GUIDE ENB Guide

[alt3rn1ty]

Ehm, guys are the changes to the wiki now permanent ?

 

 

I mean reference the old Tab layout which is now conspicuous by its absence

 

I have been linking people in various forum topics around the bazaars for quite a while to the following :

 

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB#tab=Editing_Enblocal_INI

 

Which is now obviously broken for all those topics.

 

 

This link used to lead directly to the Tab dealing purely with ENBLocal ini, for the purpose of pointing out to ENBoost users ( ONLY ENBOOST )

 

.. Now it leads to one huge confusing page which starts out with topics such as setting ..

 

bFloatPointRenderTarget=1

 

Which is entirely unnecessary for just ENBoost users.

 

When the setting were on their own Tab, during explanations linking there was less opportunity to confuse people with a full ENB setup.

 

The merge into one page has made that a bit more confusing I feel.

 

 

How about if the page were to start with ENBoost, What is ENBoost, ENBoost quick start, which applies to everybody..

.. and as the page goes on develops into full ENB, What is ENB, ENB Quick start, with more advanced tweaks needed for such a setup, and enbpresets etc available last.

 

And there is a clear point at which ENBoost users can stop reading ?

 

At the moment the flow is a mixed bag, and for newbies prone to falling asleep during a wall of text ( even a wall of text with pretty pictures - See Wrye Bash documentation old and new as another example of regular confusion for people with the attention span of a goldfish ) could be read as needing some things from a full ENB setup when they are not.

 

 

I cant even remember half the topics I have linked to the old Tab location on the subject, so no doubt people searching the subject will be even more confused now by a link which no longer links to the subject matter directly.  :confused:

Confused people are confused.

 

 

Edit : The redefining work on how to word the ENBLocal.ini settings explanations recently - Thanks to Keithinhanoi having a way of talking to Boris without triggering a typically bizarre angry response, and having a deep understanding of systems and what ENBoost is trying to achieve - Was excellent.

Edited December 19, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[alt3rn1ty]

Additionally, in the first post, your link ..

 

"For discussion of ENBoost, please view it's own thread here: https://forum.step-pr...ad.php?tid=3011"

 

Is also broken

[TechAngel85]

Yes, it should be final. We're converting all the Guides to TOC format and moving away from headertabs.

[alt3rn1ty]

Ok well thats one question answered at least, thank you

 

I have now linked from my article on Nexus to this part of your guides page.

 

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENB#Editing_Enblocal_INI

 

Please let us know if you would consider my suggestion above reference the layout change for all things ENBoost to precede all things ENB on that page ( because logically everyone uses ENBoost, but not everyone needs to read further for the more advanced ENB side of the story or need its settings ) .. Then I can adjust Article / Forum topic answer links accordingly. I am not going to touch the latter heap of changes everywhere for now just in case.

Edited December 19, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[z929669]

TOC layout is much beter for guides, but I do see what you mean with regard to linking to specific info ... tabbed layout parses things out nicely when provided a direct link; nevertheless, linking to a chapter or sub-chapter heading is very simple and apropos.
 
See this rationale for the change and this Category for some compares.
 
You should be able to fix all of your links by simply changing the portion of the link that looks like (as long as the tab-->chapter:

#tab=

to simply ...

#

 
Use case example:
Linking a user to info about ENBSeries.ini setting "GradientIntensity"
 
With HeaderTabs, unless each setting is under its own tab (which would be preposterous), there is no way to do this, so one sends the user to the tab itself and instructs taht user to "scroll down".

http://wiki.step-project.com/ENBSeries_INI_HeaderTabs_Functionality#tab=_5BSKY_5D

With TOC, a precise link is possible:

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:ENBseries_INI/Sky#GradientIntensity

... the ENBSeries INI Guide is a bit different though since it uses subpages, so here is an example using the DDSopt Guide and pointing the user to info about supported texture 'base' types. IIn the first case, info cannot be linked directly, but in the second, it can:

http://wiki.step-project.com/DDSopt_INI_HeaderTabs_Functionality#tab=DDSopt_Initialization_File

http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:DDSopt#Supported_.27Base.27_Types

... furthermore, choosing the link is simpler in TOC format, because one only needs to load the page and ... (right click the chapter of interest) > "Copy Link Location" > paste > done.

 

You should be able to easily update all of your links to point correctly, but another unfortunate aspect of Headertabs is that we cannot enforce standard wiki redirects, so once a former 'heading' (that has been linked in a forum thread) is removed or its name changed to suit the TOC layout, there is not way to redirect. Thus, updating links is a manual process. They at least should point to the guide though.

 

---

Also, if you want to alter any of the guide wiki content or add to it, please do so! The suggested change seems rational, as it simplifies a common real-world use case. We could use more help on our wiki, so go for it. Changes are all reversible, and that is the beauty of the wiki ;)

 

ALL USERS ARE WELCOME TO EDIT OUR WIKI WITHOUT WORRY OR CONCERN! If we don't like what you did, we can easily change it or revert it ... almost all edits result in an improvement, even if the edit kinda sucks

[alt3rn1ty]

Yes I understand all of that already, see the link in post 304 as opposed to the link in post 301

 

The main reason I am posting ( probably not too clearly ? ) is for a proposal to change the layout of the whole page which is not being addressed. If its getting an overhaul anyway and links already need to be changed around all the bazaars then why not do this also :

 

All things ENBoost,

with a clear cut off point,

before all things ENB

 

That is the main reason for me posting here, see previous posts for reasoning.

