Southfox66

Work in progress, learning how to make adjustments to ENB. With Old World Radio - Boston playing in the background. I will release my ENB soon, work in progress. I also forgot to add that I have no problem running Fallout 4 with both ENB and ReShade, including the new ENBSeries.284 that he just released. This has been frustrating to say the least. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. For the life of me, I cannot get ENB presets to work in Fallout 4. I'm at my wits end, and I basically refuse to play FO4 without at least a simple ENB (that unfocused look vanilla has is unbearable), and I was super excited to do a new playthrough. So here goes, hoping someone can help. I consider myself a pretty tech-savvy person. If he recommends an OLDER version of ENB, download and use that instead of v311 4. Re-install a fresh copy of the ENB preset and ENB 311 (or older) that I just downloaded. Edit enblocal.ini thus: MEMORY ForceVideoMemorySize=true VideoMemorySizeMb=10240 not working. So i just finished using this guide to mod fallout 3, and everything seems to be working according to plan, aside from enb. At first, i was getting the 0xc00001d error, crashing the game before it even launches, but i solved that by using the d3d9.dll from my system32 folder rather than the one in the enbwrapper folder.

After trying out Fallout 76 I did what most fans of the franchise would do – I promptly uninstalled the game and booted up Fallout 4 to rinse the bad taste from my tongue.

But as I walked the Wasteland, staring at the same old textures and washed-out color palette, it hit me – I was stuck in the Commonwealth for at least another six years. And I needed to spice things up if I was to have any fun.

I scoured the Nexus for days looking for just the right things to make the game look crisp, appealing, and, in some cases just different.

During this time I found a lot of great mods – ENBs, ReShaders, and improved textures and effects galore.

I obviously didn’t install them all to build my perfect game, but I thought I’d share my findings with other seekers of visual enhancement so that they, too, could build the Fallout 4 of their dreams.

So without further ado here are my top picks for the coolest graphics mods to throw into your game play.

20. PipBoy Shadows

We start off our list with a mild but smart change made to enhance the impact of your character’s presence in the environment by allowing the PipBoy’s lights to cast shadows.

It’s much more realistic and immersive, not by making the environment look more real though.

But by giving your brain feedback from your actions.

No longer is the Wasteland a canvas, but a 3D space that you inhabit.

It also applies to headlights, so exploring dark areas will be a whole new experience.

19. Aviator ReShade

NexusMods user ZorkyTheDude is a fan of Michael Scorsese, and is especially fond of The Aviator and its cinematography.

This mod aspires to bring just that into the world of Fallout 4, highlighting the red and blue colors by turning up the saturation and giving the Wasteland a stylized new look.

It won’t make anything any more realistic, and perhaps it won’t really look better.

But it’s definitely a great way to shake things up if you’ve been playing Fallout 4 for a long time.

18. Radiant Clouds and Fogs

Do you know what people never talk about? Fallout 4’s sky and its clouds.

That’s because they’re unremarkable, and this mod is here to change that.

Thanks to modder Mangaclub you can now replace the boring old vanilla clouds for something a little bit more realistic, adding both depth and grandeur to the skies above the Commonwealth.

Perhaps more importantly, this mod will modify fog for it to look thicker and more realistic.

17. Immersive First Person Settings

One of the most experimental mods in our list is Immersive First Person Settings by user Ppomme, a mod that promises to greatly improve the first-person camera… once all the issues have been worked out.

It works by replacing the first-person camera for a modified third-person camera, letting you see your legs and arms, as well as cast a shadow, instead of becoming a disembodied will with arms to shoot with.

You’ll feel as if your character has mass and exists in the world of Fallout 4. And as long as you don’t run into any of the mod’s bugs, you’ll feel much more immersed.

16. Enhanced Wasteland Preset

Some people prefer mods that present minor enhancements without messing with the spirit and original feel of the game.

One such option comes by the hand of modder Raz3d, who’s put together this ENB to make the Wasteland look somewhat more vibrant, in contrast to the game’s default washed-out look.

I mean, yes, it’s the apocalypse – but over 200 years have already gone by, you know?

15. Vivid Waters

Water is one of those things you can’t simply overlook in a Bethesda game.

I’m sure the developers do their best with what they have, but it never stops looking notoriously fake and basic in comparison to their other graphical achievements.

This mod by user Mangaclub promises to add better reflection, improved opacity and an overall spectacular look to the waters of the Commonwealth with only moderate impact on performance.

After installing it, you’ll notice water won’t look like blue goo anymore, and the transition between water and land is much less jarring as well.

14. Vivid ENB

When I spend a lot of time playing the same game, I generally need it to be visually stimulating so that my mind doesn’t slowly drift away.

It needs to constantly capture my attention, and the best way to do that is through my eyes.

