SKYRIMLE Vanilla at its best by Hexaae

[rootsrat]

https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/37334/

 

This was just uploaded to Nexus. Sounds interesting and very much along the lines of STEP mandate :)

 

Maybe some of you will find it useful? Should we consider it for STEP at all, as an alternative to lighting solution?

 

here are my settings where I slightly changed RGB and Gamma for a much better graphics final rendering, quite different from standard settings... at least that's what people say when they see my screenshots and I have to prove them I'm not using gfx mods!

 

This is to contradict those saying the typical things about Skyrim non-heavily-modded* graphics:

- washed out colors

- bad lights

- too clear nights

...

Consider also that weather conditions may alter a lot lights, color shift (e.g. blue and gray tones to represent cold fresh mornings) and saturation on purpose... and the same location may vary a lot.

 

*

no ENB, RCRN, injected filters, super-hi-res texture 3rd party HD packs, no body/skin overhauls etc.

[Aiyen]

Since it is just a few .ini changes, then I see no problem in suggesting them in a subsection of the .ini tweaks.

[statmonster]

Hexaae wrote: "I've always thought ENB and RCRN are very good (and may decrease your FPS -1 to -10)... but what about vanilla graphics? Do you really think talented professional artists in Bethesda would have done a dull and washed out graphics on purpose with so bad imagespaces? Or it's just a matter of tuning the standard settings?"

 

I find this a very puzzling statement. As I understand it he's saying being talented professionals the artists did a good job but it was undermined by the tuning - but why would the tuners, who are also presumably talented professionals, do this and undermine the whole project? It makes no sense.

 

In any case the author's idea of tuning the settings to improve the appearance is a very attractive one. Tweaking .ini settings is presumably (at least to this non-talented non-professional) easier and imposes less of a performance hit than introducing masses of hi res textures, lighting changes and post processing adjustments via ENBs.

[Luinithil]

I'd be thankful for a real non-ENB solution to bad colors and worse shadows; my game doesn't do well with it on. That said, has anyone here actually tried these tweaks yet? The sample pictures are amazingly beautiful; so much so I can hardly believe there isn't an ENB being used. Note that the included Skyrim.ini has a lot of what look to be CPU related tweaks: do those actually work? Think someone who is familiar with INI settings should weigh in.

 

Grabbed some preliminary screenshots-- all pics are taken with no other textures but the HD DLC textures installed, setting is the camping start site in Live Another Life:

 

Tweaks with CoT

Tweaks without CoT

Vanilla

 

I've used the INIs as is except in the case of Skyrim.ini due to differing tweaks. Will grab and up some screenshots with the vanilla Ultra settings later. If someone can tell me how to post proper comparisons, I'd be grateful.

[Luinithil]

Comparison pics (4x AA in Skyrim launcher, iMaxAnisotropy=1 in all INIs, I sadly forgot to enable AF via Nvidia Inspector, d'oh!):

 

Vanilla Ultra INI > Vanilla INI with COT/RLO > Vanilla with tweaked INI > COT/RLO with tweaked INI

 

[Luinithil]

Comparison settings: No other texture packs were used in all test pictures except the HDDLC (optimised version). Vanilla pics taken at default ultra settings. All pics taken with 4x AA in Skyrim launcher, in game brightness at default, iMaxAnisotropy=1 in all INIs used. I sadly forgot to enable 8x AF via Nvidia Inspector, d'oh!

 

Pure vanilla> Vanilla INI with COT/RLO > Vanilla with tweaked INI > COT/RLO with tweaked INI

 

 

Vanilla > Vanilla lighting with tweaked INI.

 

 

Pure vanilla> Vanilla INI with COT/RLO > Vanilla with tweaked INI > COT/RLO with tweaked INI

 

 

NB: Full test screenshots album, with all 14 sets of comparison pics here.

 

Linked earlier in my last post-- in-game outdoor screenshots in various weather conditions and lighting, taken outside of STEP testing process, again with no other texture packs or mods except the DLCs, tweaked INIs, 8x AF from Nvidia driver enabled; apologies as I can't remember whether AA was on or not, but possibly no-- with COT and without COT.

