GUIDE ENB Guide

[TechAngel85]

Tech, are sure about iBlurDeferredShadowMask and bDeferredShadows? I don't think that has anything to do with zprepass. Did a search on the 0.266 release thread, and Boris merely mentions not touching "shadow mask or zprepass" in the INIs. From the succinctness of his verbiage, I would be inclined to think he only meant bShadowMaskZPrepass and bMainZPrepass. iBlurDeferredShadowMask regulates blur on shadows. bDeferredShadows does God-knows-what.

Yeah, I keep up with the release threads over there daily. I just haven't gotten around to updating the Guide. I'll do that now. I have not personally tested anything from v0.266 because of testing for STEP. I still need to work through and test a FOMOD for Kyrp as well so the ENB testing is on the back burning for a bit. I'll keep the Guide up to date with in info from the ENB Dev release thread as much as possible though.

 

As to why I originally included those parameters is because of this post: https://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3750&hilit=iBlurDeferredShadowMask&start=40#p59955

And this reply: https://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3750&hilit=iBlurDeferredShadowMask&start=40#p59965

[keithinhanoi]

Yikes... I just tried enabling the new FixLag ENB setting and it is NOT an improvement for me.  It causes lag - very bad lag.  Just KILLS the FPS.  It also takes FOREVER to go through the load screen if it doesn't downright close the program after a long time.

 

I have a Nvidia graphics card too - isn't this supposed to be an improvement for that type of card?  I even have ForceBorderless (and ForceBorderlessFullscreen) enabled, so it's in windowed mode.

 

Anyone else getting a severe downside to using this feature?

You should post your findings on the ENB 0.266 thread so Boris is aware of this. Mention which card you have, too.

[oqhansoloqo]

I don't have an account in his forum, so I can't post there unless I create one.

 

I really do not know what FixLag even does, but I did try to disable "maximum prerendered frames = 8" in Nvidia Inspector just in case that was causing the issue (since that may be a setting not a lot of people use?).  It didn't help.

 

I have an EVGA GEFORCE GTX 770 4GB GDDR5 with the newest driver.

 

I only once had it actually get through the load screen into the game.  Even before it got to the load screen, I noticed that in the main menu the mouse curser was lagging like with a low FPS.  The load screen looked like it was lagging too.  The one time where I got past the load screen I think I had pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del to close the program (since it was taking so long).  Then I decided not close it and went back to the program, and that was when it immediately got past the loadscreen.  I did a screen pan in the game and saw that it was lagging horribly turning left to right.  I immediately decided that it was by far the opposite of an improvement and quit out.  I have not been able to get past the load screen since with FixLag enabled.

[TechAngel85]

I've going to revert my change to the ENBlocal sub-Guide per Boris's reply: https://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3750&sid=9ea83c7eb281d1c20235a64a46f60b82&start=120#p60189

[oqhansoloqo]

What's his reason for all of the settings having to be default though: if they aren't default does it cause the zprepass to not do anything (no improvement and no hindrance), or does it cause errors or create lag or have some kind of negative consequence?  It would be nice to know why.

Edited February 27, 2015 by oqhansoloqo

[TechAngel85]

Because he's the developer and he said so. Haha!    I don't question Boris, but he usually has a good reason for his recommendations.

[Aiyen]

Because if you develop for something you develop for the base settings, not some modified. 

[oqhansoloqo]

You don't understand my question aiyen - not "why did he develop it so that it has to be base settings?".  What is the consequence of not using the default/base settings - does it cause a negative consequence (lag, CTD, etc) with zprepass enabled or just cause the zprepass to not do anything or maybe not work 100% as intended?  When you are trying to figure out how to advise people in a guide that talks about tweaking lots and lots of different game settings, it's better to explain why you should or shouldn't do something with a simple reason rather than basically - "just don't do it".

"fail or cause issues" doesn't explain much.  I'm not trying to complain, I'm just trying to facilitate getting answers for me and everyone else.

Edited February 27, 2015 by oqhansoloqo

[TechAngel85]

zPrepass is too new to know what effects it in ENB and what doesn't. 

[Aiyen]

Sorry... then I misunderstood. The point is that he only wants people to use default settings, so that he can figure out any bugs that might come up. If you use other settings and report an issue, it might be down to that change. 

 

It is all experimental like tech says. 

 

So at this time we cannot say which is the best settings, or why you should pick one over the other... only thing we can say is .. use default, and try it. See if it helps. Some people have reported some positive impact... however some also reported an x2 increase in FPS.. which was because the new stuff mess with external programs measuring the FPS. 

[keithinhanoi]

Darn - it's a shame that iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 is needed in order to enable the EnableZPrepass feature of 0.266 without issue.  If I set iBlurDeferredShadowMask to anything above 1 then I notice a very obvious "glow" effect around the edge of a lot of objects in the game.  Otherwise, I'd like to try this new setting to see the FPS improvement...

Certainly it's worth testing non-default values for iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 along with EnableZPrepass turned on, as that's the setting that most people would be playing with from Boris' short list.

 

I will mention though that on my rig, with some of the shadow settings off from defaults, but iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3, I have a very minimal "halo" when using Vividian - Vivid 6.5x. Most of the time, I don't really even notice it. I have read that the relationship of the value of  iBlurDeferredShadowMask and how much of a halo you see depends a lot of which ENB preset you're using, and my somewhat limited experience with a number of presets backs up this claim.

[TechAngel85]

I can honestly say that I've never seen or experienced this "halo" with shadows and most my settings are defaults. I have found little reason to adjust most of the INI parameters. Perhaps I simple don't know what I'm looking for, tho.

[oqhansoloqo]

So I finally got around to trying Skyrim Performance Monitor again with different settings - I use the carriage ride intro segment to test.  With "iBlurDeferredShadowMask=1 and EnableZPrepass=true" versus "iBlurDeferredShadowMask=1 and EnableZPrepass=false" there was a no difference in average FPS.  I also tried "iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 and EnableZPrepass=true" for kicks - same story.  All average FPS were 49 for me.

 

EDIT: I know there's other ways ZPrepass can improve things besides FPS, like stutter, memory used, or stability (which could possibly not technically affect the FPS recorded), but anyways... it didn't appear to affect the FPS...

Edited February 27, 2015 by oqhansoloqo

[Aiyen]

Bannered mare and the inn keeper. That is a good spot to notice the halo effect.. something about that place just really tend to provoke the effect. 

[Spock]

Are you sure about the Enable Compression part under [Memory]? A friend of mine said it probably uses LZ to save RAM but he thinks LZ shouldn't work with VRAM. That would mean you should probably disable it at 8 gb ram.