So when I have a game I love to play but its visuals are as washed-out as Fallout 4’s are, I’m always looking for a way to fix that.

Fallout 4 Mods

Thanks to NexusMods user CoolWave101z, the Wasteland can look much more appealing and even fantasy-like, with brighter colors, lush greenery, and radiant waters. It’s not realistic, but it makes the Commonwealth a nice place to be.

13. Vogue ENB – Realism

If rather than radiant visuals you’d rather have a moody, atmospheric Wasteland, then Vogue ENB might be the thing you’re looking for.

Creator GameVogue focused on improving immersion by altering the Depth of Field, improving color correction and tweaking the Antialiasing settings.

With this mod, nights are darker, textures look much sharper, and the color palette is more lifelike.

The best part about it is how little impact it has on your fps.

It’s all gain at virtually no cost.

12. Enhanced Lights and FX

Another mod to consider in your quest to improve your Fallout 4 game at little performance cost is Enhanced Lights and FX by Anamorfus.

This mod overhauls all lights and related effects, increasing the amount of shadow-casting light sources and making darkness severe enough for you to need a flashlight.

These changes make for a more challenging and realistic experience, while also creating a better mood for interiors.

11. Visible Galaxy 4K

Sometimes, something as simple as changing the sky’s textures can take nighttime from a pesky inconvenience to a breathtaking experience.

This mod is a port from 4K Stars and Galaxies for Skyrim and all it does is replace the nighttime sky textures for 4K imagery of the Milky Way.

Not only does it look amazing, but it’s also more realistic – over 200 years after civilization grinds to a halt, both artificial light and air pollution would be virtually non-existent.

10. Fallout 4 Enhanced Color Correction

If you’re not scared to step away from the vanilla game’s art direction, perhaps ChaosWWW’s Enhanced Color Correction might be worth checking out.

It endeavors to make the Wasteland more vivid by improving contrast and the quality of colors – that’s to say, it makes the game look less washed out.

Never has that vault suit looked so blue.

Characters also look somewhat more healthy thanks to a subtle red tint on their skin, and both shadows and highlights have more impact on the game’s look.

9. Darker Nights

There’s a reason so many mods in the Nexus recommend you to install Darker Nights by Unforbidable – it’s amazing, and it costs you nothing in terms of fps.

It simply makes the Commonwealth darker at night and indoors, to the point where the use of a flashlight is justified, in contrast with vanilla nighttime, which is essentially a permanent full moon.

It may be a small change, sure.

But it can deeply improve your experience, making nighttime more important and reminding you of the dangers lurking in the dark.

8. Ultra Interior Lighting

Once you’ve installed Darker Nights, it’s time to address lighting.

Among my favorite mods for improved illumination is Ultra Interior Lighting by Gargorias, which takes full advantage of the engine’s capacity for unlimited shadow-casting lights by adding many more of them to every indoor area, mostly by hand.

It’ll have a detrimental impact on performance, of course, but if you have the resources to run it, it’d be silly not to.

7. Ultra Exterior Lighting

Even better than our previous entry is Ultra Exterior Lighting, which does the same thing to outdoor areas.

This will make you glad you installed Darker Nights, as it makes the Wasteland a much more immersive and realistic place to explore.

It’s amazing how much work Gargorias put into manually replacing light sources for shadow-casting ones, and the amount of people endorsing this mod seems to show how much of a good job they did.

6. Ultra-Low Graphics Tool

There used to be a time where my less-than-ideal specs kept me from playing lots of amazing games. Fortunately, those dark times have passed, but I’ll never forget the struggle.

To help anyone going through the same thing, I’d like to highlight the Ultra-Low Graphics Tool by Lyzik.

Instead of taking Fallout to the max, this will take it to the minimum possible to allow anyone to run it on their toasters.

Fallout 4 Reshade Vs Enb

Less shadow quality, disabled godrays, stupidly short draw distances and disabling a bunch of post-processing effects are the means to a considerable performance gain.

It’s a small price to pay for the Fallout 4 experience on a $150 laptop.

5. FO4 Blurriness Remover

Due to my low-spec-gaming background, I’ve become an expert at finding the most efficient graphics settings to marry the best performance and looks.

In Fallout 4, achieving this may be as easy as installing the FO4 Blurriness Remover from LasagnaTheories.

To put it simply, this mod removes the blurry effect that’s cast over everything that’s far enough, and while you’re moving.

This may make the Wasteland look a tad more videogame-y. But it’s a valid sacrifice to make the game look so much crisper without losing any fps at all.

4. The Enhancer

Another option aimed at those who’re at the exact recommended specs or slightly below is The Enhancer, which promises to improve graphical fidelity at a very low performance cost.

