The Truth ENB 1.00.26

UPDATE: ENB v0.417 introduces Wet Surfaces which The Truth now fully supports. When raining you will see the effect of shiny wet surfaces similar to ESO.

 

UPDATE: ENB v0.372 introduces Detailed Shadows which greatly improves the visual appearance especially of character faces for a very minor performance hit. Enabled by default. Also, the latest version of The Truth updates the Nighteye Fix with more parameters to better avoid it activating from things like soul trap and word walls.

UPDATE: Prepass skin shaders are now working and have largely overcome previous glitches. However, they do still also subtly effect the entire scene, not just skin. If you want to test how they look (they are pre-configured but disabled by default) set EnablePrepass=true from the [EFFECT] section of enbseries.ini in the in-game options.

UPDATE: The latest ENB includes a custom SSAO which can provide improved visuals at the cost of performance. IMPORTANT: For information on how to disable the game's default SSAO to avoid performance/visual degradation from double SSAO, see the Performance section.

NOTE: All versions of ENB from v0.370 include the specular lighting fix from SSE Character Specular Lighting Fix. If you are using ENB v0.370 or newer make sure to disable that mod as they will conflict. This fix is always on, and other settings like EnableSkinSpecular do not effect it in any way. The fix is internal to ENB and no other settings effect or disable it (according to the ENB author himself).

NOTE: If you are having performance issues with the newer ENB SSS but still want a sub-surface scattering effect on your character, you can leave ENB's version disabled and instead use Subsurface Scattering Shaders for Skins which is very performance friendly. See mod page for details and caveats.

Here are a few "before & after" images:
1 2 3 4 5 6

 NOTE: For optimal appearance and to use The Truth as intended, set your in-game brightness slider in the very middle.

UPDATE: I HIGHLY recommend Relighting Skyrim by --JawZ-- and NovakDalton This mod compliments The Truth perfectly! It doesn't change colors or weather or lighting like other enhancement mods (which makes it compatible with essentially everything.) Instead, it fixes the positioning and distribution of lights so that, for example, light from a fireplace actually lights the inside of the fireplace. Just check out his screenshots. Zero performance hit and a RADICAL improvement to the game!

FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH NIGHTEYE EFFECTS - One minor problem with ENB, and something I wanted to avoid with The Truth, is the breaking of Nighteye type effects. The reason for this problem is the game uses special flags for these type of effects which ENB doesn't code for. It does track the internal registers for these values however, so it is possible to write a custom workaround as I have. Not only will Nighteye effects work as intended brightening dark areas, but the mod gives total control over all aspects of it's appearance, from color balance and saturation to brightness, contrast, and shadow clipping. It is possible to achieve some truly unique effects, for example yellow washed out vision for Khajiit, saturated red for vampires, etc.

NOTE: See below spoiler for details on how to configure the Nighteye Fix.

ENB Hotkeys:

Insert = Take a screenshot.
Shift+F12 = Toggle effect.
Shift+Enter = Toggle in-game ENB config editor.
Shift+F7 = Toggle Marty McFly DoF.
F11 = Show FPS.

Skyrim Console:
~ = Open in-game console. Type 'tm' (without the quotes) and press Enter to hide all graphical UI elements for unobstructed screenshots. Type this command in the console again (or restart Skyrim) to turn the UI display back on.

COMPATIBILITY

The Truth graphical mod is performed 100% in post-process and therefore IS compatible with any mods that alter lighting, weather, color, fog, etc.

INSTALLATION

NOTE: If you use other ENB's and have made custom tweaks, you might want to back up the enbseries folder for those prior to copying over The Truth files. That way you can copy them back if you decide to install a different ENB.

