ACCEPTED Embers XD (by mindflux)

[Greg]

From all the testing I've done so far, I'm in favor of replacing Embers HD and Inferno with Embers XD in the next release.

[DoubleYou]

INI settings are fine. The gpu driver settings are fine (texture filtering he mentions is Anisotropic Filtering). I would guess that the load orders are not identical and there is a mod adding a light into those locations for Greg and not for Z. Or, different files installed. 

[z929669]

2 minutes ago, DoubleYou said:

INI settings are fine. The gpu driver settings are fine (texture filtering he mentions is Anisotropic Filtering). I would guess that the load orders are not identical and there is a mod adding a light into those locations for Greg and not for Z. Or, different files installed. 

Agree, but it's not the light source but the particle aura that is perplexing. We both have the light sources but not the aura. Are such lighting auras dictated by the plugin or the mesh or both?

[TechAngel85]

This mod is suppose to be the successor to Embers HD. I kept an eye on it for a while as it wasn't anywhere near on par with Embers HD for the longest time. Might have developed enough to take a look now. It's colors were particularly bad for the longest time...far too orange to "feel" realistic in the game. I'll have to try it out when I get some time.

40 minutes ago, z929669 said:

Agree, but it's not the light source but the particle aura that is perplexing. We both have the light sources but not the aura. Are such lighting auras dictated by the plugin or the mesh or both?

Mesh

There are a few graphical effects that (like flares), but most mesh.

[TechAngel85]

So what's with the volcano of particles from the fireplaces and pits? Have you been in Riverwood's Inn? That one looks like someone tossed gas on it! 

The flames are a bit too bright and intense, imo. I ran around Riverwood and Whiterun looking at all the different ones. It would be good, if it wasn't for that intensity.

The flames are also too big...they're busting through cooking pots. ...and that flame is far too big for that small firepit. The flames are up higher than the pots... 

There is are more issue when you really start looking around.

[z929669]

3 hours ago, TechAngel85 said:

So what's with the volcano of particles from the fireplaces and pits? Have you been in Riverwood's Inn? That one looks like someone tossed gas on it! 

The flames are a bit too bright and intense, imo. I ran around Riverwood and Whiterun looking at all the different ones. It would be good, if it wasn't for that intensity.

The flames are also too big...they're busting through cooking pots. ...and that flame is far too big for that small firepit. The flames are up higher than the pots...

There is are more issue when you really start looking around.

You must not have installed and configured in same way. I have none of that. OP has instructions that are accurate I believe. You definitely have something going on that I do not. I agree that's wild.

EDIT: what inn is that? It's not the sleeping giant in Riverwood or the bannered mare in whiterun ... on second look, the EmbersXD flames are bigger. They should be toned down for campfires (at least the cooking ones if possible). That's why you see all of the smoke and sparks (volcano). It's definitely more realistic, albeit too much for a cooking fire. Regardless, the flames are better and brightness is fine with orange/red, IMO (see OP screens). The flames are also more realistic and animated more slowly than Inferno.

What "other issues", because I found a lot of issues with Inferno and the Step torch/campfires. The main one is the super-fast flame animation. Also the coals (Embers HD I think) look like cartoons (again, see OP). Finally, the inferno flames are just not as realistic, IMO. They seem too 'furry' I guess is how I will describe it.

[Greg]

6 hours ago, z929669 said:

You must not have installed and configured in same way. I have none of that. OP has instructions that are accurate I believe. You definitely have something going on that I do not. I agree that's wild.

EDIT: what inn is that? It's not the sleeping giant in Riverwood or the bannered mare in whiterun ... on second look, the EmbersXD flames are bigger. They should be toned down for campfires (at least the cooking ones if possible). That's why you see all of the smoke and sparks (volcano). It's definitely more realistic, albeit too much for a cooking fire. Regardless, the flames are better and brightness is fine with orange/red, IMO (see OP screens). The flames are also more realistic and animated more slowly than Inferno.

What "other issues", because I found a lot of issues with Inferno and the Step torch/campfires. The main one is the super-fast flame animation. Also the coals (Embers HD I think) look like cartoons (again, see OP). Finally, the inferno flames are just not as realistic, IMO. They seem too 'furry' I guess is how I will describe it.

That's Belethor's General Goods in Whiterun. He's the pawn broker that will sell his sister in a second if he had one. If you're walking down the main path in Whiterun, the shop is on the right beside Arcadia's Cauldron just before you get to the well and the inn.

[z929669]

1 hour ago, Greg said:

That's Belethor's General Goods in Whiterun. He's the pawn broker that will sell his sister in a second if he had one. If you're walking down the main path in Whiterun, the shop is on the right beside Arcadia's Cauldron just before you get to the well and the inn.

