Introduction
ENB or ENBSeries is a mod tool created by Boris Vorontsov to add a variety of advanced or improved graphical enhancements to a number of popular PC games including Skyrim. Mod authors use this tool to tweak numerous settings that control elements such as depth of field, sun rays and SSAO to create unique ENB presets, often with themes such as photo realistic, cinematic and fantastic. Currently the most popular preset on Nexus is RealVision ENB but there are many more popular presets available that cater to different personal preferences, lighting mod requirements and performance needs. What all of these presets share is a sizable improvement in overall graphical quality in exchange for varying degrees of performance loss measured in frames-per-seconds (FPS). This hit to performance generally ranges from 10-30 FPS depending on hardware, mods used and ini file settings. It is recommended that users have PC hardware that meets the minimum requirements suggested in my Hardware section and have incorporated ini adjustments found in my Tweaks section in order to effectively use an ENB preset. Alternately, users can seek out performance friendly visual enhancement mods such as Pure Weather (alters lighting and weather effects), Dynavision (adds DOF) and Enhanced Lights and FX (alters lighting) to mimic some of the effects found in ENBSeries. These types of mods can also be combined with select ENB presets to either improve performance or further enhance default visuals.
ENB Pre-Install Checklist
Recommended ENB Preset
Project ENB
Having tried many other ENB presets, my first and favorite pick remains this polished, options-filled package optimized for use with the weather and lighting overhaul Climates of Tamriel. Its strengths include a very balanced enhancement of vanilla lighting and colors, eye-catching use of effects like depth of field, and an excellent suite of install options packaged with a simple install guide. Options include four color themes, five optional effects including film grain, and six pre-optimized performance options to help limit framerate loss. On the downside, contrast is not as vibrant as some presets and users will notice a slightly hazy, washed out look that is commonly found in a lot of cinematic-style presets. Depth of field, an effect people either love or hate, is very strong by default and this results in great screenshots but can be distracting during play. Of course this effect can be easily disabled for those who don't like it. Color may appear slightly over-saturated but this can be tweaked with optional ini settings. For a general purpose ENB preset that's fairly realistic while still supporting Bethesda's fantasy ambiance, plays well with other light and effects mods, and comes with lots of options this is definitely a great way to go.
ENB or ENBSeries is a mod tool created by Boris Vorontsov to add a variety of advanced or improved graphical enhancements to a number of popular PC games including Skyrim. Mod authors use this tool to tweak numerous settings that control elements such as depth of field, sun rays and SSAO to create unique ENB presets, often with themes such as photo realistic, cinematic and fantastic. Currently the most popular preset on Nexus is RealVision ENB but there are many more popular presets available that cater to different personal preferences, lighting mod requirements and performance needs. What all of these presets share is a sizable improvement in overall graphical quality in exchange for varying degrees of performance loss measured in frames-per-seconds (FPS). This hit to performance generally ranges from 10-30 FPS depending on hardware, mods used and ini file settings. It is recommended that users have PC hardware that meets the minimum requirements suggested in my Hardware section and have incorporated ini adjustments found in my Tweaks section in order to effectively use an ENB preset. Alternately, users can seek out performance friendly visual enhancement mods such as Pure Weather (alters lighting and weather effects), Dynavision (adds DOF) and Enhanced Lights and FX (alters lighting) to mimic some of the effects found in ENBSeries. These types of mods can also be combined with select ENB presets to either improve performance or further enhance default visuals.
ENB Pre-Install Checklist
- In the Skyrm Launcher make sure that Antialiasing, Anisotropic Filtering and FXAA are disabled. (This should have been done prior to tweaking Skyrim's ini files as described in the Tweaks section.)
- In your video card's control panel make sure that Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering are "application controlled." (It is recommended that non-ENB users set their video driver to handle Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering but now we're going to let ENB handle these effects.)
- Go to the Speed and Stability Guide for ENB on Nexus and download the optional file called "ENB Helper." Drop enbhelper.dll in Steam/steamapps/common/Skyrim/enbseries. If there isn't an enbseries folder in the main Skyrim directory go ahead and create it.
- Make sure that your Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini files have been optimized as outlined in the Tweaks section because this will have a considerable effect on performance while using an ENB preset.
