Community Shaders update brings ENB preset support to Skyrim

A new release of Community Shaders, the open-source graphics framework for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, now supports many of the most popular ENB presets, according to a report by Polygon. The change removes the main reason players had to choose between visual fidelity and frame rate, and the mod's comment pages have filled with reaction since it landed.

Skyrim graphics mods are a routine occurrence more than a decade after the game's release, but Polygon reports that the usual trade-off has been performance. Most visual overhauls demand heavy processing power, and the better the game is made to look, the more likely it is to suffer performance problems on ordinary hardware.

What changes with Community Shaders

The established route to higher fidelity has been ENB, short for Enhanced Natural Beauty. ENB works as a wrapper sitting over the game, enabling options such as HDR and depth of field, and players use it to load presets that improve the rendering of clouds, water and fire. It is not specific to Skyrim, and has been used to enhance other older titles including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Community Shaders covers similar ground — particle shaders, HDR, volumetric rays, procedural sun ray generation, terrain variation, ambient lighting, grass collision and global illumination — but does that work at the engine level rather than as a wrapper on top of the game. Polygon reports that this is what allows lower-end rigs to reach the same look, and that with ENB preset support added, players can now use those presets without the performance cost that previously came with them.

The distinction matters for modders as well as players. ENB is closed source, which Polygon notes makes it difficult for others to build on top of it; Community Shaders is open source. Polygon reports that a number of players had been using ENB for want of an alternative rather than by preference.

Reaction

The response on the mod's Nexus Mods comments page has been emphatic, with users posting that the release is a landmark for Skyrim modding.

According to the project's Patreon page, cited by Polygon, the release is the first of a series of planned enhancements rather than an endpoint. No timeline for those further updates was given.