SKYRIMLE RCRN AE -- HDR Lighting and Weather Enhancement

[Neovalen]

RCRN AE -- HDR Lighting and Weather Enhancement

I know there is a really old thread about a previous version, but since this is a total revamp with name change I decided to make a new thread for discussion.

 

NEW in RCRN Anniversary Edition:

- Dragonborn DLC fully supported, also adds 6 brand new weathers based on the RCRN volcano expedition we did this summer.

- Dawnguard DLC fully supported

- AE Customizer tool

- Smart AutoInstaller (AAA game grade autoinstaller: provides backup, SmartScan and more)

- Autoupdater: RCRN now has the ability to update and download updates automatically. If an update is available the Autoupdater panel will show up.

- Full support to ENB and HiAlgo via the AE Customizer tool

- Totally new Regional Weather

- No more stuck or slow weather, pick your favorite weather ratio according to your timescale via the AE Customizer tool

- Cloudy Weather Pack! Adds the first batch of brand new Weathers, which includes 20 new handcrafted Cloudy Weathers.

- Cloudy Skies Texture pack! Adds the first batch of brand new sky & clouds textures.

- HD Snow Textures included, handtaken by our team from Finland.

...this is just a quick overview, the full Changelog is way bigger, give it a look!

 

Exterior Features and fixes:

- Real Volumetric Fog

- HDR Lighting

- Photo Realistic atmospherical Lighting, and perfect color balance, based on REAL LIFE data directly collected by our team in Finland and Pennsylvania (US).

- infinite different ambiental and sky Hues, thanks to our float values system.

- Supercharged Dusks and Dawns, experience the best sunset/sunrise skies ever done in a videogame.

- Dark and realistic Night-time, with 3 different user-selectable levels of darkness intensity.

- New Sun, Sunglare and Sunlight management, solved the vanilla issue that was causing the “bright dot” over mountains during dusk/dawn.

- Reworked Snow flakes and Rain drops.

- Real Life dynamically driven Snow Weathers with 6 levels of intensity.

- Real Life dynamically driven Rain Weathers with 10 levels of intensity.

- Real Life dynamically driven Fog Weathers with 6 levels of intensity and 3 different user-selectable Volumetric Fog settings.

- Adaptive Bloom for exteriors, perfectly tweaked bloom to adapt well to every environment.

- Optimized Torches and exterior static light sources (every single exterior light source has been fixed in hue and intensity).

- Regional Weather system finelly tuned to perfectly match the Skyrim geography.

- Photo Realistic Weathers, each one based on real life data directly collected by our dev team in Finland (Eu) and west Pennsylvania (US).

- Smart DOF, it will adapt "Depth of Field" dynamically according to the scene you are playing in.

- Enhanced Aurora lighting.

 

Interior Features and fixes:

- Dynamic interiors: Interiors reacts in real time to exterior lighting and weathers.

- Sounds for Dynamic interiors (you can hear exterior weather sounds, like raindrops hitting the roof) from the Interior scene.

- Dark and scary dungeons with 3 different user-selectable levels of darkness intensity.

- Adaptive Bloom for interiors, perfectly tweaked bloom to adapt well to every environment.

- Reworked 1 by 1 the lighting of each interior location.

- Optimized Torches and interior static light sources (every single interior light source has been fixed in hue and intensity).

 

Overall Features and Customization:

- RCRN Customizer, a fancy tool that allow you an easy and headache-free RCRN Customization.

- Ultra-Easy one click installation via the provided Autoinstaller.

- RCRN FXAA Antialiasing, precise and blur-free.

- Fixed the original Skyrim Eye-Adaption issues occuring both in exteriors and interiors.

- Improved Ice and Water refelections.

- Optimized the Sneaking skill in order to match the different shadows level.

- Improved Spellcast lighting and optimized fire shaders.

- Hybrid Shaders: mixes the RCRN Dynamic Shaders perfectly with a reworked version of the original ingame Shaders.

 

 

 

[video=youtube]https-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-YJhKIl6K4

[DoYouEvenModBro]

Looks pretty good. Not sure how it would compare to my current setup.

