Snow, snowy rocks and roads have different color and light reflections

[Ubeogesh]

I can see it in Dawnstar:

I use almost a complete STEP:Core (only mod I am not using is Unknown Enchants) + A only couple of mods from STEP:Extended (most of the Gameplay + iHUD + maybe something else, but not texture related) + RealVision ENB (tried turning it off though, the color inconsistencies are still there) + a couple of other mods (Falskaar, 3DNPC, Alternate Start, i.e. other stuff not related to textures in Skyrim)

Just in case here's the full list of active mods from MO: https://1drv.ms/P6oEOp (Or the text version: https://pastebin.com/qJPr6Xh7 )

Can someone please help me troubleshoot this?

[Ubeogesh]

OK here's an update... i've tried starting Vanilla skyrim (no mods, not ENB, only "live another life", I also deleted and re-created the INI files) and this weird issue also happens. Moreover, it only happens from the light that comes from torches of guards, not from my own torch (from my own torch snow and road are lit evenly)

Edited March 30, 2014 by Ubeogesh

[Ubeogesh]

OK here is when the problem occurs...

I have to start Skyrim and load in that location (that's the southern exit from Dawnstar).

If I go to any interrior and back to exterrior than lighting from guards torches is fine.

Or if I reload the game after loading once more - lighting from guards torches is also fine.

This reproduces with absolutely no mods installed and completely vanilla skyrim files and settings.

Thinking now - maybe it was in skyrim all the time? Can anyone check this?

Just in case I am using GeForce 335.23 driver on Windows 8.1 x64 with GeForce GTX 780 Ti.

[Aiyen]

It is a common annoyance with snow textures and meshes. The way the meshes are made make it VERY hard to make seamless transitions. 

It becomes more apparent when you use mods which gives the guards many torches. Since torches are shadow producing light sources then once you get past 6 in a given cell then the engine no longer renders correctly and you will get weird flickering, permanent shadows near the torch etc. 

 

As for your image, then the inconsistensy is because one part is a rock mesh, the other is a ground one. And those two textures will never blend seamlessly since there is simply too much variation around the game world. The main issue with snow is that the contrast is really huge there hence it is much easier to notice then elsewhere. 

[Ubeogesh]

Thanks for trying to help me.

So after I posted and played around with mods and settings I found out that there are different problems on the screenshot. I am really fine with the two closer ones (snowy rocks and snow having different color), but the further bug where the snow (land) isn't lit by guard's torch, and the piece of road is - is very annoying, and I can't recall I've seen it earlier.

Lets start from the beginning, I'll try to show the problem once more.

First off: totally vanilla skyrim

To reproduce:

• Start a new game in a absolutely clear vanilla Skyrim (even without Live Another Life and SKSE)
• Go to Dawnstar, look at the path that leads to the Inn
• Wait until its dark and a guard comes around
• Save the game and quit Skyrim
• Launch Skyrim and load the game

Result:

The snow is dark, the road and other objects are lit

Next step:

Without exiting Skyrim, load the game one more time

Result:

Snow receives light, everything looks good.

So Aiyen if you say this is normal, I wonder if someone can reproduce this for me so that I am at rest? because I am worried that there's something wrong with my system.

[Aiyen]

I have the same at some points. Always figured it was because of too many light sources... but it might also just be a mesh lighting interaction that does not always perform correctly! If you say a simple save and load fix it, then that might be the only way short of someone with more mesh experience then me comes to look at it. 

As far as I can tell then the meshes have the proper shader flags enabled etc. and they do behave normally sometimes... so guess it is just an engine bug. 

[Ubeogesh]

You talk about the meshes (if I understand the terminology correctly, then meshes are various object surfaces such as roads, plants, etc.) - but the meshes are always lit OK. What is not lit is the road (land) itself...

[Aiyen]

Yeah meshes are all the objects in the game world. A road is actually several different meshes. The ground below is a different beast though since it is gameworld terrain.... not an individual mesh as such to my knowledge. 

But yet another reason why I suspect some weird engine fluke.... since it works sometimes, and others it does not. And a reload sorts it out. 

 

If anyone else have some wisdom to impart on the topic then I am all ears! Would be nice to understand why this happen! 

[CJ2311]

Stuff like this sometimes happens when there's too many light sources in a single cell (I think 6 lights per cell is the max, but I could be wrong on that)

Anyway this kind of stuff definitely happened in my game too. And when I ran ELFX with LoS and went to Riverwood with yet another mod that adds lights there (for testing purposes), the road meshes were brighter than the terrain, just like in your screenshot.

 

I'd tend to agree with Aiyen on the fact that it's probably an engine bug.

[Ubeogesh]

OK guys thanks, I'm relieved