It’s made by Looping, famous for their Photorealistic Commonwealth mod, and all it does is optimize textures and tweak some settings to make the game look more natural and a bit more colorful.

3. Photorealistic Commonwealth

However, after so many years, chances are your system far exceeds what’s needed for vanilla Fallout, and you’re hungry to take your system to the limit.

That’s where Looping’s Photorealistic Commonwealth comes in, utilizing custom shaders and tweaked post-processing options to make the Wasteland look as lifelike as possible.

The mod aims, quite simply, to make your screenshots look indistinguishable from actual photography, and it largely succeeds.

To top it off, it includes an in-game user manual and a settings interface.

2. WET – Water Enhancement Textures

And if you still have some resources to spare, you have to give the WET mod a chance to take your aquatic experiences to the next level.

Water Enhancement Textures by SparrowPrince is a work of technical ingenuity that employs textures generated from simulations of how real water would act to improve in-game water bodies.

It gives them flow and motion, generally making them look not only realistic but jaw-droppingly beautiful.

Along with that, it improves the quality of mist, fog and spray textures, as well as waterfall models, with spectacular results.

1. Uber Fidelity Suite

Some mods are so amazing they have a hard time staying bound to a single game.

That’s the case with the Uber Fidelity Suite, one of the most appreciated graphics mods in The Witcher 3 history… which has been ported to Fallout 4 by user Xiorantha.

The mod tries to stay true to the artistic direction and style of Fallout 4, while also pushing everything towards its maximum potential.

It’ll imbue your game with a level of graphical fidelity not achievable by any other means, opening your eyes to a whole new world of details you never even knew were there.

It makes your game highly cinematic, but since it was designed to be used in actual gameplay, the effects go beyond beautiful vistas and into the heat of battle.

You’ll definitely need a high-end setup to run this.

But if you have it, you won’t ever be able to go back to vanilla.

'ENB' is short for 'ENBSeries', which is a post-processing 'engine' with versions available for different games including Skyrim LE, Skyrim SE, the Fallout games, and many more. This Guide will help newcomers become familiar with the basics of installing and using ENBSeries, and will also provide answers to many questions applicable to all users. The main guide is written to address novice and advanced users alike with 'quickstart' in mind. Links to more information and ancillary guides are included.

What is ENB?

ENBSeries (ENB) is a post-processor modification (mod) created and maintained by Boris Voronstov. ENBSeries adds digital enhancements to games purely by modifying the video output after ('post') the encoding of game assets into the initial graphical result. The initial post-processing is done by the game' shader program(s). Then ENBSeries builds upon this using more advanced techniques that the game's shader engine is either incapable of or simply doesn't implement itself. This is accomplished by using a custom API in the form of a dynamic link library (DLL) to add to the game shader engine. In addition to advanced shader post-processing, ENBSeries also implements a memory manager, called ENBoost, that enhances the efficiency of video memory management. This results in increased performance and stabilization, in addition to the increase quality provided by the post-processing.

ENBSeries (ENB) allows customization that authors can use to make custom presets (commonly referred to as 'ENBs'). Each preset can offer a range of 'look and feel', meaning each preset can create a different ambiance for the game it's used for. Ambiances such as a cooler or warmer color palette, 'fantasy' or 'realistic' lighting environments, and/or either more vibrant or bleak saturation. The combinations are endless and there is likely an ENB preset that is perfect for every users' personal tastes. However, all those added effects often come at a cost to performance. Luckily, most authors provide 'performance' versions of their presets, which are lighter on resources.

What is ENBoost?

ENBoost is a memory management feature added to ENBSeries to address the crashes and freezes relating to the well-known system memory (RAM) limit of 32-bit applications, like Skyrim. It's one major part of a multi-part solution Step Modifications recommends for dealing with this limitation on 32-bit games. ENBoost is included ENBSeries by default, which means it's incorporated into all ENB presets using ENBSeries v0.192 and newer. ENBoost can also be implemented as a stand-alone video-graphics memory manager for the game that it's implemented for, like Skyrim LE.

How Does ENBoost Work?

In order to understand how ENBoost works, it is important to first know how some 32-bit applications manage memory. Skyrim LE will be used for this explanation. The main Skyrim LE game executable, TESV.exe, is a 32-bit Large-Address-Aware (LAA) application. This means that although TESV.exe can only use a maximum of 2GB of system RAM on 32-bit Windows systems, it can access up to about 3.1GB of system RAM (4GB - about 900MB of system resources) on 64-bit systems. To drive the video card in displaying the game's 3D rendered graphics, TESV.exe must store object geometry (the shapes of things in the game) and texture data in its memory space, as a cache. This cache is then copied to the video card's VRAM to display on the screen.

