SSAO Talk

[Spock]

I must revert my older comment on lighting solution and SSAO. I couldn't find an enb that had SSAO settings to my satisfaction until I tried Opethfeldt (it seems the "oldversion" setting is needed to ground rocks). And in the process of trying it, I found Opethfeldt ENB to be just stunning! It looks mostly realistic, especially the weather settings, with a slight cinematic touch.

 

Maybe I will post another step lighting pack in the future :)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I must revert my older comment on lighting solution and SSAO. I couldn't find an enb that had SSAO settings to my satisfaction until I tried Opethfeldt (it seems the "oldversion" setting is needed to ground rocks). And in the process of trying it, I found Opethfeldt ENB to be just stunning! It looks mostly realistic, especially the weather settings, with a slight cinematic touch.

 

Maybe I will post another step lighting pack in the future :)

Which kind of SSAO settings were you looking for? Just one that has the quality turned way up? Most ENBs come with different performance settings. For example, Project ENB has SSAO turned on by default, but barely. If you go into the performance folders in the ENB File, there is a "Full Graphics" version which cranks it up pretty high (for a performance drop, of course).

[Spock]

Without UseOldType=true I couldn't get shadows at the inward facing edges between two meshes. I was looking for settings that slightly shadow the space in those edges (like in the corners of a room). While this effect is not physically accurate I think it looks much better because it "grounds" seemingly floating objects (like rocks).

You can see the difference when activating Opethfeldts ENB, search for a rock, open the ENB controls (shift+page down in Opethfeldts) and turn UseOldType on and off while looking at the base of the rock.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Interesting. Here is what my SSAO Section is set to for Full Graphics Mode for Project ENB

 

[sSAO_SSIL]

UseIndirectLighting=true

UseComplexIndirectLighting=true

UseComplexAmbientOcclusion=true

UseAmbientIndirectLighting=true

SamplingQuality=-1

SamplingPrecision=-1

SamplingRange=0.2

FadeFogRange=0.4

SizeScale=0.5

SourceTexturesScale=0.5

FilterQuality=-1

FilterType=2

AOAmount=0.75

AOAmountInterior=0.75

ILAmount=3.0

ILAmountInterior=3.0

AOIntensity=1.0

AOIntensityInterior=1.125

AOType=2

AOMixingType=2

AOMixingTypeInterior=2

UseOldType=true

[Spock]

I searched google for quite some time to see what the SSAO settings in ENB actually do. But besides 4 comparison shots by Boris about different shaders there is not much detailed documentation. To really test the settings it would probably be best to have a test cell where all textures look something like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Screen_space_ambient_occlusion.jpg

Preferably with a light source casting shadows so you can properly set up indirect lighting and ambient indirect lighting.

 

From what I found out UseOldType=true has to be set to get a pronounced effect on edges. Sampling range works like the visibility sliders for other stuff in the game. You can see it by setting saturation to 0, add contrast and then adjust brightness. You will see a blob around you that changes lighting when objects come into range.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I searched google for quite some time to see what the SSAO settings in ENB actually do. But besides 4 comparison shots by Boris about different shaders there is not much documentation. To really test the settings it would probably be best to have a test cell where all textures look something like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Screen_space_ambient_occlusion.jpg

Preferably with a light source casting shadows so you can properly set up indirect lighting and ambient indirect lighting.

Indoor cells in Skyrim would probably be good for this. Maybe inside an Inn? I'm honestly not even sure if it's really noticeable with SSAO on or off but I can understand how it's one of those things where once you see it, you always notice when it's not there. Kind of like my obsession of using High-Res pines with SFO even though they add a ridiculous load to Skyrim. 

[Spock]

It has to look good interior and exterior :)

Well I think it's even more then high res textures or meshes. Because our organisms are optimized for visual perception we very much notice physical incorrectness in lighting. There are steep limitations of this for rasterization engines (for alternatives watch this:

) and SSAO is a kind of important "cheat" to approximate indirect lighting. A good SSAO setting will make every scene look more believable helping suspension of disbelief.

 

[edit][Offtopic]Oops, just found out a brigade 3 demo was released, you can read more about it here: https://raytracey.blogspot.de/

The video is shot using 2 SLI titans, I'd really be interested in how this looks on 4 290x (they have the better architecture for computing, each one of them is faster then a titan)

[Aiyen]

Created this so that you can continue your talk about the finer details of SSAO and raytraceing in here instead. :) 

---

There that should do it ! Knock ya self out! :) 

[Spock]

Thanks!

 

I did a little thread over at the ENB forums hoping to find more details by Boris on the SSAO features. Thinking more about it, SSAO and SMAA are relatively independent from other ENB settings (only SSAO indirect lighting should make a little difference). Maybe a preset for both shaders with some comparison screenshots would be nice. So everyone can have their favorite ENB with SSAO and SMAA that fit their taste and GPU power.

What do you guys think?

[EssArrBee]

I remember reading that Boris' SSAO technique was closer to HBAO which I believe is an Nvidia creation, not sure how the performance is though compared to Boris' version since I've never used HBAO that I know of.

 

You'd probably have to search back a few threads for it maybe .224, somewhere around that time I remember reading it. Then just go to Nvidia's site and see it they have any HBAO info in the developer section.

[Spock]

Interesting. Here is what my SSAO Section is set to for Full Graphics Mode for Project ENB

 

I pretty much left the settings from Opethfeldt, I really really like the effect and from what I can tell it seems to be well balanced for performance vs quality. There is a bit of noise though but I hardly notice it unless I get really close and search for it. Maybe setting sizescale to 0.5 would be better.

 

[spoiler=my current SSAO settings (from Opethfeldt)]

UseIndirectLighting=true

UseComplexIndirectLighting=true

SamplingQuality=0

SamplingRange=0.2

FadeFogRangeDay=60.0

FadeFogRangeNight=60.0

SizeScale=0.35

SourceTexturesScale=0.35

FilterQuality=0

AOAmount=1.81

ILAmount=3.0

FadeFogRangeInterior=1.0

UseComplexAmbientOcclusion=false

UseAmbientIndirectLighting=false

SamplingPrecision=0

FadeFogRange=20.0

FilterType=0

AOAmountInterior=2.51

ILAmountInterior=3.0

AOIntensity=0.2

AOIntensityInterior=0.2

AOType=0

AOMixingType=7

AOMixingTypeInterior=7

UseOldType=false

EnableDenoiser=true

 

 

[EssArrBee]

Be careful with Sizescale and SourceTextureScale. They can be murderous on the performance.