 

Would this be used instead of CoT/EFLX/RLO or an ENB?

[Aiyen]

Edit: I have edited away untrue statements, and removed some of the comments that I can see now where rude and unwarranted! 

 

It can be used with ENB, but requires that the ENB preset allows the default Skyrim Shaders to work. Also from the amount of changes they make... it would be quite a feat to combine it with larger mod lists!

 

Just from reading this, then I am skeptical about the quality compared to the description however.

Stuff like

- Supercharged Dusks and Dawns, experience the best sunset/sunrise skies ever done in a videogame.

 

Since the Skyrim Engine is just silly compared to newer engines when it comes to this (The horizon color mismatch for example.... cant be fixed other then remaking part of the engine).

 

In general I think they overabuse the word "Perfectly" for something that is entirely subjective.

At least their new site now looks like a 90´s commercial instead of a 70´s one! :) 

 

 

Oh well have to wait for the nexus to sync up their file before I can pick it apart in detail! 

[Neovalen]

Looking at this mod and how it is packaged, my only concern is going to be how to use Mod Organizer with it. There does not appear to be a manual install version, only an installer.

I tried to install it to a non-Skyrim directory so I could just grab the files but the configurator prevents you from selecting options that it can't detect.

[deathneko11]

If I remember correctly they have also made false advertisement claims in the past, saying that they worked directly with nvidia and some game companies that "supported" their work...

 

Sorry, but I've had some bad experiences with this mod in the past. I don't know about its current state but it tried to do what RLO/ELFX and COT do better. Too much in one single package and not enough quality control because they were spread too thin.

 

I admit though that I'm a bit biased. As a lighting modder I can speak truly here, RCRN and the RLO/RLwC team do not get along well with each other. There is a blood feud between us, from some very bad hurts in the past that no amount of professionalism on our end could overcome.

[torminater]

@ Neo:

You can use the installer as a executable through MO, launch it through MO and then move the files from the overwrite to the mod folder.

[Aiyen]

Edited post: Since I was being rude initially I have to apologize to both aLaaa and the readers of this forum. I have moderated this post so it is more respectful, and better illustrate what I like and do not like about the mod! Note that this is just my personal opinions, not those of the STEP team! 

 

Okay picked it up, and then apart! And here is the verdict....

 

The Installer: 

Since I am the kind of modder who can do a manual install faster then then installers, then I am not a fan. In general for mods I dislike installers, since I find I always have to install to a 3rd location, and manually move the files anyways to get the output I want. 

I find it sad that there is not an option for manual install when it would be simple enough for the authors to do, and I do not see how they would loose anything by doing it! 

 

While for new and inexperienced mod users, or just workshop users, this might be a godsend, then I just think it is a bad idea to force it on everyone in a modding community. 

 

The installer does include a Compatibility check feature, which is a nice little addition. It does have the option to fix minor issues, but it will not be able to sort out massive mod lists full of issues. Since the mod does alter quite a few "popular" forms, then there is going to be compatibility issues down the road. Nothing patches cant fix, but one should not rely on this doing it all. 

 

When used in conjunction with MO then the installer also requires a few extra steps which are added on page two in detail! (Some benefit from editing a post after a while! :) )

 

The esp´s:

There are two .esp´s, one which include stuff required for MannyGT´s fog stuff, and one that includes the majority of their edits to cells, image spaces, regions, weathers etc. 

Like I just mentioned then these edits are going to provide a challenge for larger mod lists, since so many mods edit them. 

About the fog, then it will work best without ENB, since ENB´s SSAO have some issues with the way MannyGT have implemented fog. This is sadly an engine limitation. 

 

The visuals:

Since this is entirely subjective, I am not going to say anything bad about it, since well.. I have made plenty of stuff that looked worse with ENB! They have tried to put in many different settings, to try to cater to a broad spectrum of people which is a good thing. They manage to use the default Skyrim shaders to their finest, and the outcome is really nice I think. But it will still not compare to a well tuned ENB preset in terms of effects, and quality, since they are ultimately limited by the default skyrim shaders, and what they can do.