The memory limit is not a problem with an unmodded game because the cached data is dynamically loaded and unloaded to make room for new data as it's needed, and it almost never completely fills up all of TESV.exe's available RAM. However, when mods are added to Skyrim, the memory needed for cached data is significantly increased, and the more mods that are used, especially higher resolution texture mods, the higher the chance that TESV.exe will run out of memory. When this happens, either the program crashes or some objects do not get rendered. ENBoost overcomes this memory limitation by ...

1. using available VRAM on your video card and
2. using system RAM outside of TESV.exe for dynamically allocated cached data.

The second method is accomplished by running an executable named enbhost.exe, which adds up to another ~4GB of memory available for ENBSeries to manage, per instance. The effectiveness and performance of ENBoost is determined by a number of factors, such as size of system RAM / VRAM, quality of video card, version of Windows OS, CPU, and even motherboard memory channel speed. Fortunately, a number of ENBoost user-settings have been added to account for the variety of system configurations.

ENBoost Installation

1. Download and install the DirectX 9 Runtimes.

   This step is to prevent the common issues of missing DirectX files required by ENBSeries. Be sure to install it and not just extract it!

2. Download the latest ENBSeries version for the game it will be install on.
   1. On the game pages, their is a list of major changes and links to the available versions.
   2. Click a version link to download the version required by the chosen preset. The latest version is usually the one at the top of the list.
   3. On the version page will be listed a changelog and a download link. Click the button located at the bottom of the page to download the version file.
3. Open the downloaded archive and go into the WrapperVersion folder.
4. Extract only the d3d9*.dll files, enbhost.exe, and enblocal.ini into the game's folder where its executable is located.
5. If the 'WrapperVersion' does not function as advertised, try the 'InjectorVersion'.
   1. Remove any existing remnants of the Wrapper version
   2. Extract only the enbhost.exe, ENBInjector.exe, enbinjector.ini, enblocal.ini, and enbseries.dll files into the game's folder where its executable is located.

   You must run ENBInjector.exe before running the game for the injector version to work properly.

ENBoost Configuration

The following are important changes that are either required for ENBoost to work:

Enable Windowed Mode

This may be a necessary performance enhancement for some users. If experiencing stuttering and the [MEMORY] section is verified to be set up properly, enabling or disabling these parameters could help resolve some stuttering.

Fallout New Vegas Enb Not Working

As described in the Introduction above, an ENB preset (aka, 'ENB') encompasses all of the features of ENBSeries; ENBoost and all the post-processing features.

ENBSeries Features

The latest versions of ENBSeries available to download include many enhanced and new features. Most ENB Presets that are still in active development have been updated to utilize one of the newer versions available, or have stated that they are compatible with them. Below is a list of some of the features included:

• Bug fixes
• Mist effect
• Cloud shadows
• Rain occlusion
• Volumetric rays
• Parallax for terrain
• Muddiness control of water
• Per location weather
• Edge AA on loading screens
• Supersampling for ambient occlusion
• Enhanced blending of certain effects
• Color filter parameters for direct light, fog and sky gradients
• Optimization of ambient occlusion, plus a visualization tool for Preset authors and modders
• Detailed shadows added for light bulb types: hemisphere and spotlight
• Other performance optimizations

ENBSeries Installation

This is a basic quickstart and generic set of instructions for setting up ENBSeries; however, most ENB presets include installers or detailed installation instructions of their own. The following instructions provide assistance where certain ENB preset documentation may be lacking. Always defer to the preset instructions first, and use the following instructions to fill in the blanks, if necessary.

1. Select and download a preset from Nexus Mods.
2. Download the latest ENBSeries version for the game it will be install on.
   1. On the game pages, their is a list of major changes and links to the available versions.
   2. Click a version link to download the version required by the chosen preset. The latest version is usually the one at the top of the list.
   3. On the version page will be listed a changelog and a download link. Click the button located at the bottom of the page to download the version file.
3. If installing for Skyrim and needed for the chosen preset, also download and install the ENB Helper (Skyrim LE) or ENB Helper SE (Skyrim SE). To install:
   1. For Skyrim LE, extract enbhelper.dll into the enbseries folder, creating it if necessary (e.g. ..skyrimenbseries).
   2. For Skyrim SE, install as a mod using a mod manager.

   The helper file is required by ENBSeries v0.250+ for per-weather support.

4. Extract d3d9.dll and enbhost.exe from the 'WrapperVersion' folder inside the ENB archive (image) into the required location for the game ENBSeries is being installed on.
   • This is typically the same location the game's executables are. For example, for Skyrim LE this would be ..skyrim, for Mass Effect this would be ..Mass EffectBinaries.

   If the 'WrapperVersion' does not function as advertised, try the 'InjectorVersion', if available. Remove any remnants of the Wrapper version prior to installing. If running the injector version, the ENBInjector.exe must be running in the background before starting the game or ENBSeries will not work.

