Weird lighting issues + other minor things

[Majorshepard]

So the main issue I have right now is with lighting in the game. Most of the time it's fine, there are no issues and lighting works. However in some indoor locations the lighting seems to not affect specific areas until I move really close to the area in question. Like a corner of the room all of it will be black and dark until I walk up to it and the lighting 'Pops' into existence. Walking away from the area brings the issue back. I originally thought it was ELFX causing the issue so I replaced it with RLO but the issue still remains. There's even cases of black stripes in some locations on floors that sometimes stay around even after I move close (but those are rare). I don't know if its a mod conflict or the game itself but it gets really distracting when you're in a well lit room but the left side is completely dark.

 

Screenshots of issue:

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/uCVHdTo.jpg

 

And After moving forward slightly but looking in a specific direction makes it dark again.

http://i.imgur.com/DGihNr3.jpg

College of Winterhold (Student rooms)

Helgen (In Helgen Reborn)

 

 

 

Mods:

 

 

Alchemist Compendium

Harvest Overhaul - Creatures 0.91

Harvest Overhaul - Plants 0.91

D13 Faster Get Up Standup SSE

Fores New Idles in Skyrim - Behaviour

Fores New Idles in Skyrim - Spells

No spinning death Animation

Pretty Combat Animations SSE

Pretty Female Idles SSE

Pretty Sit Idles SSE

XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special edition

aMidianborn Book of Silence Blades armour Hotfix

DCR - King Crusader Mega Pack

Dragonbone Barbarian Armour - CBBE Bodyslide 2 SSE Files

Dragonbone Barbarian Armour - Female Only

Rogue Sorceress Outfit Retextured

The Lily - Armour Mashup

Fantasy Soundtrack SSE

SSE Hi quality Music

Immersive Sounds - Compendium

Beards 2K

Eye Normal Map Fix SSE

KijikoHair 2.0

KS Hairdos SSE

Modern Brawl Bug fix

Simple Auto Unequip Ammo

Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch

Dawn of Skyrim (Directors cut) SSE

Bandolier - Bags and Pouches Classic

The rings of Old - Morrowind Artifacts

Violens

SkyTEST

Realistic Water Two

True Storms Special Edition

Dawn reimagined

Recorder - Standalone Fully Voiced Follower

Shindara - The Fire within

Sofia

ABT SE - Arrows and Bolts Tweaks Special Edition

Alternate Start

Cutting room floor

Instant Mining

Predator Vision

Relistic Conversation

Stones of Barenziah

Even Better Quest Objectives - Alternate Start Patch

Even Better Quest Objectives

Even Better Quest Objectives - Paarthurnax Dilemma Patch

Hunterborn SE

iNeed

Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO patches Final

Relationship Dialogue Overhaul

Wet and Cold

YOT - Your Own thoughts

Wearable Lanterns

Transmute Iron First

aMidianBorn Book of Silence - Armours

aMidianBorn Book of Silence - Creatures

aMidianBorn Book of Silence - Dragonborn DLC

aMidianBorn Book of Silence - Unique Items

aMidianBorn Book of Silence - Weapons

Apophysis Dragon Priest Masks SE

Book Covers skyrim SE - Desaturated

Book covers Skyrim - lost Library Desaturated

Deathbell HD 1K

Designs of the Nords SE

Ethereal Clouds SE

Fair Skin Complexion for UNP

Female Dragonic Argonian Textures 2k (CBBE and UNP)

Female Vampires have fangs

Feminine Khajit Textures (Grey cat and Leopard)

LeanWolfs Better-Shaped Weapons - All in One

LeanWolfs Better-Shaped Weapons - Arrow update

LeanWolfs Improved Enchanter candle Meshes SE

Realistic Horse Saddle

Ruins Clutter improved SE

Rustic windows SE

Skyrim Flora Overhaul SE

Skyrim SE Skill Interface Retexture

SMIM 2.04

The Bathsheba Body (BSB) SSE v2 Preset

White Phial replacer SE

Convenient Horses

Falskaar

Campfire SSE

Frostfall SSE

RS Children Overhaul

Climates of Tamriel Special Edition - SE

Climates of Tamriel Special Edition - Falskaar Patch

Moonlight Tales Special Edition

Realistic Lighting Overhaul SSE

YY Animation Replacer - Mystic Knight

Ethereal Elven Overhaul patches for SSE

RS Children Overhaul Patch Database

Clockwork SSE

Helgen Reborn SSE

The Paarthurnax Dilemma

Ethereal Elven overhaul

Better dialogue Controls

Better MessageBox Controls

English Strings for Skyrim SE

Lockpick Graduation (Option 3)

