How to Properly Install & Configure ENB

ENB RANTS, because seen way too many people seems to unable to get this simple thing right...

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Most info may only applies on Oldrim ENB.

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Installing ENB

Installing ENB really isn't that hard. It is as easy as 1-2-3... maybe 4 and 5... The following process mostly refer to Oldrim's ENB.

[-1-] clean up your game's main folder.

Unfortunately a lot of guide / description forgot to mention this part. Mixing old / foreign ENB files is a recipe to disaster. One aspect of ENB need to be understood is - weather & shader files required by ENB can located in TWO places - game main folder, or inside [enbseries] folder. For organization purpose, it is recommend to place them all within [enbseries].

Thus if there are two copies of same file name (but different contents) both exist at game main folder AND inside enbseries folder, things may gone wrong. So, before you install a new ENB, ensure your game folder is absolutely clean. Absolutely no files & folders with name "enb________" in your game folder. Even the d3d9.dll + enbhost.exe / d3d11.dll + d3dcompiler_46e.dll, remove them and acquire the latest version from ENBDev.

[-2-] copy ONLY d3d9.dll + enbhost.exe / d3d11.dll + d3dcompiler_46e.dll

from ENBDev WrapperVersion, to game main folder. No other files are needed.

d3d9.dll + enbhost.exe are for Oldrim, d3d11.dll + d3dcompiler_46e.dll are for SSE.

[-3-] copy all preset files from ENB preset to game main folder

typically this include enblocal.ini, enbseries.ini and [enbseries] folder which contains the rest of weather and shader files. If the preset author included d3d9.dll/d3d11.dll or enbhost.exe, ignore that and use the latest version from ENBDev is recommended.

[-4-] configure ENBLocal

if the preset did not came with ENBLocal.ini, acquire a copy from ENBDev WrapperVersion. Typical adjustment needed in ENBLocal are "VideoMemorySizeMb" which is RAM+VRAM-2GB (or simply test with VRAMSizeTest) and "ReservedMemorySizeMb" usually 128Mb to 512Mb, as low as possible till no stutter occur. Most other settings are for fine-tuning performance, we will talk about them later.

[-5-] install any ENB addons

if the ENB have it's own weather mod ESP plugins, mesh or texture fixes, install it like any other mods in your mod manager. Just a minor warning - I don't trust Vortex.

[-6-] configure SkyrimPref.ini / EnderalPref.ini

mandatory adjustment includes:

• bFXAAEnabled=0
• iMultiSample=0
• iMaxAnisotropy=0
• bDeferredShadows=1
• bFloatPointRenderTarget=1

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CTD with ENB installed

• (oldrim) enbhost.exe is missing. D3D9.dll isn't the only file required, the EXE must be copied over as well. Please don't mix DLL and EXE of different ENB versions, just in case.
• (sse) you need both d3d11.dll and d3dcompiler_46e.dll only
• missing proxy. Check enblocal.ini, the top most section list a proxy DLL, if proxy is enabled, make sure the proxy DLL listed also exist. Proxy refer to additional 3rd party DLL to run together with ENB, such as sweetFX & ReShade.
• broken shader file / shader file conflict, unless you're editing the shader file this shouldn't happens, but just FYI coding error in any shader files will cause ENB to CTD instantly. For usual end-user, ensure the files you copied aren't corrupted / zero-kb.
• some reports saying nVidia Shadowplay is causing CTD. Overlay may, or may not cause problem. Can try turn off other overlay such as Steam's in-game overlay see if it does anything.
• using wrong DLL. Ensure you're using d3d9.dll for Oldrim, and d3d11.dll for SSE, so don't download from the wrong ENBDev webpage!
• mixing DLL. Some people thinks the content of those same-name-DLL are the same. Nope they aren't. SweetFX and Reshade both have their own version of d3d9.dll, they aren't the same contents. Someone even try to throw system32's DLL into the game ¯\(ツ)/¯ Dude it doesn't work that way, please don't mess with Windows' system file unless you want to burnt down your house... Please ensure d3d9.dll / d3d11.dll is from ENBDev, absolute no exception.
• compatibility with Windows 10? No issue. I had been rocking W10 since beta years before official release, no issue with ENB. In any case, you may try to "unblock" ENB dll and exe. You can see that "unblock" checkbox in their file properties, it's part of Windows security feature.

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Weird fog at bottom of screen

This issue seems to creep up a lot recently. My guess is the ENB in question didn't have proper ENB-Mist configured, and something has changed in recent version of ENBDev; thus turning off Mist may fixes the problem. But then again this is just a guess as I didn't test those ENB in question specifically.

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Other visual issue that came up a lot

• Improper installation of ENB, missing file, mixed old / foreign file, can cause missing game world, or screen become all dark and filled with red outlines.
• Not turning off AA and AF (also in driver) can cause severe flickering
• ENB appear really dark even at day time can caused by not turning on bDeferredShadows=1 in skyrimpref.ini or enderalpref.ini
• flat-colored screen (red, blue, etc) can caused by turning off Mist, as some ENB relies on Mist shader to function
• water world. This is a mystery to me. This may occur if you install ENB mid-play through. Some suggest re-loading the game fixes the problem
• eyes really bright, is caused by turning on Skin Specular. Recommended to just keep this function off.
• weird "edges" or ghosting, can cause by using Temporal AA (TAA) when not having high framerate
• strange blocky rain effect is caused by the preset you uses didn't came with proper raindrop texture, simply set UseOriginalTexture=TRUE under [Rain] in ENBSeries

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Tuning ENB Performance

"I like this ENB but it causes too much framedrop!"

A common... "misunderstanding" among end-user is that they thinks ENB is just that, a complete package that you can't or shouldn't adjust. Whenever people find that one ENB is too "heavy", they go seek for other ENB, instead of tuning it...

