SKYRIMSE Washed-out / overexposed fire and projected light in all exteriors - interiors unaffected.

[mazekein1]

Hi everyone,

I’m troubleshooting a persistent “washed out / overexposed” look that affects mainly fire (and some magic VFX) in exteriors. It happens in all exterior areas, but it becomes much worse in bright/white environments (snow/ice), for example around Winterhold. The most visible symptom is the projected light from fire blowing out and washing out NPC skin, plus excessive brightness/bloom around flames. In interiors, the exact same fire sources look normal.

This is not limited to torches:

• The fire itself from campfires looks bugged outdoors (washed-out/overexposed).

• Fire spells in my hands show the same washed-out behavior outdoors.

• The braziers at the College of Winterhold (their light and overall appearance) are also affected, and the issue is especially obvious there due to the snowy surroundings.

Game / Setup

• Skyrim AE runtime 1.6.1170

• MO2 (Mod Organizer 2)

• GPU: RTX 2060 Mobile

• No ENB, no ReShade

• Weather: Obsidian Weathers

• Community Shaders is in the setup, but see testing notes below.

Reproduction / What I see

1. Go to any exterior location.

2. Look at any fire source (campfire/torch/brazier) and/or fire spells in hand.

3. Result: fire becomes “washed out,” with blown highlights and exaggerated projected lighting on characters.

4. In snowy/bright environments, the effect becomes dramatically worse (Winterhold is a clear example).

5. Go indoors: fire and lighting look normal, as if the problem does not exist.

Most important finding (points to post-processing / ImageSpace)

• Console command teofis makes the problem disappear immediately (exterior fire and lighting return to normal).

• Console command sisme 0 does nothing (no visible change).

So this looks tied to End-of-Frame ImageSpace / post-processing.

What I already tried (no change unless noted)

1. Weather / Obsidian Weathers

• Obsidian Weathers “was never a problem before,” so I suspected a recent change or a side-effect.

• I reset/reinstalled the Obsidian plugin to restore it to its original state.

• In SSEEdit, I do not see any other plugin overriding Obsidian’s WEATHER records. The ImageSpace references appear to come from Obsidian itself.

2. Community Shaders / lighting-related mods

• Disabling Community Shaders (base) did not remove the issue.

• Disabling CS add-ons / toggling CS effects in-game did not affect the washed-out fire behavior.

• Disabling True Light, Ambient Templates, and TL Bulbs also did not change the issue.

3. Outputs / patchers / LOD

• I tested with DynDOLOD output disabled, TexGen output disabled, and PG Patcher disabled. No change.

4. INI / rendering toggle test

• I tried setting bFloatPointRenderTarget=0, and it did not change the problem.

5. Water for ENB xEdit script (possible turning point, but reverted)

• I ran an xEdit script provided by a Water for ENB author that modifies Obsidian-related values.

• I ran the script only on the Obsidian plugin (selected Obsidian and ran the script against it).

• During that operation, the only plugin xEdit prompted to save was the same Obsidian plugin I targeted, so I believe nothing else was touched.

• After that, I reverted Obsidian back to its original state (reset/reinstall), but the issue persisted.

Important background: Steam wiped the Skyrim folder (and restoring a full backup did not fix it)
This may or may not be related, but it happened during the same troubleshooting period:

• I uninstalled Creation Kit, and Steam removed the entire Skyrim folder, including SKSE files.

• Steam still showed Skyrim as installed, but the game folder contents were gone.

• I had to manually remove/uninstall via Steam and then reinstall Skyrim, then restore SKSE files.

• As an additional test, I restored a full backup of the entire Skyrim folder from before Steam deleted it, and the issue still persisted.

Questions

1. Given that teofis fixes it instantly and the issue is exterior-only (but worse in bright/snowy environments), what could cause End-of-Frame ImageSpace / post-processing to become overly aggressive in exteriors?

2. Are there known INI settings (HDR/bloom/eye adaptation/exposure) that could lead to this after a reinstall/reset?

3. What is the best way to debug which ImageSpace is active in exteriors and identify what parameter is driving the blowout on fire and skin?

I can provide screenshots (exterior vs interior), load order/plugin list, and SSEEdit screenshots of the relevant WEATHER and IMGS records if needed (May need guidance about where to look in xEdit).

