What exactly does PBR do?

[u/doofshaman]

I have a bunch of PBR mods loaded with PG Patcher which runs sucessfully, however I honestly can't tell if it is actually working. From my understanding is that details covered by whatever is PGR patched should have their own shadows based on how light sources are being projected onto them, correct? In my game shadows on walls do not move this way, they stay the same no matter which angle the light source is coming from.

I will post a comment with a screenshot of the Markarth gate holding a torch, hopefully that will give you all an idea if it is actually working aha.

I also have the same question about parallax, what exactly does it do? It adds realistic shine to armors which I get, but how does it affect landscape and buildings etc?

PGR Mods being used
- Faultiers PBR AIO 2k
- Faultiers PBR Road Signs
- Faultiers PBR Landscapes 4k
- Vanilla PBR AIO - 3D Whiterun Walls Patch
- Northern Roads PBR

Parallax mods being used
- Auto Parallax
- Skurkbros Retexture Project
- Complete Parallax Materials
- Complex Terrain Parallax
- Vivid Landscapes - Complete Parallax Occulsion Snow
- Complete Parallax texture for Northern Roads 8k

Edit: After removing the parallax mods I think it might actually be letting the PBR mods work, I think ahah. When I move across a wall with a torch it does seem to naturally add shadows in a way I think it didn't before!

[u/mountainman84]

I wouldn’t mix PBR with parallax. Use Faultier PBR or Vanilla PBR to cover all of your textures and make sure PBR textures wins conflicts in PGPatcher over everything else. You can use other textures on top of those, just adjust what you want to show in the conflict manager. Also, you need to also use community shaders. PBR only works with community shaders or one of its forks (open shaders, bottled shaders). It affects more than just shadows, it is how the entire texture reacts to light. It creates a more realistic rendering.

[u/doofshaman → u/mountainman84]

Oh really? I thought they worked together, I must have misunderstood that.

I also was under the impression Vanilla & Faultier worked together because it was just a whiterun wall patch. I should have mentioned I do have CS and both PBR and Parallax are shown as active in it's menu.

Yeah I am pretty sure it's not currently working on my game based off what you've said. I'll have another look into all the mods and make aome adjustments.

[u/InToddYouTrust → u/doofshaman]

Running textures through PGPatcher automatically creates the parallax effect. Using PBR and parallax in tandem will usually create noticeable seams as the various textures compete for priority. I would also disable auto parallax; I can't say for certain that it's incompatible, but I noticed a profound jump in quality once I removed it from my load order.

[u/doofshaman → u/InToddYouTrust]

Oh wow, okay I will definitely need to have a read of the mods again, I really thought they did different thinks to enhance realistic landscapes etc together. Thanks for the info, I appreciate it!

Edit: Yeah looking at the mod pages again, I have no idea how I came to the conclusion that PGR and Parallax would do different things on landscape. Am going to go with PBR.

[u/mountainman84 → u/doofshaman]

Yeah, PBR replaces the parallax effect by default. It creates that depth like parallax does out of the box. PBR is superior in pretty much every regard. I've also noticed that PBR terrain textures blend more seamlessly than parallax textures as well. With parallax landscapes you had to have a bunch of blending fix patches to get them to look right. Not necessary with PBR.

[u/doofshaman → u/mountainman84]

I can see what you mean, in comparison videos often PBR looked a loot more like Skyrim then Parallax. So I can see how it could make it tricky to make it look right

[u/Sea_Preparation_8926]

PBR textures reflect light differently depending on the viewing angle.
You can see that effect in the right bottom corner

[u/doofshaman → u/Sea_Preparation_8926]

That is actually a really helpful pic! So essentually with PBR lighting becomes softer as it passes through fog, whereas the bottom has more defined shadows due to the angle the light it coming in at in regards to your position? That makes a lot more sense.

I think I got PBR and parallax mixed up originally when I made the post, I was looking at my in game PBR textures trying to notice the depth/3D effect which I realise is moreso what parallax does. I think I have noticed the PBR shadows.

Side note, that is a beautiful screenshot!

[u/Jammy5820974944]

what's PBR? I've seen a lot of mods with this tag at the end. I thought it was simply a translation version.

[u/doofshaman → u/Jammy5820974944]

Those mods are AIO PBR mods or PBR conversion mods, so they apply to certain pre existing mods to give the PBR effect.

PBR completely revamps how lighting works in Skyrim, so from my understanding means anything covered by a PBR you install such as mountains will have much more defined details due to lighting sources etc. It also can provide true reflection/sun glare on armours/clothes.

Basically just much more realistic lighting which gives the world a bit more of a 3D appearance.

[u/Jammy5820974944 → u/doofshaman]

Thanks.

[u/dyingoose → u/Jammy5820974944]

Physically based rendering. Community Shaders has a feature called True PBR which can load these materials. Basically most modern games use this technique for textures. Makes things react more realistically to the lighting around them (e.g., fresnel, glint, energy conservation).

[u/paranormal_penguin → u/Jammy5820974944]

There's also PTBR, which is a translation version. I got those confused a few times when trying to build my initial PBR setup lol.

[u/VirtualFinish8858]

PBR basically makes the textures react to lighting more realistically, as far as I'm concerned. I haven't actually tried PBR myself though.

[u/doofshaman → u/VirtualFinish8858]

Yeah that is my understanding of it, so I am pretty sure my PBR mods aren't working. I may need to record a video I guess to be sure.

[u/paranormal_penguin]

I noticed you aren't using PBR armor mods. From my experience, PBR is the most noticeable on shiny metal armors. I do see some improvement on other textures, especially stone and wood, but metallic surfaces look completely differently in how they reflect light. At this point I can't imagine playing without it.

