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?

[statmonster]

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' date=' AO and the improved shadows from ENB. I like the results. I used this ENB: [url']https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34014[/url]

Good find. I'll probably give it a whirl.

 

How does it interact with the with the Occlusion Culling in Skyrim Project Optimization?  As near as I can tell they are completely unrelated and should both work together.

 

What are the main differences you see using this and say CoT & RLO w/o ENB?

 

How much of a performance hit do you think you are taking?

[Aiyen]

Kinda amusing... I think I told a while back that if the STEP program ever should pick an ENB preset to call their official, their mandate would only allow this.

 

It should not affect Occlusion Culling in any way since that is something the game engine does, while ENB is a post process that alters stuff after rendering etc have taken place. I use both ENB and Skyrim Project Optimization and have noticed nothing, other then a slight FPS increase in certain areas.

 

The main difference between this and ANY other ENB is that this is only pure vanilla color correction, with the superior shadows of ENB.

 

The performance drop will be the same as other ENBs with the same settings. The color correction does not really cause any noticeable performance drops in themselves. It is the SSAO and detailed shadows, DoF, Rain, SMAA etc that cause extra calculations.

 

The only reason to use this is if you like vanilla color correction but want to sacrifice hardware AA and AO for the ENB variants.

[Neovalen]

... and reflection/light scattering no?

[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' date=' AO and the improved shadows from ENB. I like the results. I used this ENB: [url']https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34014[/url]

Good find. I'll probably give it a whirl.

 

How does it interact with the with the Occlusion Culling in Skyrim Project Optimization?  As near as I can tell they are completely unrelated and should both work together.

 

What are the main differences you see using this and say CoT & RLO w/o ENB?

 

How much of a performance hit do you think you are taking?

The main difference would be the much improved shadows from ENB. I can't stand the blocky vanilla shadows. The colours and brighness look the same with or without this ENB. Don't know about performance, haven't had time to test. I am currently struggling with getting my game stable. Constantly crashes at 2,9 GB ram.

[Iroha]

dreadflopp Wrote

I am currently struggling with getting my game stable. Constantly crashes at 2,9 GB ram.

you should try one of vanilla default settings.

[Aiyen]

... and reflection/light scattering no?

Yes you will get all of the FX as well if you enable them. They are all separate from the color correction codes (Or have their own in the case of Bloom).

 

 

Also saying that the main difference is the shadows is a bit of an understatement. Then it is just because you have not activated any other features. 

Brightness etc. are part of the color correction so they would obviously be the same as vanilla, since they are forced to have those values. 

[dreadflopp]

dreadflopp Wrote

I am currently struggling with getting my game stable. Constantly crashes at 2,9 GB ram.

you should try one of vanilla default settings.

What do you mean with vanilla default settings? Vanilla ini:s? I have Installed Skyrim revisited (highest availabe resolution on textures, no more than 2k though)+immersive armors. I use all ini tweaks from Skyrim revisited guide except the z-fighting tweaks. I have ddsopted with 1k normals skyrim hd, searious hd, skyrim realistic overhaul, the official textures and all the mods that should be optimized according the STEP ddsopt guide. Have an AMD 7950 3gb card, 8 gb ram, win 8. 1920x1080 resolution. 

... and reflection/light scattering no?

Yes you will get all of the FX as well if you enable them. They are all separate from the color correction codes (Or have their own in the case of Bloom).

 

 

Also saying that the main difference is the shadows is a bit of an understatement. Then it is just because you have not activated any other features. 

Brightness etc. are part of the color correction so they would obviously be the same as vanilla, since they are forced to have those values. 

You obviously know more than me about ENB :-), the improved shadows is just the thing I noticed most, also the main reason for me too use ENB.

[Iroha]

 

dreadflopp Wrote

I am currently struggling with getting my game stable. Constantly crashes at 2,9 GB ram.

you should try one of vanilla default settings.

What do you mean with vanilla default settings? Vanilla ini:s? I have Installed Skyrim revisited (highest availabe resolution on textures, no more than 2k though)+immersive armors. I use all ini tweaks from Skyrim revisited guide except the z-fighting tweaks. I have ddsopted with 1k normals skyrim hd, searious hd, skyrim realistic overhaul, the official textures and all the mods that should be optimized according the STEP ddsopt guide. Have an AMD 7950 3gb card, 8 gb ram, win 8. 1920x1080 resolution. 

