynamic Cubemaps mod.

My conclusion: it isn't.

My explanation as to why: The plugin takes and adds the relevant "scenery" when entering an interior (i.e. a light source and wall opposite the reflecting item), instead of an image taken from the interior as ENB does. It does this by giving you a seizure a random camera movement when entering the cell at the moment. In the comments on the mod page is a link to a reddit post on how to add "fade in" to the ENB. I followed those directions, but the seizure camera movement still happens. After a few cell changes, the camera effect made me lose the will to live/ play Skyrim.

True, this plugin makes the cubemaps a (slightly) better quality, but ask yourself, how often do you, for example, stare into a wine bottle, to see the reflection? For me personally, adding the cubemap effect in ENBseries.ini and installing the ENB Dynamic Cubemap mod work really well. And it won't cause motion-sickness whenever you switch cells/ interiors.

[ButchDiavolo]

Update:

I took the leap and did away with ENB altogether and I am now trying out Community Shaders (and it's add-ons). So far it works well and no real issues.

EXCEPT this one. Despite claims by doodlum that it has been fixed in the recent update, it still has the weird seizure effect.