- With no ENB preset loaded, an optimized Skyrim with preferred mods loaded should be averaging at least 40-45 FPS in game. If not, it's time to consider upgrading your hardware or more performance-friendly alternatives to using an ENB preset.
Recommended ENB Preset
Project ENB
Having tried many other ENB presets, my first and favorite pick remains this polished, options-filled package optimized for use with the weather and lighting overhaul Climates of Tamriel. Its strengths include a very balanced enhancement of vanilla lighting and colors, eye-catching use of effects like depth of field, and an excellent suite of install options packaged with a simple install guide. Options include four color themes, five optional effects including film grain, and six pre-optimized performance options to help limit framerate loss. On the downside, contrast is not as vibrant as some presets and users will notice a slightly hazy, washed out look that is commonly found in a lot of cinematic-style presets. Depth of field, an effect people either love or hate, is very strong by default and this results in great screenshots but can be distracting during play. Of course this effect can be easily disabled for those who don't like it. Color may appear slightly over-saturated but this can be tweaked with optional ini settings. For a general purpose ENB preset that's fairly realistic while still supporting Bethesda's fantasy ambiance, plays well with other light and effects mods, and comes with lots of options this is definitely a great way to go.
- Download: First download version 0.221 of ENBSeries which can be found at enbdev.com. Next download the "Project ENB v0_221 - Complete - CoT v3_1" file from Nexus. Finally, make sure you have already downloaded and installed Climates of Tamriel.
- Install: Open the ENBSeries archive and from within the WrapperVersion folder drag "d3d9.dll" into your main Skyrim folder. Disregard the rest of the files. Next, open the Project ENB archive, open one of the themed preset folders (I recommend Realistic) and open the main files. Select all the files and folders and drag them to your main Skyrim folder. For now ignore the optional effects and performance options. You may want to experiment with them later. Close the archive. Finish by performing a standard mod install of the archive with MO which will give you an option to redirect the install path to the enclosed Data folder. This will install the "Further Dark Dungeons for ENB.esp." (Easy to follow install instructions are also included with the preset files.) NOTE: Be sure to open the enblocal.ini file and adjust the "VideoMemorySizeMb=" setting under Memory. Otherwise the default of 1024 may be too low to handle your texture upgrades resulting in instability and poor performance. It's recommended to list your total video RAM in kilobytes (e.g. 4GB would be "4096"). You can optionally follow the note suggesting that you combine your total VRAM and system RAM and subtract 2048 from that to get a usable number. However, do not exceed 10240.
- Customization: After installation, we need to load up the game to make sure everything was installed correctly and that performance is acceptable. As the title screen appears there should be text in the upper left corner listing general ENBSeries information including the version. Once in game press the asterisk on the number pad and an FPS counter should appear in the upper left corner. This provides confirmation everything is working and also gives us an indicator of the game's performance with the ENB installed. Even on a high-end PC don't be surprised to see a performance drop of 10-15 FPS. ENBs require a lot of computing power to render their advanced visual effects and so long as the average FPS remains above 40 its definitely worth the sacrifice. If you find your FPS consistently below 40 then it's time to look at performance-enhancing options. Project ENB comes with a number of optimized performance versions of the "enbseries.ini" file, one for each themed preset. Back inside the downloaded archive, look in the performance options folder of the Realistic preset and you'll find six options. The full graphics mode is what was installed by default and includes all of the effects. The rest of the options are pretty clear as to what they disable. SSAO-SSIL refers to ambient occlusion, a rendering technique that adds depth to textures in game by actively adding shaders to select pixels. The effect in game is that static objects have more depth as more natural looking shading occurs. While it looks great, it is a performance hog. DOF, or depth of field is another performance hog that adds dynamic blur filters to objects far in front of or behind where the player is actively looking. It's meant to mimic how the eye focuses on objects at different distances but in practice it really mimics how cameras focus on objects for dramatic effect. As such, it looks great in screenshots and can look just as great in game, but it's often distracting. Disabling this effect can improve performance and get rid of the distracting active DOF effect. Users can also temporarily turn these and other effects on and off in game by pressing "shift" and "enter" to bring up an ENB options menu. It's recommended to first press the tilde key in order to pause gameplay.