The bug exterior vs interior cell: https://ibb.co/tMNmvnz2
https://ibb.co/NgmNBCsW
https://ibb.co/1t9JtBk8
https://ibb.co/VWxXVwHB

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[z929669]

14 hours ago, mazekein1 said:

Hi everyone,

I’m troubleshooting a persistent “washed out / overexposed” look that affects mainly fire (and some magic VFX) in exteriors. It happens in all exterior areas, but it becomes much worse in bright/white environments (snow/ice), for example around Winterhold. The most visible symptom is the projected light from fire blowing out and washing out NPC skin, plus excessive brightness/bloom around flames. In interiors, the exact same fire sources look normal.

This is not limited to torches:

• The fire itself from campfires looks bugged outdoors (washed-out/overexposed).

• Fire spells in my hands show the same washed-out behavior outdoors.

• The braziers at the College of Winterhold (their light and overall appearance) are also affected, and the issue is especially obvious there due to the snowy surroundings.

Game / Setup

• Skyrim AE runtime 1.6.1170

• MO2 (Mod Organizer 2)

• GPU: RTX 2060 Mobile

• No ENB, no ReShade

• Weather: Obsidian Weathers

• Community Shaders is in the setup, but see testing notes below.

Reproduction / What I see

1. Go to any exterior location.

2. Look at any fire source (campfire/torch/brazier) and/or fire spells in hand.

3. Result: fire becomes “washed out,” with blown highlights and exaggerated projected lighting on characters.

4. In snowy/bright environments, the effect becomes dramatically worse (Winterhold is a clear example).

5. Go indoors: fire and lighting look normal, as if the problem does not exist.

Most important finding (points to post-processing / ImageSpace)

• Console command teofis makes the problem disappear immediately (exterior fire and lighting return to normal).

• Console command sisme 0 does nothing (no visible change).

So this looks tied to End-of-Frame ImageSpace / post-processing.

What I already tried (no change unless noted)

1. Weather / Obsidian Weathers

• Obsidian Weathers “was never a problem before,” so I suspected a recent change or a side-effect.

• I reset/reinstalled the Obsidian plugin to restore it to its original state.

• In SSEEdit, I do not see any other plugin overriding Obsidian’s WEATHER records. The ImageSpace references appear to come from Obsidian itself.

2. Community Shaders / lighting-related mods

• Disabling Community Shaders (base) did not remove the issue.

• Disabling CS add-ons / toggling CS effects in-game did not affect the washed-out fire behavior.

• Disabling True Light, Ambient Templates, and TL Bulbs also did not change the issue.

3. Outputs / patchers / LOD

• I tested with DynDOLOD output disabled, TexGen output disabled, and PG Patcher disabled. No change.

4. INI / rendering toggle test

• I tried setting bFloatPointRenderTarget=0, and it did not change the problem.

5. Water for ENB xEdit script (possible turning point, but reverted)

• I ran an xEdit script provided by a Water for ENB author that modifies Obsidian-related values.

• I ran the script only on the Obsidian plugin (selected Obsidian and ran the script against it).

• During that operation, the only plugin xEdit prompted to save was the same Obsidian plugin I targeted, so I believe nothing else was touched.

• After that, I reverted Obsidian back to its original state (reset/reinstall), but the issue persisted.

Important background: Steam wiped the Skyrim folder (and restoring a full backup did not fix it)
This may or may not be related, but it happened during the same troubleshooting period:

• I uninstalled Creation Kit, and Steam removed the entire Skyrim folder, including SKSE files.

• Steam still showed Skyrim as installed, but the game folder contents were gone.

• I had to manually remove/uninstall via Steam and then reinstall Skyrim, then restore SKSE files.

• As an additional test, I restored a full backup of the entire Skyrim folder from before Steam deleted it, and the issue still persisted.

Questions

1. Given that teofis fixes it instantly and the issue is exterior-only (but worse in bright/snowy environments), what could cause End-of-Frame ImageSpace / post-processing to become overly aggressive in exteriors?

2. Are there known INI settings (HDR/bloom/eye adaptation/exposure) that could lead to this after a reinstall/reset?

3. What is the best way to debug which ImageSpace is active in exteriors and identify what parameter is driving the blowout on fire and skin?

I can provide screenshots (exterior vs interior), load order/plugin list, and SSEEdit screenshots of the relevant WEATHER and IMGS records if needed (May need guidance about where to look in xEdit).