Ah yes, I know that guy. Thanks

[TechAngel85]

The only difference is I installed the yellow option since it's the closer to vanilla. I can try the orange, but it's just a color change. The issue of them being too big and intense will remain because that is coming from the mesh. Inferno's fire was a bit fast, but so is Embers XD. I've been around fires my whole life (grown up in the country) and experienced everything from campfires to bonefires to pasture fires. The flame animation is too fast in all the mods I've every tried so I gave up on factoring that in a long time ago. 

If Embers XD is chosen, we should pick the color that matches Luminosity the best since it's providing the ambient color for the interior spaces. The color of the fire source should match the color of the light produced. I have my own lighting mod that is complete for most farmhouse and Whiterun. It's more on the orange side because I was going for real-world interpreted into game-world. The color temperature of natural fire sources is 1800-2000K, which is fairly orange so I will try the orange version.

[z929669]

13 minutes ago, TechAngel85 said:

The only difference is I installed the yellow option since it's the closer to vanilla. I can try the orange, but it's just a color change. The issue of them being too big and intense will remain because that is coming from the mesh. Inferno's fire was a bit fast, but so is Embers XD. I've been around fires my whole life (grown up in the country) and experienced everything from campfires to bonefires to pasture fires. The flame animation is too fast in all the mods I've every tried so I gave up on factoring that in a long time ago. 

If Embers XD is chosen, we should pick the color that matches Luminosity the best since it's providing the ambient color for the interior spaces. The color of the fire source should match the color of the light produced. I have my own lighting mod that is complete for most farmhouse and Whiterun. It's more on the orange side because I was going for real-world interpreted into game-world. The color temperature of natural fire sources is 1800-2000K, which is fairly orange so I will try the orange version.

Changing to orange/red option will take care of the overly-bright flames.

I am pretty familiar with fires of all sizes too (I took fire training courses in the service when I was 20). Speed of flames increases a bit with the size of the fire, due to sucking in more air. I think Embers speed is pretty realistic.

Would be nice if the author could offer a slightly reduced flame mesh as an optional. This only really affects cooking fires, which I assume share resources with campfires in general (if so, that's too bad). Sconces, forge, and torches look better than the competition, IMO.

We may also be able to reduce particle 'eruption' via ENB settings.

Lastly, keep in mind that Embers XD is ENB ready OOtB and can be used effectively without it as well obviously. IIRC, using an ENB with current Step fires breaks the coals, bc Embers HD doesn't have the right meshes.

[TechAngel85]

7 hours ago, z929669 said:

I am pretty familiar with fires of all sizes too (I took fire training courses in the service when I was 20). Speed of flames increases a bit with the size of the fire, due to sucking in more air. I think Embers speed is pretty realistic.

In some case, yes. But the bigger fires are pretty fast and harsh when they're stacked, like in the farmhouse inns and large fireplaces. These could be toned down a bit.

7 hours ago, z929669 said:

Would be nice if the author could offer a slightly reduced flame mesh as an optional. This only really affects cooking fires, which I assume share resources with campfires in general (if so, that's too bad). Sconces, forge, and torches look better than the competition, IMO.

I agree. I think he just needs to tone it down in the main mod a bit. Compared to vanilla, they're all a bit too big. Not sure I care for the style in the braziers, yet. In vanilla, these are wider to fit the brazier. They're more piles with a "shaftier" style of flame with this mod.

7 hours ago, z929669 said:

We may also be able to reduce particle 'eruption' via ENB settings.

Possibly, but this also needs to be toned down in the main mod. I always use a particle setting of 4500 in BethINI so particles should be maxed out in most scenes for this game. For a fire, that's just too many particles coming off it too quickly. I love the effect, but that animation could be reduced by 50% of the particles and lengthened by 50% and it would be far more realistic. Honestly, it's likely just the cost of designing to support ENB. I know Sparrow and I have been at our wits end before attempting to support ENBs with RWT's assets. Finding that right balance is a very tricky thing to do.

[z929669]

marked accepted

[z929669]

Important to note this post when using ENB LIght with Embers XD. We will likely need to hide some meshes from ENB Light for this and potentially some other mods.

[TechAngel85]

6 minutes ago, z929669 said:

Important to note this post when using ENB LIght with Embers XD. We will likely need to hide some meshes from ENB Light for this and potentially some other mods.

That's exactly how I have it installed.

[z929669]

2 minutes ago, TechAngel85 said:

That's exactly how I have it installed.

Me too, but I forgot to mention it. I discovered the issue when all of my embers were orange and waxy