5. Likewise, extract the contents of the ENB Preset's archive into the designed location of the game it's being installed for. For Skyrim LE, this is ..skyrim.
6. Configure enblocal.ini according to the ENBoost recommendations (above), if using ENBoost; EXCEPT with the following essential differences:
   [GLOBAL]
UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=false
UseDefferedRendering=true
7. Configure skyrimprefs.ini according to the following:
   [Display]
iMultiSample=0
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1

Also check out Slothability's ENBSeries Installation video
for a very good video tutorial on basic ENB Installation.

Warning About Enblocal.ini

Some ENB Presets will include an enblocal.ini file. This is not a recommended practice and users should not overwrite their own file with the one included in presets. The reason for this is because this enb'local' file is meant to be used for each user's personal system. Best practice is for users to open their personal enblocal.ini file alongside the file included with the preset and copy over changes only from the following sections:

• [PROXY]
  • Copy all settings
• [GLOBAL]
  • Copy all settings
• [ENGINE]
  • ForceLodBias=
  • LodBias=
• [FIX]
  • Copy all settings

The following components and tweaks are optional and NOT required for a successful ENB implementation.

SMAA (Highly Recommended)

For many ENB users, certain versions of ENBSeries no longer support hardware antialiasing. Therefor, ENB users only have the following options available to them; ENB EdgeAA (in ENBSeries that support it, SMAA, or SweetFX. For users on low-end systems, ENBSeries EdgeAA is probably the best choice as it comes with almost no performance loss. SubPixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing (SMAA) is a fantastic post-processing anti-aliasing method. SMAA is processed after ENBSeries, which provides near equal quality to MSAA, but at a faction of the performance. Users can also use SMAA with ENBSeries EdgeAA enabled to possibly gain even better image quality. For users on mid to high-end machines, SMAA is the best option. It's also worth noting that SMAA injector can be used without ENB, as a standalone replacement for the game's or driver's AA methods.

Even though some ENB presets may not include SMAA in their packaged files, it's still possible to use SMAA with any preset, as long as there is not an additional d3d9.dll already in use in the [PROXY] section of the enbseries.ini file. To install SMAA:

1. If SMAA is not supplied by the ENB preset, users can download it from here.
2. Extract the file downloaded.
   • For DirectX 9 games, like Skyrim LE, use the d3d9 folder.
   • For DirectX 10 games, use the d9d10 folder.
3. Rename d3d9.dll from the folder above to d3d9_smaa.dll'.
4. Copy the following files from the folder above to the location where the game's executable resides:
   • d3d9_smaa.dll
   • injector.ini
   • SMAA.h
   • SMAA.fx
5. To enable SMAA with ENBSeries, set the following in the [PROXY] section of the enblocal.ini file:
   EnableProxyLibrary=true
InitProxyFunctions=true
ProxyLibrary=d3d9_smaa.dll

SMAA Quality Settings

SMAA comes with several available presets to use, which changes the quality of the effect. To change the SMAA quality, open the injector.ini file in a text editor (such as Notepad++) and change the preset parameter:
preset = SMAA_PRESET_HIGH

The available quality presets are listed above the parameter in the file. The standard presets are:

• Low is 60% quality
• Medium is 80%
• High is 95%
• Ultra is 99% quality.

These presets are similar to 2xAA, 4xAA, etc., and each step higher comes with more of a performance loss. Additionally, a custom preset can be created in the SMAA.h file for the Uber preset. However, due to this is being a very advanced process, it is not recommend for most users and will not be discussed here.

For users wanting to learn more about SMAA, there is a very in-depth and technical PDF available.

Enhanced Lighting for ENB (Skyrim LE & SE)

Enhanced Lighting for ENB (ELE) is a set of mods, by the author JawZ, aimed toward balancing the lighting of Skyrim. It adjusts every type of lighting in the game to both make Skyrim look better with ENBSeries and to make it easier for preset authors to customize and balance their presets, without having to sacrifice one area of lighting over another. There are currently six modules to ELE, each of which balances a separate area of lighting in the game. These are Exterior Lighting and Weathers, Interior Lighting, Light Bulbs, FX Effects, Spell and Torch Lighting, and Plugins. These modules are still a work in progress; however, of these modules, Interior Lighting is the most complete and the most used most by ENB preset authors to date. Each of these modules are discussed further below.

→Download for LE
→Download for SE
... there is also an ENB Preset created by JawZ which uses a lightweight ELE setup. This ENB Preset was created as a modder's resource; however, can be used as a standalone preset. It is very lightweight on performance, provides vanilla-like colors, and also provides the basic enhancements of ENBseries such as improved shadows. Modders can use it to enhance/fix some vanilla issues. Authors can use it to create their own ENB Presets.

