pack Weather and Lighting (by Smile44)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I have added Realistic Nights to the pack, there are also some updates to the installation to reflect changes in mod packaging.

 

:)

If I'm using CoT Nights Level 3 currently....which equivalent realistic nights file should I get? Is there a level 3?

 

Someone is going to have to do a BCF or give detailed instructions on which each option does. There are way to many esps to sort through and it's very overwhelming.

[Smile44]

Use default ideally, don't use Cot nights as it does not work as well. If you look at the screenshots you will see that it is very much darker, realistically so. For various reasons I do not recommend any other setting mainly technical.

 

:)

---

I've contacted mannygt & I'm going to be making a slightly modified version of Morning Fogs that will allow you to set the percentage chance of a morning fog (instead of it always occurring 100% every day). Sort of personal preference, since I wanted to make these a bit more rare.

 

Notably, this will also involve a script fix - I realized as I was looking into the mod that manny's script uses somewhat unsafe update events - basically, once you have entered the same area as one of these fogs (whether you see it or not, no matter the time of day) it begins an update loop to check the time of day every minute or so, that will never stop. Once you've encountered all the fog areas in game, that means there are script updates occurring every few seconds from all of these fog objects, and these are the type of updates that do not go away even if you uninstall the mod. So it has a bit more script overhead than necessary. Although this isn't so frequent as to really significantly impact your performance, it's still something that I'd like to address.

 

In addition to adding a user-adjustable fog chance percentage, I'll be modifying things so that the fog scripts use a safe updating method, which does not persist if the mod is uninstalled, and only remain active while you're in the same cell as the fog, so it should be a lot nicer.

 

Will update you when I get things finished. :)

Excellent I did wonder, I'm not using Morning Fogs at present, but I wonder how many scripted mods ran uselessly in the background. Could be a reason why some games became more unstable as they went along.

 

:)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Use default ideally, don't use Cot nights as it does not work as well. If you look at the screenshots you will see that it is very much darker, realistically so. For various reasons I do not recommend any other setting mainly technical.

 

:)

---

I've contacted mannygt & I'm going to be making a slightly modified version of Morning Fogs that will allow you to set the percentage chance of a morning fog (instead of it always occurring 100% every day). Sort of personal preference, since I wanted to make these a bit more rare.

 

Notably, this will also involve a script fix - I realized as I was looking into the mod that manny's script uses somewhat unsafe update events - basically, once you have entered the same area as one of these fogs (whether you see it or not, no matter the time of day) it begins an update loop to check the time of day every minute or so, that will never stop. Once you've encountered all the fog areas in game, that means there are script updates occurring every few seconds from all of these fog objects, and these are the type of updates that do not go away even if you uninstall the mod. So it has a bit more script overhead than necessary. Although this isn't so frequent as to really significantly impact your performance, it's still something that I'd like to address.

 

In addition to adding a user-adjustable fog chance percentage, I'll be modifying things so that the fog scripts use a safe updating method, which does not persist if the mod is uninstalled, and only remain active while you're in the same cell as the fog, so it should be a lot nicer.

 

Will update you when I get things finished. :)

Excellent I did wonder, I'm not using Morning Fogs at present, but I wonder how many scripted mods ran uselessly in the background. Could be a reason why some games became more unstable as they went along.

 

:)

 

So which esps should be activated?

[egocarib]

I know you're using CoT, which I'm not, but maybe this will be a little helpful at least - my current Realistic Nights esp order is:

 

RealisticNights+DB+DG.esp (main esp)

RealisticNights brightness opt 2.esp (darkness choice option)

RealisticNights DB brighness opt 2.esp (darkness choice option)

RealisticNights DG brighness opt 2.esp (darkness choice option)

RealisticNights NightEyePredatorVision.esp (optional)

RealisticNights torches magic lights.esp (optional)

RealisticNights-RLOweatherspatch.esp

 

The author says that all esps should be mergeable using the TES5Edit merge script by Mator if you prefer to go that route.