On the bright side there is not really any huge performance impacts, so this will be a really good thing for people with medium to low end PCs and laptops. 

 

Shaders: This is mainly for people who like to mess with HLSL and stuff like that!

 

If comparing to shaders available for ENB presets. Then the ones implemented here are not gold mines of new epic stuff! RCRN uses mainly the vanilla shaders, and then apply a few post processing shaders on top sort of like SweetFX. Except they still do not have the detail that it has in terms of functions and options. Guess one can think of it as a SweetFX lite in the current form. 

While their stuff can be combined with ENB, then one have to make sure that only an ENB that actually allow the default shaders to work is used. For most current presets this require the APPLYGAMECOLORCORRECTION to be set to true, and the default bloom shader needs to be activated. Otherwise most of their work is never going to show! 

 

Overall and conclusion:

For any semi experienced modder their installer is a pain in the behind. Their weird custom menus etc. with tweaking is a nice touch. But I really miss a manual version and their shaders are so simple that putting in the values manually is not a big deal compared to much more complicated shaders out there. For new users, and people inexperienced with modding, or coming directly from the workshop then it is a nicely done however.

 

Performance wise then this will not hit hard, so it will be a nice alternative for people on medium and low end laptops who just want a better visual experience, and where ENB is not an option for whatever reason! It is also entirely possible to just enjoy higher framerates with a visual overhaul. The whole thing is nicely done, and overhauls most of the ingame visuals to blend nicer together!

 

In general the only reason one might want to bash their work, is because they oversell it so badly.  

They do manage to get more out of the game engine for relative little cost... but the overselling 90´s commercial stuff...... ARRGGHHHHh :)

[WilliamImm]

In fact, I think the only other mod with a mandatory installer (that's still being updated) is the updated unofficial Falout 3 patch. I've poked the author to make a regular archive version, but he didn't respond (instead I got some stupid reason back about exe installers being easier for most users, which I responed back by saying that it doesn't exclude a regular archive from being created). Well, the mod was supposed to be installed the earliest, but still...

[DoubleYou]

How to install this with Mod Organizer:

1. Download the file and extract the executable into Skyrim's real data directory.

2. IMPORTANT! Make a new profile with NO mods checked in the left pane AT ALL. Ignoring this warning may cause some of your mods being overwritten by the installer unawares!

3. IMPORTANT! Make certain your Overwrite directory is clean! Ignoring this warning will cause a big mess in your Overwrite directory!

4. Go to the Data tab in Mod Organizer.

5. You should see RCRN_AE_214.exe. Right-click it and select open/execute.

6. Use the installer as normal and select your REAL Skyrim directory at the prompt.

7. Once you have finished, several things have happened. All the files that RCRN normally installs to your Skyrim base directory have installed as normal and expected. All files that would have been installed to your data directory are conveniently placed in Overwrite. In addition, several empty folders have been created in your real Skyrim data directory where the installer would have put the files (evidently Mod Organizer doesn't prevent an application from creating folders in your data directory).

8. Right-click Overwrite, select Create Mod..., enter RCRN for the name or whatever you like, and finish. This puts the RCRN data files in the RCRN mod you have just created.

9. Go to your real Skyrim data directory.

10. Delete RCRN_AE_214.exe.

11. Delete the stray folders (optional).

 

P.S. A similar method probably can be used for the Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch (not tested).

[aLaaa]

I really wonder what's happening to STEP, this looks everything but not a fair discussion, quite good amount of misinformation. I really miss the old times with TheCompiler.

 

It would be used instead of ENB, since they both require hooks to work. Also from the amount of changes they make... it would be quite a feat to combine it with larger mod lists!

 

Just from reading this, then I am skeptical about the quality however.

Stuff like

- Supercharged Dusks and Dawns, experience the best sunset/sunrise skies ever done in a videogame.

 

Already there I am going to laugh, since the Skyrim Engine is just silly compared to newer engines when it comes to this (The horizon color mismatch.... cant be fixed other then remaking part of the engine).

