Official STEP Lighting Solution

[stoppingby4now]

just wondering' date=' maybe stupid question, but where did RCRN go in this solution selection? sure, RCRN is not exactly lightning mod, but it definitely changes visuals alot, both in and outside. now i am more interested with the "outside" as if you leave CoT out, there will be no other weather mod. and if (and i think it should be) there will be any weather mod included, in case of RCRN it will have significant impact on visuals outcome. not sure about CoT cause i havent played it much, i was always sticked to RCRN...[/quote']

RCRN is in another realm of what was being evaluated. For this, we were looking at enhancements to actual light sources, rather than enhancements to the overall scene. RCRN will fall under inclusion in a STEP pack.

[Wanderer]

okay, i though about reason like that :) though i am quite sad the final decission was postponed. would be nice to give out some reccomendations at least .) tbh, i have checked all mentioned lightning mods and i like the way authours are heading. and i ma sure some recomended ENB-SkyRealism-RLo-CoT or similar combination/settings would be highly appreciated by community, even if not under "STEP stamp"

[TechAngel85]

I think this discussion can go into full swing again now that 2.2.1 is released, unless we think the mods aren't mature enough yet.

[MontyMM]

I think we should leave the brakes on this for a while. The most promising projects we looked at here are WIPs, and even the ENBs are evolving at a particularly rapid pace at the moment. Add to that, the big beasts like RCRN and CoT are brewing major new developments. I say we should focus on some of our many other tasks for the time being, and give the lighting mods a bit more time to settle.

 

Having said that, I'd be very happy to simply recommend Skyrealism Cinematic (minus the letterbox) as our standard recommended post-processing solution for the time being. Just leave the lighting and weather mods out of the equation until the new generation has matured, and perhaps the ENBs are adapted to them.

[TechAngel85]

I'd be very happy to simply recommend Skyrealism Cinematic (minus the letterbox) as our standard recommended post-processing solution for the time being.

 

I completely agree with this. Out of this discussion, SkyRealism has been the one thing most agreed upon as the best ENB to use for STEP. Either the Cinematic (minus the bars) or Vanilla would be the winner for the preset.

[z929669]

I will also be creating custom presets for SkyRealism and ENBSeries 0.139+ once I finish editing the wiki.

[justjr]

I just want to point out, as a heavy mod user, that probably mostly of the complains about RLO being dark is doe the fact that lots of mods changes light and fog edits that RLO does, back to vanilla.

I have made a RLO General Patch for all the edits and loaded it extra late, just before bashed patch, and the difference is just WOW. I can see all they did now, WOW.

[MontyMM]

I think, in due course, lighting will become quite a major focus.  It would be good to have a few people on the team build up some expertise with ENBs.  I can foresee a not-too-distant time when we spend a lot of time creating integrated solutions with RLO patches and our own ENB presets, etc .  Z and TC have already tinkered, and I think it would be good if a couple more keen members invested some time in learning about ENB presets.  It seems natural to me that STEP would have it's own solution, not least because we may well not find a combination of existing mods that meets our goals in this area.

 

If anyone has the time and inclination, maybe hang out on the ENB forums, and learn to put something together with advice from the hardcore over there?

[Aiyen]

I do not mind sharing what I learn about ENB´s. Ever since I got started last week I have swept the ENB forum and nexus for info and guides into setting up ENB´s and figuring out what the various shader codes do etc. Pretty much only been installing the Skyrim revisited model and tweaking that for max. stability on my machine, and most of that testing and tweaking is going into finding a good ENB that I could see myself playing with and not just getting a few nice screenshots.

 

All this ENB studying (Pretty much my entire desktop is covered in ENB folders atm :S) would be nice to share with others so if ya need the help I will do what I can to help out.

[MontyMM]

Good work.  I know what a desktop like that looks like!

 

It looks very much like Relighting Skyrim is emerging as the favoured default  lighting solution for STEP, and I suspect that Climates of Tamriel will make a return somewhere in the mix. If I were making an ENB profile for STEP purposes, I'd want it to be well-tuned to that combination.  By all means have a go - with the introduction of lighting packs it would be good to have some other vanilla-friendly options besides Skyrealism.

[Aiyen]

Yes COT and RLO have announced that they are making a (un)holy union, or just a smart divide and conquer, and focus on what they do best instead of trying to do everything twice.

So far I have COT and RLO in my setups and are tweaking with those in mind. Atm I am figuring out which parameters strongly affect a setup with and without COT.

But considering how close they both are to major updates, then I am spending my efforts on general tweaking and trying to design an intuitive setup for how to tweak colors and post processes.

[MontyMM]

I agree. A patient approach seems the most sensible for the Skyrim lighting developments at the moment.  As you've probably discovered, COT can throw curveballs at your ENB, as it creates some lighting conditions that don't crop up in vanilla.

