ACCEPTED Soft Shadows (by Doodlezoid)

[Kattmandu]

Discussion topic:
Soft Shadows by Doodlezoid
Wiki Link

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Might be worth a look at.

[Greg]

When you post mod topics, use the Step icon (triangle looking thing) in the toolbar. It's the next to last icon.

[z929669]

This looks like a promising mod, so tagged for testing.

[z929669]

Running around in game in overcast weather during the day, I haven't noticed anything unusual with shadows overall. Shadows/shading in exteriors to me look as good as can be expected, so given that this mod's impact is subtle and generally improves the 'feel' of realism in exterior, overcast weathers, I vote to accept it.

 

[duy123a]

Have test it with STEP, working fine. The shadow becomes softer in cloudy sky and become normal when clear sky.

[z929669]

  On 12/11/2022 at 7:12 PM, duy123a said:

Have test it with STEP, working fine. The shadow becomes softer in cloudy sky and become normal when clear sky.

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Yes, that's the idea of this mod, and it's a good one. I simply haven't created a savegame to test exterior shadows under overcast/clear weathers with and without this mod yet. The Nexus mod page illustrates the effect, but I wanted to see for myself with our setup.

That said, I am 90%+ certain that this mod will result in an improvement and tentatively support us using it.

[CorneliusC]

This mod has been updated today:

"2.0 rework

- Removed everything related to ENB.
- Fixed sunlight balance via RE from Community Shaders.
- Added sunrise/sunset softness.
- Softened interior shadows."

[z929669]

  On 8/1/2023 at 5:24 PM, CorneliusC said:

This mod has been updated today:

"2.0 rework

- Removed everything related to ENB.
- Fixed sunlight balance via RE from Community Shaders.
- Added sunrise/sunset softness.
- Softened interior shadows."

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Can you let us know if the changes impact Step ENB users versus non-ENB users? The concern would be reliance on Community Shaders or otherwise incompatibility with ENB.

[CorneliusC]

  On 8/1/2023 at 5:28 PM, z929669 said:

Can you let us know if the changes impact Step ENB users versus non-ENB users? The concern would be reliance on Community Shaders or otherwise incompatibility with ENB.

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After updating this, a quick in-game check seems to have no discernable visual differences, i am not using any ENB and/or the STEP post-processing section. There seems to be no reliance on the 'Community Shaders' (which i haven't installed), the only requirement is still 'Address Library'. The 'removal of everything related to ENB' means "no enb menu or tod controls" according to the author. The mod still has it's customizable INI file.

 

[Aevvvvv]

The nexus download page has been hidden, is there a direct link to the download or is it gone?

[Kattmandu]

  On 12/11/2024 at 11:37 PM, Aevvvvv said:

The nexus download page has been hidden, is there a direct link to the download or is it gone?

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The page says the mod is currently not supported and may have issues.  Might be best just to avoid it for now until it's made available again, if ever.

[z929669]

  On 12/11/2024 at 11:37 PM, Aevvvvv said:

The nexus download page has been hidden, is there a direct link to the download or is it gone?

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I updated the wiki link to point to the archived version of what we are using in the guide.

[Aevvvvv]

Thanks for the quick update!

[TechAngel85]

  On 12/12/2024 at 1:44 AM, z929669 said:

I updated the wiki link to point to the archived version of what we are using in the guide.

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If the mod has issues that the author has identified and is big enough they closed off the mod page, we shouldn't be supporting it either. I, personally, as an author would be annoyed if people were doing this after I closed the mod page do to bugs within the mod. I would highly discourage this practice!

[z929669]

  On 12/12/2024 at 10:44 PM, TechAngel85 said:

If the mod has issues that the author has identified and is big enough they closed off the mod page, we shouldn't be supporting it either. I, personally, as an author would be annoyed if people were doing this after I closed the mod page do to bugs within the mod. I would highly discourage this practice!

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It's part of the guide, and we've had no issues. The MA hasn't specified what the issue is, and for our purposes, there seem not to be any.

We are doing the same with a number of other mods as well after the MA hides the mod (for whatever reason).

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EDIT: we've been doing this for years actually... in the SSE guides as well as the FO guides Otherwise, we'd need to update the guide whenever an MA hides their content.

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EDIT2: Well, it looks like we've been linking to archives of Nexus files in all of our guides for years, but only when the file has been deleted outright ... with one other exception for FalloutNV: Sun Guard Headgear Logic Fixes

I will say that the hidden reason is a boilerplate on Nexus though, and there's nothing that validates that Soft Shadows has a 'bug' per se or is broken somehow or otherwise has 'issues'. Most likely, Doodle just doesn't want to support the mod any longer or is possibly updating it. For all intents and purposes, it works fine in our guide, which is why we are using it.

If Doodle asks us to not use the mod, I agree that we should honor the request.