• First download ENB v0.473 (or newest version). Copy d3d11.dll and d3dcompiler_46e.dll from the "WrapperVersion" folder to your main Skyrim Special Edition folder.
• Copy everything from The Truth to your main Skyrim Special Edition directory, saying yes to overwrite.
• Ensure antialiasing is set to "Application Controlled" or off in your video card configuration control panel.
• Run SkyrimSELauncher.exe from your Skyrim Special Edition folder. Click Options, Advanced. For the standard version of The Truth make sure your advanced settings look like this: standard version launcher settings. For the lite version you can enable Screen Space Ambient Occlusion for a more modest FPS hit than the ENB version in the main version of The Truth. For either version make sure 64-bit Render Targets is checked.
• Recommended setting Antialiasing to TAA, and UN-check window mode.
• (Optional) Open your SkyrimPrefs.ini file from your Documents->My Games->Skyrim Special Edition directory, and set bTreesReceiveShadows=1, bShadowsOnGrass=1 (may need to add manually), and bDrawLandShadows=1.

NOTE: It is recommended whenever you install or update an ENB that you run the Skyrim launcher to verify your settings, as they can sometimes get reverted after running the launcher for the first time after an update (or after a video driver update). Just open the launcher, verify your settings, and close it as normal. You don't have to change anything to update your settings, just running the launcher is enough. This is not strictly necessary if running the game through the SKSE64 launcher, but it is still a good idea to run the default launcher once after updating the actual game itself and so the above may still apply in that scenario.

IN-GAME TWEAKS: Most tweaking will be a process of trial and error, however there are a couple areas of interest to note:

Brightness: First start by setting the game's brightness slider to the middle. You can adjust this global brightness value with ENB off to calibrate your monitor before adjusting ENB. Afterwards with The Truth and ENB enabled, the main settings to adjust for controlling brightness is 1) from the in-game ENB editor shader window under the "Use HD6 Color Filter" section, adjust "Color Luminance" (separate for Dawn, Dusk, Day, Night, and Interior) and 2) for shadow strength, from the ENB editor enbseries.ini window under the "[ENVIRONMENT]" section, adjust "AmbientLightingIntensity" (separate for Dawn, Dusk, Sunrise, Sunset, Day, Night, and Interior Day/Night).

Various Tweaks:

 * Version 1.00.23 dialed the sun sprite (the lens flare when looking at the sun) way down, but you can adjust it further with the Sprite Intensity setting in enbsunsprite.fx (under the shader window in-game).

 * For slightly more detailed sky (at slight FPS cost) select Enable under the SKY secion of enbseries.ini. Can cause hard line horizon color blending visual artifacts.

 * Adaptation tweaks: Using the adapt visualization tool included in enbeffect, was able to peg the upper and lower threshold for standard lighting conditions more precisely. This will allow a more natural range of lighting while still kicking in to adapt to extreme dark situations.

 * I recommend turning OFF volumetric godrays in the skyrim launcher and leaving the ENB version on under EFFECTS. Not only does it look much better IMO, but it also performs better for FPS.

 * Enabling Depth of Field under enbseries.ini EFFECTS section will use built-in latest version of Marty McFly's Advanced DoF. You can find the configuration tab under the shaders panel in ENB in-game. Recommend visiting http://enbseries.enbdev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5279 for detailed configuration information. Generally, the main option to tweak to adjust how strong the effect is based on how far from your character is "DOF: Far blur curve." The main setting which effects the appearance of the effect is "DOF: Bokeh shape max size."

 * Recommend to get the latest ENB Particle Patch from here. Make sure you get the SPECIAL EDITION version.

PERFORMANCE

Version 1.00.26+: Starting with this version the standard version of The Truth enables Complex Particle Lights with "Big Range" set to OFF. This effect has been fine-tuned to enable all the various ENB particle light effects (torchbugs, draugr eyes, spell lights, etc.) in a way that blends seamlessly into the overall appearance of the mod. However, if you can spare the FPS and want an even more intense glow you can set EnableBigRange=false under [COMPLEXPARTICLELIGHTS] in enbseries.ini. NOTE: You may notice a performance hit when looking at lots of candles placed together.