 

The list goes on where they try to take simple things and explain it like its the most stunning new thing... except you know it is not! 

 

In general I think they overabuse the word "Perfectly" for something that is entirely subjective.

 

At least their new site now looks like a 90´s commercial instead of a 70´s one! :) 

 

 

Oh well have to wait for the nexus to sync up their file before I can pick it apart in detail! 

Wrong, RCRN can be used in conjunction with ENB, and it's really quite easy installing/uninstalling an ENB via RCRN since it's just drag & drop. 

 

Horizon color mismatch has been fixed like 3 RCRN versions ago. About Dusk/Dawn look by your self, if you manage to find a bad one let us know and we will fix it!

 

It's not so subjective if you live in Finland, RCRN uses a tonemap based on it and it's pretty clear in the whole description. If instead you are looking for a Brazil oriented lighting mod there was one around a while ago.

 

The website doesn't have any new/old version, it's just the same since an year and half, anyway thank you for your feedback, really appreciated.

 

Looking at this mod and how it is packaged, my only concern is going to be how to use Mod Organizer with it. There does not appear to be a manual install version, only an installer.

I tried to install it to a non-Skyrim directory so I could just grab the files but the configurator prevents you from selecting options that it can't detect.

Here is how to make Mod Organizer works properly with RCRN:

 

1/- Install RCRN normally, no need to run it afterwards.

2/- Create a new mod manually in MO. (By creating a new folder in "downloads")

3/- Move the "DataTextures" folder from the skyrim install folder to the one you created.

4/- Add the RCRN Launcher as an executable through MO, then run it from there. (So that all new texture files it might add for the snow and ice get sent to the overwrite folder)

5/- ???

6/- Profit!

 

If I remember correctly they have also made false advertisement claims in the past, saying that they worked directly with nvidia and some game companies that "supported" their work...

 

Sorry, but I've had some bad experiences with this mod in the past. I don't know about its current state but it tried to do what RLO/ELFX and COT do better. Too much in one single package and not enough quality control because they were spread too thin.

 

I admit though that I'm a bit biased. As a lighting modder I can speak truly here, RCRN and the RLO/RLwC team do not get along well with each other. There is a blood feud between us, from some very bad hurts in the past that no amount of professionalism on our end could overcome.

False Advertising? This made me laugh, It's not a mystery at all that there are several companies supporting us, like Steelseries, BitRock and Nvidia. This should be quite clear when looking at our website. This summer we were also invited in SF, and somewhere in our news there is a blog post about that.

 

RCRN is way older than the mods you posted, so i do not see your point. And they also do totally different things. And btw ELFX is also compatible and suggested.

 

Regarding the RLWC affair it ended an year ago, and we already solved the whole thing properly, so relationships between both dev teams are quite fine, you can see this by your own, since Syd also posted a couple of days ago in our Nexus board.

 

Okay picked it up, and then apart! And here is the verdict....

 

The installer way is just silly... when ALL other mods do it differently. It cannot really be used in conjunction with any mod managers properly. Install to a folder on the desktop, and copy the vital stuff into a new archive, then into MO like usual.... Much easier.

 

Its "Compatibility check" is a nice feature... at least it warns you of an issue... ofc you would still need to go in and fix it manually in t5e. Or just not use either mod. It is kinda like BOSS lite. But again not really compatible with mod managers other then NMM where all .esp´s are in the data folder.

 

Oh well moving on.

 

The esp´s:

They apparently got permission to use MannyGT´s fog stuff, which is nice enough for the vanilla game, but would break down rather bad if done to ENB. Prod80´s approch is much better there ... but ofc. also takes up more performance! You gotta pay for the good stuff.

There are sound, region, weather, imagespace, cell and worldspace edits. So like I suspected... compatibility is going to be a pain! But patches are properly going to be up eventually.

 

The visuals:

Since this is entirely subjective, I am not going to say anything bad about it, since well.. I have made plenty of stuff that looked worse with ENB! They have tried to put in many different settings, to try to cater to a broad spectrum of people which is a good thing. But since they cannot do any of the fancy stuff that ENB does, then this would never go as the BEST PERFECT visual experience by a long shot.

