SKYRIMLE Realistic Lighting Overhaul (by The Realistic Lighting Team)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

This post has been deleted

[Salvador]

I can't resist to post this here. However, if considered against forum rules please remove or edit this post.

 

Plea for help from Tony (sydney666)

[Neovalen]

That's extremely sad to hear. Hope he is comfortable for the time he has left.

[phazer11]

That is very sad to hear.

[Quitch]

I feel I must be missing something in the love for this mod. I ran it alongside a core CoT install, but ths Moorside Inn in Morthall is just insanely dark. I can't see a reason to proceed any further using it when I'm going from:

 

VANILLA:

 

 

 

to RLO:

 

 

 

The owner of the inn speaks to you from darkness, and the way to the rooms is not lit. It's realistic only in that it generates shadows based on shadow generating light sources supported by the engine, but candles which should generate light are not accounted for (the ones to the side out of shot are in darkness) nor are windows or the use of the room itself. It strikes me that vanilla feels more realistic.

[TechAngel85]

IMO, the shot from RLO is much more realistic in the lighting from the considered sources. In the top shot, it literally looks like there are iridescent lights overhead. There is no possible way that the candles, fire, and windows alone can produce that much light and it's completely out of spectrum.

 

The bottom shot is much more in the correct color spectrum and the light intensity is much more accurate. I don't know where you see that the candles are in the dark and not accounted for because I can clearly see a glow from them. They're just in the correct intensity and not unnaturally bright. 1 candle = 1 candle watt; not 10 like in vanilla.

 

However, all this is very subjective to the individual user. I am a realism fan and always seek out the realism in mods first before other things and for me RLO is way closer to being realistic than vanilla lighting. To each his own, though.

[Quitch]

As I said, those candles are out of shot.

 

The reason I don't find it realistic is because an establishment like that would have added more light sources! Would the owner really sit in darkness? The vanilla lighting is more akin to what they felt their rendering budget could handle, while adding enough light to make it work as a playable space.

 

I think it should be called Literal Lighting Overhaul, because realism would be someone adding more lights to the room following the change to the lighting model. Plus those windows aren't projecting any light at all.

 

The biggest problem with lighting mods IMO is that no one but the player is impacted by them. You need to design entire AI systems around the levels of darkness these mods plunge you into.

 

Let's check some shots

 

The candles don't cast any light. Note the bottles between them in total darkness.

 

They've kept the sunbeam, but this isn't represented by the lighting in the room which is clearly coming from the fireplace, otherwise the shadow on one side of the fireplace (and indeed that entire end of the room) would be lighter. It isn't.

 

The exact same candle that wasn't casting any light in the main room is casting all the light in this room. Note how its buddy is casting zero light.

 

A sideboard in the rentable room. This is literal lighting, not realistic, someone would put some damn light over here.

 

I'm sure some people love this mod, I just want to highlight the flaws in advance of any "RLO for STEP!" movement.

[rootsrat]

Well, I use combination of RLO, CoT and ENB and I must say I was of the same opinion as Quitch, I didn't really like the too dark interiors. I found it a bit werid that all these people just sit there in the darkness. I recently started a new game as a companions and if you go to Jorvaskarr living quarters it's the same thing in the corridor etc.

 

Therefore I would really think twice what "realism" is. Realistic Lighting Overhaul, yes, that is a very accurate name. The light IS realistic. The people sitting in the total darkness and acting like nothing happened IS NOT.

 

My solution to this is ENB setting tweak, I just adjust them on the go, whenever I find the environment I'm in too dark - I tweak the settings slightly and I keep going as I visit more places in the game play until I finally find a good balance between lighting realism, behaviour realism and playability :) It takes time until it's good for all the interior types, but I always get there eventually.

[Aiyen]

Just a note about those images.... they are from the Riverwood inn.... a place that RLO has not touched in any detail yet! Do remember that the small village .esp is in no way in a release state and should be disabled.

So ofc. the candles will not show any lighting since they have not yet added a light bulb to the mesh.

You can only really make comparison screenshots of RLO inside big city interiors and exteriors atm.

 

All the small villages around Skyrim have the same issues sadly.

My solution for this issue was to make my own altered version of Relighting Skyrim to only affect cells that RLO does not, since then you get the all around most realistic lighting solution. Since no interior lighting mod is complete yet, and it is an insanely massive undertaking that will require at least a years worth of work still.

[Quitch]

They're from the Moorside Inn in Morthal, which RLO has done.

[Aiyen]

Ah my bad! They look the same! :( (should have checked your previous post as well! Sorry)

Will have to look at it later, and see if I can make a fix for it!

I have to say that I in general agree with your points. I personally find that they make many lights too dim compared to what you would realistically expect from a light source. This is mainly because it is hard to adjust for the human eyes adaptation levels. Hence the actual candle might be have a realistic radius and intensity, but the reflected light that your eye can pick up is not shown properly due to game engine limitations and a rather horrible adaptation code that does not work the same in all interiors.

 

Also as you point out in certain areas there just is a lack of point lighting. But I find this is the case for just about all the interior lighting mods. Since it is such a massive undertaking, and there are still limitations to consider game engine wise.

[TechAngel85]

If something, like this, is found not to be realistic or you think some tweaks could be done, you could be helpful by reporting them to the RLO team. Constructive feedback is usually always welcomed as that's how mods (and most things) grow and mature. Just as long as it's done tactfully and not in a way that sounds like you're "dissing" their work.

[phazer11]

In addition to posting feedback to the RLO nexus page I would also suggest trying out Enhanced Lighting and FX. You may need to tweak a few things as it does modify some exterior cells now IIRC.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

In addition to posting feedback to the RLO nexus page I would also suggest trying out Enhanced Lighting and FX. You may need to tweak a few things as it does modify some exterior cells now IIRC.

Is enhanced lighting and FX supposed to be used alongside RLO? Can I combine CoT, ELFX, RLO AND ENB? Or is that just overload?

[phazer11]

No you're not supposed to use both it's one or the other. (Though I suppose if you really wanted to play with TES5Edit you could make them both work together like they used to)