Ambient occlusion not making a visual difference

[soojooko]

Hello all

 

Im having some trouble with ambient occlusion. No matter what I do, it doesn't make a difference to the game. Im using a laptop with an AMD 7970m. Im currently playing with Natural Lighting & Atmospherics ENB, but have tried with several others.

 

Ive made sure AA is turned off in drivers and in-game. Ive played around with all the ENB AO settings and taken lots of interior and exterior screen shots with AO turned on and off, but the screenies always look the same. There is no AO option in the AMD drivers so it cant be that interfering.

 

The weird thing is, I see a performance drop when AO is enabled, so it must be doing something. But for the life of me, I cant see any difference at all.

 

Anybody have any further suggestions? I would really appreciate it.

Edited June 27, 2015 by soojooko

[oqhansoloqo]

Personally, I don't think the difference is extremely obvious.  Have a look at the shadows in crevices in your screenshots.  From my understanding, AO should cause darker shadows in the crevices/inner edges.  Do you see darker shadowing in those sorts of places?

[soojooko]

Thanks oqhansoloqo

 

I appreciate the effect should be subtle. But I still see no difference. If anything, it looks like its always on regardless of ENB settings.

 

Some examples:-

 

( edit : I messed up the links, so apologies if anybody clicked them and they made no sense. All fixed now )

 

Dragonreach

AO on : https://chromafunk.com/tmp/ScreenShot47.jpg

AO off : https://chromafunk.com/tmp/ScreenShot48.jpg

 

In store

AO on : https://chromafunk.com/tmp/ScreenShot49.jpg

AO off : https://chromafunk.com/tmp/ScreenShot50.jpg

 

Around town

AO on : https://chromafunk.com/tmp/ScreenShot51.jpg

AO off : https://chromafunk.com/tmp/ScreenShot52.jpg

 

It looks like AO is on in all the above pics, agreed? And yet, there is no difference visually between on or off. But something is definitely happening, as when I turn it on in the ENB settings, my performance drops by 10%-20%. But no visual change.

 

So, in your opinion and other knowledgeable folks on here, does it look like AO is on in my pics? If so, then anybody have any ideas where its coming from? My AMD driver has no AO option and im running no software that affects these things, eg RadeonPro.

 

If it possible that my AMD drivers are forcing it on? But even then, you would think there would be some visual difference between AMD AO and ENB AO. Any ideas?

Edited June 27, 2015 by soojooko

[soojooko]

Seems the problem is related to my laptops optimus/switchable graphics. I also have problems with enabling water in the ENB, which generally make a messy huge white bob fill the screen when looking at rivers etc. Others with Intel+AMD laptops have the same problem. However, falling back to ENB 236 makes both AO and water work as expected. Seems this is the latest version that'll still work with optimus laptops. Not ideal, but a solution none the less.

 

Would love to hear from other laptop users as to whether they have the same issues using an ENB later then 236.

[Auildere]

Seems the problem is related to my laptops optimus/switchable graphics. I also have problems with enabling water in the ENB, which generally make a messy huge white bob fill the screen when looking at rivers etc. Others with Intel+AMD laptops have the same problem. However, falling back to ENB 236 makes both AO and water work as expected. Seems this is the latest version that'll still work with optimus laptops. Not ideal, but a solution none the less.

 

Would love to hear from other laptop users as to whether they have the same issues using an ENB later then 236.

Hmm..I have Switchable/Optimus Laptop but the AO is currently Visuable or seeable.

[soojooko]

Hmm..I have Switchable/Optimus Laptop but the AO is currently Visuable or seeable.

Thats interesting. Mind telling me what ENB version you're using? Also, if your laptop muxed or muxless? As in, can you boot your laptop strictly set to use the dedicated GPU?

[Auildere]

I'm using the version 272 of the enb binary,the other question...I can switch it via Control Panel (Nvidia Control Panel Here)

[soojooko]

I'm using the version 272 of the enb binary,the other question...I can switch it via Control Panel (Nvidia Control Panel Here)

Ah, you have an nvidia? Im pretty sure my problems are with Intel+AMD setups. I have a 7970m here. We dont have the option to switch cards in the driver settings or bios. It switches on the fly, which causes some problems with games.

[Auildere]

Maybe try the Optimus fix that can be found in the nexus https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33227/?

[soojooko]

Maybe try the Optimus fix that can be found in the nexus https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33227/?

Sorry dude. I got my terms mixed up! I have an AMD = enduro. Not optimus. 

 

To be clear, the game runs great aside from not being able to use an ENB newer than 236. Im just happy ive discovered 236 works for me. I was running 272 for ages without knowing many of the effects are not doing anything. It was a breath of fresh air trying 236 and thinking "Cool... now it looks like those amazing screenies on Nexus".

[Auildere]

Maybe the 272 Binary is poorly optimized (?) 

[TechAngel85]

Boris doesn't have AMD cards so all his designing, programming, and testing is done around Nvidia. Because of this, he doesn't officially support AMD cards for ENBSeries. AMD users have always had one issue or another.