Improved Loading Screen Colors

Skyrim applies different lighting effects to loading screens, that slightly change their tint and reduce contrast and saturation. This effect is especially noticeable for image based loading screen mods, because the loading screen end up different from the original images. This mod aims to reduce these effects, so that the loading screens are as close to the original image as possible.

This mod is intended for image based loading screens and gives a definitive improvement over vanilla for image based loading screens. For 3D loading screen it comes down to personal preference. In general, this mod gives loading screens a clearer and less washed out appearance.

Comparison Images:

The image on the left is the orignial image that was used to create the loading screen.

The image on the right is how it appears in Skyrim (screenshot of the loading screen).

Note that loading screens are always a little bit zoomed in compared to the original image to ensure the full screen is filled by the image.

The before comparisons are without this mod, whereas the after comparisons use this mod and show that the original colors are much better preserved with this mod. There are still some small differences, however they are only noticeable when comparing the original image and the loading screen side by side.

Emperor - Before

Emperor - After

Dremora - Before

Dremora - After

Dragonborn - Before

Dragonborn - After

Compatibility:

Compatible with everything that doesn't alter lighting on loading screens. If in doubt, load the plugin as late as possible or check in xEdit.

Can be installed/removed at any time.

Additional Information:

In order to preserve the original colors the best, ENB must be disabled during loading screens. This feature was added in ENB v0. 454. Since ENB v0. 463, there is a setting IgnoreLoadingScreen in enblocal.ini. Set it to true to disable ENB during loading screens.

Some ini settings will also alter how loading screens look. This mod was tested with the default ini settings. Currently known settings that affect loading screen colors and their default values are:

Skyrim.ini:

fglobalbrightnessboost=0. 0

fglobalcontrastboost=0. 0

fglobalsaturationboost=0. 0

bUseFilmicCurve=0 (if bUseFilmicCurve=1, fFilmicWhiteScale will also affect loading screens)

SkyrimPrefs.ini:

fGamma=1. 0