Common aspects you can adjust to balance performance vs visual quality:

ENBLocal.ini

• enable all options under [Performance]
• use your driver's Vsync instead of the game's Vsync or ENB's Vsync, or better just turn it off completely if you can't hit a constant 60fps.
• enabling WaitBusyRenderer can cause massive framedrop
• for certain hardware, MaxAnisotropy=16 can cause massive framedrop for unknown reason. AF is typically known to not costing any performance at all, but it appear to be the opposite for this option in enblocal.
• disable ForceLodBias
• disable AddDisplaySuperSamplingResolutions
• disable EnableTemporalAA if your framerate cannot keep up near 60, otherwise this will cause the common "ghosting" problem.
• turning effects quality down might save a few frame but frankly not much, you can try enable the option [ADAPTIVEQUALITY] and set to low quality, probably not much gain but can try

ENBSeries.ini

• there are "supersampling" options for SSAO, Reflection & Rain. Turn off for performance.
• certain effect have "SizeScale" option, such as in SSAO. This value determine render resolution of that effect, typically is set to 0.25 or 0.5 for performance reason. For max quality, it is set to 1.0.
• "Lens" effect may cause more framedrop than you think, depends on what the preset do with it. Disable and check.
• not every shader is made equal! Not every DoF shader is heavy performance, please stop generalizing DoF is bad... The same goes for bloom, lens, and other things.

Example DoF shaders ranked by performance

• Llight performance bokeh DoF (eg: in CR272) : Seperable Hexagonal Bokeh DoF by kingeric1992 based on Computer Graphics Forum 2012 paper
• Medium performance bokeh DoF : Advanced Depth of Field by Marty McFly / Pascal Gilcher
• Heavy performance bokeh DoF (eg: in Snapdragon) : depth of field by kingeric1992 based on GDC 2004 presentation "Advanced Depth of Field" by Thorsten Scheuermann

Skyrim.ini / Enderal.ini

• iMinGrassSize, lower the number more dense the grass thus more performance hit, typically recommend 50+ unless your machine can handle it
• (oldrim) uGridsToLoad came with obvious performance hit due to increased render distance, but unavoidable if you're chasing top quality screenshots; otherwise if you're just normal player, keep it vanilla at 5.

Skyrimpref.ini / Enderalpref.ini

• iShadowMapResolution is among the biggest performance hit due to this old game engine isn't that great in shadow rendering efficiency. Typically recommend 2048. But if you think your machine can take it, try 4096.
• [particles] iMaxDesired, usually this is set to really low value around 500 ish. Increasing this will result in massive framedrop when there a lot of particle appear, but is required by mods such as Vivid Snow. But don't make this way too high or will CTD instantly. Personally using 8000 for Vivid Snow. 10000 result in CTD.

Other adjustments related to shadow quality

• fShadowDistance recommend at least 6000, that's about 85 meter distance. Personally go for 7000~8000. But remember that the higher this value, the worst the shadow quality become due to the fixed shadow resolution above.
• one shadow aspect that many often forgot / ignore is those under ENB [Shadow]. ShadowBlurRange will blur the shadow, if you're using 4096 resolution, set it to 0.5 is good enough to balance out the shadow not to be too pixelated nor too blurry. If you're using 2048, recommend set it to 1.0 -- often time I find a lot of ENB have really weak shadows due to improper adjustments in this category, among other things in ENB Environment.

Mod does matter

• Dyndolod at max setting is awesome to produce more detailed LOD, but if you find that your machine can't take it, try selecting lower quality option
• high quality flora mods can kill your framerate very easily - 3D Trees, Voluptuous Grass, some ridiculous high poly mesh mods...
• high resolution body texture / armor / HDT armor can also causes stuttering when you point your camera at whoever wearing it - so be realistic about what texture resolution needed for different aspect. You don't need 8k texture for a spoon...
• installing a lot of city & NPC mods and expect no performance hit is a pipe dream

Enable Lumasharpen goes a long way

• doesn't matter how you apply it, with ENB, with SweetFX or with ReShade, enable lumasharpen will instantly makes the game visual looks better, texture will looks better and more detailed by reducing the blurriness. But don't over-do the sharpening strength.

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"This XXXX ENB is awesome!"

I got / there are something even better than that. Trust me I know what I'm talking about (⌐■_■)

ENB manager

Do you really need it? If you not switching ENB a thousand times a day then you don't need it. Don't add more aspect that can broke things. Enen when dealing with automated tools, it is still best to double check the result, rather than 100% believe in them.

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Additional info regarding ReShade on OLDRIM

I've got people asking me "dude how is it possible you get ENB+ReShade to work together in Oldrim?!"... I will go through the process below:

• remove the ENB's d3d9.dll first, just in case.
• Install ReShade as usual from it's setup program, pointing to TESV.exe and select DX9 mode, download all the shaders when asked.
• rename the d3d9.dll, which is placed by reshade, into d3d9_reshade.dll
• you'll also need to rename d3d9.ini, also placed by reshade, to d3d9_reshade.ini - which is same name as the dll.
• re-install ENB's d3d9.dll
• in enblocal.ini, set EnableProxyLibrary=true , InitProxyFunctions=false , ProxyLibrary=d3d9_reshade.dll
• why people are saying ReShade CTD in Oldrim, is because they enabled InitProxy. This is usually enabled for other proxy such as SweetFX, but for ReShade, it gotta be turned off.
• why people are saying their ReShade panel is blank, is because d3d9_reshade.ini isn't there, or whatever the name should be, following the dll's name.
• Nvidia use may encounter shadow glitch when using ReShade + ENB, possible fix is located in Reshade panel > DX9 tab. There is a checkbox in there, tick it.

"Reshade costs 0 performance" isn't a totally correct statement. Not every shader is made equal. Use Marty McFly's "RayTracing" shader and you'll cry looking at the framedrop amount, or qUINT MXAO shader or PPFX_SSDO shader will also cause a lot of framedrop. The answer about modding performance, ENB perfoamnce, ReShade... is always "IT DEPENDS!"

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Why am I wasting hours writing this

Maybe I just got irritated that there are so many people can't get their ENB working properly, and every new comment on my own ENB page is "hi I dunno why my game CTD after install your ENB"... (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I'm seriously fed up with it.

#TLDR; if you got problem, you're not installing it right, period. ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

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Disclaimer
The informations provided above may not be 100% correct, as it is absolutely biased by my perspective and experience. (⌐■_■)

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Panoramic Screenshot Technique

This article goes through technique I uses in creating screenshots, with panoramic capturing method. Including uses of various animation mods, console commands, cropping & post processing. I do not claims to be a photographer nor any type of pro; this is simply how I do things.

Panoramic capture method is not limited to scenery only, in fact it can be abused for any situation. This also not just limited in Skyrim, practically you can do it in any games, depending on the limitation such as if the game have free camera mode, or at least capable to pan your camera around without unwanted things obstructing your view, and function to hide user interface.

