Lighting, Weather & ENB

[statmonster]

What lighting and weather mods do you like with SR?

 

I had been using Cot 2.1 (https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17802) with RLO 4.0.7c (https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30450) but it was kind of dark at night and in interiors.

 

I upgraded to CoT 3.0 and RLO but now it looks like CoT has been recalled for bug-stomping so I'm just running RLO.  The nights seem very nice with this - perhaps too bright to be realistic but very pretty.

 

(CoT 3.0 Winter seemed very nice - I assume it would make for a much tough start using Frostfall and RND as Whiterun, Riften ,etc. would be so much more inhospitable.)

 

I've also been using Skyrim Project Optimization 1.4.

 

No ENBs yet, and I'm not sure I want to take the performance hit to include one - plus there seem to be so many options that it's not clear which to choose and which play nicely with which weather and lighting mods.

 

What are other people using?  How do you like it?

 

Do you generally use a weather mod (which one?) or the vanilla weather system?

 

What about for lighting?  ENB?

[Aiyen]

There is a new patch for minty lighting for CoT 3.1 up since yesterday... make sure you use that as well or you will also have a conflict with that.

Immersive thunder is not really required... Dramatic clouds can be used but will make some weathers looks a bit strange since they will use textures that the author did not intend.

 

I load in all of mine after WATER first Skyrim Project Optimization, then RLO, then CoT 3.1 Then I got Relighting Skyrim Dragonborn laying in wait since RLO does not yet touch DB. For load order I just use the BOSS one.

[statmonster]

I've been giving RealVisionENB by SkyrimTuner a go. It's based on 0157 and is designed to be used with CoT 3.1 and RLO. It's all very subjective of course' date=' but it's the nicest one I've tried so far. I found Phinix a bit washed out, especially interiors which seemed really bright to me.[/quote']

I just tried this out with 1.4Beta with the Bokeh, particles and WATERS add on.  It's very pretty, with warm colors. 

 

Two issues:

 

1.  There's a pretty steep FPS hit dropping me from 60+ to around 40.  However, the visual effect seems fine, I probably would not even notice it without FRAPs.  The game seemed a little less responsive than usual - but this might have just been my perception due to the knowing the FPS was dropping.

 

2.  Medium to long distance details are very blurry.  Standing at the bridges over the river near Honeybrew Meadery on a clear day I can not make out bandits on the road going up to the Ritual Stone, but they can see me well enough to shoot me with arrows.  When I hit F12 they are clearly visible on the road.  Since it comes and goes with F12 I'm suspecting that it's not (only) the .ini setting of "iBlurDeferredShadowMask=5" that's causing issues.  Is this blurriness a deliberate feature of the mod or something I should try to correct for by altering settings?  Distant details like mountains did look nice.

[Aiyen]

Blurry distance is most likely because of the DoF... if it is Bokeh go to the enbeffectprepass.fx file and make sure the quality is set to 1.. might be set to higher values which really eats performance.

 

However with any ENB with all most stuff activated then expect a drop in FPS. You should not really start to notice any lag until you get below 30 FPS... but the game might "feel" a bit more sluggish... but this is not really a problem unless you use combat mods that cater to fast and furious action.

 

If you want further help to optimize performance just send me a pm.

[walkman80]

You guys noticing that dungeons in RLO 4.07 are pretty bright compared to CoT? Honestly, I don't see the need for RLO dungeons unless you don't like the dark. torch-carrying experience. Kind of disappointed in that, actually.

[Aiyen]

Plenty of ways to get darker dungeons if you so prefer. I personally do it with my ENB preset.

[Smile44]

You guys noticing that dungeons in RLO 4.07 are pretty bright compared to CoT? Honestly' date=' I don't see the need for RLO dungeons unless you don't like the dark. torch-carrying experience. Kind of disappointed in that, actually.[/quote']

Actually RLO's dungeons are not finished yet "Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dungeons (Currently does not include cell edits - imagespace modifier only)". To be fair I'm not entirely sure what that means in literal terms. But more work to be done. I like dark dungeons and the ones I've been in seem very dark where there are no lights present.

 

"Dungeons will also start to see some new light. Dungeon lighting will be looking more natural and getting rid of a lot of fake fog and glows, and lore lighting will be added so that more light sources will make sense!"

 

Hopefully dungeon lighting will be more as intended when 4.08 comes out.

 

:)

[Neovalen]

Going to look at CoT 3.1 and RLO 4.0.7c right now, downloaded both last night.

[Ezekiel33]

Just installed this one today : https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34509

Pretty nice nights and created for cot+rlo in mind :)

 

Here are some pictures :

 

https://imgur.com/a/vgK9A

[WilliamImm]

You can use the tag by itself to avoid having two really huge images clutter up the thread, you know.

[Neovalen]

No ENB. CoT + RLO only with current version of SR.

 

[statmonster]

I've been using CoT 3.1 and RLO 4.0.7c without an ENB. (All with default settings.). I sort of like the look. Caves have lots of shadows from the lights and some deep shadows in the corners or down ill lit passages but are bright enough to see in for the most part. It's probably not supremely realistic (unless the Dovakhin as amazing night vision) but it is very nice looking and plays well. I'm not sure that I'm up for staring at a virtually pitch black monitor for hours on end - the idea is to have a fun, entertaining game, not ruin my eye site by straining to stare at variations in black. Or at least that's what I'm thinking now.

[Neovalen]

I don't mind a little dark but many go too dark your right.

 

What I really want to find is an ENB that only adds FX and doesn't tweak the lighting overly much.

[WilliamImm]

Skyrealism ENB? That was recommended by both techangel and the RLO team. Cinematic or Vanilla would work fine.

[dreadflopp]

I've tried a lot of ENB's and all of them have something I don't like. Decided to stick with the lightning and colours from COT and RLO and just add SMAA, AO and the improved shadows from ENB. I like the results. I used this ENB: https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34014

[Neovalen]

I've tried a lot of ENB's and all of them have something I don't like. Decided to stick with the lightning and colours from COT and RLO and just add SMAA, AO and the improved shadows from ENB. I like the results. I used this ENB: https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34014

 

Definitely going to look at this one.