SSAO:
If you feel you need a bit more performance you can use SSE's default SSAO instead of ENB. Run SkyrimSELauncher.exe from your Skyrim Special Edition folder, click Options, then Advanced, and check Screen Space Ambient Occlusion. Then load up the game as normal (from the SKSE64 launcher if you use it). Open the in-game ENB editor and from the enbseries.ini window under the [EFFECT] section, set EnableAmbientOcclusion to false. Under [SSAO_GAME] set the amount values to 0.5 and experiment with what looks best from there. This has a roughly 4-6 fps gain on a gtx780.

Click here for a comparison of SSAO off, Skyrim SSAO, and ENB SSAO.

Depth of Field:
You can enable Marty McFly's custom Bokeh Depth of Field if you feel you can handle a bit more of a performance hit: From the in-game editor enbseries.ini section, set EnableDepthOfField=true. This has a roughly 3-4 fps loss on a gtx780. (Currently off by default. Can be toggled using Shift+F7.)

Performance Tweaks:
Under enbseries.ini [EFFECTS] section of the in-game editor, there are several options you can disable to increase performance:

EnableDetailedShadow - Setting this to false results in a very minor performance gain and is recommended left on for significant visual improvement.
Click here for a comparison of detailed shadows on and off.

EnableSubSurfaceScattering - This setting (also known as SSS) can be thought of as a skin realism filter. It adds color and shading that improves skin appearance at a modest FPS cost.
Click here for a comparison of sub surface scattering on and off.

If you experience too low performance using ENB's SSS you can disable this under enbseries.ini [EFFECTS] section of the in-game editor (set EnableSubSurfaceScattering and EnablePrepass both to false), hit Save then Apply, then try using this mod for SSS instead: Subsurface Scattering Shader for Skins.

EnableComplexFireLights - Setting this to false can improve performance when lots of fire (like fire spell effects) are on the screen.
EnableComplexParticleLights - Setting this to false can improve performance when lots of particle effects like candles are on the screen.

EnablePostPassShader: - The Truth uses a post pass sharpen to counter some of the blur that results from TAA antialiasing the game uses. You can save a few FPS by disabling this. However this will also disable screen vignette and grain effects if you enabled those additional options in the Shader window enbeffectpostpass.fx section as they run in the same filter.

For both EnableComplexFireLights and EnableComplexParticleLights there is an option "EnableBigRange" under their respective config section in enbseries.ini which you can enable to increase the range of the light effect. This is disabled by default as it can cause a massive performance drop when looking at a scene with lots of these effects active (like a table with 12+ candles, etc.) for a relatively minor visual improvement.

MULTI-PASS BLOOM: In this ENB preset, multi-pass Bloom configuration is available from the in-game editor Shader window, under the enbbloom.fx section. These options are applied in addition to the standard bloom configuration in the enbseries.ini window [BLOOM] section. These settings are responsible for the "HDR Bloom" effect. When tweaking make sure and also adjust Volumetric Rays in enbseries.ini from the in-game editor while looking at the sky as the two play off each other.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: There are various extra effects you can enable and tweak from the in-game editor shader window, under the enbeffectpostpass.fx section. These include: Blurring, Sharpening, Depth Sharpening, Luma Sharpening, Vignette (shadow border), Film Grain, and Letterbox effects.

One final consideration: If you have any color/saturation/vibrancy settings enabled through your video drivers or any mod that adjusts fog, lights, or lets you configure color and other values in-game, I highly recommend turning them off until you have decided how you like this ENB configuration by itself.

CREDITS

• Color and bloom filters by HeliosDoubleSix (HD6) & Phinix
• AGCC tonemap & 3D LUT support by kingeric1992 (ported by Phinix)
• Bokeh Depth of Field option by Marty McFly
• Postpass blur, sharp, grain, vignette, etc by JawZ
• Prepass subsurface control by The Sandvich Maker and Adyss
• ENB itself and various effects by Boris Vorontsov
• Day/night/twilight separation by kingeric1992 & Phinix
• Additions, in-game options, & formatting by Phinix
• Khajiit Nighteye control by Phinix

 

PERMISSION

You are free to download this file for personal use only. However, the author maintains all copyright and explicitly forbids sharing or re-upload to any other site in part or in totality.

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