GUIDE ENB Guide Overhaul

[TechAngel85]

I added a general statement about some effects require additional files in the opening of the section:
 

This will not be an inclusive list of all the parameters and their values that are included in the enbseries.ini file. This section of the ENB Guide is meant for novice users and as such, these users are recommended to not edit any other parameters than the ones listed below. The parameters below are considered the basics in modifying the quality of the effects in the enbseries.ini file. Not all presets will use all of the effects below; therefore, some effects may already be disabled in the chosen preset. Certain effects such as, bloom, lens, and DoF require additional files before they can be utilized. If these effects are disabled by default, enabling them may not have any affect since the required files may missing from the preset. For more advanced editing of the enbseries.ini file, see the Advanced Editing section.

 

This section of the Guide is meant to be very, very basic. Sort of like, "if this effect exists, here's how to turn it off or change its quality". That's it and nothing more. I'll go into much greater detail on the advanced ENBseries INI Guide which can be viewed here: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENBseries_INI

 

That Guide is not anywhere near ready to be reviewed though. Basically I've only set it up and made sure all the parameters are listed for each section. The text in the sections is a straight copy from the ENB Guide. We'll finish up the ENB Guide before going into any work on the ENBseries INI Guide. In fact, all I have to finish up the ENB Guide is the Addons section and for you guys to review the rest of the sections for me. Not much left, but for now lets focus on this Enbseries INI section.

[Aiyen]

I made my own enbeffect.fx file, and a few others have as well. In those the Use Original part of the code is simply removed.. since why have it? All it does is simply to trigger a loop in the default enbeffect.fx file which will then use the image space values and nothing else. But if those values are messed with then it wont really work as intended or at all.. depending on the code involved. 

 

 

The Scales are for both the sizescale and the source values... as I recall then going higher then 250% have no effect, just like going lower should not have an effect. I think it is vital to mention it, since those two values are what really control the performance to quality ratio of the effects. Especially for reflection you can go rather low without much visual loss, but if you go really high it will just cripple your system... and the extra quality is quite... let us just call it very shot dependent. 

 

For SSAO if it is too low then you will get flickering that can be quite bad. In general for both of them then it was also to show that you can go to values above 1.0 and still get even more quality... if you are doing those super epic screenshots etc. 

[TechAngel85]

I made my own enbeffect.fx file, and a few others have as well. In those the Use Original part of the code is simply removed.. since why have it? All it does is simply to trigger a loop in the default enbeffect.fx file which will then use the image space values and nothing else. But if those values are messed with then it wont really work as intended or at all.. depending on the code involved. 

 

 

The Scales are for both the sizescale and the source values... as I recall then going higher then 250% have no effect, just like going lower should not have an effect. I think it is vital to mention it, since those two values are what really control the performance to quality ratio of the effects. Especially for reflection you can go rather low without much visual loss, but if you go really high it will just cripple your system... and the extra quality is quite... let us just call it very shot dependent. 

 

For SSAO if it is too low then you will get flickering that can be quite bad. In general for both of them then it was also to show that you can go to values above 1.0 and still get even more quality... if you are doing those super epic screenshots etc. 

Great and thanks! I'll incorporate this information.

[TechAngel85]

The guide from JawZ says this about SourceTexturesScale:

 

"Do not set above 1.0 because of cache missing for texture reads."

 

Is this an issue? 

[Aiyen]

I think it once upon a time was an issue.. but Boris made changes to how they worked sometime in the past. For the current version of ENB the above mentioned scale range will work just fine.. as long as you got a system that can handle it. 

[TechAngel85]

Yeah, that guide by JawZ is really old and outdated.

 

I've added the scale parameters to SSAO and Reflections, updated the explanation about UseOriginalPostProcessing, and removed the Bloom section altogether because even JawZ said there is little improvement and to gain the performance by adjusting elsewhere in his guide.

 

Thanks for your contributions, Aiyen!    If you see anything else let me know!

