ACCEPTED Vivid Clouds and Fogs - Vanilla and Climates of Tamriel (by Mangaclub)

[TechAngel85]

I've wanted to get this mod into STEP for a long time now. I've played with it in my personal setup nearly since its release and continue to use it via Vivid Weathers. Keep in mind that I have ENB enabled in the shots, so this will affect the look of the textures somewhat (makes them more transparent). I've included an example of this effect in the first set of compares. Also keep in mind the foggy weather can be rather resource intensive. The foggy Riften shot looks amazing, but I was sitting at around 35FPS due to the volumetric fog (this feature can be cut from the mod fairly easily). Finally, the compares only include vanilla and this mod since STEP only covers the fire smoke. This rest in STEP is 100% vanilla.
 
My vanilla profile has the follow mods active:

• Cleaned masters
• SKSE - for later mods in list and mod testing
• USLEEP - for all it's vanilla fixes
• UHRP
• STEP Vanilla Optimized Textures (Standard Version)
• Bug Fixes - for vanilla bug fixes not included in USLEEP
• SMIM - to maintain mesh consistency between compares
• Immersive HUD - makes taking screenshots super easy since it auto-hides the HUD
• ELE Lite - to maintain lighting consistency
• Relighting Skyrim - to maintain lighting consistency

All shots have ELEP active with the following effects enabled using default settings:

• Detailed Shadows
• Sun Rays
• Soft Particles
• Particle Lights
• Water
• Underwater
• Cloud Shadows
• Procedural Sun

 

Vanilla >> Vivid >> Vivid no ENB






As you can see, this mod also changes some of the image space colors with the plug (extended weathers + windy clouds) which is also the cause of the performance hit, but we could use the textures only as a replacement or customize the plugin to keep some of the features. As with any effect replacing mod, images do not do this mod justice so one must test is out in-game to get a full sense of its changes. One such change are the added cloud layers that move individually from one another. This mod enhances your entire experience and the mountain fog covers up most of the z-fighting which the mountains are notorious for. I see no reason not to place this into Core.

[NewYears1978]

I can't seem to get Climates to work with STEP - how did you manage?

 

I completed all of STEP and then install Climates (tried last in load order, and just before bashed patch) and I rebuilt my patch - but no effects seem to take place.

Tried Climates+ELEFX

[TechAngel85]

I don't have CoT installed. Be sure you're plugins are in the right load order.

[Tobi]

I just installed this mod and the enb with my new step install and I love it. I'd like to throw in my vote for this one, the textures are great. I also have the groundfogs and windyclouds plugin installed.

[Kelmych]

I've been using this mod for over a year and it doesn't seem to have caused any performance problems on my system. It would be a good addition for STEP.

[Greg]

I would like to compare Vivid Clouds and Fogs with Ethereal Clouds unless TechAngel85 has already decided which one should be used.

[TechAngel85]

Vivid  >>  Ethereal




 

I only added a couple sky cloud compares here because Ethereal only replaces the cloud textures and does nothing else. Vivid does a lot more. Besides retexturing the clouds, it also includes:

• Adjusted cloud speeds
• Fire (particle) smoke
• Mountain Clouds (helps hide z-fighting while adding to the atmospherics in a nice way)
• Distant Fogs
• Mists
• Steam (dwemer ruins)
• Volumetric Fog

In my opinion, both mods are very nice. We can certainly use both, if the Ethereal clouds are preferred (they certainly are beautiful!). However, I would say we should include Vivid regardless. It provides a lot of atmospherics to the game that were missing by raising the effects already in the game up to a higher lever. A word of caution though, the volumetric fog can slow down lesser systems; however, its effect is amazing! You can actually see the fog all around you and if "feels" as though it has "substance". You "feel" like you're actually walking through it.

[phazer11]

I prefer Vivid over Ethereal in all of the tests I've done and in those screens

[TechAngel85]

Accepted into STEP as of datetime of this post.

[echo451]

I recently reinstalled Skyrim using the STEP 2.10.0 configuration.

 

The Vivid Cloud and Fog mod renders smoke and fog rather oddly.

 

At the load screen you get:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g1r4EicCwZZSm8YlQO107kHfE_59J4mg

 

In the game you sometimes get:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16hqLiMDRs93DQxkFuKJfFiYVI5DgsTDm

 

Disabling Vivid Cloud and Fog fixes the problem.

 

Load order is pure STEP 2.10.0. All installation instructions were followed. It has not gotten any faster and this is my 3 STEP build. I've sort of got the steps down. ;)

 

ENB is configured to STEP default.

 

All mods are latest from nexus loaded from the STEP pages. 

 

This is a clean install using MO. I have not tried the ENB version. 

 

(Not sure how to put a picture in a post. Google Drive does not seem to allow for using the picture URL.)

 

 

[TechAngel85]

I recently reinstalled Skyrim using the STEP 2.10.0 configuration.

 

The Vivid Cloud and Fog mod renders smoke and fog rather oddly.

 

At the load screen you get:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g1r4EicCwZZSm8YlQO107kHfE_59J4mg

 

In the game you sometimes get:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16hqLiMDRs93DQxkFuKJfFiYVI5DgsTDm

 

Disabling Vivid Cloud and Fog fixes the problem.

 

Load order is pure STEP 2.10.0. All installation instructions were followed. It has not gotten any faster and this is my 3 STEP build. I've sort of got the steps down. ;)

 

ENB is configured to STEP default.

 

All mods are latest from nexus loaded from the STEP pages. 

 

This is a clean install using MO. I have not tried the ENB version. 

 

(Not sure how to put a picture in a post. Google Drive does not seem to allow for using the picture URL.)

That looks like bad or corrupted meshes.

[hishutup]

No, you either "optimized" them or you have the imipmapskip set to something other than 0.

[echo451]

The iTexMipMapSkip was set to 1.

 

All fixed now.

 

Thank you for the help.

[CreamyRaccoon]

I've been installing STEP Extended and have been having an issue with a extremely bright worldspace that I've seemed to track down to this mod.  I went through the standard steps of going through my mod list one by one until I found the issue which appeared when I activated this mod. The problem is everything is bright and washed out especially when I look towards the sky. My in game brightness is the default I don't usually mess with those things. I've attached screenshots in this post with the hopes that will help find a solution.
 

Bright Worldspace https://imgur.com/a/N0AYn

 

Not Bright Worldspace https://imgur.com/a/1RNh2

Edited November 14, 2017 by CreamyRaccoon