Texture "fix" for Skyrim? Thoughts please.

It's an FXAA post process injector. Looks like it just reduces some of the blurriness from FXAA and puts a sharpen filter on everything. First shot looks blurry. Second shot looks like that dumb screen noise effect you have in Mass Effect.
 
Spare-Flair said:
It's an FXAA post process injector. Looks like it just reduces some of the blurriness from FXAA and puts a sharpen filter on everything. First shot looks blurry. Second shot looks like that dumb screen noise effect you have in Mass Effect.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the sharpening filter looks bit too aggressive, atleast judging from static screenshot. Might be different on while playing.
 
first one also looks a bit washed out and the second one looks darkened up a bit.
 
Tried it out. Enabled the Low Saturation version and colors did indeed look much more vibrant and nicer, but the sharpening filter is just ridiculous! It causes very noticeable ringing around objects, much like too much chroma sharpening in ffdshow or something.

If there would be low saturation and low sharpening option, it would be perfect.


I dont understand why the normal FXAA injector that is around the web doesnt work in this game, (same thing with Fallout 3) not DX9 nor DX10 versions. It has very good FXAA quality and just the right amount of sharpening. Mass Effect 2, for example, is just gorgeous with it.
 
Here is what I did. I installed the low saturation version, opened injFX_Settings.h, disabled both pre and post sharpening filters, copied the old sharpen.h file from the old FXAA injector to the shader folder and finally enabled it in the inFX_settings.h.

Dunno if it works but atleast the godawful oversharpening is gone, and the new FXAA filter and color saturation makes the game looks gorgeous. I didnt realise how undersaturated Skyrim was until I installed this. You can make quick comparisons with Pause button which enabled and disables this hack.

*edit* I have to add though, this does burn out the whites a bit. Easiest to notice in clouds, white details do get lost. Blacks are crushed a bit too. I wonder if that can be fixed somehow...

*edit* disabled bloom filter and burning/crushing is gone. Although colors are no longer as nice.

*edit* In the end I disabled everything but FXAA and old Sharpen filter that I added. Much superior FXAA quality compared to Skyrims own without blurred textures. Yay!
 
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UtopiA said:
wat
Click to expand...


In other words I managed to combine this skyrim FXAA injector and the old sharpening filter. Better FXAA than what Skyrim offers natively.

*edit* And I meant "without too blurred textures".
 
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Really a damn shame anything has to be done at all to improve the textures, have to say I'm very disappointed in this game and Bethesda. Pretty sad when my slightly modded (year 2006) Oblivion game looks just as good or better than those screen shots.
 
Sharpening filter is too strong. I've used the FXAA shader for other games, though, and it really makes a different with little to no performance loss.
 
You guys know that you can change the settings, correct?

Everyone's tastes will be different, but here were my problems and solutions.

By default, I think the game is too bright. So I turned down brightness in the game settings by 3 or 4 notches.

After installing FXAA PP injector, I found that I really wasn't a huge fan of the default settings, nor many people's customized ones. So I adjusted for myself. Essentailly, what I wound up doing was disabling ONE of the sharpening filters....I'm not sure if pre or post is better one to disable.....But, having only one sharpening filter working seems to calm down the noisy aggressive edges. Beyond that I feel like Skyrim is not, and should not look like Cyrodil. Maybe my monitor is plenty saturated already, but I really feel like everything is too soft and warm with the injector's default Tonemap enabled. The best thing I feel this does is darken some areas of the game. But the extra color saturation just doesn't feel right to me. So really, all I have enabled is the FXAA and one of the sharpening filters. I have no idea what the limiter does.
 
This is [H]. Adjust the settings and fiddle with things! :D

Sharpening was a little too much but I adjusted it. My IPS monitor loves this and I cannot imagine colors on some dinky TFT
 
Yeah, I have a feeling that's a lot of why the saturation is cranked up in this mod. So many gamers running TN with poopy washed out colors. TN definitely could use some saturation.

After some more tinkering, I've enabled the tonemap (saturation, gamma, exposure) for a tiny boost in saturation, and added depth in darkness while having the in game brightness set at default. I just tried to make the effects less dramatic, so that I still feel like I'm in a cold hard nord world.