This isn't a mod recommendation article to make your game beautiful....

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Mod Setup

There is one mod we should NOT be using when doing a screenshot session - Skyrim Souls Unpause Game Menu. You want to be able to freeze the game at any moment by activating the console (~).

Typical mods used are as follow:

• OSA Skyrim Ascendancy, this will makes navigating poser mods easier
• Poser Module, integrate various poser mods into OSA menu interface
• poser mods supported by Poser Module, such as Halo's Poser, Pinup Poser, Fuwa's Poser, Pretty Motion Collection, etc.
• Facial Expression Project, allows to set expression for player & NPC
• Jaxonz Positioner, or Cobb Positioner, allows moving objects including items can't normally be moved with console command
• Add Item Menu, allows easier modded item search
• Extensible Follower Framework, allows easier NPC item swapping, can be done even if AI is frozen
• OneTweak, makes game support borderless-window. ENB also have such functionality but kinda wonky
• Vivid Snow Real Skyrim Snowflakes, real particle snow instead of just screen overlay

Why we need particle snow? In vanilla snow, if you go into free camera mode, the snow just sticks on your screen without moving away. As shown in the following video. Vanilla particle setting is too low to get consistant snow effect, so we need to raise the following [Particles] iMaxDesired=4000 setting in SkyrimPref.ini. But don't overdo it, else game might crash due to too much particle.

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Field of View

Often people capture shots with high FoV well over 60. I personally don't go this way, as this will produce unnatural object distortion along screen edge, especially if you're playing ultra-wide resolution, even 60 starts to produce that problem. When capturing scenery, lowering FoV to 40~50 will be ideal.

The effect of lowering FoV, aside from avoiding unnatural distortion, also brings distance object closer to camera - making them looks bigger than usual. This is especially great for shots involving characters, making the sense of scale more "proper", reducing amount of unwanted background clutter. FoV of 20~35 is usually ideal for character shots.

Of course, this ISN'T a hard rule; but just a preference depending on the situation. In sample below, the only camera movement here is forward & backward to zoom into same character height on screen for both FoV.



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Console Commands

Understanding various console commands aside from just free-camera allows further control of the scene, or just adjust things normally you wouldn't be able to. Console commands are NOT case sensitive.

Commonly used commands as follow:

• TFC, toggle free camera, but not freezing the game
• TFC 1, toggle free camera, and freeze the game
• TCL, toggle clipping allow you to walk on air or trough objects. This command only works when no object is selected in console
• TGM, god mode
• TG, toggle grass, for performance reason if needed
• TT, toggle tree
• TM, toggle menu (interface) on/off
• TAI, freeze all AI, or freeze only selected target
• TC, toggle control, allows player control on NPC
• SUCSM <#>, change speed of free camera, default is 10. Lower = slower.
• SETSCALE <#>, change object or NPC scale, default is 1.0
• SET GAMEHOUR TO <#>, change game time, game must not be frozen to take effect. Time is in 24-hour format
• FW <#>, force a specific weather type, look up the weather code in Wiki. Modded weather may not works with this command
• FOV <#>, change field of view
• MFG RESET, reset target facial expression
• DISABLE, disable an object or NPC to become hidden
• ENABLE, enable an object or NPC to become visible
• UNLOCK, unlock chest or door
• GETPOS X / GETPOS Y / GETPOS Z, get current object position, Z is vertical
• SETPOS X <#> / SETPOS Y <#> / SETPOS Z <#>, set object new position
• ADDITEM <#> <X>, add item to selected target, <X> is amount
• REMOVEITEM <#> <X>, remove item from selected target, <X> is amount
• EQUIPITEM <#>, equip item to selected target, item must be added with additem command first
• UNEQUIPITEM <#>, unequip an item from target
• SHOWINVENTORY, show a list of target's inventory items
• ADDSPELL <#>, add a spell to target
• EQUIPSPELL <#> <left | right>, equip spell to target and specify which hand
• CAST <#> <target> <left | right>, target cast a spell. Spell is cast instantly, no casting animation will trigger
• PLAYER.PLACEATME <#> <X>, spawn item or NPC at player position, <X> is amount
• KILL, kill a target
• KILLALL, kill everything in area
• RESSURECT 1, ressurect NPC with items intact
• RECYCLEACTOR, use this if ressurect didn't work, but will remove all items
• SETUNCONSCIOUS <#>, set target unconscious, either 0 or 1
• MOVETO PLAYER, move target to player position
• QQQ, instant quit game

While there are console command to adjust object angle, such as GETANGLE X & SETANGLE X, they often don't works at all. It is best to adjust object angle trough the uses of Jaxonz Positioner or Cobb Positioner mod. Angle only applies to static object, and not NPC.

Sometime, it is just a little hard to select the exact object or NPC on console due to other things, such as special effects obstructing your cursor. Simply scroll the mousewheel to change between different selections, the object or NPC bound to be in the next few selections. If all else fail, move the free camera really really close to the object you want to select. Using the SUCSM command will allows changing of the camera speed, making precise movement easier.

Special effects including burning fire & spells, can be selected on console, as well as resizing and moving them around. Eg: resize a magelight 10 times the size.

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Before We Begin...

Image Source: https://www.quora.com/How-does-panoramic-photography-work

Understand that your game resolution DOESN'T matter, as long as it isn't Nokia 3310 type of resolution... By utilizing panorama capturing method, we can create huge final result even with just regular 1080p gameplay resolution. What does matter is a good ENB, proper anti-aliasing, use Temporal-AA if need to, and Lumasharpen to regain visual sharpness. Lumasharpen can be set trough ENBEffect shader if the preset author provided that option. Otherwise it can be done through SweetFX (Skyrim:LE) or ReShade (Skyrim:SE). We also need a good ENB DoF shader. Marty McFly's DoF is possibly the most popular, as it is light weight and provide great subject focus, without causing "halo" problem despite intense background blurring. (halo = edge glowing around subject)

We will need image editing software with the following basic functions:

• free rotation to any angle
• crop to specific resolution & aspect ratio for consistency
• show rule-of-third gridline
• ability to add vignette effect

The MOST important software however, is Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE). This is among the best picture stitching tool available, absolutely FREE, a million time faster than Adobe's solution & easy to uses. Since we will be using, or rather - abusing, panomara capturing method; this tool is mandatory.