 

I'm testing option 2 (one up from the darkest option) but thinking I may go down to the darkest (default) option to give that a try instead now that I've played around with it a bit.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I know you're using CoT, which I'm not, but maybe this will be a little helpful at least - my current Realistic Nights esp order is:

 

RealisticNights+DB+DG.esp (main esp)

RealisticNights brightness opt 2.esp (darkness choice option)

RealisticNights DB brighness opt 2.esp (darkness choice option)

RealisticNights DG brighness opt 2.esp (darkness choice option)

RealisticNights NightEyePredatorVision.esp (optional)

RealisticNights torches magic lights.esp (optional)

RealisticNights-RLOweatherspatch.esp

 

The author says that all esps should be mergeable using the TES5Edit merge script by Mator if you prefer to go that route.

 

I'm testing option 2 (one up from the darkest option) but thinking I may go down to the darkest (default) option to give that a try instead now that I've played around with it a bit.

What do these esps do?

 

RealisticNights NightEyePredatorVision.esp (optional)

RealisticNights torches magic lights.esp (optional)

 

Also, do the night levels correlate to the correct CoT Night Level? So is option 3 the same darkness level as Level 3 CoT Patch?

[Smile44]

They do not correlate to the CoT levels, default is the darkest and the others lighten it up but there can be problems with shadowing using those other levels as the author warns. It is important to use the optional files so that torches and nightvision are adjusted to the much darker nights. The correct esps to use are shown in the instructions and I believe in an earlier post.

 

:)

 

Edit: An earlier post on another thread it seems, Oh well, check out the instructions in the pack. Using this is purely optional but well worth it if you like realism (such as it is).

[egocarib]

A version of Morning Fogs with script fix mentioned above & additional options is now available.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Is this version the same thing except without scripts? And you can set the percentage of occurrence? What is it set to by default? Same as the original?

[Smile44]

A version of Morning Fogs with script fix mentioned above & additional options is now available.

I have downloaded, and will look to adding it to the pack.

 

:)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Should the following also be added to this pack?

 

 

 

 

I saw this on Neo's SR:LE guide but couldn't find it in the mods section of this forum.

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/4910/?

 

Description:

 

Improves the clouds for rain, snow, overcast, cloudy weather, horizon, mountains and distant clouds. In the ultra and high versions the resolution is double the vanilla resolution. This mostly translates to a jump from 512^2 to 1024^2. The exceptions are the distant clouds (from 1024x256 to 2048x512) and the mountain mists (from 256x2048 to 512x4096).

 

The clouds are also smoother than the vanilla version. This reduces the pixelation that's pretty visible when looking straight up. These textures are stretched across the sky, which means any grain becomes that much more visible, hence why I've tried to minimize that.

 

Pick Ultra for the least pixelation (compression: 8.8.8.8 ARGB), High for a happy medium (compression: DXT5), and Medium for performance at the cost of quality (compression: DXT5).

 

((Be aware that whichever sunglare you're using (vanilla definitely), that it also adds to graininess.))

 

 

 

 

EDIT: NVM. This is for vanilla cloud replacement only. It won't show up since this pack uses CoT.

[Smile44]

Perhaps, it will need to be added to the mods section so that it can then be added to the STEP wiki, same with the new Morning Fogs.

 

:)

[egocarib]

Is this version the same thing except without scripts? And you can set the percentage of occurrence? What is it set to by default? Same as the original?

It still uses a very lightweight script to enable the fog, but it's now a safe script that is only active while the fog cell is loaded. It's not significant enough to have any real performance impact, and the script is deactivated once you leave the foggy area.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Is this version the same thing except without scripts? And you can set the percentage of occurrence? What is it set to by default? Same as the original?

It still uses a very lightweight script to enable the fog, but it's now a safe script that is only active while the fog cell is loaded. It's not significant enough to have any real performance impact, and the script is deactivated once you leave the foggy area.

Cool. I'm assuming I can just swap it out for the old Morning Fogs then? And BOSS will sort it correctly?

[egocarib]

Yeah, I didn't change the plugin name, you can swap it right out, and actually it will even fix any old fog scripts that are still running if you re-enter the area again.

[jakeslim]

Awesome work egocarib, thanks!

 

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