Hi Jane, nice to see someone testing it :-) I take your issues serious, but let me ask some questions because I can't reproduce your problems here, so I need some hints.

• About excluding PP_SSAO_NOFOG and PP_SSAO_NOSOFTALPHA: which resolution (do you just start the demo?) and: --- which engine version are you using? I have tested it on 4:3 and widescreen resolution and I have no problems. Can you please post an image of these "artifacts"?
• "video functions not available before first frame" - I have in the ppSsao.h a starter function ("ppSsao_h_startup"), which generates the random vector map and loads the shaders dependent on your #define configuration. Try placing a wait(1) right before the line with "#ifndef PP_SSAO_CUSTOM_VECTORMAP"...
• Do you create your sky entities dynamically with ent_createlayer?
• Where do you place the integrate-function?

Can you please remove everything from your a local copy of your game so that the problem remains? It would be very fruitful if you could provide a minimal testcase in which all problems you mentioned are appearing at the same time. As long as I don't have any insight in *how* you use it, I can't tell if you do something terribly wrong or I am terribly wrong assuming how users develop their games ;-)

Best regards,
-Christian