ENB Palette Tutorial (Updated 6-9-2017)
Posted: 30 May 2017, 17:20
I've been asked on several occasions over at Nexus how I make palettes (256x256) without 3DS Max, which is expensive and requires some time in study and practice to acquire the skills needed to work with palettes. I've also noticed a lot of visitors to this forum ask how they are made, too. All you need is Photoshop (or Gimp, or Paint.Net) and Lightroom (or Raw Therapee) to make really great palettes. By "great" I mean palettes that can easily match a 256x16 LUT. The default palette was created by following Boris' description of how they operate and by reviewing some of Tapiok's info on palette design.
The tutorial weighs in at just short of 5 MB when zipped, so you'll have to get it here. It contains the tutorial and tutorial archive with a lot of extras in it. The technique described in the tutorial will work for any other game that can use ENB (Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and so on).
These are the results you can get in Fallout 3 after using this tutorial. In these screen shots I'm not using anything but ENB v0.278. During the tuning process there were no adjustments to any of the ENB files (all at default values) and I did not use any external or altered add-on files (such as effect.txt). Also, in the screenshots with the tuned ENB, the only mods I'm using are Vurt's, my sunglare and grass replacer for Vurt's, RobCo Certified, a nifty backpack, and Fallout Streetlights. All other textures are default.
=============EDIT==============
I've added some screenshots of nighttime, too. I'll add a few of interiors as well. Day, night, and interior use separate palettes for full customization and to take advantage of the game engine. The code for DNI palettes are in the archive.
===============================
Default Game (No ENB)
After Palette Adjustment in PS and Lightroom
Default Game (No ENB)
After Palette Adjustment in PS and Lightroom
Default Game (No ENB)
After Palette Adjustment in PS and Lightroom
And now, here's the same palette shown in the above screenshots in use during the day with the ENB tuned:
Early morning (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Boot scootin' around noon (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Nukin' the baddies - love the default lens flare (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Cloudy and shadows (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Late afternoon - my sunglare, custom sunsprite and default lens (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Long shadows (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Early evening at the crossroads (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Purple mountains at sunset (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
At this point the night palette has taken over completely. The screenshots below were taken after the ENB has been tuned.
Cloudy sunset (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Clouds and Full Moon (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Glow (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Nighttime Nuke (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Street Lights (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Realistic Wasteland Darkness (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Night Vision Goggles (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
The tutorial explains how to go about making the palette and how to tune it. The process is fairly easy, and uses only one blur technique.
~V~
Update: I've further revised (Rev 2) and streamlined the tutorial. I've also put all kinds of goodies in the tutorial archive, including palettes, color profiles, gradient, links to various pieces of software, code snippets, Photoshop plugin, and more. I tried to make it a one-stop item that will have everything you'll need to get up and running with making palettes. Link to archive with tutorial is at top of page and right here.
The tutorial weighs in at just short of 5 MB when zipped, so you'll have to get it here. It contains the tutorial and tutorial archive with a lot of extras in it. The technique described in the tutorial will work for any other game that can use ENB (Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and so on).
These are the results you can get in Fallout 3 after using this tutorial. In these screen shots I'm not using anything but ENB v0.278. During the tuning process there were no adjustments to any of the ENB files (all at default values) and I did not use any external or altered add-on files (such as effect.txt). Also, in the screenshots with the tuned ENB, the only mods I'm using are Vurt's, my sunglare and grass replacer for Vurt's, RobCo Certified, a nifty backpack, and Fallout Streetlights. All other textures are default.
=============EDIT==============
I've added some screenshots of nighttime, too. I'll add a few of interiors as well. Day, night, and interior use separate palettes for full customization and to take advantage of the game engine. The code for DNI palettes are in the archive.
===============================
Default Game (No ENB)
After Palette Adjustment in PS and Lightroom
Default Game (No ENB)
After Palette Adjustment in PS and Lightroom
Default Game (No ENB)
After Palette Adjustment in PS and Lightroom
And now, here's the same palette shown in the above screenshots in use during the day with the ENB tuned:
Early morning (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Boot scootin' around noon (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Nukin' the baddies - love the default lens flare (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Cloudy and shadows (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Late afternoon - my sunglare, custom sunsprite and default lens (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Long shadows (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Early evening at the crossroads (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
Purple mountains at sunset (v14.5.3 Day Palette)
At this point the night palette has taken over completely. The screenshots below were taken after the ENB has been tuned.
Cloudy sunset (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Clouds and Full Moon (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Glow (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Nighttime Nuke (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Street Lights (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Realistic Wasteland Darkness (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
Night Vision Goggles (v14.5.2 Night Palette)
The tutorial explains how to go about making the palette and how to tune it. The process is fairly easy, and uses only one blur technique.
~V~
Update: I've further revised (Rev 2) and streamlined the tutorial. I've also put all kinds of goodies in the tutorial archive, including palettes, color profiles, gradient, links to various pieces of software, code snippets, Photoshop plugin, and more. I tried to make it a one-stop item that will have everything you'll need to get up and running with making palettes. Link to archive with tutorial is at top of page and right here.