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Alternative to ENB, lightitng mods


escabil

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I understand that RLWC and RCRN are coming out with some big updates and special/unique features later on this year (I am keeping an eye out for).

 

I was interested in this forum for recommendations on a mod that just modifies those four variables and nothing else.

 

BTW, I also understand that the S.T.E.P. communitiy does not endorse or suggest -> non-supported mods. I did not find a old threat for it and hence my question about alternatives to the previously mention mod (by the way, it still works on the latest patch, previously tested on 1.5, and 1.6). I am not requesting an evaluation of, or consideration of, the previously mention mod, just for alternatives but it seems that there are none at the moment.

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There is really nothing on the GEMS lsit either.

 

After further reflection on my previous comment; I think this old mod deserves some consideration, specially for those of us that like to play with all the eye candy available and not willing to sacrifice a double digit percentage hit on fps. 

 

I currenlty run TPC minus parallax, plus over 100 selected mods & ini recommendations from STEP and still have over +90 fps anywhere in the map (120 fps looking at the sky ->BTW I have a GTX680 w 4Gig). I tested it on a less than enthusiastics rated rig and it performs wonders for immersion. Additionally, by association, STEP is endorsing old mods, actually more than a few unsupported mods in TPC; IMHO, old mods do not need to be supported if they still works as desing and continue fullfill the author intent.

 

Apologies for the rant

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Yeah wow. I might be picking this up as my alternative. It looks amazing to me in the screenshots at least, since I cant run with Skyrealism. Plus I hate that ENB drops my framerate, whereas without ENB I have 60 FPS everywhere. My only worry is that without ENB, wont the shadow striping bug come back? Gonna go ahead and test this out anyways.

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Texture mods are quite different from gameplay plugins like this. The general rule is no texture mods released before Feb 8 (because many became obselete after the HR DLC) and no gameplay mods released before June 19 (the last major update of the CK).

 

As you have noticed there are of course exceptions, for instance if a texture is not included in the DLC than release date doesn't really matter at all, and on the plugin side if you open a plugin with the CK, rename something innocuous and save, then rename it back and save again the mod will be fully updated by the CK to the latest format (this may or may not work properly for mods made with 3rd party tools).

 

On the ENB side if you are running without it you are missing out on some incredible bugfixes, optimizations, and additions to the rendering engine. No gameplay plugin can do this.

 

Also unless your monitor is running at 120Hz, running at over 59fps is completely pointless as your card is updating screens faster than your monitor can even render them, and can in fact cause a number of nasty artifacts (that's why we recommend using an fps limiter to play at 58fps max). Hopefully in a few months you'll be able to buy monitors with the new LG IPS panels running at 2560x1600 @120Hz and that will be a game changer, making 4GB cards useful for all games and higher than 60fps settings finally playable.

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@frihyland

 

Thanks for the additional background info, maybe someone can pickup where he left off and make it officialliy compatible. Is just that I find myself goin back to the mention mod because the current ENB/Lighting mods implementation drops too many fps for my taste.

 

BTW - I have been in the look out for an upgrade on my current monitor configuration, am already saving for that LG IPS panel at 120HZ, and yes I am currently running on a Samy's 950D @120Hz.

 

@thalastwon

how did your test went? -> I had some comments within the mod with my configuration

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Also unless your monitor is running at 120Hz, running at over 59fps is completely pointless as your card is updating screens faster than your monitor can even render them, and can in fact cause a number of nasty artifacts (that's why we recommend using an fps limiter to play at 58fps max). Hopefully in a few months you'll be able to buy monitors with the new LG IPS panels running at 2560x1600 @120Hz and that will be a game changer, making 4GB cards useful for all games and higher than 60fps settings finally playable.

 

By artifacts you mean screen tearing?

 

I'd like to see the source of info on those alleged LG IPS 2560x1600 @ 120 Hz panels.

 

Afaik none panels with these specs are expected to hit the market any time soon, for various reasons.

 

Here's the main reason why such monitor won't be released:

 

https://www.emsai.net/projects/widescreen/bandwidth/

 

Not to mention the cost of producing high quality IPS panels that are able to run at 120 Hz.

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They already have 2560x1440@120 available for purchase today for under $500 (you do have to overclock the monitors yourself though) so I don't see a very big jump. They won't be hitting European or American markets any time soon for sure, only direct order from Korea (there are of course a number of ebay sellers already in action as well as other websites taking care of import for you for extra fee). I'd imagine next year this time the official global release.

 

Anyway the future is never certain that's why I said "hopefully". Anyone wanting to check out the currently available stuff can google catleap and go from there.  Note that dealing with international shipping (use fedex the extra cost is worth it for peace of mind) and overclocking (maybe it only goes to 90Hz) are "gambles", buyer beware.

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Catleaps don't do 120 Hz. I know quite a bit about them considering that I own a Hazro myself (also based on a cheap IPS panel that Apple Cinema Display uses).

 

There are hardware limitations preventing the cables from providing higher bandwidth. Other interfaces could be used but they won't be introduced to mass market any time soon for all I know.

 

And new Catleaps/Yamakasi don't overclock anywhere near as good due to a different PCB used, yada yada.

 

They're hardly mainstream monitors either.

 

Forgive me for disagreeing with you on some hardware issues, that's just the way I am. :(

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Displayport can easily handle the bandwith but I don't know if any are available yet, I just started researching this stuff.

 

As far as disagreement I don't see it like that at all, its a healthy conversation. Each of us supplying complementary opinions and facts. I find it incredibly boring and nonproductive to have a conversation with someone who agrees with everything I say, this is much better. :D

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What I meant is that DP 1.1+ and HDMI Type B are not common in cheap monitors where cutting the costs is important. Most IPS manufacturers don't consider 120 Hz panels something that's needed on the market right now. You'd be surprised how many people don't notice/care about the differences between TN and IPS panels, and consider it a waste of money in general.

 

3D Gaming doesn't seem likely to succeed (it was doomed to fail anyway), mainstream OLED TVs aren't even out yet, and producing monitors on a mass scale is not happening any time soon. The most likely upgrade we're gonna see in the future is 4K (or 2K, depending on how you see it) resolution, which would require higher bandwidth anyway, which brings hope to full 2560x1600 120 Hz displays. Will it be implemented with IPS panels? That's really hard to say. It's not an ideal technology and doesn't have that large appeal in reality.

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Agree with the limititation on the native game engine when compared the enhancements that ENB brings to the table but, I think that gains of ENB implementation (112 or even 119) brings IMO too much more performance degradation.

 

As for the subsequent discussion on panels -> maybe we should take the thread to a new segment - but for my money color accuracy, refresh rate and response time are the first must have, I have an nice IPS panel that is calibrated as close to 100% accurancy but is just too slow ~60Hz and 8-10 ms response; my LCD/LED TN panel - calibrated, 120Hz and 2ms is good enough for 2D gaming.

 

Back in subject, I notice the there have been hundreds of hits on this thread and on the mention mod; does anyone have some thoughts to share after testing and maybe new/alternative mod recommendations?

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Other than RCRN, RLwC or FXAA Injectors, there isn't much.

 

You could try Immersive Environment, which is based on the FXAA Inject, or SweetFX, which uses custom shaders and merges SMAA+FXAA+LumaSharpen filters.

 

RLwC 4.0 and RCRN 3.5 look promising, but they are a long way from being released.

 

There are mods affecting interiors/nights/removing tint, but it's hard to recommend any of them since they are all a matter of taste.

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