 

Shaders:

While comparing to ENB. The actual shaders are a joke! Their files are like a locked very simple SweetFX preset with attached FXAA. Most of what they use is the game engine hardcoded stuff.

One example is their Bloom... they say its super good, but if you compare what they can do with their bloom, relative to what any ENB creator can do with Kyo´s Bloom shader..... yeah

I could go on indepth about their shader files content... but yeah this is not really the forum for that hehe.

 

Overall and conclusion:

The whole thing is for workshop users.. who know squat zero about modding... For any semi experienced modder their installer is a pain in the behind. Their weird custom menus etc. with tweaking is a nice touch... but honestly... they could just have made a .txt file with the info and tell people where to write it, and made an installer free version as well.

Performance wise then this will not hit hard, so it will be a nice alternative for people on medium and low end laptops who just want a better visual experience, and where ENB is not an option for whatever reason!

 

In general the only reason one might want to bash their work, is because they oversell it so badly. The actual visual stuff, like their screenshots and videos show etc. are not bad! They do manage to get more out of the game engine for relative little cost... but the overselling 90´s commercial stuff...... ARRGGHHHHh :)

 

Edit: Oh and combining this combined with ENB... it would be possible but a bit of a job. They do have a "compatibility function" for it.. but it is never going to be super easy to make compatible etc. Of course this depends entirely on which preset one would wish to merge it into.

"The installer way is just silly... when ALL other mods do it differently" -> Sorry but Autoinstallers are pretty the standard method for dealing with complex stuff. For example Inj stuff can't be handled by mod organizers like NMM and others. Anyway we need it in order to check that the presence of the required folders, otherwise the Customizer will not work. We also do not plan to die for offering technical support to people doing wrong stuff with a manual installation, and this has a 90% probability to happen, due the 36 .esp files used by RCRN and the wide amount of textures. I don't even see your point since it seems quite easy to use.

 

"Compatibility check" automatically fix the issues if you wish it. Did you read the changelog? I guess not.

 

MannyGT is part of the RCRN dev team since ages. And anyway the Volumetric Fog provided with RCRN is totally different from the one uploaded as stand alone on Nexus.

 

RCRN is not a SweetFX preset. Bloom is not used, HDR is. This is clearly written in our .h files, this means that you never looked at the code. Anyway keep in mind that RCRN is not based on our most recent tech, and the Inj part is not updated since when we teamed up with the SweetFX and HiAlgo teams. This will result in a new injector/software that works with every game, currently planned for Q1 2014, and I assure you that it has some really amazing features.

 

Conclusion: the whole thing is not for Workshop users, since AE is not even compatible with it. Do you like write txt? OFC you can, we have it too! But personally i'll stick with a proper UI since we are in 2013 and not in 1980.

 

Since ENB and RCRN can work together without any issue I do not really see your point, about presets there are already several around, just give some time to people and more will pop, we released AE just a couple of days ago.

 

Regarding screenshots and videos, well they are just screenshots and videos like every mod has, I do not really see your point here. Usually the user submitted screenshots are way better then our "official" ones. The video is done by Culvey, and it looks quite like the Gopher videos, apart the amazing 4K resolution.

 

I really do not know why you are hating us so much, since we are only modders offering something for free. If you don't enjoy our work, there is no problem at all, this is the whole point of modding: you can find whatever you want. But if you spread misinformation about our work just for the sake of doing it, you obviously turn me angry.

 

Cheers.

[Aiyen]

Doubleyou: Compared to just installing it on the desktop in a new folder, and make an archive out of the files that are relevant (IE just the data folder...) That just seems overly complicated! I doubt many people are going to get that right! :)

 

Also doing the injectors, and shaders like this might cause some issues down the road, since they need to be copied directly into the skyrim folder in order to work. There properly is some wonky MO magic that solves this.. but I still prefer to do it manually! :)

 

Guess I should add that to my previous post as well.

[PioneerRaptor]

I thought the video looked beautiful in my opinion and the response has been completely unnecessary. If you don't like the way it looks then that is fine and you are free to say why you do not like it. However, there is no reason to get all personal with your reasoning.