 

Bear in mind though, if you're thinking of STEP, that it's Relighting Skyrim we're favouring as standard, not RLO.  RLO is brilliant, and many of us use it personally, but RS keeps much closer to vanilla lighting in line with STEP goals.  I suspect we'll have RS as the default, and RLO in an optional "Realism Pack".  It'd be great to have more tailored ENBs for either.

[Aiyen]

I approach I am considering working on is first an almost clean ENB install with vanilla color correction activated instead of ENB. This should provide vanilla colors but with the improved AA, Shadows etc. that ENB´s can provide. This is then going to be the "vanilla" ENB that people with little or no experience can just use to improve their vanilla game.

 

Then I imagine one for CoT / RS with properly only a color correction shader in the mix to have more control and keep the colors vanilla close without ruining the changes brought up by the mods.

 

This way its kept simple and tweaking can be done mostly ingame in the newest ENB versions to alter what people do not like or agree with.

 

I also propose that DoF´s are kept as their own optional downloads so people can decide for themselves.

 

But for now I want to make sure I have a stable Skyrim revisited base to start from, and I want to try to kill a dragon with a two handed sword! (Only had the game for a month now so everything is still weeee! ;) )

[z929669]

I do not mind sharing what I learn about ENB´s. Ever since I got started last week I have swept the ENB forum and nexus for info and guides into setting up ENB´s and figuring out what the various shader codes do etc. Pretty much only been installing the Skyrim revisited model and tweaking that for max. stability on my machine, and most of that testing and tweaking is going into finding a good ENB that I could see myself playing with and not just getting a few nice screenshots.

 

All this ENB studying (Pretty much my entire desktop is covered in ENB folders atm :S) would be nice to share with others so if ya need the help I will do what I can to help out.

Anyone willing to test for STEP is welcome to do so. ENB is not really on our plates ATM (it is not so much a lighting solution as a general graphics solution), but lighting is. so if you want to look at the effects of Realistic Lighting and share some thoughts ans screens to that effect, that would be great. 

[Aiyen]

Okay I have some initial impressions of that various lighting mods.

In general I have tried them all with a large amount of different ENB´s and without to get the best possible impression under various conditions that I think are vital.

I will split each up into groups and then share my thoughts about them.

First: With and without CoT

CoT does a lot to the ambient lighting and general mood of the game bringing it far away from the pure vanilla experience. I personally think this is a good thing because it does so in meaningful ways.

However for people who do not like it, then just adding mods like dramatic clouds and sunglare etc. makes vanilla weather more noticeable and enjoyable as well.

 

Regardless of which exterior mod solution is being used they mix very well with all of the interior and general lighting mods. However CoT with its changed lighting does more to make the changes stand out.

 

RLO

Hailed as the most realistic lighting mod of them all, but I must admit that I am not convinced. Most of the time I think the lighting intensity is a bit too low. Especially if you have a house with several candles and chandeliers then each light source is done super nicely, but there is no combined effect so the room still ends up being much darker then what is realistic. The worst "lack" from RLO imo is the lack of window lighting, if you got a house and there is an entire wall with windows then the room should be brighter. I have noticed it in several houses but it might just be that they have not got around to that part yet.

 

RLO +ELFX:

A better solution then pure RLO imo. The main difference I noticed was that when you have multiple light sources the combination effect is better then just pure RLO. However since ELFX is not supported after the next release of RLO then I have done the least testing with this setup, but I am going to do it again tonight.

 

RL:

While the individual lights are not as realistic as RLO+ELFX then this mod does have its charms. It does many things well enough, and I do not really want to say it is worse then the alternatives in terms of realism. But it still shows that the authors have a different take on how it should be done which is a good thing. One of the tings I noticed the most is that homes are not as dark as in RLO because they seem to include some ambient lighting in rooms if there are windows etc. which I think is a really nice touch. In general I just got the impression that RL have been around more then RLO has atm, both inside and outside.

BUT! And it is a big one.

Compared to RLO´s easy to use installer then RL is just a pure mess. You get individual .esp´s for each DLC and vanilla, and then updates and extra on top... Also they state on their site that BOSS is doing a wrong job of putting them into the load order, but the help they provide for where they should be is rather limited. If it is going to be used for STEP there needs to be a guide on where these files are supposed to be. Also an installer would do wonders. As it stands now I would not recommend it for STEP use due to this.

 

As for ENB´s then I am currently in the process of trying to figure out which parameters to use for post processing while using CoT. The main goal is to avoid the (For me) infamous heavy rainstorm that lowers all ambient and direct lighting during the day, but because of the post processing then the sky is all bright which makes for a really horrible scene that makes no sense. The hard part is to get rid of this while making sure that the sky has a blue color and not a boring grayish tone, which to me is just the quick and dirty solution.

 

Once I get the ENB finished up later this week or next, then I will hopefully be back with some screenshots to better address some of the issues I touched on here.