Enhanced Lighting for ENB, updated 25 November-14

[--JawZ--]

I will soon release the next update for ELE I just want to make some additional fixes and then throw it through the TESVEdit and then upload it, this will be a new offical update and not a weekend release.

When I compare mod changes I think it should show the full FPS loss. And I achieve FPS higher than the refresh rate/Vsync based values by disabling all such Vsync/FPS Limter methods.
If the disabling of the iPresentInterval inside the SkyrimPrefs.ini doesn't allow you to go above 60 FPS with all other Vsync/FPS limiter deactivated (Driver, ENB, 3rd party tool) then put that line in your Skyrim.ini file under [Display]


I think it's worth noting that the drop from 178 FPS down to 63 FPS is due to that in the vanilla image there are two Non-shadow light bulbs in the view while in ELE there are at least 4 visible light bulbs, one of them being a shadow light bulb and I run with ultra+ settings in my Skyrim .ini files so the added shadow light really takes a hit on the FPS.

[wolfgrimdark]

Great news and those Embassy shots look great. Will be just in time for a hunting spree there

As for FPS, heh I am lucky/happy to get even 30 outdoors and 40-50 indoors. To many mods, textures, and quality settings. As it is I still have to tone things down a bit.

[OhKay]

thanks Jawz, did a few adjustments, can get over 60+fps ect but have to compromised a few things. its not worth the trade off. i'm back to low fps. vsync have to be disabled in Nvidia, all anti-aliasing disabled, vsync disabled in ENB, disabled ENB... my menu screen reach about 600+fps. oh well can't have everything wolfgrimdark my outdoors are terrible, 25-30 max! i too have heavily modded game. at least its still playable and stable. performance are second thought for me

[--JawZ--]

wolfgrimdark;

Thanks, hehe I guess so

I too need to optimize my settings but currently I have it just set to mximum to stress my system to see the FPS impact easier, man I miss my low end rig for this kind of testing



Oh and by the way OhKay I only used the ELE suite and an ENB v0.236 preset with only the Shadows effect activated and the settings set to vanilla state values, I did not even have any .fx or .txt files in my Skyrim folder when I took those shoots.
I always use such a setup when comparing between Vanilla and a mod I wan't to compare the changes with.

When I'm running with my tweaked preset I usually just use Nvidia Inspector FPS limiter set to 118 FPS (Or in Skyrim's case 58 because of the physics issue) as I have a 120HZ monitor that is both my work and game-play monitor. And I set every other Vsync or FPS limiter to off.
And with my Gaming presets I usually get around 35 FPS and up for both exterior and interior cells.

[OhKay]

Jawz
still quite a nice achievement without all the bells and whistles from mods. are you still playing GRID2 ? its a solid 60fps performer for me, wish i have more time with it. lately i have been trying out NFS Rivals but it 's capped at 30 which its still enjoyable but lost the immersion of speed which is a let down.

[--JawZ--]

OhKay;
It's been awhile since I've played any game actually, but I think I just might grab my wheel and take a tour in GRID 2 now, I can achieve 120 FPS with optimized settings for quality and performance, in such a game I want every FPS as one don't really stop to look at the details of a scenery
I haven't tried the new NFS game, maybe I'll have a look at it in the future.
But I'm more into getting my cars in RL up and running now so I can drive as it was meant to be Still a lot of work to be done on both of them, though tomorrow I will have a new refurbished cylinder head installed on my "work horse" car which will boost the N/A HP by at least 20HP from it's original default HP level, but considering how awful it's running currently I might see an improvement of 50-70HP


Here is a new feature I will implement into the ELE Fog weathers, Sun and moon "activated". Which during the days enables the use of Sun rays and one can stand in awe at shoots like these;


The SunIntensity and Rays values was of course very exaggerated to bring forth the sun rays a bit better.
And that effect will only be active in mild to medium dense fog weathers.


And here is a comparison between a clear weather type and the new Fog weather with active sun and rays. Using default values for SunIntensity and Rays here. 1.0 and 0.4

[jrista]

Just a quick question. I was looking around for lighting mods, and eventually came across this. I currently use ELFX, however I have noticed with increasing frequency that a LOT of interiors seem to have little to no shadow casting lights, when I know for a fact that before they had them. I am curious if ELE is viable as a complete replacement for ELFX...does it improve interior shadow casting and light positions to be realistic in the same manner as ELFX? If I already have ELFX installed, does ELE offer additional improvements that don't conflict with it that would still make it useful?

