TESTING Azurite Weathers and Seasons (by DrJacopo)

[TechAngel85]

Discussion topic:
Azurite Weathers and Seasons by DrJacopo
Wiki Link

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Azurite is meant to be the successor of Cathedral Weathers and Seasons. All of Johnny's previous knowledge was poured into this mod and built from the ground up using it. It's one of the few that uses filmic tone mapping to control white clipping; allowing bright scenes without washed out brights (like on snow/ice). It includes Cathedral 8K Galaxy with improvements and Cathedral Weather and Season's sunrises/set textures.

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Azurite Weathers III has been fully tested. See the screenshot compares against vanilla and Cathedral Weathers (current Step) for every vanilla weather.

Screenshot Compares

[TechAngel85]

I've created this topic and added a testing tag to keep it from being forgotten. I have observed several users considering it odd that Step hasn't moved over to Azurite. I know Johnny and was around when he was creating Azurite; getting feedback from the discord community during its development. Originally, Azurite was skewed a bit more toward fantasy vs realism like Cathedral Weathers and Seasons. It had a purple tone to it in many weathers, by design, and was mainly geared toward ENB users. Since that time, Azurite as matured into Azurite II (Azurite Weathers and Seasons), which seems to have shifted away from much of the fantasy color toning.

As it stands, Azurite could be tested for the Step Guide. Please be aware that this could be a large undertaking for us to do. Much of the SE Guide's lighting is built around Cathedral Weathers and Seasons and the Step ENB is entirely based upon it. It could be that moving over would be an easier task with few changes. However, it could also mean a lot of changes, especially for the ENB.

We will leave this with an unofficial testing tag to remind us that some users desire this change. We'd also like more feedback from our users on their thoughts about Cathedral vs Azurite.

[z929669]

It's been on my to-do for a while. Big job this one.

Just because a mod is 'outdated' is not a reason to stop using it, so to those that wonder why Step is using CW, I would respond: "Because it looks and works great, and we haven't had time to properly test other contenders besides RAID Weathers, which revealed early on in testing that it is not a good fit for Step."

Let them wonder, I guess. We'll obviously get to it when we have time, because we can only climb one mountain at a time

[z929669]

OP updated with a link to the compares.

Overall, I think Azurite 3 is a better fit for Step than Cathedral Weathers, because Azurite is more consistent with vanilla weather themes than Cathedral. Cathedral Weathers still shines though.

Azurite has darker nights than vanilla in general, but not as dark as Cathedral. Azurite night lighting quality is also just better, IMO. Azurite really makes the ash weathers as they should be as well. It still does suffer a lack of fog in a couple of the 'foggy' weathers. These instead present as cloudy weathers, but this is an improvement over Cathedral, which lacks 'fogginess' in most foggy weathers (Step resolved this with some foggy weather patching n the Step LW patch. 

I have also been testing Azurite with CS, and it works quite well, albeit, it's a bit bright overall and particularly with CS. I have some plans to address that once I do some more testing.

[DoubleYou]

It seems like Azurite is closer to vanilla colors than Cathedral now. Clouds are significantly different in many shots. Fog is thicker or thinner in different shots.

My biggest concern is that rainy weather is significantly brighter. I don't know if that cannot be in post-processing.

[z929669]

2 minutes ago, DoubleYou said:

It seems like Azurite is closer to vanilla colors than Cathedral now. Clouds are significantly different in many shots. Fog is thicker or thinner in different shots.

My biggest concern is that rainy weather is significantly brighter. I don't know if that cannot be in post-processing.

You may notice that all weathers are brighter than Cathedral and often brighter than vanilla as well. It's even more so with CS enabled. This is something I will be addressing after I do more testing. The simplest fix that I might go with is using this MCM preset. I tried it with CS, and it resolves the issue with the only drawback being slightly purple-shifted skies in certain weathers. The other option is Azurite III HDR and DCALC Fix (a KreatE preset), which should pair nicely with CS.

I'll also be looking at some new landscape/grass options that I think warrant a serious look.

[Mercury71]

Looked trough the compares and  must say i agree, Azurite is a bit better.