A screenshot tool that is fast and consistant is also required, as we will capture multiple shots rapidly. Capturing through GPU's driver functionality such as AMD's ReLive is fast, not miss a shot, and don't result in corrupted files. (I do not have experience with nVidia ShadowPlay). Reshade screenshot function is also a good one.

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Shooting & Post-Process

Let's start making a sample shot with scenery, since this is the easiest type of shot. However easy it is, producing good result is still HARD - skills & imaginations (which I am short of) are still required to create some truly spectacular shots. Knowledge of adjusting ENB weather system is added plus - allowing more controls over various aspects, including lighting, sky tint, cloud density, fog, etc.

Since we might be capturing really large area, UGrid of at least 7 will be recommended.
Changing UGrid will not harm your game, using the "UgridsToLoad" mod will... Mind that differences.

Step 1: use an ENB suitable for scenery, such as DAHAKA, or whichever you see fit. Find a good scene. A very typical mistake that even I do all the time is, placing your character behind the camera. Why is this a mistake? Understand that cell loading is tied to your character position, not movement of free camera:



Step 2: set a slightly lower FoV and decide on best camera spot.
Remember that not everything need to fit into your screen resolution. Pan your camera around to roughly decide what portion of the scenery you want to be in the final result - from left to right, and top to bottom. If some undesired objects are getting in the way, deal with them - remove, resize, do whatever it takes to makes the scene better.

Step 3: rapidly capture multiple shots at different camera panning angle in sequence. Start whenever you like, I usually starts from either lower left or lower right, working my way up. Each shot need to overlap each other by a good amount, so the stitching software can easily guess how these pictures should be aligned. Capture as many as you need. It is good to capture additional extra areas outside of the wanted subject, so you have more rooms to crop later on.



Step 4: launch Microsoft ICE, select all the individual shots for stitching process. If your ENB uses [adaptation], you might notice there are brightness differences when you pan your camera around, just like the picture above shown. ICE is able to deal with this differences, as long as it isn't too extreme.

ICE workflow consist of 4 simple stages as shown on it's header - import, stitch, crop, and export.

• IMPORT - Simply add all individual shots. Just leave the camera motion as auto detect or select "rotating motion". Click next and wait for it to calculate. If every shot overlap good enough, there shouldn't be any problem for the software to recognize the scene.
• STITCH - This is a stage where you can decide on what type of "projection" you want. If you capture enough shots to form a 360° view, it is basically a full-sphere and can be panned / navigated seamlessly.
• Simply select differrent projections to find the one best suited for your scene. Click on the viewport to pan the view up-down, left-right, or make rotation for further adjustments if required. When satisfy, click next to proceed.
• CROP - Skip, just click next. It is best to do cropping with other picture editor with more controls available.
• EXPORT - Simply export as PNG format for best file size vs quality ratio. Alpha is not needed.

Step 5: cropping & post process
In this example above, a free image editing tool, Polarr is used - which can be acquired on Windows Store. https://www.polarr.co/windows/0
This editor includes most of the essential things we need : rotate & crop, vignette, rule-of-third grid, and a lot of adjustments if needed. However there is no tools available to do minor touch up, as sometime minor glitches can appear as a result of bad stitching - this is where tools like Photoshop can be helpful to fix. Such as the situation below, a patch of mountain is missing.

There are alternative to Photoshop, such as the free web based image editing tool https://www.photopea.com/ that practically function exactly the same as Photoshop...



Final result, full size link.

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Aspect Ratio & Common Tips

There is no rule about this; just preferences. In most cases I uses the following:

• super ultrawide 32:9 : 7680x2160 or 3840x1080 or 2560x720
• ultrawide variable ratio : 3840x1440 or 2560 x 1080
• square 1:1
• portrait 9:16 : 1440x2560 or 1080x1920

I will avoid 16:9 ratio (normal screen size) as much as possible. The reasoning is that we want to produce a result that gives different visual experience, rather than the typical screen ratio you see all the time.

The higher the stitched resolution, the better. Aside from giving more freedom in cropping, downsizing to final size also makes the result a lot more clear and crips. While 1080p is mostly fine to work with, 1440p will definitely gives you more flexibility if system able to handle it. Higher resolution display output that is more than your monitor native resolution, can be forced through GPU driver - AMD Virtual Super Resolution, or nVidia Dynamic Super Resolution.

Rule-of-third is simply a common / typical photograph trick to helps positioning subject in your shot. Sort of like simplified version of the Golden Ratio. Positioning significant subject at 1/3 or 2/3 position. Of course this isn't a mandatory rule and can't apply to all situations, it just "good to have" whenever in doubt.



Another typical tricks of scenery photography is keeping the vertical and horizon straight. Horizon is easy enough, make sure the land or skyline is flat; vertical can take reference from objects that are supposedly standing straight up, such as trees and buildings. Again this isn't a mandatory rule and can't apply to all situation. Rotated shot sometime does give much better motion and dynamic, especially for character oriented scene.

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Character Shot

Character shot is slightly more tricky. A lot of things can go wrong, plan didn't works out as you'd imagined, forgot to install certain item mods and forced to restart, NPC didn't behave, item clipping, bad item texture for close-up, weird body part behavior, or game just don't like what you're doing and decide to crash.

There are several things to take note about character poses:

• try not to use your own character if possible unless it is a very simple shot. You will see why in few points below.
• character cannot change facial expression and poses while the AI or game is frozen. So ensuring you got the right pose is important before starting the shot. This is especially critical when it comes to facial expression for combat scene - set the expression before you even find the best pose. Expression won't go away or reset even if character talks.
• understand that NPC head movement follows the player. Not all poses from poser mods have fixed head position, so you can tweak their head position by simply moving yourself around. If you want them to look up, make yourself bigger or use no-clip mode. If you want them to look down, just do the opposite.
• sometime environment lighting is simply not good enough to focus onto your character. This is where you can use your character as lighting assistant, carrying torch or lantern and move around until you find a good spot. While you can do this with NPC, it just takes a bit more work.
• it is far easier to swap character item trough the use of follower mod such as EFF, rather than typing console command. Approach the character in question, even if their AI is frozen, force recruit with EFF MCM then swap whatever item you need trough the inventory interface.
• understand that outfit or hair physic is frozen when a character AI is frozen. Physic effect will gives the shot more approprait motion and dynamic. However, swapping out these HDT items will reset the physic position to default, so make sure to have the right item equipped before deciding on physic effect.
• know that changing items will remove blood stains.
• understand that final composition doesn't need to be "straight", especially for action scene - rotating the picture might result in a more dramatic result.
• don't be afraid of lowering the camera all the way to the ground, or placing at any other position that isn't eye-level

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Manual Focus

You don't want to use Auto Focus when doing character shot while panning camera around, as the point of focus moves around when capturing with panorama method, even goes offscreen.