Thanks! So far, from what I've seen, it looks absolutely amazing...just not sure if there is an expected set of mods (or mods that shouldn't be used) to make it look that way.

[--JawZ--]

You can't run both ELE and ELFX (ELE - Light bulbs with ELFX that is) you can only use the modules mentioned in the ELFX compatability on the first page of this thread.

Why there are possibly less shadow light bulbs is because they suck power/FPS a lot and there is a limit to how many shadow light bulbs there can be in an interior cell, limit is 4 per cell but in very large interior cells with a lot of distance between each shadow light bulb one can add one or two more shadow light bulbs. If one goes above that limit they will turn themselves on and off in certain viewing angles.

I don't have the same approach as ELFX, as if I did I would not see any point in doing that part of ELE. I go by what I think looks good and illuminate the interior cells properly where it needs to be illuminated by a light bulb.

I can't say if this lighting mod is right for you, you will just have to compare it yourself to find that out.
Make comparisons in Whiterun interiors, Dawnguard HQ as examples between ELFX and ELE to see how they differ.


The images seen here in this thread from me, both from when I compare my changes to vanilla and standalone showcases are with only using ELE modules and textures.
Compatibility list and load order list can be found on front page as well. Mods that adjust similar things to mods found in my compatibility list should have the same compatibility or incompatibility with ELE.

[jrista]

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I wasn't very clear in my original post. Apologies. I do know that there is a 4 shadow caster limit in each cell. The problem I am having isn't that the lights and their shadows pop in and out, like they do when you have multiple mods installed that affect or add shadow casters. All of the lights work, they all emit light...the problem is that some of them seem to have stopped being shadow casters. Instead of seeing four shadow casting lights in interiors, I maybe see one...usually the fireplace or hearth. I originally installed ELFX as it seemed to greatly improve the overall lighting appearance, particularly the selection of which lights actually behave as those four/cell shadow casters. In several key places, however...such as Jorrvaskr, the big hearth in the center of the building no longer casts shadows from any of the objects on the table, and it's blatantly obvious too.

My question wasn't about whether I could use ELFX and ELE together, but whether ELE would be a viable replacement for ELFX. Particularly, does it improve which of those four lights in interiors cast shadows...or, does it limit or eliminate shadow casters, resulting in fewer shadows overall? I'm happy to remove ELFX, if ELE does the same job as well or better. I know I don't need both. I'll probably do a modular install, as I do use CoT, and don't want to lose that...but I definitely want better interior lighting, particularly I want all four shadow casters to work, and I want each one to be better chosen than a lot of the default Bethesda choices...i.e. pick a lantern every once in a while, so you get that awesome lantern shadow playing eerily across a cave, or something like that.

Good to know the sample images are only ELE. Looks awesome, if I may say so.

[--JawZ--]

My initial approach is to to add the highest possible amount of light bulbs (with the ability to use at least two torches without causing any light bugs) and not concerning myself with reaching the limit of shadow light bulbs in every interior at first. When I've done that for a particular interior I go through it and see where it would make sense to have shadow light bulbs and where those shadow light bulbs would impact the visuals the best and greatest.

As an example if there are 4 fire scones in an interior I rather have them all to be shadow light bulbs or if it's not possible only non-shadow light bulbs. Not just 1 or 2 of them as that would make it look silly and break the immersion quite a bit.
Or perhaps add 1 non-shadow light bulb at each of those fire scones and then place a shadow light bulb in the middle of them if they are in close proximity that emits shadows and blends in well with the other 4 shadow light bulbs so it doesn't stand out too much.


I'm unsure of the exact statistics for ELFX but I do think ELFX currently have more areas covered than ELE for the Light Bulbs part. Though the next update will have complete interior Dawnguard coverage at least.
However my ELE - Interior Lighting have received good feedback from running that with ELFX instead of the ELFX - Enhancer.esp.
My ELE - Interior Lighting covers every area in both the DLC's and main Skyrim interior cells. Then there is Relighting Skyrim that has full exterior coverage and at least 70% of the Skyrim interior cells covered, 100% Dawnguard interior and exterior coverage, 100% Dragonborn interior coverage and perhaps exterior and Hearthfire is also 100% covered both for exteriors and interiors. Unsure of those percentages as it was awhile since I worked on the Relighting Skyrim mod project.
And it works very well with ELE and has it's own ELE plugins to bring in the colors to the light bulbs from my ELE - Interior Light Bulb module, without incompatibility issues. Might be worth checking out.


Thanks.
The only texture mods I might use in sample images are for characters and clutter/misc objects. And if I use some landscape texture or the likes I'll always leave a note about it.