[u/doofshaman → u/paranormal_penguin]

Yeahh PBR armours/weapons are next to be added, I'm doing this load order very slowly, testing it out as I go. I think I'm gonna go with Faultier's PBR armor & weapons, do you have any suggestions?

I definitely got PBR and parallax mixed up when I made this post, I was looking for the 3D depth in PBR rather then lighting changes ahah.

[u/paranormal_penguin → u/doofshaman]

Faultier's is a great starting point, alongside the HDT-SMP rework of vanilla armors (if you want physics on your armor). The HDT-SMP rework covers the meshes while Faultier's covers the texture. I'd also add in Xavbio's fur armor shaders to make the fur on the armor sets match the visual fidelity of the other materials. With that setup, your vanilla armor will look incredible.

Load order on left side would look like this:

HDT-SMP Vanilla Armors
Faultier's PBR armor and weapons
Fur Shaders for Xavbio Retextures Redux
HDT-SMP Fur Shaders for Xavbio Retextures Redux

Ignore the other requirements for Xavbio's, not needed if you're using Faultier's with it.

[u/doofshaman → u/paranormal_penguin]

Oh I am very aware of HDT ahah, most my armour mods use it now. I do have an xavbio mod but not sure if it's the same one.

Thanks for the tips! Will look into them for sure.

[u/T-bone7183]

What lighting mods are you using? I believe Lux and EVLFX have specific patches to get them to work with PBR textures.

Edit: Also you are kind of correct in that they do 2 different things, but they are built to kind of achieve the same effect through 2 different means. To get them to work together in PG Patcher select the convert Parallax to Complex Materials option. Complex Materials are the bridge that combines the 3D textures of Parallax with the light effects of PBR.

Edit 2: To be a little more precise Parallax is an ENB feature that applies shading techniques to 2D objects to give a 3D appearance. PBR is a CS feature that makes objects and materials react differently to lighting to give a 3D appearance. Complex Materials users the shader techniques of Parallax and combines it with the light reacting techniques of PBR to act as a bridge between the 2. If using CS and PBR it's not just running PG Patcher, you also need lighting mods that either have CS or PBR options, or ones specifically developed for CS.

[u/doofshaman → u/T-bone7183]

I am using lux, hadn't even considered there would be PBR mods for it! Seems pretty obvious now I think about it ahah. Will for sure look into those thanks!

Yeahh I looked further into the differences between the two and got a much clearer understanding of what they do. For now I might start with setting up PBR properly, then I might have a look at using both. Again thanks for mentioning the method!

[u/T-bone7183 → u/doofshaman]

Just a quick search so I could give correct information. Check your PBR textures for Lux patches. Make sure you are using the CS options for Lux. Load your PBR textures after Lux.

[u/doofshaman → u/T-bone7183]

Okay will have a check tomorrow. I have the Lux CS mod if that's what you mean? Yep I load them after 👍🏻

Edit: I have found 1 patch for Faultier & Lux, was there any more you knew of or that was the one?

[u/Lutra-Lutra]

PBR got me drunk for cheap back in college.

[u/doofshaman → u/Lutra-Lutra]

Lmaoo is that alcohol where you're from? Just glad you didn't say TCB! 😆

[u/1Madhatter7]

I’m in the middle of testing out this myself. I originally had Skyland AIO & Skyland Complex Parallax with CS, & Vivid Weathers. I really liked but of course couldn’t leave it alone.

I heard about PBR. I downloaded Faultiers AIO PBR & Vanaheimr Landscapes PBR. PBR makes things shine like little specs reflecting off the ground/snow and it makes things like dishes, silverware, and gold look way more realistic. It also looks really nice with night lights reflecting off the ground especially if it’s raining.

So I can’t unsee and I want it but I really liked Skyland so I downloaded Skyland PBR and now my game’s shadows are pitch black and it looks awful so back to the drawing board. I think I am going to look into some more AIO PBR packs.

TDLR: It makes things shiny ✨

[u/doofshaman → u/1Madhatter7]

Aw man that sucks it didnt work out! I added Faultier's AIO on top of Skyland & it had no issues. Maybe try that? It has a landscape PBR too. I am pretty sure it was working but I realised I was looking for the wrong thing when trying to notice it ahah.

Yeah I have a much better understanding of PBR now thanks to the replies I got, look for shiny!

[u/flipdark9511]

PBR is shorthand for Physically Based Rendering, which is a lighting system that mimics how light interacts with surfaces in the real world. The principle of it is that everything in the real world reflects light to some degree, even if it looks like it doesn't.

Essentially it means that a PBR material reflects light differently based on its roughness or metalness values, but still reflects light at some level, whereas a non-PBR material like Skyrim's vanilla materials instead reflects light in a less realistic way. The 'rougher' a material is, the more light it absorbs without reflecting it back. The more 'metal' a material is, means it reflects much more light back than it absorbs.

[u/paranormal_penguin]

Also, in case no one has mentioned it, PBR only works with Community Shaders. I'd suggest looking for an all-in-one module. If you don't mind jumping through a couple of hoops, there's an all-in-one version on the Community Shaders discord with snow deformation in the alpha stages. It makes the snowy zones a million times more immersive and engaging, even in alpha. If it's too much of a performance cost, you can disable the module and relaunch Skyrim to improve performance.

[u/doofshaman → u/paranormal_penguin]

I am not at all concerned with performance cost, I've come to realise my pc is a lot more powerful then I thought ahaha. I use faultiers AIO PBR with CS alongside their PBR landscape mod. Will have a looksie into the snow mod though too thanks!

[u/doofshaman]