 

Edit : Now highlighted in orange in all previous posts

 

Edit 2 : Reference wiki editing - Is it easy ?, I am not familiar with using a full ENB so may get things entirely wrong on those parts of the page, and the flow required for that subject.

Edited December 19, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[TechAngel85]

I don't mind the layout change; however, keep the Quickstart portion where they're at in any Guide. They were created specifically for the STEP Guide and should remain the same and where they're at (those links on the STEP Guide will probably need to be updated to the new TOC links as well).

[alt3rn1ty]

I am just about to make a tentative first time editing a wiki edit, standby for lots of headaches 

 

Joking - I shall be very careful not to delete or take out of context any detail, I dont wish to make more work for anyone this close to the holidays.

 

And noted keeping quickstart where it is - Though can I split the relative quickstarts into the relative section of the page ?

 

All things ENBoost - starting with its own Quickstart

 

All things ENB - Starting with its own Quickstart

 

Reason I ask is because the ENB quick start includes advanced game ini editing which is not required for ENBoost, which if I keep them together would come before everything else ENBoost

 

( Yes I know they are clearly labelled and should not be used by ENBoost users, but I think it would be better if they were distinctly in the ENB part of the page and not mixed together )

Edited December 19, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[alt3rn1ty]

Just made the edit - Changed ENBoost Quickstart paragraph is now before the ENB Quickstart paragraph

 

And the Index on the right has updated correctly

 

 

Before I make any more changes have I made any non-obvious wiki noob fubars here ?

[alt3rn1ty]

Anyone ?

 

I am also going to change a lot of references to Tabs in the wording, which are no longer Tabs.

 

( Had finger poised on the commit button with a few more edits for a while but until I am confident in what I am doing here will wait on a response to the previous two posts - So refreshed the page without saving the changes I was experimenting with )

 

 

Edit : I have made one further change, because the guides are coming at the reader in the order ENBoost before ENB - To the section ENB Quickstart, added the following :

 

6. Setup the enblocal.ini:

1. Open the Skyrim folder and then open the enblocal.ini in a text editor (Notepad++ is recommended).
2. Find the section named [GLOBAL] and ensure the line, UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=false is set to false.
   • This line if set to true will disable the graphic effects of ENBSeries and only use the memory management feature known as ENBoost.

 

Similar to the ENBoost entry, but with the opposite setting, so that anyone reading the ENBoost Quickstart first, followed by the ENB Quickstart, will know to change this from what they have previously set.

Edited December 19, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[z929669]

My head is not acclimated to this subject at the moment, and I never had much of a hand in creating the ENB Guide anyway, but I think it is perfectly reasonable to rearrange information flow in the guide like so:

1. ENB Guide
   1. ENBoost
      1. Quickstart
      2. In-depth
   2. ENB Lighting
      1. Quickstart
      2. In-depth

Please have at it!

 

IMO, the Quickstart for ENBoost is really on the Mod Page and should stay there and should be linked from the ENB Guide > ENBoost > Quickstart section. Otherwise, we could switch that the other way (mod page notes link to ENBoost quickstart).

[alt3rn1ty]

:) Having at it. Will probably take a day or two doing this carefully ( in between life bugging me away from it )

 

I am also making summary comments for each edit ( except the first edit I did, missed the potential relevance of making comments, and then realised on the second edit )

 

Will post back when I have finished editing

Edited December 19, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[alt3rn1ty]

Just made an edit which may ring alarm bells - But consider the layout change first :

 

I have removed the "3.3.1 Memory Parameters" section

 

Because that section is now immediately followed by the newly updated "Editing ENBLocal INI" section, it was unnecessary duplication of information in adjacent sub-topics.

 

 

I am going to hold at this point in case there is any reason to undo that edit ???

[z929669]

Looks fine to me ... one thing I would like to change about this guide is to offload any info that does or could exist elsewhere:

• enblocal.ini settings - move into its own guide under cat INI Guide (like ENBSeries INI Guide) and reevaluate the need for the Quickstart section, because all relevant "quick" settings are already included on the mod page.
• enbseries.ini - Trim down substantially to only the most relevant settings to be included under the quickstart section

Eventually, all "quickstart" guide sections should be housed on the mod page and the actual guides should go into more detail, encompassing all info contained within the corresponding mod pages. When we create an ENBSeries 'mod' page, it could house all of the setings for particular packs to which they apply. For info on Packs and our Semantic Wiki implementation and goals, see the DD talk page.

[alt3rn1ty]

The mod page you speak of .. Are we talking ENBoost on nexus ?, or some part of step I am not familiar with ( I dont use S.T.E.P at all, most of it is out of my machine spec' league :) so I am going to be unfamiliar with a lot of the forum guides pages you are probably talking about )

 

 

+ I have found a conflict of opinion

 

I was going to ask is there any need for the Configuring ENBoost section, if its already stated in the quick start section .. However

 

In the quickstart guide for ENBoost, one of the pictures has set UseDefferedRendering to True ..

 

Whereas in the Configuring ENBoost section we have set UseDefferedRendering to false.

 

According to the description of this setting it should only be set to False for just ENBoost users, Full enb users need it set to True.

 

So the picture in the Quickstart guide needs amending - Or :

 

I just need to add a new line into the Quickstart guide explaining that setting depends on whether using just ENBoost, or full ENB

 

 

Seeing as the Quickstart guide for ENBoost really applies to both kinds of users, I think the latter is the case and a new text line needs adding in there between the pictures.