SKYRIMLE Realistic Nights (by MountainFisherman)

[egocarib]

Just wanted to say, I tried several lighting level presets of this mod in combination with RLO (I'm not using CoT), and I really didn't like it. It pretty much ruined the extremely well-done RLO city exteriors and minor cities edits. The difference was quite drastic, for me at least - I may try and post a screenshot later if I get a chance.

[egocarib]

Huh. I redact that comment. Weird, rebooting the game tonight all seems to be working right, not sure why it was so off my last play session - there was serious shadow problems and pockets of complete pitch blackness before, which all seem to have disappeared!

 

What I notice now is a slight difference in saturation though, I feel like I lose just a tiny bit of RLO's "warmth" and coloration for those who are familiar with it. But the nights are definitely darker which is nice. Will keep playing and see how it goes :)

[Scafremon]

Tonight I noticed that between 5:45 and 6:15AM, and then again between 6:45 and 7:30PM, the light becomes extremely white. All detail on surfaces is washed out. Can you guys check out those times and see what you get?

 

I'm using the brightest choice (#4), and with none of the optional files. Also using ELFx.

 

Edit: Screenshots

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=221381715

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=221381543

 

(My game normally does look much better than the above). :-)

 

Let me know if those links dont work, or if I have mistakenly given everyone complete access to my steam account. :-)

 

Edit 2: I tried to duplicate it without luck. I was in a different area this time though. It might have something to do with those rock surfaces near me in those pics. Those pics were taken between Helgen and Falkreath. And my times might be off some.

[rootsrat]

Tonight I noticed that between 5:45 and 6:15AM, and then again between 6:45 and 7:30PM, the light becomes extremely white. All detail on surfaces is washed out. Can you guys check out those times and see what you get?

 

I'm using the brightest choice (#4), and with none of the optional files. Also using ELFx.

 

Edit: Screenshots

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=221381715

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=221381543

 

(My game normally does look much better than the above). :-)

 

Let me know if those links dont work, or if I have mistakenly given everyone complete access to my steam account. :-)

 

Edit 2: I tried to duplicate it without luck. I was in a different area this time though. It might have something to do with those rock surfaces near me in those pics. Those pics were taken between Helgen and Falkreath. And my times might be off some.

 

Not enough info. It would dependant on weather and ENB preset (and probably a couple of other things that someone like Aiyen will be able to bring up, I'm thinking imagespaces but I may be wrong). The light would behave differently in various weathers and of course depending on which ENB you use. If you want someone to recreate it, please provide more info.

 

STATUS is a must have mod when testing stuff like that.

[Aiyen]

Look at you getting all technical root! :D

 

But you are right, need info about any ENB, and/or weather.

If it is an ENB with Time of Day enabled then it most likely have some values that cause the dawn dusk transitions to explode. But could also just be that the image spaces for the given weather has some really bad values at its dawn and dusk.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

What is the mpad patch?

[DoubleYou]

What is the mpad patch?

Moon Phase Affects Brightness at Night

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/47332/?

[Scafremon]

It was cloudy and raining. No ENB's installed.  I had forget to mention that there was a campfire involved in the morning pic, and in the evening pic I was just outside eastern gate of Falkreath and the guards were nearby with torches.

 

The first time I encountered this type of lighting was from guards torches in town. I then reinstalled the mod removing all the options. I thought the issue had went away, as my own torch did not create the problem.  But as you have said, there could be other weather factors involved.

I will post the issue at the nexus forum for the mod so the author can look into. I just felt obligated to mention it here since  the mod is being considered for a STEP pack.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I think more research and testing is needed. I'll fire it up and do some testing myself if I get the chance/time. Right now, this mod needs clearer options/a BCF (or FOMOD) installer. I'm not installing this yet but I will be keeping a watchful eye on it. I'm also afraid of how this will look with my ENB. I think unless the brightness levels are tied directly to CoT, any CoT dependent ENBs (Project ENB/Serenity ENB, etc.) will mess up at night. That's just my guess. Could be wrong but it's a possibility.