The bug exterior vs interior cell: https://ibb.co/tMNmvnz2
https://ibb.co/NgmNBCsW
https://ibb.co/1t9JtBk8
https://ibb.co/VWxXVwHB

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Given what you have verified, the remaining culprit is likely game INI settings. Try using BethINI Pie High or Ultra preset to get all of you settings in order.

1. With Bethini Presets selected, click [Reset to Default], and wait for the "Preset Default applied." message appears in the application footer.
2. Click the preset, and wait until the "Preset Bethini ... applied." message appears in the application footer.
3. Click [Apply Recommended Tweaks], and wait until the "Preset recommended applied." message appears in the application footer.
4. Set Display Mode to "Borderless Windowed".

That will get you to a solid baseline.

[mazekein1]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply and for the BethINI Pie baseline suggestion. I appreciate the help. Also, since today is New Year’s Day here: Happy 2026, and I hope you have a great year ahead.

Regarding your suggestion: I already tried restoring my INIs with BethINI Pie (Reset to Default → High/Ultra preset → Apply Recommended Tweaks → Borderless Windowed). The MO2 profile INIs are confirmed in use. Unfortunately, the washed-out / overbright behavior still persists.

At this point, the only mitigation I’ve found is disabling essentially every Obsidian Weathers visual effect (presets/filters, season FX, sun intensity tweaks, etc.). Even then, with the sun at max, NPCs are still affected — it’s most noticeable on NPCs using BnP female skin and (to a lesser extent) Bijin skin.

I initially thought some of this could be “normal” under certain times of day / sun angles, but what really raised the red flag was how broken fire looks: both the fire itself and, especially, the projected firelight on NPC skin look wrong/washed out compared to what I’d expect (I’m using Embers XD). In interiors it’s much less noticeable, but outdoors it’s consistently bad and gets worse in bright/white environments (snow).

One question: is this type of washed-out fire / projected light behavior something particular to my setup, or is it a known/expected limitation when using Community Shaders instead of ENB (especially with Embers XD + Obsidian)? Any more suggestions are apreciated. 
 

 

[z929669]

1 hour ago, mazekein1 said:

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply and for the BethINI Pie baseline suggestion. I appreciate the help. Also, since today is New Year’s Day here: Happy 2026, and I hope you have a great year ahead.

Regarding your suggestion: I already tried restoring my INIs with BethINI Pie (Reset to Default → High/Ultra preset → Apply Recommended Tweaks → Borderless Windowed). The MO2 profile INIs are confirmed in use. Unfortunately, the washed-out / overbright behavior still persists.

At this point, the only mitigation I’ve found is disabling essentially every Obsidian Weathers visual effect (presets/filters, season FX, sun intensity tweaks, etc.). Even then, with the sun at max, NPCs are still affected — it’s most noticeable on NPCs using BnP female skin and (to a lesser extent) Bijin skin.

I initially thought some of this could be “normal” under certain times of day / sun angles, but what really raised the red flag was how broken fire looks: both the fire itself and, especially, the projected firelight on NPC skin look wrong/washed out compared to what I’d expect (I’m using Embers XD). In interiors it’s much less noticeable, but outdoors it’s consistently bad and gets worse in bright/white environments (snow).

One question: is this type of washed-out fire / projected light behavior something particular to my setup, or is it a known/expected limitation when using Community Shaders instead of ENB (especially with Embers XD + Obsidian)? Any more suggestions are apreciated. 
 

 

I would take both CS and ENB off the table until you sort out the image space lighting issues. I assume you are using SSE Display Tweaks with essentially the default config from the High Performance INI. Verify you don't have some random settings enabled in your graphics software.

Back up your left pane mods config in MO, and disable all mods that are not rudimentary (SKSE, Engine Fixes, USSEP, reputable vanilla fixes, etc.). You should not have the washed out look now. If you do, then the problem is probably not in your mod build, and you need to configure your OS/graphics color management to baselines for your hardware. Disable Windows HDR if it's enabled.

Reestablishing a clean game directory and Validating the game files in Steam would be the next step if all that doesn't work. See our SSG for ideas.

And happy NY to you as well.

[mazekein1]

With only the essential mods enabled, I can confirm the washed out effect does not occur. That strongly suggests one or more mods in my build are responsible, not OS level or GPU color management.