Installing ELE

Simply installing the ELE modules (described below) will not usually result in an outcome that looks great with the chosen ENB Preset. Presets must be designed to work with ELE or the results from installing it might not be desirable. Most often, if an author does design their preset around ELE, it will be the Interior Lighting module because it's the most complete of all the modules and provides authors better control over interior spaces than without it. Installing ELE is as simple as installing any other mod. Simply download the desired module(s), and install them using a mod manager like Mod Organizer. Load order is very important when ELE is combined with other lighting mods. The author has kindly provided several load-order examples designed around various setups that should provide a point of reference for most users. He has also provided a list of popular lighting mods that are and aren't compatible with the individual modules. This list is not only helpful for modders, but to preset authors as well. Authors can use the compatibility list when determining which lighting overhauls to support with their presets, if they choose to also use any of the ELE modules.

ELE - Weathers Lite BETA

In this module, weathers have been given more natural colors and they will no longer be dependent on imagespaces. Weathers also have been given better night/day detection during the daytime, nighttime, sunrise, and sunset. Sunlight has been balanced throughout all weathers as well and shadows have been edited to better enhance the visual appearance of the SkyLighting effect. Sky banding has also been reduced significantly with this module. Some visual bugs such as dark horizons during certain weathers have been fixed. Finally, a new sun texture is included to go along with the weather changes. It enhances the Sun Rays feature, has no grain/noise, zero banding, and will not overexpose most of the sky as the vanilla sun texture does.

ELE - Lite

This is the default version of ELE and has the Interior Lighting module combined with these other modules: ELE - Spell and Torch Lighting, ELE Plugin - RS Light Color, and ELE Plugin - FX Emittance. For more information on these individual modules, see below.

ELE - Interior Lighting

The Interior Lighting module covers changes in the imagespaces and LightingTemplates which have been balanced for more natural occurring colors. The imagespaces and LightingTemplates have also been named based on what type of interior cell they affect. This has been done for preset authors so they can simply edit a particular interior cell type without affecting anything else. Interior shadows have also been edited so they are properly lit and placed based on the exterior light that shines in from cracks in the walls or based on the amount of windows in the interior cell. Interior DirectLighting has been tweaked to be better used as an indirect lighting which the author believes serves as a good character lighting; therefore, the direction and color of DirectLighting have both been tweaked towards that end. The visual 'bug' with dungeons looking bright as daylight as also been corrected. Finally, all of the interior classed cells have been fixed so they look more natural based on location. For example, the Temple of Kynareth is a 'bright' classed interior while the Dragonsreach Basement is a 'dark' classed interior; therefore, the lighting will now match the interior class.

Light Bulbs

The Light Bulbs module covers light bulbs for both interiors and exteriors. Light Bulbs are the light that emit from fireplaces, candles and chandeliers among other things. Light Bulb placement has been corrected and new new coloring assigned to them based on 'real life' sources. The Light Bulbs have also been named based on what type of light source they are placed at so preset authors can edit a particular Light Bulb type without affecting any of the other Light Bulb types.

FX Effects

The FX Effects module handles all FX changes introduced by the ELE suite. It makes changes to the 'windows dynamic changes' so ENBSeries, itself, can have full control of those changes. This module will also adjust the placement of FX effects, as well as, add or remove some FX effects based on the authors judgement.

Spell and Torch Lighting

Spell and Torch Lighting module changes the color, radius and intensities of all the spell Light Bulbs while doing the same for the Torch light as well. As with the other modules this one edits the lighting to have a more natural color and specifically alters the spell lighting to fit the different types of spells more accurately.

Plugins

ELE Plugin - RS Light Color

This plugin was created for Relighting Skyrim and is, thus, fully compatible with it; however, it is also compatible with any other lighting mods that doesn't alter the ParentLight Bulb found in the Object window in the Creation Kit. It makes changes to the ParentLight Bulbs by altering the colors so they emit a more natural color based on their placement in Skyrim. For example, all light bulbs placed at fire type light sources will give off a natural 'fire light'.

ELE Plugin - Falskaar

This plugin was created for Falskaar. It alters some interior cell menu values to allow the ELE - Interior Lighting module to take full control of the Falskaar interior cells. This plugin is necessary for Falskaar users who want ELE - Interior Lighting to have any affect in the Falskaar interiors. Due to changes the Falskaar mod makes, without this plugin Falskaar interiors will have the vanilla lighting.

ELE Plugin - FX Emittance

In vanilla Skyrim and the Relighting Skyrim mod, the sun-lit Light Bulbs in the interiors uses an effect called Exterior Emittance to make the Light Bulbs change their color based on the time of the day such as during sunset and sunrise. In vanilla, these colors are plain white and grey mainly. This plugin changes those colors more to more natural colors for a more realistic feel.