The example above uses Marty McFly's bokeh DoF. Other solution such as from Kingeric's is similar, just slight differences in option naming.

• Manual focus depth, smaller number means focus to object closer to camera, larger for further
• Near blur curve, is blurring between the focused subject and camera position. Usually this isn't working so well if distance from camera to focused subject is very short; so this is mostly best for scenery.
• Far blur curve, blur the background, smaller number is more intense.
• Hyperfocal depth distance, usually keep as 1.0. Adjusting this to around the same as Manual focus depth to FORCE subject & background focus, while enabling blurring of forground objects between camera and focused subject through Near Blur Curve, WHILE the distance from camera position to focused subject is very close.

Detailed adjustment explanations can be found on McFly's own mod page.

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Skyrim / Enderal Mod Managements

There are a lot of guides out there that walks you through the process, or suggesting mods of various categories. This isn't it.

This article is more of a perspective on mod management. Messy mod setup is key to hell.

Beware the opinion in this article might be very controversial, or at least, contradict to the loudest voice out there. Not to be contradiction just for the sake of it, bur rather, because I personally find many common modding practices more troublesome than it worth, or simply didn't achieve enough to creates a well managed game.

While this article might be long, it's not hard to mod a game, it really isn't. All it takes is just understanding what is good practices and what is bad. If you don't create a problem, then you won't need a solution.

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Tools

Let's start with tools, what program you need to mod your game. If you look at most other guides - MO2, xEdit, BashPatch / MatorSmash, MergePlugin, LOOT... and other technical jargon like "clean master", "conflict", "nav mesh"...

I say, screw that. What do you expect from the average gamer, really?

The only tool I will ask you to use is simply ModOrganizer2 (MO2). That't it.

• There are however several mod-addons that you gotta have depending on the mod you want to install, namely FNIS for adding custom animation, Dyndolod for generating LOD, Bodyslide to change character body shape or clothing's body shape. If you don't need those kind of mods then you don't need these.
• Wait wait... what the heck is LOD? Level of Detail, it is a technical term that refer to the detail of objects rendered at far distance. Dyndolod improve these, so the stuff far from you won't looks ugly as hell.
• Wait wait... what the heck you mean by "clothing's body shape"? Let say your character is a very thin person, and you equip an armor, suddenly you become very fat! How come? Because those clothing and armor have their own built-in body shape. So, to ensure the shape of the armor is the same as your naked body, we need to use "Bodyslide" tool to make them the same.

For specific details of using these addons, simply check their mod page. They really aren't that complicated, just select a preset and hit the big red button... or gray button.

One important thing, don't use something that you don't understand what it does. Just because everyone says "you must use it or else your house gonna burnt down!", doesn't necessary means you must follow. At the end of the day - does the stuff even helps, or just creates more problem? Same for what you read here, use your own intelligence to figure out if something really helps, or not at all.

At least look up some video on YouTube regarding on Mod Organizer 2 usage tutorial.

//--

Installing Mods

Literally just download, install with MO2, you're done.

Frankly, the complicated part is on the management of mods. Which covers the following aspect:

1. selection of mods
2. managing mods into proper categories
3. managing mods into proper "priority"
4. managing mods into proper "load order"

Like it or not, management is big part of modding, and ensuring your game isn't a heap of mess, ensuring your game runs properly, and easier to track down problems if occurs.

One important aspect is, don't be greedy. Don't install tons of mods all at one go and expect everything will be fine and dandy. It is easier to track down problem if you test few mods at a time, especially for mods that do complicated things - best test in small batch.

• Wait, what the heck is "priority"? It refer to the order of files in your mod list, which is the left side panel in MO2. Whoever at the top of the priority list, is loaded first into the game. And whoever at the bottom of priority list, load last into the game. Whoever load last will overwrite those loaded first, if they happens to be the same file.
• For example, if mod-A make the dragon red and is "no.1" on the list, and mod-B make the dragon blue and is "no.2" on the list, then mod-B will take effect in-game.
• Wait, what the heck is "load order"? It refer to the order of mod plugins, at the right side panel of MO2. Plugins are files format like "esm", "esp" & "esl". And they contain information about certain things they add or change.
• For example, an armor mod that makes the armor stat stronger and lighter, will have a plugin containing those information. Why does the order matter? It matter so the correct information is loaded into the game, for example if two mods edit the same armor, mod-A change it's weight, and mod-B change it's defense rating - whoever load last will be taken into account. Whoever load before, will be ignored completely! They don't merge!

//--

1, Selection of Mods

Three general rules:

1. do you really need it?
2. does it do anything useful?
3. do you see it often or just once a thousand year?

The less mods you got, the less chance your game will break down. This isn't a competition of seeing who got the biggest mod list in the world... You want a game that runs well, with mods that improve the game in meaningful way.

• Mods that add one single boss at a very specific location that you'll only encounter once in your lifetime. Do you really want that to stay in your mod list forever? I don't. Things like these, really just install it - have fun with it for once - don't overwrite your previous save game - uninstall it - then resume back to your usual business from your previous save game. There is simply no good reason to clog your mod list with useless thing.

One very important aspect of mod selection, is not installing multiple mods that do the same things. You are literally asking to create more problems that require more time to find solutions. If someone already made a solution (patch), sure, go ahead. Otherwise don't do it if you can.

Example of mods that usually should only have one in each category:

• tree & grass
• city & town
• weather & lighting
• water
• perk

Frankly, a lot of gameplay mods also fall into this aspect - DON'T have multiple mods that affect the same gameplay content or mechanism. The same goes for other things like, mods that affect the same armor or items, mods that affect the same NPC - avoid having more than one if you can.

If you do needs multiple mods affecting the same aspect, for example multiple city mods, ensure you have compatibility patch installed to ensure they works together properly.

Mods like texture and mesh (3d models) are much less of a problem. Simply whichever file load last will take effect. The one that aren't loaded into the game simply just eating your harddrive space and do nothing.

