Skyrim Graphics Modding Guide (ENB vs. Community Shaders)

Hi peeps! Today we'll be taking a look at modern Skyrim graphics mods: the ENB and the newcomer, Community Shaders. So exciting! In this video, I showcase both ENB and CS (plus Reshade) presets, let you know about the pros and cons of both, and give my own opinion about them.

This was my first time trying out Community Shaders and with ENB I of course have years of experience, so it was an interesting experiment to compare them a little and do some proper comparisons too with vanilla graphics. I'm really impressed, and can't wait to see where Community Shaders will head on in the future!

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MOD LINKS:

Cabbage ENB for NAT 3 Weather

Rudy ENB for NAT 3

Silent Horizons 2 - Universal Core

Picta - Weathers and ENB of Aurbis - Early Access

Community Shaders

Dareni's Reshade for Community Shaders

Klarity - A Reshade Preset For Community Shaders

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@sleepybard

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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:46 - What is ENB?
2:29 - What is Community Shaders?
3:41 - ENB presets showcases
3:59 - Cabbage ENB
4:57 - Rudy ENB
5:50 - Silent Horizons 2 - Universal Core
6:49 - Picta - Weathers and ENB of Aurbis
7:58 - Comparing ENBs to each other
8:12 - Community Shaders and its effects
9:12 - Dareni's Reshade for Community Shaders
10:03 - Klarity - A Reshade Preset For Community Shaders
11:05 - ENB Pros and Cons
12:08 - CS Pros and Cons
13:11 - My opinions
14:14 - Outro

🖱 RIG + TECH SPECS:
RTX2080, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, 32 gigs RAM
OBS for recording, Adobe Premiere for editing, MO2 mod manager
Monitor 144hz 2560 x 1440

🎵 MUSIC by Adrian Von Ziegler

#skyrim #skyrimmods #skyrimanniversaryedition

[BardsCollegeGraduate]

Tell me, do you still use an ENB, or have you already switched to Community Shaders? Or maybe you go vanilla all the way?

[krylotik]

I appreciate you using the same angles and shots for comparison and not just showing whatever. High quality

[TheMonyarm]

If I can get even 20% of the graphical improvements that ENB give with minimal performance loss, I'll switch to community shaders immediately (not having watched the video yet, it seems to me Community Shaders might be just what I need).

[Tomatokillz]

Glad you liked Klarity! Awesome video :) CS gets me excited with its new features each month, it just keeps getting better

[DocTraubo]

Ah, thank you for this excellent comparison video!
I use Rudy ENB with tons of ENB lights, particles and complex parallax mods + Obsidian Weathers with Supreme Weathers and Storm Lightnings - I adore spectacular 'bad' weather :)
Although I love my Rudy ENB setup, I have to say Picta looks incredible - might try it...
Thanks again for providing a constant source of inspirations with your channel!

[chefman]

Honestly the biggest thing CS has going for it is the Light Limit Fix, which is supposedly being ported to ENB at some point. Unless you're on an absolutely ancient PC there's really no reason to use it.

I'm glad it's being made since an open source system is better for everyone, but they're going to probably spend the next few years playing catch up with ENB and all the features that's been developed for that over the years since right now it's Reshade providing most of the visual effects, not CS itself.

[inkyGhosty]

I use E.V.C. ENB. Has a great balance between realistic, non-muted colors I like and it has the best performance of any ENB I've tried without compromises. Goes great with Lux or ELE and uses Solas Weathers.

[zogkuma]

I'll be honest, and say that at this point I'm not only looking for new mods for my game, but just straight up wanting to hear the calm joy from your voice. It's soothing to listen to while one does their day to day things like work and average life activities. Thank you for doing these awesome videos. 😊

[aymenswisy]

I can tell how hard it is to do comparisons, thank you for the hard work and the professionalism 👍

[Alistoteles]

CS is a breath of new possibilities, i'm to happy for the progress of the community in just one year,
I hope to still alive to see how the developement goes.
Btw, top tier video as always, there's a lot of channels that are focused on modding reviews but not with the intention of make the audience learn something from them, just relies on showcasing, it's something we appreciate it a lot.
But it's a lot of work for just a bard, how did you manage all of this?😗

[jamiebruner]

1:15 Mirele Bismath!! Love that home. Used it for a playthrough. I love recognizing mods in videos

Super helpful video, thank you for this.

[SwedenPieMaster]

Top quality as usual! 🙂

I recently installed community shaders, Azurite Weathers and Dareni's Reshade (with some tweaks to lower the contrast) and was pleasantly surprised by both visuals and performance, I just hope that cs will get enb-style water shaders with future updates. 🏊

[DimesAndNichols]

This slaps. I've been waiting for a shader preset for older PCs

[iTunsiscool]

I use CS over ENB, mainly because I never liked ENBs and the performance hit is huge in some areas. My only gripe with CS is that it's constantly updated, and you can't update only one, you gotta update the entire list, and that's rough. But I had no idea that there were presets for CS that were ENB like, so I'll have to give those a try. Thanks for the video!

[mhamadntar]

Two weeks is a long time we missed you 🥲

[chetm]

Thanks for this showcase. I wasn't aware of Silent Horizon universal core until I saw your video. Everything is so spot on in this video, right from the ENBs you have picked to the way your presented them one by one, and finally comparing them side by side in the end. Plus showcasing the community shaders before gping for outro was an excellent idea too. Thanks again!

[BelgiumKanarie]

The amount of work you put into your videos is really impressive! 10/10 video

[mirsolis]

You’re my favorite new skyrim YouTuber. I don’t know why I find skyrim modding videos so relaxing when I don’t play the game 😅 I might actually get it sometime soon though it seems like cozy game for the winter

[shroomie]

This video is really well done, love how you go in-depth with both the pros and cons of ENB and CS whilst keeping it simple and easy for new modders to understand. Just want to plug in my input about which you should use but a bit of nostalgia trip beforehand. Back in 2015-2016, Skyrim mods are, in majority, cool but also unstable. You need a considerably strong PC to be able to use certain mods especially graphical mods. ENB was all the rage back then and my potato laptop could handle RealVision with some tweaks I did myself averaging at around 40-50 fps (appreciate you for shouting out RealVision XD, such an ancient ENB now but a gem). But after my long hiatus from Skyrim and modding in general, I've gotten back to it and started to research what are the trendy mods that people are using and supporting. I was introduced to shaders (not just for Skyrim) back in 2022-2023 as I was looking to make my GTA V look good whilst maintaining stability. Can I just say from this video as well, that shaders are AMAZING, revolutionary is what it is. A free, open source program that provides players with an equally good graphics as well as maintaining performance. As an old timer myself, I was really impressed by CS and its current features (even if its still new) and 16 y.o me would be crapping his pants in awe. So my take on which people should use is pretty simple. Use ENB if you have the specs for it and use CS if you don't fully have the specs for it. Now that I have a stable job, saved up money and built my dream PC, I'm eternally grateful to have the luxury to use both ENB and ReShade to achieve maximum quality for my game. Going to be keeping a close eye on CS and await what new features they'll provide. Again, very good video on CS vs ENB. You've gained yourself a subscriber.

[dont.tread]

I use Visceral ENB, Cathedral weathers, and ELFX because they were the simplest to install and I'm technologically challenged. Nice video as usual ❤‍🔥