Regarding SSE Display Tweaks, I do use it, based on the High Performance INI with some additional performance oriented adjustments, since I play on the laptop panel only. The panel is 60 Hz with no G Sync. Hardware is an Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315 52 79VM with an i7 9750H. I also verified Windows HDR is disabled, and I reverted NVIDIA settings to baseline behavior, essentially letting the 3D application decide, with no extra overrides.

Given that baseline looks correct with essentials only, I am confident this is mod induced. The obvious candidates are not the direct trigger. Disabling Community Shaders, True Light, and CS Lights does not remove the issue. Disabling only Community Shaders effects ( "*" key by default) in game improves the washed out look very slightly. For example, the College of Winterhold light pillars look a bit closer to what they should, the blue beam becomes more faithful, but the underlying problem remains.

I will attach my plugin list and mod list. At this point, I would appreciate guidance on likely culprits and a practical way to narrow it down further. If you have specific categories you would prioritize, for example weather and image space mods, exterior lighting edits, post processing, LUTs, or anything that commonly affects projected light and emissive intensity outdoors, please point me in that direction and I will run controlled A B tests and report back with screenshots and exact toggles.

loadorder.txt modlist.txt

[z929669]

2 hours ago, mazekein1 said:

With only the essential mods enabled, I can confirm the washed out effect does not occur. That strongly suggests one or more mods in my build are responsible, not OS level or GPU color management.

Regarding SSE Display Tweaks, I do use it, based on the High Performance INI with some additional performance oriented adjustments, since I play on the laptop panel only. The panel is 60 Hz with no G Sync. Hardware is an Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315 52 79VM with an i7 9750H. I also verified Windows HDR is disabled, and I reverted NVIDIA settings to baseline behavior, essentially letting the 3D application decide, with no extra overrides.

Given that baseline looks correct with essentials only, I am confident this is mod induced. The obvious candidates are not the direct trigger. Disabling Community Shaders, True Light, and CS Lights does not remove the issue. Disabling only Community Shaders effects ( "*" key by default) in game improves the washed out look very slightly. For example, the College of Winterhold light pillars look a bit closer to what they should, the blue beam becomes more faithful, but the underlying problem remains.

I will attach my plugin list and mod list. At this point, I would appreciate guidance on likely culprits and a practical way to narrow it down further. If you have specific categories you would prioritize, for example weather and image space mods, exterior lighting edits, post processing, LUTs, or anything that commonly affects projected light and emissive intensity outdoors, please point me in that direction and I will run controlled A B tests and report back with screenshots and exact toggles.

loadorder.txt 10.4 kB · 1 download modlist.txt 21.41 kB · 0 downloads

Keep CS and ENB off the table and the rest of your LO enabled. Those mods just obfuscate things. The issue is most likely your lighting mod (ELFX?). Also check the MCM settings for Obsidian to see if there is an interior lighting setting.

[mazekein1]

On 1/3/2026 at 9:58 AM, z929669 said:

Keep CS and ENB off the table and the rest of your LO enabled. Those mods just obfuscate things. The issue is most likely your lighting mod (ELFX?). Also check the MCM settings for Obsidian to see if there is an interior lighting setting.

OK, the CS addon ISL might be the one to blame. Other addons make it worse, but this one seems to be the component that enables projected lights in the first place. Disabling it fixes almost everything that is wrong.

The worst case is the College worldspace/cell, where the blue light beams are projecting light and it gets even worse with firelight, for example. Other than disabling the whole thing, I do not know how to correct it, since, unlike ENB, there is not much available to tweak the addon itself.

I may have let this slip by only deactivating the core CS mod and not its addons in the first place. Since the shaders were compiled in-game, simply disabling the core CS was not enough.

The rest of the worldspaces/cells are not nearly as bad as the College, so I might have to live with it until I can figure out how to fix it, if it is even possible.

I use True Light for exteriors. I tried switching to Lux Orbis for testing, with no change at all. Also, Obsidian Weathers has no MCM only an in-game power that gives access to its configuration. Thank you for your time and help so far. 

[mazekein1]

Correction / additional note for anyone who might come across a similar issue in the Winterhold area (especially around the College): I’m using Immersive College of Winterhold, and it includes its own weather. Removing that weather fixed all of my issues in that area.