Problems regarding texture and mesh aren't serious, at most you'll just notice the object doesn't looks right, missing texture, screw up texture, or simply aren't the right one appearing in the game. Such issue won't crash your game, unless if the mesh mod is faulty, file corrupted, or you just installed wrong mod for wrong version of the game. Always beware you're installing LE mods for LE, and SSE mod for SSE.

//--

2, Managing Mods into Proper Categories

How many people actually do this? Probably 99% of people just hope the software do it automatically for them. And when problem arise, they post a mess of a modlist that have absolutely no logical order, I don't even want to help.

While mods downloaded from Nexus might retain it's category information, more than often you'll install mods manually that aren't from Nexus, or just from a zip file in your computer - these installation will not be assigned with any categories. So you gotta make sure you assign them one.

It isn't necessary to have too many categories, the default came with MO2 was quite a lot, as it covers multiple different games. Here are what I uses:

• Model & Textures
• Landscape
• City & Town
• Armor & Weapons
• Animation
• Weather & Lighting
• Audio
• User Interface
• Combat
• Magic & Consumable
• Body & Hair
• Follower & NPC
• Gameplay & QoL
• Patches & Bugfixes
• Misc

Wait wait, why is your list not sorted alphabetically?

Of course that's been done for a reason. It's not strictly you-must-do-it-that-way. It is simply:

• mods that won't cause any big problem can be at the top, I call it "low risk"
• mods that can cause big problem when not managed properly, should be loaded near the end, just to make sure. I call it "high risk".

Sometime it is inevitable you'll need to place certain category way far from it should be, especially texture and mesh mods, some of them you need to load after landscape mods, or after your armor mods, etc. Take your time to understand and decide where a mod should be located, so the desired effect appear correctly in game. MO2 have a yellow "thunder" icons show up if a mod is overwritten by other, make sure to understand how it works. Sometime it does get quite complicated as your mod list grew:

A lot of the categories simply doesn't really matter where they are placed. For example body mods, follower, audio, mods that adds new armor, etc. They don't depends much on other categories to function, so they can be placed anywhere you feel convenient.

Arrange your mod so stuff of the same category sticks together

Don't let them scatter all over the place. Not only it is easier to find what you need, it is also easier to notice obvious problem within that same category.

• But but, we can sort the mod list alphabetically or by category in MO2! Yes yes I know that, but you CANNOT move the mods around when it is sorted that way. The only time you can change the order of you mod list is sorted by priority. Having stuff of the same category sticks together, so we don't need to flick between different sorting modes all the time.

What to install first?

To stay organized, installing mods one category at a time is recommended. Usually it is good to start with low risk category, such as texture mods. For example, texture & mesh > audio > armor & weapons > follower...

After finishing each category, recommend to go in game and test play to ensure they works properly. It is definitely easier to track down problems when you only install few mods at a time. Don't be greedy install shit tons of mods at one-go, really.

After you done with low risk categories, move ahead to high risk categories - mods that can cause serious problems and even CTD if something isn't right. For example, NPC mods, gameplay mods, survival mods, etc.

Dealing with these "high risk" mods, goes even slower - install very few at a time, or even just ONE at a time if that mod in question cover huge scope of the game (such as Morrowloot), and test play to ensure they works properly. Go slow, be caution - always check their mod page properly to ensure you didn't miss out any patches & requirements.

//--

3, Managing Mods into Proper "Priority"

You probably noticed and understood a little about this aspect already, after reading though the last section. Mod files that load after, will overwrite the one loaded before, it is that simple.

Problem with priority happens a lot, especially in texture and mesh mods. This is because many popular mods of this category, affect hundreds and thousands of item in one single package. For example:

• Skyrim Community Texture Pack, which is a texture package over 4GB in size, literally affect every aspect of the game.
• And then there are medium sized texture packages like Skyland Whiterun, that only affect texture in Whiterun city.
• And then there are even smaller packages like 4K Gildergreen texture mod, that only affect that one single unique tree in Whiterun city.

Do you see the pattern? Yes you can roughly separate texture & mesh mods into tiers. The "big" package will always serve as the "base" of all things, so they are arranged to load first into the game. And the smaller packages are arranged to load last, so they actually take effect in-game.

If a mod appear in MO2 with "grey thunder" icon, it means it is completely overwritten by some other mods - it serve no function at all in your game. If you realize that is a mistake, then re-arrange it's priority to ensure it actually takes effect in-game.

Double clicking a mod in the list will open up detail window, you can go to the "Conflict" tab to see what files from other mod it overwrite or being overwritten. For "dds" files, which are textures, you can right click and select preview to open a window for comparison. Simply flick the arrow buttons to compare textures from different mods, to decide which one you actually want it to be loaded into the game.

The other common importance of priority are:

• patch of a mod should always load after the mod it patches
• if mod-A require mod-Z to function (essentially, mod-Z is "master"), then mod-A should load after mod-Z

Those should be pretty self explanatory. Ensuring the correct files loaded into the game is an important part of ensuring your game runs properly. Unfortunately, many people didn't take care of this aspect, but only focus in "load order" - which is the priority order of plugins. BOTH must be correctly managed!

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4, Managing Mods into Proper "Load Order"

This can be a... touchy subject. 99% of player out there rely on LOOT (Load Order Optimization Tool) and LOOT only to manage their plugin load order. Thinking it is a "silver bullet" to all problem. No, it isn't. Also it is a pretty stupid program because it didn't arrange things by any logical order, and unable to arrange certain type of mod properly - which is a topic we will talk about later.

Same with managing your mod list priority order, you should also categorize your plugin list, or "load order" which is commonly called. While there isn't built-in function in MO2 to assign plugins with categories, we can manually achieve that.

Here is my method of categorizing plugins:

• create a mod and name it something easy to distinguish, eg: " -------- SPACER MOD --------- "
• copy any esp plugin you can find, place them in that mod folder and make a lot of copies of it
• name those esp files to each category names, refer to picture below. Purposefully give it easy to distinguish name, such as " ---- ARMOR ------------------------------ .esp".
• arrange these spacer esp plugins in your load order to create separation, but make sure they are deactivated, so it's contents aren't read into the game

Once you have your spacer "dummy" esp plugins, now just arrange your other actual esp plugins into each categories. Much easy to read your plugin list, it makes total sense isn't it?