 

I would suggest that anyone who wants to contribute more test shots do so with AF at 8x enabled (8x is recommended by the modder) particularly for outdoor shots.

[Aiyen]

Why would you not just use 16x AF ... the performance difference is absolutely minimal on todays cards.

 

But so far it looks interesting for sure. However I still think ENB has the better shadow alternative overall. And if one is going to use that part using ENB color correction have about the same performance impact as this does.

 

Edit: there is of course a bit higher requirement from using ENB color correction due to the nature of the mod. So this should of course have better performance if you are only interested in the color corrections.

[TechAngel85]

I honestly can't tell the difference between the pure vanilla and the vanilla with ini tweak... a softer shadow outline is all.

[Luinithil]

The color balance differs (more red and blue than vanilla), and shadows are softened, as a friend commented earlier. More red in the color palette, and outside lighting has a more blueish hue than vanilla. If you go to the album with the other comparison pics I uploaded, you can tell from the pictures taken inside Bleak Falls Barrow.

[vfxninjaeditor]

The tweaks seem to do a lot. Technically, the tweak is much more accurate with color. If you ever sat around a campfire at night it doesn't give off a soft yellow cast like vanilla. The tweaked ini gives the correct orange tone.

[TechAngel85]

This might be good for vanilla, but from looking at the CoT/RLO shots above, you shouldn't use it with them. The RLO team has put in a lot of hours into researching and correcting the colors for realism from the light sources and such. These tweaks skew the work that the RLO team has done and not for the better from what I can see.

[Luinithil]

According to the modder, apparently the key INI tweaks here are

 

[Display]

bDo30VFog=1

bDoTestHDR=1

bAllow30Shaders=1

bUseSunbeams=1

 

[bLightAttenuation]

fLinearValue=5.0000

 

SkyrimPrefs.ini

[General]

fBrightLightColorB=1.0000

fBrightLightColorG=1.5000

fBrightLightColorR=1.2000

[Display]

fGamma=1.3700

 

I do think these INI tweaks might be something to consider for those who prefer not to use CoT and RLO.

[Aiyen]

I would still just suggest an addition to the .ini wiki along with a few screenshots to show what to expect.

Since color correction is personal preference I do not think it should ever be included as an integral part of STEP, rather just as an option that people can use.

 

They are effectively just altering the ingame post process shaders which provides better performance then if you are using 3rd party solutions since those have to "steal" the output from the game and then alter it, where this makes the altering before the scene is rendered. For people with low end cards, or who just want max. amount of performance then this solution is of course the best.

 

It might even be interesting for ENB tweakers to alter the initial game post process to get the desired result they are looking for.

 

Also thank you for the time spent on making the screenshots lunithil! Great work!

[Luinithil]

I would still just suggest an addition to the .ini wiki along with a few screenshots to show what to expect.

Since color correction is personal preference I do not think it should ever be included as an integral part of STEP, rather just as an option that people can use.

 

They are effectively just altering the ingame post process shaders which provides better performance then if you are using 3rd party solutions since those have to "steal" the output from the game and then alter it, where this makes the altering before the scene is rendered. For people with low end cards, or who just want max. amount of performance then this solution is of course the best.

 

It might even be interesting for ENB tweakers to alter the initial game post process to get the desired result they are looking for.

 

Also thank you for the time spent on making the screenshots lunithil! Great work!

My preference would be to avoid ENB actually since my card's performance is somewhat limited: it's not very low-end, but not what would be considered powerful either with all the texture mods and whatnot I have running. :P That and I want as much performance as I can squeeze out of my rig. I'm certain there are others like me out there too. Now, is it possible to find INI settings like these that will look good for CoT/RLO users? Logic says yes but the time invested might get tedious in a hurry. I can get what the RGB settings do, obviously, but what does the gamma setting do?

[TechAngel85]

CoT and RLO are already packaged with their own color corrects with minimal impact. Only low-end users should see any impact from those two mods.