How can I tell if I have Ambient Occlusion turned on or off?

How can I turn it off if it is on?

It is one of the Video Options.

As for what is does, not sure if I can explain it well, but it helps with depth of field in shadows and I have noticed that it reduces whorl type patterns in things like stone walls, but that could due to something else. Best thing you can do is set it to Low and Ultra and see if you like one or the other. As in most options, the visual difference between High and Ultra is not much, but the performance impact is greater than the difference. Although you may not notice the performance impact.

https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=648&q=skyrim+ambient+occlusion+comparison&oq=skyrim+ambient+occlusion+comparison&gs_l=img.12...0.0.3.177798.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1ac..35.img..0.20.695.f3CrErdQK2I

I know I had to turn mine off in the settings because the enb I use had its own or something. I had no shadows at all, and when I stepped into where one should be, even I vanished. Simple fix though.

What settings do I go into to turn it off? Is it actually listed as ambient occlusion or is it the shadow detail?

It is listed as Ambient Occlusion, look in your Launcher Options and the Game Options

Ambient occlusion is a lighting technique used to give models a global illumination-like effect.

...as CCNA say you can turn it off, from video options.

On Nvidia GPU's you could turn it off completely, if you want. !!!!!

I can't find it in either. The only thing in-game is stuff like light fade, grass fade etc.

Launcher options I have Texture quality, Radial Blur, Shadow detail and Decal quantity.

Obviously my mistake....i meant Radial Blur... !!!!! Sorry. !!!!

Actually there is no slider for Ambient Occlusion. But you can force it within your GPU drivers. !!!!!

Nvidia uses Ambient Occlusion trough drivers, but i don't thing Skyrim supports it natively.

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Actually, why do you thing you had Ambient Occlusion on or off. ???

No problem, thank you a million times over!

No big deal...you're welcome. !!!!!!

Use the performance level Ambient Occlusion rather than the high level. As CCNA mentioned the visual difference is minimal but the performance impact is phenomenal. Actually, you may not want to use Ambient Occlusion at all. Even with side by side screenshots to compare with it on and off, the visual impact is hardly there, but being redundant, the frame rate hit is not worth the little visuals you get in return.

If it were up to me I'd take the high resolution textures, the 16x AF, 8x MSAA, and every other thing to the max level before taking ambient occlusion. Ambient occlusion alone can make you reduce the MSAA, AF and other visual details to make up for the loss in frame rate.