Also, I've found that by bumping up the FXAA smoothing/blur, having both pre and post filters going at the same time doesn't look nearly as bad. I've also enabled the high quality setting for the pre-sharpen

So, once again, it just comes down to tinkering.

EDIT: WTH. Why don't I just share what I've been working with. Right now, this are the settings I've been using with my MVA LCD monitor.
Code: 
/*======================================================================================
                             "USER" ADJUSTABLE SETTINGS
======================================================================================*/

// TODO: Normalize values to be on a human range scale, whole numbers prefered, decimals usable for micro adjustments
// These values should have min/max limit checks included in their functions, so that the end user doesn't get crazy results

/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						FILTER SELECTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Comment to deactivate an effect. 
// Example: To disable the tonemap effect, use // in front of #define USE_TONEMAP
#define USE_ANTI_ALIASING
#define USE_PRE_SHARPEN
//#define USE_BLOOM
#define USE_TECHNICOLOR
#define USE_TONEMAP
//#define USE_SEPIA
//#define USE_VIGNETTE
//#define USE_POST_SHARPEN
//#define USE_FINAL_LIMITER


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						FXAA SHADER
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Set values to calculate the amount of Anti Aliasing applied
float fxaaQualitySubpix = 0.75;  // Default: 0.75 Raise to increase amount of blur
float fxaaQualityEdgeThreshold = -0.133; // Lower the value for more smoothing
float fxaaQualityEdgeThresholdMin = -0.0633; // Lower the value for more smoothing


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						PRE_SHARPEN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
//For higher precision in the calculation of contour, requires slightly more processing power
bool highQualitySharpen = 1; //0 = Disable  | 1 = Enable

// Set values to calculate the amount of  AA produced blur to consider for the sharpening pass
#define Average 0.8
#define CoefBlur 2

// Set values of the sharpening amount
#define SharpenEdge 0.2
#define Sharpen_val0 1.4


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						BLOOM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Number of samples per pixel taken for the Bloom effect. Don't set it to high!  4 = 25spp, 8 = 81spp, 16 = 289spp
#define NUM_SAMPLES2 4 // Must be set with a value dividable by 2
float BloomPreset = 5; // Disabled = 0 (Valid Preset Values = 1 to 9) Preset value 1 to 9 takes control over the next 3 settings.
float BloomThreshold = 1; // The min. level at which the effect starts (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning)
float BloomWidth = 1; // Sets the width of the effect (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning)
float BloomPower = 1; // The power of the effect (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning)


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						TECHNICOLOR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#define TechniAmount 0.30 // 1.00 = Max
#define TechniPower 4.5 // lower values = whitening

// lower values = stronger channel
#define redNegativeAmount 1.0 // 1.00 = Max
#define greenNegativeAmount 1.0 // 1.00 = Max
#define blueNegativeAmount 1.0 // 1.00 = Max


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						TONEMAP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Gamma 1.07
#define Exposure -0.07
#define Saturation 0.50 // use negative values for less saturation. 
#define BlueShift 0.00 // Higher = more blue in image.
#define Bleach 0.00 // Bleach bypass, higher = stronger effect
#define Defog 0.000 // Strength of Lens Colors.
#define FogColor float4(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0) //Lens-style color filters for Blue, Red, Yellow, White.


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						SEPIA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Earthyellow // Color Tone, available tones can be seen in ColorTones.PNG (Do not use spaces in the name!)
#define SepiaPower 0.5 // 1.00 = Max


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						VIGNETTE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Vignette effect, process by which there is loss in clarity towards the corners and sides of the image, like a picture frame
#define VignetteCenter float2(0.500, 0.500) // Center of screen for effect.
#define VignetteRadius 1.00 // lower values = stronger radial effect from center
#define VignetteAmount -0.70 // Strength of black. -2.00 = Max Black, 1.00 = Max White.


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						POST_SHARPEN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Controls additional sharpening applied after previous processing. Strength should be max 0.25!
float Sharpen = 0.05;


/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						FINAL_LIMITER
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// Controls the strenght of the limiter. 1.000 for default setting
int LimiterStrenght = 1.000;
 
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