Now, onto the topic of how should we arrange these categories. Plugins have it's own set of things to take note of.

• "esm" should always at the top most, these are like master files and is bolded in the list.
• there are only a few mods that specifically need to be loaded last, as mandate by the mod author, namely Alternate Starts, and Dyndolod.
• the typical rule of - patch of a mod should always load after the mod it patches, also applies here
• the typical rule of - if mod-A require mod-Z to function (essentially, mod-Z is "master"), then mod-A should load after mod-Z, also applies here

You probably very confused, "but what actually is a plugin?"

A plugin is simply a file containing list of information. To give you a clear picture, the following shows the actual information list of Skyrim.esm, which is the "master" of all things and will always be loaded first.

As you can see, it is actually a list pretty easy to understand. There a bunch of stuff that are very obvious like "ammunition" which contain information of things like arrows; "armor" contain record of all the armor, clothing and shield items; "book" obviously means all those books you will just pick up and never read...; "constructible object" contain information of all the crafting recipes; "container" are storage chests... so on and so forth.

• Let say we have a mod that changes some armor's weight, let say "stupid-armor.esp" plugin. Essentially what it contains, are just duplicates of the same armor information from Skyrim.esm - except it changes the weight number.

In some earlier example, we talk about example of multiple mods affecting the same item. Such as mod-A change armor weight, and mod-B change the same armor's defense rating. What happens and what should we do? As we mentioned before, try to avoid such situation where multiple mods affect the same thing if possible, as we will need additional work to fix such problem.

Things like item stats won't cause any game-breaking problem, but other more complicated mods are very likely to cause major problem when multiple mods affecting the same aspect of the game. Which is why "big" mods like Requim (a game overhaul mod) came with crap tons and tons of compatibility patches, to ensure it runs well together with other mods.

But in case you really HAVE to have multiple mods affecting the same thing, then you will have two choices:

• search for compatibility patch mod someone else already made
• or, study xEdit & CreationKit to create your own patch... 

Special Case #1 : Landscape & City

I did mention we should only have one of such mod at a time. One thing to take note about landscape & city mods, where they place objects into the game world - have a different rule than "the one load early will be ignored".

In mods that place objects into the game world, all information from all plugins actually take effects - for example if mod-A place a barrel at one spot, and another mod place a cart at the exact same spot - what happens in-game will be - both object exist and overlapping each other. You don't want that, it looks ugly.

Which is why if you want multiple city mods at the same time, for example if you want to combine ETAC with JK-Skyrim, you will need a patch for it to ensure no object overlapping or clipping each other. This also applies to quest mods, house mods that adds object or new buildings into the existing game world.

Special Case #2 : NPC Appearance Mods

LOOT literally don't know how to handle this. Really.

The load order priority of NPC overhaul mods is actually quite simple - the order should be the exact same order between your mod list priority (left panel) and plugin priority (right panel).

For example, a big NPC overhaul package like Ultimate NPC Overhaul II (UNOII) affect hundreds of NPCs. And then you also have Bijin Warmaiden that only affect a few NPCs. And then you have Seranaholic that only changes Serana's appearance. What should we do?

Remember the "tier" we talk about way earlier? Understood that bigger mod package always load earlier than the smaller one, and both mod list priority and plugin priority should be the same for NPC mods, our ordering of both left side panel and right side panel will be

1. UNOII
2. Bijin Warmaiden
3. Seranaholic

What if you mess this up and both side didn't match? Black face, neck seam, monster ugly face, etc. But why does those problem will occur? Because the information in esp plugin points to wrong face-files. NPC mod contains something called "face morph" files, among other things, which dictate the shape & appearance of the face. When plugin information and files didn't match, you got ugly problems.

//--

But wait...

How to arrange those categories of plugins?

Here is my example:

• Armor, Weapon & Items
• User Interface
• Animation
• Follower & NPC
• City & Landscape
• Gameplay & QoL
• Quest
• Weather & Audio
• Combat & Magic
• Misc

Why armor, weapon & items at the top? For quality of life. There is a mod called Add Item Menu that you can use to add items from any mods, much convenient than using console command. It calls up a list of plugins in-game, so if you item mods are all at the top, you don't need to scroll far to find the mod esp you need to open. Save time and convenient.

Most of other categories doesn't really matter where they are place, because they does very specific things, altering very specific sets of information.

Remember how many times I say don't add multiple mods that affect the same thing? I don't even count. Your load order will be far easier to manage when there isn't any mods that are obviously conflicting each other by doing the same thing. If you do have such situation, make sure to find & install a patch mod.

Why combat & magic at the bottom? Nothing specific. Just things that are generally very important should be placed later in the priority list.

But of course, repeating the rules:

• patch of a mod should always load after the mod it patches
• if mod-A require mod-Z to function (essentially, mod-Z is "master"), then mod-A should load after mod-Z
• some very specific mods are mandatory to load last, Alternate Starts and Dyndolod for example. Not doing so will cause the game likely to crash very easily.

Without diving deep into xEdit and other complicated modding tools to create your own patches and what not - by simply ensuring your mod selection process, which is the earliest step, well managed and everything well categorized - then you'll have less problem down the line in managing load order priority.

//--

What Next?

"Hei I done installing all my mods, sorted them neatly, game is running fine..."

• Look back to your mod list, and think "what can I get rid of?". Referring back to the 3 mod selection rules earlier, figure out what junk you can throw away, mods that you feel "eh, not so useful after all", "it looks ugly!", "it didn't perform well...", etc.

"But I got problems, bugs, crashes..."

• Remember I said don't be greedy? Especially when dealing with complicated mods that changes large aspect of the game, for example survival mods, NPC mods, game-world changing mod like Morrowloot, crafting overhaul mod, etc... Install one at a time, test play for half an hour or more, check if they are fully working properly, before you proceed to install bunch of other stuff.
• Broken visual and bugs are usually much easier to fix. Crashes on the other hand can be pretty damn annoying. Typically mods that cause the game world to be much more performance intensive are prone to crashes - for example mods that adds or alter NPCs or monsters. These are the top suspect if you somehow randomly crashing around, especially at a very specific spot where the problematic NPC spawn and cause the crashes.
• If the crashes happens totally randomly with no recognizable pattern, then you'll need to check your gameplay altering mod first. Maybe your survival mods is causing problem, or even combat related mods.