Yes. I mean Vanilla default ini's. But you can try IT also.

[dreadflopp]

 

 

dreadflopp Wrote

I am currently struggling with getting my game stable. Constantly crashes at 2,9 GB ram.

you should try one of vanilla default settings.

What do you mean with vanilla default settings? Vanilla ini:s? I have Installed Skyrim revisited (highest availabe resolution on textures, no more than 2k though)+immersive armors. I use all ini tweaks from Skyrim revisited guide except the z-fighting tweaks. I have ddsopted with 1k normals skyrim hd, searious hd, skyrim realistic overhaul, the official textures and all the mods that should be optimized according the STEP ddsopt guide. Have an AMD 7950 3gb card, 8 gb ram, win 8. 1920x1080 resolution. 

Yes. I mean Vanilla default ini's. But you can try IT also.

Think we have ended up a little off-topic, but I'll try that. Don't think it'll work though. I think my best bet is to half-size normals for even more mods, lower resolution to 1k on some mods, remove mods or lower resolution. Removing skyrim hd, searious hd and skyrim realistic overhaul saves about 400 mb ram but haven't tested much and I don't like the result. I'll try reducing normals to 1k first on all mods (except WATER) and if that doesn't work I'll try a lower resolution and see how that looks.

[Aiyen]

Just get the 1k version of SRO... if your game still CTD after then you almost certainly do not have a memory related issue.

It is the single most memory hungry mod on the entire list followed closely by AV packages... which is really memory intensive because you force the game to load in many more textures then it normally would.

 

But yes this is not for this thread! If you want more info just throw me a PM and I will help as best I can!

[Vond]

-nm deleted!

[freche]

Question, which parts do you take from CoT and RLO?

The guide just makes a comment about Minor Towns, but I guess you don't install Interiors and Dungeons from both, or am I wrong?

[Neovalen]

Question, which parts do you take from CoT and RLO?

The guide just makes a comment about Minor Towns, but I guess you don't install Interiors and Dungeons from both, or am I wrong?

 

Default install settings unless otherwise mentioned.

[statmonster]

Question, which parts do you take from CoT and RLO?

The guide just makes a comment about Minor Towns, but I guess you don't install Interiors and Dungeons from both, or am I wrong?

Default install settings unless otherwise mentioned.

I quite like the default dungeons etc.  Much nicer than vanilla but not annoying like a "realistic" dark dungeon.  They are quite a bit darker (or perhaps more accurately the shadowed spaces are quite a bit darker while places near light sources are about the same) than vanilla, but the they have enough light to see most places but with some very nice shadows cast by the lighting.

[Aiyen]

Okay in relation to the previous talk about Shimmermist cave and the... rather horrible texture that is used to simulate some sort of gem glow in falmer caves. 

 

The issue really annoyed me since it does not go well with RLO dungeon settings! Or vanilla in my opinion... So I set out to create a new and improved texture! 

 

First a picture of the vanilla texture with SR installed... well the texture and lighting parts of it anyways. I also use darker dungeons for ENB but it does not affect this particular dungeon as far as I can tell. ENB has been disabled for the screenshots for better reference! 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9euv69u1h1m0j3l/ShimmermistVanilla.jpg

 

Followed by a screenshot of my improved texture... increased the texture resolution from 512x512 to 2048x2048 and.... worked some weird GIMP Rituals that I do not yet understand... but it produces pretty results! 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/71uprf90jyrlw4z/ShimmermistModified.jpg

 

 

 

I am interested in a few "beta testers" if anyone is bothered/interested in trying out the new falmer cave glowy textures. 

 

I will most likely release them along with the ENB preset I am working on atm... Hopefully in about a week or two! 

Here are a few teaser wip shots if anyone is interrested... 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkfe9iimgxliz2e/ScreenShot54.jpg

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e6ghfqjccl8x7dg/Screenshot17857.jpg

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o41m0ub8vx6foab/Screenshot3751.jpg

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vbrcmy8uok0d4hn/ScreenShot49.jpg

 

There is a slight artifical contrast/brightning from the screenshot process, and the following conversion from bitmap into jpeg. 

 

Edit: Hmm guess I need to figure out how to put in screenshots in posts properly... but too late to figure it out now!