[tony971]

JSYK, the AutodetectVideoMemorySize feature is often unreliable for picking out the appropriate value for VideoMemorySizeMb. Also, the ReservedMemorySizeMb setting should typically not be set higher than necessary. Part of ENBoost's optimizations includes moving processes from RAM to VRAM because VRAM is faster. ReservedMemorySizeMb is the amount of VRAM that ENBoost reserves for dynamic processes. If set unnecessarily high, then less VRAM will be available for other processes and there will be more spillover back into the RAM.Setting WaitBusyRenderer to true and/or EnableCompression to false will help with stuttering, at the cost of FPS (well, WaitBusyRenderer costs FPS directly; disabling compression costs memory). WaitBusyRenderer is significantly more costly than EnableCompression and should be used as a last resort.ENB's vsync doesn't work for me, either. Neither the vsync, nor the frame limiter. I've been disabling them both as well as iPresetInterval in the vanilla inis and using the driver vsync.I wouldn't endorse any specific value for MaxAnisotropy. Instead, have users set it to whatever their iMaxAnisotropy value in their Skyrimprefs.ini is set to and then set iMaxAnisotropy to 1 afterwards.If you really want the enblocal.ini expert, track down Keithinhanoi. He knows the settings better than anyone not named Boris.

Edited September 23, 2014 by tony971

[TechAngel85]

JSYK, the AutodetectVideoMemorySize feature is often unreliable for picking out the appropriate value for VideoMemorySizeMb. Also, the ReservedMemorySizeMb setting should typically not be set higher than necessary. Part of ENBoost's optimizations includes moving processes from RAM to VRAM because VRAM is faster. ReservedMemorySizeMb is the amount of VRAM that ENBoost reserves for dynamic processes. If set unnecessarily high, then less VRAM will be available for other processes and there will be more spillover back into the RAM.Setting WaitBusyRenderer to true and/or EnableCompression to false will help with stuttering, at the cost of FPS (well, WaitBusyRenderer costs FPS directly; disabling compression costs memory). WaitBusyRenderer is significantly more costly than EnableCompression and should be used as a last resort.ENB's vsync doesn't work for me, either. Neither the vsync, nor the frame limiter. I've been disabling them both as well as iPresetInterval in the vanilla inis and using the driver vsync.I wouldn't endorse any specific value for MaxAnisotropy. Instead, have users set it to whatever their iMaxAnisotropy value in their Skyrimprefs.ini is set to and then set iMaxAnisotropy to 1 afterwards.If you really want the enblocal.ini expert, track down Keithinhanoi. He knows the settings better than anyone not named Boris.

We're not recommending to use the auto detection anywhere. In fact, we provide examples on how to set the memory settings manual everywhere that these parameters are mentioned. As for the Reserved memory parameter, we give users a general starting point, but we also state that users will have to test to find the best value for their system.

 

Anisotropy has very minimal performance hit so lowering it from the default 16, will have very little affect performance wise.

 

Actually, not to be blunt, but what's the problem here?    Most of what you posted is what's already in the Guide...just not worded in the exactly same way.

 

Also, the Guide isn't a, "set this to this and your done" type of Guide. It's a, "this is what this does, this is the effect it'll have, set it however you like" type of Guide in order to teach users. This way they can make the best decisions for their setups. That is the nature of ENBSeries, no one setup will work for all users.

 

EDIT:

I've contacted Keith asking for him to look it over if he has the time and want.

[tony971]

I just pointed those out as notes for the Editing Enblocal INI section. The autodetect setting currently doesn't say anything about not always setting to the available amount of memory. The reserved memory doesn't mention any reason why users would want to keep the number low. In fact, it's stated that for 2GB cards, 512 is a good baseline and could be set up to 1024. There's no mention of compression and/or WaitBusyRenderer helping/hurting with stuttering issues. It might be worth noting out that the ENB vsync/frame limiter doesn't work for everyone and to check for screen tearing/FPS over 60 (which can be tested in menu screens). The main reason that I brought up the Anisotropy is because users are told to set it to 16. However, not all users can handle the small FPS hit. I have a feeling that ENBoost-only users will wander in here with mediocre computing power, looking for explanations about what the settings do.