Solving problem is tough, confusing, time consuming. There's no other way than just spend the time to Google for things, hopefully someone have similar problem and the answer of solution just laying on reddit or some forums.

Do your own research. That's one part of game modding that is so incredibly crucial.

People just go onto reddit or forum, "hei bro my game CTD I dunno why, here is my 100 pages of mods hopefully you can figure out for me, k thx bye!", is a really bad manner. Happens every single day, and you're sure to see rarely anyone reply to such question.

//--

But Do You Have Mod Recommendations?

There are tons of it around already, for example the Essential Mod, and Best Mods For ____ page on reddit. Asking for mod recommendation without doing own research is also a bad manner we see practically every single day... If you need something that is so specific and can't find it, sure, ask away. Otherwise, super broad question like "can you recommend me some mods?" is just... geezuz crysis go Google yourself man...

• If you want to take your mod management up another level, you can try to use spreadsheet or excel to record mod information, writing down notes about the problem you encountered, the solutions for future reference, etc.
• Check my Skyrim / Enderal Mod Journal.

Modding is overwhelming, so many mods, so many information. Unless you have some sort of crazy brain superpower, it is best to write things down for later reference. I kept links to all the mods I uses, just in case I need to refer back for update, or if facing any problem I can easily look back the page see if I install it wrong or what not.

Nexus isn't the only mod site on this planet. There are dozens others, some also very obscure. Keeping links to them make things easier down the line.

"But but there are millions of mods out there where should I begin?"

• Read from page 1 till the last page. Literally that is what I did, for every single modding website and blogs. If you don't have such crazy endurance, sticking to other people's mod recommendation is enough already, I dare say 99% of mods aren't important at all - only that 1% that is actually useful, high quality, and meaningful.

//--

The Do and Don't

Do

• use Mod Organizer 2
• read mod page description properly, ensure correct installation steps and not missing any requirements and patches
• a lot of research and reading, Google is your friend
• understand your plugin load order rather than relying on LOOT completely
• use SSD for faster game loading, it also helps to reduce stuttering in-game which caused by game asset loading in the background
• create backup, you'll have no idea when your hardware will die

Don't

• use Vortex, there is no option to manually manage load order, which is a very important aspect
• use Steam Workshop. If you need something from there, find a way to get the file and install it in MO2
• don't use tools you don't understand, don't use things before reading through their manual
• listen to me (⌐■_■)

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Skyrim / Enderal Skill Navigation Setup

Skill navigation was always a problem in Skyrim. Various mods been produced to cater this issue, some works in Enderal and some don't. Souls Quick Menu don't. Didn't test iEquip though. But overall I still wish the whole thing can be made more convenient like modern games or MMO...

Mod used:

• Customizable UI Replacer : either use the "Main" or "DarkSouls" preset only. These 2 presets came with picture on the UI, we can replace it with something more useful - like a picture of skill icons... If you can remember all the keybind perfectly then you don't need this. Otherwise having icons on screen can be helpful...
• AH Hotkeys : you can assign any spell or shout to any key. But due to how SkyUI's fav menu hotkey behave (even if you press [SHIFT+1], it activate fav item assigned to [1]), you want to avoid using numbers you already fav'ed to something. Avoid using CTRL also cuz that's the crouch key. Avoid ALT key if you use dodge mod. Basically you want to avoid keys that already assigned to something. // THERE IS A FIX FOR NUMPAD ISSUE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE!
• SmartCast : you can assign spell to autocast on certain condition, eg: cast Boon when health below 50%. This mod also came with "Spell Ring" function, where you assign spells as "Spell Ring", and rings will be created and appear in your inventory. Then you favourite the rings and assign 1-8 in SkyUI fav menu. // Why the heck you need to do this instead of just directly fav the spell? Because using "Spell Ring" skip the whole swap-weapon & casting-animation, the spell is triggered directly.

Preparation:

• before you do anything make sure Customizable UI Replacer is fully setup and functioning properly.
• I only uses SkyHUD and A Matter of Time, without Widget Mod. (didn't test the Less Instrusive Hud version, honestly that one will be prefered compared to SkyHUD cuz it's easier to move the interface object around in-game in real time. With SkyHUD you need to edit ini outside of game.)
• came out with a plan - what skill you want to have icons and what shortcut keys you want to assign it to by following the rules below:

Setting up the hotkeys, remember these rules:

• use AH Hotkeys for shout, make sure to set them "autocast"
• use AH Hotkeys for spells if you want to have casting animation, make sure to set them "autocast"
• use SmartCast "Spell Ring" if you don't want spell casting animation

Example of my AH Hotkeys usage:

• X = shock nova, C = Soul Trap, V = Divine Shield / note: C was used as automove, change that in game setting
• [ and ] for Mark and Return
• assign custom keys for 4 skills to be placed on my mouse macro buttons. Eg: Home = Unleash Fury, End = Paralyze, PgUp = Onslaught, PgDown = Glacial Bomb

Example of SmartCast usage:

• set autocast FlashHeal when HP below 35%.
• add the following skills to "spell rings" (MCM > SmartCast Config) : Summon Oorbaya, Revive, Second Breath, Mage Light.

Tools:

• picture editing tool to create a PNG picture (no background) of whatever content you want. Photoshop, or free stuff like https://www.photopea.com/ which function exactly like Photoshop.
• FFDEC to import the PNG picture you made into the interface, the tutorial already available at Customizable UI Replacer's optional file "HOW TO REPLACE YOUR OWN ICON" download.
• bunch of icons, like those from Divinity Original Sin 2

Setting up the interface:

• the custom picture you added can be adjusted under A Matter of Time's MCM
• under "Display", adjust scale, transparency, position until satisfy
• adjust other interface element as you like (SkyHUD or Less Intrusive Interface), and HP/MP below the "hotbar". Where is my stamina bar? I hate that aspect of the game so I killed it with player.modav 9999.
• I put the SkyUI buff icon above my "hotbar", set them in SkyUI's MCM.

The downside:

• No potion counter and shout cooldown counter. Spells don't have cooldown so that's not a problem at all.

//--

FOR THOSE WHO USES OSA / JAXONZ POSITIONER

• because pressing numpad also trigger the fav 1-8 key... we need way to unbind numpad to those
• luckily there is a mod Interface Hard Coded Key Tweaks, download the "Numpad Bindable" file and install that to the game

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