The ENB configuration files (enblocal.ini and enbseries.ini) contain all of the user-configurable parameters required for customizing ENBSeries and/or Presets.

enblocal.ini

Typically, enblocal.ini should be setup and left; not changing between presets, so this file is usually retained and remains the same regardless of presets used. Due to the detailed nature of the setup, enblocal.ini configuration settings do not appear in this guide (other than as referenced within the quickstart guides above) but are referenced in an ancillary guide:
→ENBlocal INI Guide

enbseries.ini

Conversely, enbseries.ini can change dramatically among presets, and some presets offer far more configurability than others by way of extensions within the preset. The 'default' enbseries.ini comes packaged with ENBseries itself. The configuration file contains all of the user-configurable parameters that dictate the behavior and result of the ENB post-processing engine. There are many configurable parameters, and documenting (or correctly implementing) them all is challenging, to say the least. A comprehensive description of all parameters by section is available in the ENBseries INI Guide:
→ENBseries INI Guide

Using ENB Weathers

Using ENB Helper allows edits to parameters for each specific weather in Skyrim. The helper is essentially an API that queries current weather information from Skyrim and applies variants of enbseries.ini parameters using external configuration INIs. These external configuration INIs will override conflicting parameters within the main enbseries.ini file for specific weathers. This allows configuration of various parameters to differ depending on the weather type, thus creating more customized weathers. These variations can be very complex (one config per unique Skyrim weather) or very general (one configuration for only a small number of specific weather classes).

The helper library and all weather configurations are placed within .../skyrim/enbseries. Most ENB Presets that are configured to work with multiple Skyrim weathers package the 'helper' with installation instructions by default. For those that do not, see the ENB Installation section above for assistance.

Enables/disables use of the 'helper' library and configurations to provide customized weathers.

Performance Tips

While ENB Presets greatly enhance the visuals of Skyrim, these additional effects also take a toll on performance. How much of an FPS decrease users experience depends on their system hardware, INI settings, texture mod resolutions, display resolution, and a host of other variables. This is why it's virtually impossible to estimate how much any ENB Preset will affect a user's personal system. That being said, there are some things users can do to improve their performance.

First and foremost it's important for users to keep their systems in top gaming condition. Like anything else, 'if you take care of it, then it will take care of you'. Some simple ways to do this:

• Defrag the hard drives which games are installed on. Do not defrag solid state drives (SSDs)! These should NEVER be defragmented and doing so could reduce their lifespan. However, defragging hard disk drives (HDDs) will not only help improve performance while gaming, but can also decrease load times in games and for other applications as well. Although Windows comes with a simple defragging program, STEP recommends either Auslogics Disk Defrag or Puran Defrag Free Edition. If using Auslogics, use the 'Defrag & Optimize' option since this will also move the most frequently accessed files closer to the front of the drive. Defrag hard drives at least once a month or any time the fragmentation is 10% or over.

• If user's CPUs are being utilized 100% or system RAM is being close to filled, disable all unnecessary programs running in the background while gaming to free up more resources. Anti-virus programs disk access usage can cause slowdowns in saving and loading, and any files scanned. Instead of turning it off, setting it to ignore game directories and any mod directories used will prevent the antivirus from occupying the files in use. It also limits your viral exposure to a trusted folder (trusted if it came from legitimate sources). Some anti-virus programs now have a 'gaming mode' which can be turned on during gaming sessions to automatically reduce the program's resource use on the system.

• Keep Steam in offline mode. This is just one more thing depleting resources that really isn't needed.

• GPU settings play a tremendous role in determining quality and performance. Striking the right balance in these settings is essential in achieving a beautiful game with smooth, playable frame rates. Use the guides provided in the STEP guide as a starting point. Adjust and test the settings until the right balance, with smooth game-play, is achieved. The thing to remember here is to be realistic with what the hardware is capable of.

• Be realistic with INI settings, as well. Over-tweaking can, and will, cause performance issues if the system is not capable of handling the additional strain. Use the STEP recommended tweaks and nothing else until it's known whether the system can handle higher settings or not.

• High resolution textures and higher polygon count meshes also affect performance. There are countless mods which add these higher resolution assets to the game. Careful consideration should be used when adding these assets with an ENB Preset enabled. Experimentation and testing might be required to find the right balance of quality and performance which best fits the system hardware capabilities.

• Be realistic with screen resolutions. Users are not going to be able to play Skyrim in 4K resolution with a single GTX770/AMD 7870. The maximum resolution of the video card is not the maximum resulotion it is capable of playing a heavily modded game with an intensive ENB Preset running. Users may have to lower their screen resolution if they want the full quality that presets provide. Again, it's all about balancing visual quality with performance and this will be different for every user.