[TechAngel85]

I just pointed those out as notes for the Editing Enblocal INI section. The autodetect setting currently doesn't say anything about not always setting to the available amount of memory. The reserved memory doesn't mention any reason why users would want to keep the number low. In fact, it's stated that for 2GB cards, 512 is a good baseline and could be set up to 1024. There's no mention of compression and/or WaitBusyRenderer helping/hurting with stuttering issues. It might be worth noting out that the ENB vsync/frame limiter doesn't work for everyone and to check for screen tearing/FPS over 60 (which can be tested in menu screens). The main reason that I brought up the Anisotropy is because users are told to set it to 16. However, not all users can handle the small FPS hit. I have a feeling that ENBoost-only users will wander in here with mediocre computing power, looking for explanations about what the settings do.

I've expanded on the explanations of autodect, reserved memory (and reworded to be more clear), and video memory size. I've also added a sentence to the notice in the FPS Limiter section to include it not working at all.

 

As for the recommendations, they're going to stay. They're just like any other recommendation on the STEP Guide...a "recommendation". Users are under no obligation to follow it. For Anisotropic specifically, I did a test run between the driver 16x, ENB 16x and ENB 4x. Between the drive and ENB there was no FPS difference. Between ENB 16x and 4x there was a .5FPS (yes, 0.5) gain which just confirms what I've known all along. The FPS difference between Anisotropic settings is really a non-issue.

[tony971]

Looks good to me :)

[TechAngel85]

Okay, it's time to move on again. We're skipping the Advanced Editing section since there is nothing there but some text and a link. Also, for know, we skipping over the Addons section since I'm not done with it yet. This lands us on the Troubleshooting section of the Guide. I know there is a LOT more info that can be added to this page and I plan on browsing the ENB Support forum to add to this information, but for now, I just need to know if the information presented on the page is accurate. If not, we need to address it. The AMD section was added a really long time ago and since I'm running Nvidia, I have no idea if it's accurate or not.

 

For those of you that are helping, please review and let me know of anything that is off.

[tony971]

Some of the ini section notes could probably be repeated in the troubleshooting section, i.e. the stuttering notes, etc. Also, a good resource for ENB troubleshooting would be the RealVision FAQ. SkyrimTuner's heard every single issue there is. If it's reproducible, it ends up in the FAQ. 

[keithinhanoi]

Sorry to show up "late to the party," but thank you for the invite!

 

I'm looking at the Editing Enblocal INI section of the guide, and can see some language issues that should be fixed, as well as some inaccurate descriptions and over-generalization.

 

It's clear that the intent of the guide is to summarize the features of each enblocal.ini setting as briefly as possible, so I need some time to go through my notes so I can come up with as concise explanations as possible to suggest.

 

I also notice that some of the terminology used in that section is not introduced elsewhere, for example "geometry." I think it would be a very good idea to include a glossary section with definitions of some of the more technical terms and also some acronyms that newer users may not be familiar with. 

 

In addition to that, although the first section of the guide states that the ENBoost feature is explained across other sections of the guide, there isn't one single place where an overview is given of how ENBoost works. This would be immensely helpful for users to read before moving on to the more detailed explanations of each enblocal.ini setting.

 

However, I don't want to interrupt the flow of things, as I see you've already moved on to the troubleshooting section of the guide.

 

So please let me know how you would like me to proceed.

[TechAngel85]

I'm more than willing to backtrack and revisit pages as needed. I've actually been thinking of making an ENBoost section as that is easily one of the most important parts of ENBSeries to get right, as well as, one of the most confusing for a lot of users. I'm thinking that would be the best way to handle ENBoost and basically remove it from other sections besides the Quickstart section. It will ensure all the information regarding ENBoost is all in one place and allow us to get much more detailed if need be.

 

As for the rest of the ENBlocal INI section, you are correct. We're tried to keep it short and to the point without providing a bunch of tech speak that most users simply wouldn't care about or don't need to know. We've basically tried to narrow it down to what it is, what is does, and what the affect will be on the game. With that said, if any point needs to be more detailed then we can get more detailed to provide the basic information. Once your Guide is finished, which I'm sure will go into the enblocal.ini file in more depth, I can provide a link to it for users wanting the more in-depth information. I'm already doing this with the enbseries.ini file.

 

@Tony,

I'll check out SkyrimTuner's FAQ.