Updating Winterheart II ... which ENB version to use?

[Noobsayer]

So the beautiful Winterheart II weather + enb mod is a bit out of date at this point, and I'd like to fix that for a playthrough with a second character. I intend to use this guide. I'm not savvy with all the ENB intricacies, but I figure I can follow directions.

 

Anyway, I want to keep the original look but update so that I can use the ENBoost function. Do you guys recommend a particular version or is it one of those "might as well use the latest" things? I was thinking at least .236 for underwater goodies.

[Aiyen]

Updating from a v.119 to latest version is going to take some tweaking to do. Mainly because so many values have new names, are moved into other files etc.

 

The documentation of ENB at its site is really not optimal. You should rather go look for JawZ guides instead. I think he links to them on the forum under downloads. They are more comprehensive, and help out quite a bit more.

But even then it will require some trial and error until you have it all down.

 

Also since so many new effects are introduced, then you are going to have to decide if you want to use them or not.

For example the latest Volumetric rays require certain mods to show properly, and depending on values they will recolor the sky quite a bit.

Sub Surface Scattering is another thing implemented since back then, that will also need to be setup from the ground up if you want to use it.

The list goes on.

 

So while you can use the preset files as a base, then in order to have it all updated you are going to have to put in at least a few days of tweaking, and learning!

[Noobsayer]

I'll take a look at those JawZ guides, thanks! I assume you mean this?

 

I actually intend (minus underwater stuff, because I remember it looking brokenly funky with old ENBs) to not use any of the new effects -- partly to keep it as true to the original as possible, and partly because of the difficulties you mentioned. ;)

[Aiyen]

Yup, that should help out a bit. At least it is a place to start.

[Fereval]

Hey funny I'm in the same process but with Enhanced Motion Picture based on ENB 0.113 :).

I'm not interested at all in new effects, unless they are required for the CoT Weather Patch stuff.

(volumetric fog especially looks kinda weird in the old version).

 

If you find some caveats and specifics during your research, I would be more than happy if you could share them !

[TehKaoZ]

I'm currently using this enb updated, However it was easier for me since I cannot use most enb effects anyways due to my system being unable to handle it. So I used Winterhearts performance 119 setting as a base and have almost all effects turned off (AO, skylighting, ect.) So currently I only have: Bloom, adaptation, detailed shadow, and water effects.

 

What I did:

1. downloaded the most recent enb binary and used all of winterhearts original files except the enbseries, I figured it more prudent to compare both files and simply transfer values over where applicable.

2. I did use the guide for updating enb binaries as well as Jawz guides as a reference. The biggest settings to turn off for me was sunrise and sunset as it would take considerable tweaking to get those to match up well.

3. The interior settings in 119 are not separated into day/night so I simply put both values for interior and went in game to compare and tweak from there.

4. As noted above I turned off most new enbseries effects, and tweaked the ones easiest for me to do.

 

All in all, I am happy with the result, I have some screens on my Nexus profile (I did apply some sweetfx to those images though). In the end I think it would be rather difficult to keep the original look however, I think most of the differences are subtle enough to where it still looks close enough. As Aiyen said though, it will require some learning and much tweaking to get it right. I personally wouldn't mind a more professional enb guru though taking up the mantle of updating this wonderful binary, although even if one was willing to do so, they would probably need author permission.

[Aiyen]

Technically the binary is the ENB version that Boris makes....we do not alter that ;)

 

Anyways make sure Time of Day is disabled, since it will make sure you only have day night values used.

For interiors then Day and night values should be identical in almost all cases, since some dungeons etc. have daytime settings set to them during the night from the CK. By making sure the values are identical you remove almost all issues.

[Noobsayer]

Other big things I noticed if you're using the quality option is to make sure you:

 

 

Copy from [OBJECT] the SubSurfaceScattering values to the [VEGETATION] section (they weren't separate for older ENBs)

 

[sSAO/SSIL] FilterType=4 so you use the old version of SSAO, which looks a bit different in newer ones. (thanks to JawZ guide)

You may also want UseOldType=true --for the .119 version, but keep in mind that Ambient IL and Simple IL values will still have an effect apparently.

 

 

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That said, do I need the enbhelper/particle patch stuff if I updated to .241? Like I said I do want to spruce up water effects from the original.

[Aiyen]

If you want underwater effects then yes you need the helper mod. The particle patch is in general always a good idea since it contains meshes with corrected shader settings. Cant hurt to have it.

[Noobsayer]

All in all, I am happy with the result, I have some screens on my Nexus profile (I did apply some sweetfx to those images though).

 

Mind if I ask what sweet FX you used? Those are beautiful!

 

And thanks Aiyen, you've been super helpful :)

[TehKaoZ]

I used the one provided by ULO+ , I had to lower the vibrancy setting and raise in-game gamma a tad since it makes the environment darker. Since my computer can't handle the bigger enb effects I figured putting in the sweetfx would be a lighter way to get some nice lighting effects for no noticeable performance cost. I decided on that one since it focused on enhancing the vanilla game and wouldn't impose too strong a change to Winterhearts core look. I will likely still have to tweak it more as I go along.

[Noobsayer]

OK. So I finally got around to finishing tweaks for my second playthrough and did a bit more testing. (FOR REAL, I am finally going to do that thief playthrough.) Anyway, I'm not sure if I messed something up somewhere, if I need to enable the wrongskymath, or if I'm getting weirdness by not having the weather plugin enabled right now.

 

Basically sometimes looking at evening (6ish?) sun is SUPER red and makes everything else SUPER dark. However looking down at my toes is much brighter. Is this ... expected behavior? >.>; I'll try to do some more troubleshooting later but throwing this out there in case someone had a similar problem and already found a fix.

[TehKaoZ]

I believe the weather plugin is required for this to look correct in exteriors as it changes the image spaces for weathers, if I had to guess I would say something like that could be the result of not having it.

[Noobsayer]

That makes sense. I was testing on an existing game (with an existing weather mod), I'll give it a go on a fresh one.

[Noobsayer]

Yep, that seemed to be the problem. Which leaves me with one I'm unable to solve. At night there are sort of circular lines in the sky, with almost a subtle rainbow or prism effect. The image is pretty big, should show exactly what I'm talking about.

 

 

Tried google and can't find anybody talking about this, probably because I'm not searching for the right thing, lol. So I have no idea what controls that.

 

[TehKaoZ]

Even in the vanilla game those lines exist, they are essentially different color shades for the sky I believe. However in your game they are considerably more prominent than they should be.

 

You could try tweaking these variable in game. under environment

 

FogColorMultiplierNight=1.1

FogColorCurveNight=1.0

ColorPowNight=1.0

 

Another option would be to look at the sky gradient settings for night. Unfortunately I don't know that they can be completely eliminated but they should be fixable to be barley noticeable.