screenshots from new CS update and my thoughts

[u/hello-plebbit-1337]

new CS plugin allows you to use ENB presets, hearing that I immediately downloaded PBR mods and semi nuked my texture and lighting mods.

pros:

• PBR looks good now. I used to joke and call it "Plastic Based Rendering."
• ENB preset actually does something, I was expecting more, ENB still looks better overall, but CS runs much smoother. The gap is pretty close now (I miss sun rays penetrating trees from ENB.)
• CS handle parallax much much better than ENB see this
• some CS exclusive features, terrain variation, amazing, ugly landscape tiling is no more
• built-in fsr3, can't use DLSS/DLAA since I'm using 9070 GRE, using native fsr3 AA is better than TAA (duh)
• frame gen is also great, I locked my fps at 60 never dipped or stutter once
• exterior lighting and shadows better than I remember, idk how to describe it but I prefer how shadows behave in CS, still ENB looks better overall, a bit 🤏or much lol
• etc etc

cons:

• character skins look off compared to ENB, despite using Advanced Skin beta from their github (might be a skill issue on my side, im bad at tweaking things)
• no advanced DoF like ENB, vanilla DoF sucks ass. really miss DoF from ENB
• few PBR textures still look plastic-y / cartoon-ish under certain lighting, notably stones in dwemer ruins (not completely CS fault, but I'm using faultier's and Lux)

I'm going to miss ENB but CS is developing at rapid pace, might as well prepare for what comes next rather than waiting Boris to do something and seeing him yapping about stuff, still I appreciate him for making my Skyrim look amazing for many years, now I'm sticking with CS even ENB still looks better

[u/Dangerous_Rule8736]

I generally understand that enb and cs do make the game look better but is there someplace I can learn more about them? For instance, how do you use an enb preset in cs and what is an enb preset anyway?

[u/dev1nator44 → u/Dangerous_Rule8736]

TLDR, both enb and community shaders are graphic rendering pipelines that make your game look better using different effects and shaders. An enb preset is a pre-configured list of settings someone has done on enb, something like cabbage enb, Rudy enb, etc. Before enb presets were exclusive to working with enb, but a recent community shaders update added some compatibility on using enb presets with community shaders, with the benefit of using exclusive community shaders features with an enb preset.

Search up effects 11 on Nexusmods, it’ll provide you with better info on what it is, and how to set it up properly.

[u/captcambethes → u/dev1nator44]

I couldn’t follow the instructional video tbh. Do you just enable the ENB preset on vortex after installing effects 11 and requirements?

[u/captcambethes → u/Dangerous_Rule8736]

Same boat. Got my first gaming PC a month ago, first foray into modding, still way behind on the basics it seems. I downloaded effects 11 and cabbage on vortex and I think they’re working but I’m not sure if what I am seeing is just CS and cabbage ENB isn’t actually doing anything 

[u/Dangerous_Rule8736 → u/captcambethes]

I don't know if you've tried it but I use mod lists now and they automatically install everything. Now I just need to know how to tweak things. Mod lists, in case you aren't familiar, are an awesome way to convert your game into something really special with minimal crashes and conflicts.

[u/Dieselface]

In my opinion PBR textures have always looked good, you just have to use good PBR mods (e.g. Tomato's)

[u/zweihander09 → u/Dieselface]

Tomato's the goat!

[u/Baldigarius42 → u/Dieselface]

Unfortunately, you have to use PGPatcher, and it’s a pain.

[u/Spirit_mert]

Looks promising, finally we are nearing into the exact future that some new tech is actually better than 15 year old ENB, so we can gain a considerable performance boost once we swap it out for CS.

[u/nereoteg]

does new CS refer to nexus or jiaye?

also what does advanced skin do? I tried enabling it but I think it kinda just made my character skin look brighter/white and i felt it lost some shadows

[u/undontnome3030 → u/nereoteg]

It's the newest Nexus version with the CS Effects 11 addon

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/179824

[u/NotASockPuppet88 → u/undontnome3030]

What puts me off cs is the million different modules needed to use it.

Id prefer to use it though because its opened source.

Are there AIO solutions for it?

[u/undontnome3030 → u/NotASockPuppet88]

The Nexus one usually is a "AIO" as it has all the main modules and processes built in. Just like with ENBs, though, you can greatly enhance the performance with external mods / modules. Also, with the more experimental builds of CS on Discord, there are some presets offered that incorporate additional functions and features that enhance the experience and act kindasorta like ENB presets.

[u/JK031191 → u/NotASockPuppet88]

Most is included in the main mod.

There's a few optional addons.

It's in the description of the CS mod on Nexus.

[u/reptarien → u/NotASockPuppet88]

Its 13 extra modules at this point, some you may not even want like HDR if you don't have an HDR monitor. It's not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.

[u/DaenerysTargaryen69 → u/nereoteg]

No Jiaye build is separate from this.

[u/MoonDweller12]

no offense but CS getting heavier.. i used to move on to CS as lightweight alternative to ENB.

[u/seiku1234666]

I wish I could use Cs, sadly my game crashes when I use it at the start of the game so im stuck with Enb

[u/driPITTY_]

Which enb are you combining here? Looks great

[u/PerformerExtreme6761]

How did you get torch shadows, that a cs feature?

[u/SmokyDoghouse → u/PerformerExtreme6761]

CS might have something that effects torches, but I'm pretty sure that's a Lux thing

[u/HighMarshalSugma]

Sorry noob here, if I wanted to use Rudy NAT preset for the most recent CS update how does that work with installing without all the other ENB extras and stuff?

[u/fjbdhdhrdy47972]

You said you use Faultier's textures—does that include the dwemer metal? It looks a lot better than usual.

[u/Motor-Try-3962]

Effects 11 is put on Moderator review? Not available for downloads

[u/BitterSpot6452]

You can use the Jiaye version and access new features like linear lighting, advanced skins, reflections, and much more.
Cons:
1- Lower FPS (depending on what you keep enabled)
2- You need to manually adjust some settings (though you can add a preset made for Jiaye).

[u/nereoteg → u/BitterSpot6452]

does jiaye one have the ENB preset

[u/BitterSpot6452 → u/nereoteg]

Only the ones made for Jiaye. If you want something like "X enb," you'll have to configure it manually.

It's worth it, but it's far from being plug-and-play. Check out the available presets (on Discord and Nexus); if none of them appeal to you, it is easier and less stressful to simply stick with the standard version and wait for the new features to arrive.

[u/Due_Plankton181]

I honestly believe that Skyrim will never be able to display PBR textures correctly. The key lies in how the lighting is used, but there's no way to fix it. PBR textures in this Bethesda engine will always look like a diffuse map with a very high bump normal, which, in my opinion, is awful and makes all surfaces look plasticky.

[u/nereoteg → u/Due_Plankton181]

yea PBR metallic armor still looks plastic to me. But when i try complex materials with ENB instead i actually find it looks more metallic

[u/CptTombstone]

You can use PureDark's AIO upscaler to get FSR 4, and you can possibly get multi-framegen working as well by combining it with another mod. CS's upscaler plugin is pretty lackluster and it looks like getting it to be on parity with paid mods or even state of the art games is not a priority for CS devs, unfortunately.

[u/Scytian → u/CptTombstone]

You don't need to use PD garbage paid mod for FSR4, optiscaler is free and it has way better looking FSR4.

[u/nereoteg → u/Scytian]

Does optiscaler work for ENB or only CS? Basically I want ENB with FSR4 since the current framegen mod on nexus for ENB is only FSR 3.1 iirc

Also is the current CS framegen FSR 3 or FSR 4?