 

This forum is so that others can see potential mods they might like to use and can even be used as a springboard to be put into STEP Core or Extended. As far as I'm aware, there are no rules about how they advertise, the screenshots they use or videos, and who they're associated with. The STEP team simply determines whether or not it fits vanilla and if it's better than what is offered.

[Aiyen]

Okay this is going to be a long one! So gonna take it in increments... hopefully to clear up what I mean! 

 

First I want to stress that I do NOT hate the mod, or suggest that people do not use it! In fact I stated that I found the visuals etc. quite good for the performance impact! 

 

What I strongly dislike is that it oversells with statements that are absolute in a context that is subjective... on a technical base that is just wrong. 

 

We can take this as it has a bit of all. 

- Supercharged Dusks and Dawns, experience the best sunset/sunrise skies ever done in a videogame.

The first part with supercharged... yes I agree... the second about part it being the best EVER done in ANY videogame... is just plain wrong. 

Even the older versions of the Cryengine would put the Gamebryo engine to shame in terms of exterior output. Heck even a well setup Unreal engine 3 would blow anything it can do out of the water. The list goes on. 

This again does not say what you have made is bad they do look nice.... I just dislike you trying to sell it like its the best ever... when it can technically not be true.  

(We can debate the colors etc, but what I am talking about here is ONLY engine limitations.)

 

Wrong, RCRN can be used in conjunction with ENB, and it's really quite easy installing/uninstalling an ENB via RCRN since it's just drag & drop.

This assumes that the ENB in question have APPLYGAMECOLORCORRECTION and use of external shaders enabled.

Look at any ENB preset thread and people will get manage to get confused about this. 

Also more ENB presets deviate from the base template that Boris have made. For example the custom enbeffect.fx file I have made only includes the bare minimum of the original shaders, since I want to be able to control stuff from the ENB GUI, not from the CK, as much as possible. 

This sort of thing would prevent any simple... one button click wonder doing, unless you have copies of all recent enbeffect.fx files etc. and that would just be a silly thing to maintain. 

Again this is not strictly something that is wrong with your mod, it is just something that is wrong with people... I could also say that your mod is compatible with my ENB.... IF you do this and that, but it would never be simple for the non code monkey user to do. 

Sorry but Autoinstallers are pretty the standard method for dealing with complex stuff. For example Inj stuff can't be handled by mod organizers like NMM and others.

Yes the last part is true... the first is not! The vast majority of mods do not use an installer like yours... they use a FOMOD installer where the files are still simple to get as loose files. This is the only thing I as an experienced modder dislike about that approach. It is just annoying to have to install, and get something thrown into the windows registry when all I need to do is move a few folders around... I could install the mod faster manually then by using your installer. 

We also do not plan to die for offering technical support to people doing wrong stuff with a manual installation, and this has a 90% probability to happen, due the 36 .esp files used by RCRN and the wide amount of textures. I don't even see your point since it seems quite easy to use.

I can relate to the first part! However as I just mentioned it is still overly complex for people who know what they are doing, and who are not going to come pester you with trivial install stuff. Having a manual install version up.... you got the files, cant hurt. Heck you could even hide it in the bottom of optionals, and most people would never notice anyways. Best of both worlds in my opinion anyways. 

 

"Compatibility check" automatically fix the issues if you wish it. Did you read the changelog? I guess not.

Yeah here my point was... that there is no way that your checker will go and make compatibility patches for every mod that conflict with ... cell edits for example. Unless you somehow managed to do what the Tes5edit team cannot do, and make an "Auto compatibility patch generator". (If you have then my hat is off, and I will join the chorus to praise that tool to high heaven and back down again!)

I will admit that I did install it like I said.. since I do not want my mod list that I spent months on messed up by any sort of untested automated tool..... call me a chicken that way! :) 

 

MannyGT is part of the RCRN dev team since ages. And anyway the Volumetric Fog provided with RCRN is totally different from the one uploaded as stand alone on Nexus.

