pack Weather and Lighting (by Smile44)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Boss sorts ESS before sos. The author of ESS recommends the same. The author of cot snow patch recommends putting ESS after sos, not before. That is my confusion.

[Smile44]

Having looked at it in TES5Edit there are about five files in >Region that could clash with SoS - these clashes are deliberate changes as far as I can see. You could make a patch between the two just "copy as override" the SoS file into a new patch (ESS_SoS Patch) and then drag the changes from ESS into it. It shouldn't take too long as it is only a few records. The records it would clash with are likely in SoS Civilisation for the Windhelm and possibly Winterhold entries and SoS the Wilds for the others. Stick the patch in compatibility patches and that way BOSS can sort the main plugin in it's usual position and then the patch will add back in the changes ESS makes. Best of both worlds.

 

Of course it will be the case for any pack that mods you add in that clash with pack recommendations can potentially cause problems. AOS also needs lots of patching to work with STEP mods. You can also choose to leave out ESS - I really like the different snow falls but it is hardly a crucial mod.

 

I will be looking at STEP Extended this week and how it works with my packs - so I will be looking for any potential problems with the mods added by extended so I will make any necessary patches or mod change suggestions when I have done that. That said, this pack does work fine with STEP Extended but SoS is likely the only proiblem and it is fixable.

 

:)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I think I might just remove ESS. This is kinda over my head :-/

[Smile44]

Load it after the other mods, should work fine. Not much in the way of conflicts - I can't tell if you are actually having a problem with it or if it is just the yellow boxes in WB. The conflicts are really minor.

 

:)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

After which mods?

[Smile44]

After SoS mods and relevant patches (SoS patches) which ever you have installed. IN other words load it after any mods that it conflicts with.

 

:)

[DoYouEvenModBro]

K. I'll just ignore the yellow boxes. I'm sure its not that big of a deal.

[Smile44]

No it isn't, if ESS loads after SoS then you will not lose the minor but effective changes that this mod makes.

 

:)

 

EDIT: ESS provides a number of patches for SoS both Civilisation and the wilds download the ones that match the original ESS file you downloaded and all should be good. Compatibility patches should go in the Compatibility Patches section for load order unless otherwise stated by the Mod author.

[Spock]

In my humble opinion ELFX should be considered for baseline STEP. The reason is, that ELFX' goal is to make the best out of the physical lighting model Skyrims rasterization engine provides. If you do not like the ambient lighting changes or the color saturation of ELFX this could as well be fixed using ENB (*this is subjective). Theoretically ELFX could be set up to look exactly like RLO but with a more physically realistic light placement (*but this is mostly objective). This still has the advantage of lowering the physical incorrectness of the lighting in Skyrim (to a pretty steep limitation of the rasterization engine) what could be described as generally desirable, thus qualifying for baseline STEP.

 

Another thing about lighting (and shadowing): I'm currently trying Phinix natural ENB and I really like the color and ambient settings. But I think the SSAO presets lack a little (lots of floating objects). If I understand it correctly, SSAO can be controlled from the ini. Do you have a recommendation for a good/realistic SSAO preset (or an ENB with one)?

 

Regards,

 

Spock

[Aiyen]

One thing is what the goal of the lighting mod is... another is if it is done.. and none of them are finished entirely!

Also altering the color via ENB is only a partial solution, since the color setting in the CK puts limits on how much you can alter the color without messing up something else, since you only have curve and desaturation to play with color wise. And curve alter the luminosity of the pixel as a means to alter the color.

Luckily most light bulbs have their own entry in Tes5edit so you can alter the colors of them easily.

 

As for the SSAO then K ENB series have the most high quality AO around with the largest impact on performance as a result.

But other then that then you can play around with the settings until you are happy. Outside the gate of Markarth is a good place to test AO.

[Spock]

I perceived the lighting placement of ELFX as physically more realistic (limited by the rasterization engine though). And a friend of mine who also is a lot into technical details of lighting solutions for engines pretty much immediately agreed. We also agreed that the colors seem a little too saturated though, needing an ENB to reduce that slightly.

I didn't think that topic is so subjective.

 

Thanks a lot for the shader recommendation, I will test this!

[Aiyen]

ELFX has a more cinematic then realistic approach to the lighting... this is the main reason why I like it, since I think RLO gets too dark. I love a dark dungeon as much as the next person, but I also want this to be a game I can play... hence I do not mind a bit of unrealistic lighting as long as it looks great, and nothing is pitch black.

 

Saturation levels are always subjective.... some like so much saturation that the game almost looks like titles like WoW or other cartoon like designs where it is required. My biggest complaint about ELFX is that some light sources are too intense... the skylight when you enter Dragonsreach is, and the skylight in the kitchen of it are prime examples.

[Spock]

I took a little look through sharpshooters and ks enb SSAO settings. Seems like sharpshooters has the highest quality settings but they bug down my GPU quickly (samplingprecision=0 vs samplingprecision=-1 is ~18 fps!, all the other settings work fine as is).

It's really hard to tell what the best settings vs performance are. Is there a mod providing a lighting test cell with only single colored bright grey textures?

[Aiyen]

Not that I know off. I normally test at markarth exterior since it has lots of grey ruins with lots of nicks and other meshes that make it ideal for both flickering and type tests.

 

At least its the best place I have found. Guess some snowy regions would also provide ideal testing grounds.

[MontyMM]

I think that a touch of cinematic license with skyrim lighting is a good idea. I think the unrealistic lighting of the engine, and the many rough edges, never look too good when I use settings that provide levels of saturation and contrast that are somewhat realistic. I think some exaggerated settings and a bit of vaseline on the lens is the best bet!

 

My main objection to some of the more cinematic enbs is that they apply heavy blue/orange colour filters - just because so many film makers love spamming those colour contrasts with digital filters in modern movies (No, I musnt get started on that again... but take a look at sone screenshots of the movie Hugo as perhaps the worst offender - everyone looks like Oompa Loompas behind a blue window!)