[oqhansoloqo]

Is it me or is this mod way too contrasty? It's nice to have more defined shadows during the day than vanilla, which looks washed out in a lot of ways, but the shadows in this mod during the day just look nearly pitch black. What about the carriage ride? - you can hardly even see the faces of the people you are riding with. The shadows just seems off balance... There needs to be some tweaking done for daytime shadows. The colors look washed out during the day too - a little overly bleak. This mod still needs some work.

 

I like the idea though, very much, because I can't stand the way vanilla nights are. What was Bethesda thinking when they decided to make them so bright? It makes it not fun... This mod makes daytime shadows WAY too dark though.

 

EDIT: Actually, not sure, but I just installed Realistic Lighting Overhaul (Exteriors and Weather) alongside and the colors don't seem so washed out/bleak (or maybe I just got used to it?). I'll have to take screenshots and compare...

 

EDIT2: Yes, according to screenshots it is slightly more colorful with RLO Exteriors running in tandem. I also feel that the carriage ride looks 'slightly' better shadow-wise. Still not right though... Does it really make sense that you can see the landscape and the other carriage as well as Alvar (or whatever his name is) better than you can see the people right next to you? Nope.

[DoYouEvenModBro]

I don't use this mod based solely on the fact that the install instructions are terribly written and the esps are confusing as hell.

 

 

EDIT: I didn't realize he came out with a FOMOD installer. I haven't looked at this mod in a while. 

[egocarib]

Is it me or is this mod way too contrasty? ...

 

This was ultimately how I ended up feeling. I may try it out again eventually after it's been updated some more (since I agree that this kind of thing would still be very nice), but for now I'm going to set it aside.

[oqhansoloqo]

You know, even though it is very contrasty... I'm actually considering using it in my setup for a few reasons: it makes night time dark like it should be finally, but at the same timemakes you harder to find by NPCs in that darkness so you aren't at so much of a disadvantage, keeps light sources bright and doesn't darken them, seems to work nicely with RLO Exteriors, has a weather patch (so weather affects darkness levels), has a moon phase patch (so the moon phase affects darkness levels), and also has a few darkness levels itself (so you can pick an option that is slightly brighter than complete black). It's compatible with Lanterns of Skyrim, which is also important. Supposedly ELFX Exteriors is not. I don't know any other mod that does what this one does and has the same compatibilities as this one. I still think that there is slightly too much contrast during the day and I'd like to see that tuned a bit. I also don't like how the mod handles the carriage ride at the beginning of the game (and there may be more situations that don't look right - as I haven't tested the mod thoroughly enough yet). Overall though, it does a lot of things that I have yet to find in other mods that are available (without going the GPU-heavy ENB route).

 

One issue I noticed though - I don't know if it's this mod or not, but it seems to me that the torch light from NPCs carrying torches is not visible from a fairly short distance away. IOW - an NPC can be holding a torch at night and I see it when I'm say... 100 feet away, but once I get to say... 500 feet away (or whatever relatively short distance) I can no longer see the emanated light, but just the torch itself. I don't know if this mod controls that or another mod or an .ini setting, but if it's this mod the distance at which the player can see emanated torch light should be extended. It's important because it's useful to know if someone is nearby by their light emanations, before the player is right next to them. Does anyone reading his have any ideas about this? Is it this mode or another one I might have installed, or ini setting?

[oqhansoloqo]

I figured out what the deal with the torch light was... In fact, I don't understand why STEP doesn't recommend altering this:

 

SkyrimPrefs.ini - change the "fLightLODStartFade=" value to something like 12000. Then Skyrim.ini - change "fLightLODMaxStartFade=" value to something like 16000. Make sure that the one is a greater number than the other one.

 

This controls how far away you can see emanated light. Not how far light emanates from a source to lighten it's surroundings, but how far away you can see the light on the surroundings. It's important to have the one setting lower than the other, otherwise there will be no fade effect as you reach near the limit of the visibility of the light and it will just cut off. I highly recommend changing these settings in order to be able to see nearby activity at night.