I used his mod for a long time! Sadly it does not agree with the SSAO of ENB... which in general have a problem with fog. But again engine limitation. I respect all of his work, and it is nice to see it spread out more! This is what that whole part was about. And I do like what you have done with it... it looks nice. 

 

RCRN is not a SweetFX preset. Bloom is not used, HDR is. This is clearly written in our .h files, this means that you never looked at the code. Anyway keep in mind that RCRN is not based on our most recent tech, and the Inj part is not updated since when we teamed up with the SweetFX and HiAlgo teams. This will result in a new injector/software that works with every game, currently planned for Q1 2014, and I assure you that it has some really amazing features.

Ah yeah... I guess I was a bit harsh there. What I meant was, since we have had this debate before around here! People think that ANYTHING that alters how the visual thing looks is the same thing... ENB = SweetFX = ANY post processing. When in fact the difference between ENB and just altering the post processing is like night and day! 

 

And in fact I looked at ALL your .h files.. since I love doing stuff like that! 

My comment about bloom was in relation to you saying that you have a perfectly tweaked bloom code both inside and out.... When in fact your bloom code (Your HDR code is essentially a bloom code) is really just altering the built in bloom.... which is highly selective on what it works on, and hence is not perfectly adjustable. From a technical standpoint then an ENB bloom using Kyo´s shaders for it, or a mix of that and vanilla Bloom is always going to be able to produce far superior results compared to just the vanilla... since it has its odd quirks n stuff. 

Most people are never going to notice these things, since they do not know what to look for. And I do love what you have done with the vanilla bloom! We can always have a fancy tech debate about "HDR" or not.... since what you have is not technically HDR. It is a mimic of it. Just like what SweetFX does... 

 

As for the rest then that sounds interesting! I know I use SweetFX for quite a few other games with great sucess, would not mind more stuff to come out in that direction.... as long as ya do not go about claiming it can do for Skyrim what ENB can. (Unless of course you have a .dll hook that can actually do that sort of stuff... but then it would most likely not be able to be used for many games equally well.)

 

 

And about my conclusion that it is for workshop users.... In terms of technical then it is... since it is just plug and play... and do not worry about anything else (in theory anyways). You even have a compatibility checker that will make people say "But it said everything was fine".... (Again if it can do full auto patch making on a random mod list I will use it and sing for it etc.! ). There is hand holding all along the way! This is what I mean by it. Is it a bad thing.... perhaps to some! I mean it as it is good to use for inexperienced users, and the average workshop user is just that... just going from the built in mod manager to NMM is a quantum leap. 

This is compared to experienced modders, who does find this sort of installer just annoying, since it is slow, and try to perform automated tasks that you cannot ask it NOT to do. At least I would assume that is the case! If it turns out it is not, then come back and bash me for it, and I will take it back!

 

 

 

Oh yeah and finally this. (Sorry for going back I just forgot I had something to say about that! )

It's not so subjective if you live in Finland, RCRN uses a tonemap based on it and it's pretty clear in the whole description. If instead you are looking for a Brazil oriented lighting mod there was one around a while ago.

ANY visual, lighting mod is always going to be subjective... it is never going to be PERFECT! At least not for everyone! Even other people from Finland! 

 

I could go on about the tonemapping, but this monster is long enough already! 

 

 

 

So to sum up! I do NOT!!! hate your mod. I think it performs a visually NICE and very atmospheric Skyrim experience! I would recommend people try it out if they do not like the performance impact of ENB! 

However I will not say that it is PERFECT, and present the best visual experience since Crysis.... since that is just not technically possible. 

I would also never recommend that people try to just plug in on top of a massive mod list, and hope everything works out with your compatibility checker! 

 

 

 

Finally to respond to PioneerRaptor.

I thought the video looked beautiful in my opinion and the response has been completely unnecessary. If you don't like the way it looks then that is fine and you are free to say why you do not like it. However, there is no reason to get all personal with your reasoning.

I have not said anything about not liking how it looks... I infact stressed that I would not say anything bad about that! Even said then and now that I think it looks really nice! Since I can see it sounded way to harsh, I have cleared up some of the language in the other post, and hope it is better now! And hope that the clarifications brought here have better shown my criticisms.