• Some of the more intensive ENB effects can also be disabled or lowered in the enbseries.ini file to improve performance at the cost of some quality. Instructions on how to disable these effects can be found in the INI sub-sections of this Guide. Changing to the performance version of some ENB Presets (where available) will essentially do the same thing; therefore, users are encouraged to explore that route before disabling effects.

If after following these performance tips users are still unable to achieve playable frame rates, the system hardware may not be capable of running ENBSeries or the chosen preset might be too intensive to for it. At this point users may want to consider either using other presets which may not be as demanding on hardware, upgrading their hardware, or not using ENBSeries altogether.

CTD on game launch

First be positive this is not a missing master issue! After you've ruled that out, some users will experience a CTD after installing an ENB Preset due to having missing components of DirectX. The solution is to re-install DirectX 9 for games such as Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas. Windows users will have to update DirectX by downloading the DirectX End-User Runtimes. If that option doesn't work, try installing the DirectX SDK and running the installer within. Re-installing/updating DirectX should install missing components needed by ENBSeries.

Shadow Striping (Skyrim LE)

One of the great things about ENBSeries is that it usually fixes shadow striping. Some users, however, will still experience this issue if they've edited their Skyrim INIs. In the screenshots below it's hard to tell from their reduced size in the gallery, but notice the fuzziness along the edges of the shadows and the lines across some of the textures like the post and rock; this is shadow striping.

(To view the full sized images, click on the image to open the gallery, then right click on image and click 'View Image'.)

If this is preset, adjust the iBlurDeferredShadowMask parameter in the SkyrimPrefs.ini file (MO users will have to adjust it in the INI Editor in MO). It will be set to its default from when the INI files where created by the game launcher, unless users have manually adjusted it. Turning this parameter down to a lower usually results in sharper shadow detail; however, turning it down too low can result in striping. Users can adjust this setting from 0-7. If striping occurs while ENBSeries is enabled, increase this parameter's value by one, save the change, and test the new setting in-game. Continue to repeat this process until the shadow striping is gone. Usually between 3 and 5 are the best values.

If the above is not helping or making the shadows too blurry, adjusting the fShadowDistance parameter may also help. This is the distance at which shadows are drawn from the object. Decreasing this will make these shadows less elongated and help to eliminate striping at lower iBlurDeferredShadowMask values; however, adjusting this value too long can also result in unnatural looking shadows.

AMD/ATI Users

Set the following in enbseries.ini.

In the [SHADOW] section:

• When updating drivers be sure to uninstall your current drivers before installing your new drivers. It is also not recommended to use Beta drivers. The current stable drivers can be found here.
• If you must use anisotropic filtering (AF), then either ENB-enabled or CCC-enabled is fine, but this depends entirely on the capability of your CPU since Skyrim is more CPU-intensive than GPU. ENB-enabled is better, but up to 8x is recommended unless you have at least 2GB of VRAM (generally the 69xx, 78xx, and 79xx series).

Possible Crossfire Fix

Please apply the following process to ensure Crossfire compatibility:

1. Right-click on your desktop and open the Catalyst Control Center.
2. Enter the 3D Applications Profiles.
3. Choose 'Use AMD Pre-defined profile' in the list at the bottom
4. Select the 'Assassin's Creed Brotherhood profile' (acp?b.exe)
5. Go back to the top, select 'New application' and press the 'Save' button.
6. Choose the 'TESV.exe' application (in the root Skyrim folder) when the browser window pops up.
7. Answer 'Yes' when CCC asks if you want to override the default TESV profile.

For users using 13.x drivers

1. Open up the AMD Vision Engine Control Center (or the Catalyst Control Center).
2. Make sure your are in Advanced View mode by clicking Preferences.
3. Select 'Gaming' and choose '3D Applications Profiles'.
4. Select 'Add' and browse to and select 'TESV.exe'.
5. 'TESV.exe' should now show up on that page. Select it and scroll down to 'CrossfireX Mode'
6. Select 'Use AMD Pre-defined profile' and locate the 'Assassin's Creed Brotherhood profile' (acp?b.exe)
7. Overwrite the default profile when prompted.

Disable ENB In-game

A common issue with Depth of Field effects is that it is difficult to see the character while in the creation menu. There is a very simple solution for this. While playing, just press [Shift+F12] to disable the ENBSeries processing entirely. This can be quite useful when creating characters or modifying them later via the showracemenu console command. When finished, just press [Shift+F12] again to re-enable processing.

Long Loading Times

Some people may experience long loading times while using ENBSeries. An easy way to decrease your wait is by pressing [Shift+F12] before or just after entering the loading screen to disable ENBSeries processing. When the game is loaded press [Shift+F12] again to re-enable processing.

ENB Support Forum

If the above troubleshooting did not help, please refer to our ENB Support Forum for assistance.