Download Link: V1.1.0

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/37846//?

Welcome to the Ultimate Lighting Overhaul (ULO). A new way of adding lighting effects to skyrim that will not destroy your framerate.

While I love the overall effect of ENB, I have always had two small problems with the shader suite and the numerous ENB community modifications:

1: ENB eats performance.

I have a GTX 580 and even the lightest of ENB profiles use a huge amount of my GPU's resources. Even if I "can" run an ENB profile, I have often opted to not run one in favor of higher quality Ambient Occlusion or a larger uGrids setting to render more of the game world in greater detail.

2: No ENB profile is balanced for everywhere.

Some ENB profiles look amazing outside, some look fantastic in dungeons, so make your character look gorgeous, some make the particle effects jump out but none of them seem able to do it all. I hate going outside in a snowstorm and seeing nothing but blinding white light or entering into a dungeon and not being able to see because everything is black except the vibrantly glowing smoke. I want everything to look good all the time and anyone who has worked on tweaking ENB can tell you performing that balancing act with ENB is a chore.

Then a little while ago a competitor to ENB hit the scene called SweetFX. SweetFX was used as a means to easily tweak and enhance ENB without having to sort through the mess of ENB's config and shader files. However, I felt that SweetFX was capable of doing so much more. After hundreds of hours of tweaking, fine tuning and playing around in a multitude of video games I have developed a intimate knowledge of the Shader suite and its potential.

It is with all of that invested time and knowledge that I now bring you the Ultimate Lighting Overhaul. A labor of love that will significantly enhance the lighting of Skyrim while having little to no impact on your performance.

If you have always wanted to use ENB but could not justify the frame hit, or you have ever wished your games lighting could look stunning while cranking up other settings then this mod is for you.

INSTALLATION:

Download the mod and extract the contents into your Skyrim folder (The same one where SkyrimLauncher.exe is located. Overwrite any previous files. Be sure that FXAA or any other kind of in game or driver enabled AA is disabled.

There are 3 quality pre-sets for ULO. Lite, High and Ultra.

The Lite version of ULO will have a dramatic impact on the visuals of the game, emulating High Dynamic Range, Bloom and Ambient Occlusion while using half the GPU resources of FXAA. The light version increases my GPU load by 1%.

The High version has all of the enhancements of the Lite but adds FXAA. The performance loss is comparable to using Skyrims built in FXAA. The High version increases my GPU load by 5%.

The Ultra version adds Gaussian Blur. Gaussian blur acts like a Marilyn Monroe Filter, meaning that the camera will look like it has a very thin layer of Vaseline over it which adds an ethereal haziness to everything and enhances light bleed. Gaussian Blur kills performance but the Ultra version will still be lighter on your System than even the most modest ENB. The Ultra version increases my GPU load by 12%.

Ultra is close in Aesthetic to ENB, however ENB increases my GPU Load by 84%. Obliviously ENB looks better, but no where near 700% better.

Recommended Mods:

Ultimate Lighting Overhaul has been designed to run alongside:

Climates of Tamriel

ELFX

DYNAVISION - Dynamic Depth of Field

Although they are not necessary in order for you to use ULO, they are highly recommended as they have next to zero impact on performance while dramatically improving the visual quality of Skyrim.

Just be sure to install ULO last and overwrite any pre-existing files.

F.A.Q

Q: I CTD on startup and its all your fault! HALP!

A: Try the files in the optional section called x64 fix. Most people shouldn't need them, but if you CTD on startup its worth shot!

Q: What is SweetFX?

A: SweetFX is a shader suite designed by CeeJay.dk. ULO is just a config preset for his suite that works just like an ENB preset.

Q: My everything is to light/dark!

A: Adjust the in game brightness to your personal preference.

Q: This doesn't run on my laptop with no GPU!

A: Then you probably cant run the game with FXAA either. I can't guarantee that this will run perfectly for you, all I can do is release the lowest impact lighting enhancement mod to date. If you still can't use shader mods then I am sorry but there is little more I can do for you.

Q: Will this work with X Mod?

A: ULO will work in tandem with any mod that attempts to adjust Skyrims lighting via in game settings such as Climates of Tamriel, Real Colors Real Nights, Darker Dungeons, Ultra Realistic World Lighting or mods that replace the lighting models such as Enhanced Lighting and FX.

It will replace/overwrite any mod that attempts to alter the games effects via a .dll file such as ENB. You can make this mod run run alongside ENB but you would lose any and all performance gain by doing so.

Q: Why do you not use SMAA?

A: The reason ULO has the performance it does is because it utilizes low impact shaders to create similar effects to those you are familiar with such as High Dynamic Range, Bloom and Ambient Occlusion. None of those demanding shaders are being used... In truth we are just faking it.

FXAA is used over SMAA for two reasons. Firstly, the FXAA shader in SweetFX is way more GPU friendly for some reason. And secondly, I am using FXAA to add depth and quality to the Gaussian blur.

Q: Can I toggle this on and off like ENB?

A: Yes you can. SweetFX can be toggled on or off with the scroll lock key.

Updates:

Update 1: Due to popular demand I am now working on a more CoT optimized version of ULO.

Update 2: Release of Version 1.1.0 By popular demand ULO has been redesigned to make better use of Climates of Tamriel.