 

I am guessing the personal reasoning was not aimed at me, and I am not going to touch that now!... post is long enough. 

[DoubleYou]

First off, before I say what I am going to say, I want you to know that I am all for competition here on STEP. The RCRN community should  count it a great big thumbs up that Neovalen, who is like a god among the modders here on STEP, decided to make a thread about your newest edition. Thank you for pointing out some erroneous information that has been mentioned, and indeed I was planning on correcting the one about ENB not working myself, but you beat me to it. Now on to what I need to say.

Here is how to make Mod Organizer works properly with RCRN:

 

1/- Install RCRN normally, no need to run it afterwards.

2/- Create a new mod manually in MO. (By creating a new folder in "downloads")

3/- Move the "DataTextures" folder from the skyrim install folder to the one you created.

4/- Add the RCRN Launcher as an executable through MO, then run it from there. (So that all new texture files it might add for the snow and ice get sent to the overwrite folder)

5/- ???

6/- Profit!

 

I see that you have tried to help Mod Organizer users out by posting a method of installation. I thank you. If you look above, you will see that I already have given a workaround, which I am guessing that you disapproved of since you posted your alternate method. Unfortunately, your perfectly valid method has somes issues that need fixing, so let me edit it for you a bit.

 

1/- Install RCRN normally, no need to run it afterwards. [What's that last line about?]

2/- Create a new mod manually in MO. (By creating a new folder in "mods")

3/- Move the following files/folders into your manually created MO mod folder from Skyrim's Data directory, creating new directories, etc., as necessary:

-RCRNdgdb.esp

-rcrnShaders.bsa

-rcrnShaders.esp

-rcrnShaders.ini

-RCRNvolumetric.bsa

-RCRNvolumetric.esp

-/Video/BGS_Logo.bik

-/textures/ [should have three folders if using a pristine Data directory: landscape, sky, and terrain]

-/scripts/rcrn_DynamicInterior_V20.pex

4/- Enable your manually created mod in your profile.

5/- Add the RCRN Customizer as an executable through MO, then run it from there. (So that all new texture files it might add for the snow and ice get sent to the overwrite folder ????????)

6/- Profit!

 

The main problem was that you said to create the new mod in MO's downloads directory. Now the largest thing that my method has going for it is that it eliminates the hassle of step 3, where you must manually move your files out of the data directory. Even you yourself missed a bunch of the files it installs, which will clutter our pristine Data directories. The main reason we use Mod Organizer is to prevent this problem. Also, perhaps the user had manually installed other mods into his data directory in conjunction with Mod Organizer (Believe me. This happens. My brother does it.). The user may have other files in his texture folder and all over his data directory that might get swamped into your manually created mod, not to mention the possibility of user error in moving your files to the wrong place in their manually created mod (and that rcrn_DynamicInterior_V20.pex script will be the most likely file to go).

 

BTW, after each run with RCRN, it will move some of its files back into MO's overwrite mod. You should move them back to your RCRN mod after each run to keep your overwrite directory clean.

 

And BTW, the mod looks good so far. Not sure if I'll keep it or not at this point but will keep experimenting.

---

Doubleyou: Compared to just installing it on the desktop in a new folder, and make an archive out of the files that are relevant (IE just the data folder...) That just seems overly complicated! I doubt many people are going to get that right! :)

 

Also doing the injectors, and shaders like this might cause some issues down the road, since they need to be copied directly into the skyrim folder in order to work. There properly is some wonky MO magic that solves this.. but I still prefer to do it manually! :)

 

Guess I should add that to my previous post as well.

It installs the shaders correctly. It's not as hard as it sounds. However, I'm thinking there indeed may be an easier method. The problem with your suggestion is that the installer doesn't just simply allow you to install it to any folder you jolly well choose.

[Aiyen]

As long as you have created the folder first it does. That is the only limitation.

 

Other then that, then great stuff from both you and aLaaa! Always nice to know more about how the wonky MO magic works!