Unread Books Glow SSE

Achievements Mods Enabler

BodSlide and Outfit Studio

Enhanced Blood Textures SE

Footprints

Glowing Ore Veins 300 SSE

No More Radal Blur

Daedric Dawnbreaker

Dragon Steel Weapons

Eidolon's edge

Lore Weapon Expansion

Berserk - The Black swordsman Armour

Berserk - The black swordsman - DraculaOffspring Dragonslayer

Unique Uniques SSE

 

 

 

Computer specs

 

 

2x Zotac nVidia GeForce GTX 970 SLI

Intel Core i7 3770k

16GB RAM DDR3

Asus Maximus V Formula Motherboard

Windows 10 Pro 64bit

 

 

 

Minor Bugs

 

 

Here is a list for minor bugs or issues I have encountered just incase they are apart of the main issue or may be signs of a bigger issue, will update if anymore occur:

 

• During the quest 'Ill met by Moonlight' After talking to Sinding and he gives you the ring he is supposed to turn into a werewolf and climb out of the pit. However for me it got as far as him transforming and looking up before he just stood there. He still looked around but didn't move from the centre of the jail. Sometimes he turns his head towards the PC but instead of making a sound he makes static noises for a few moments before going silent again.

 

• Random CTD's. These have varying occurrences and can happen at any point in the game. For example I could just be walking in the open world and then a CTD for no reason (No freeze or jerk). Sometimes it happens if I use the wait function multiple times and CTD on coming to Raining weather (Attempting it again on booting back up does not make the issue occur again).

 

• Vibrating/Moving items on shelves. I know this was sort of an issue in the original game but some items seem to move or float up a little before resetting in position and doing it again. Some items load halfway through whatever they are on and continue to make noise either until it gets pushed outside the object or I take it. I'm surprised they didn't fix this issue but maybe they did and i broke it somehow. It can be funny when you see a dancing/spazzing out skeleton that flies all over the place but the noise is too much. If there is a mod for SE that fixes this please let me know. Fixed occurs when allowing Skyrim to go higher than 60fps as Physics is tied to framerate (Annoyingly). 2/9/17. Fixed at an earlier date but forgot to update here.

 

• Weird Electrical sounds in the Midden. So I am not sure what caused this to happen but upon first arriving to the midden I kept hearing electrical sounds coming from teh cylindrical room with water in the left side with a sewer. There was also lighting effects seemingly being caused by 'Spark' spell attack. And yet there was no physical attack and 'TCL' revealed nothing on the other side of the room. The only thing I can think of is that I did see Khajiit mage casting sparks in teh main hall with the eye of Magnus on one of the lights before going into the midden so maybe it kept his attack loaded? Not sure. Leaving the area to the lower midden and coming back after speaking to the Augur fixed it.

 

• Low textured areas in Whiterun. This only happened once so far but during a rainstorm parts of the floor in Whiterun did not load properly and actually where higher than the actual floor. It was like it was loading other textures on top of what was there as the ones under them where fully loaded and normal. No need for TCL as I could walk through them without it.

 

• Another bug at the College of Mages when you first go up the bridge with Fadara she's supposed to light the braziers on the way up. However her spell only hit one brazier while she got stuck on the ramp leading up to the second one and kept casting the spell at the floor, using up her spells and now the last two are unlit. I cannot light them myself (at least as far as i know) and reloading did not sort the issue as she did the same thing again.

 

• And yet another bug at the college. When you help a fellow mage by letting her cast spells on you and turning you into various animals my PC kept changing positions moveing further away until being changed into a do and pushed into a room where her spell could not hit me leaving me stuck in conversation and dog form until a few minutes pass and the game jsut removes the dog and puts me back infront of the mage.

 

• I sometimes have a problem when using 'work' animations such as the chopping block and taking a log to put into the automated logger. My camera will zoom out but the animation does not play. Instead I can move around and do normal attacks and such. However the camera is stuck until i fast travel away or reload. It happens quite a few times and the only thing I can think of is that the character got stuck on the terrain so they could not move close enough for the animation to play, cancelling the action out but not resetting the camera.

 

• (13/8/17) After getting the blood needed for the Oghma Infinium dwemer cube I have to read the mook on the page. However instead of showing the correct image it shows a rainbow colour with 'img:' in big black letters. Also when using the book to gain levels in skills it does not reward them but the book is still used and disappears (Update: Turns out you have to leave the cave for it to work). Fixed by downloading the missing textures and placing/naming them in the required way. 2/9/17
  

 

 

 

Minor bug images

Oghma Infinium issue. (Fixed 2/9/17)

http://i.imgur.com/05ogaID.jpg

Edited September 2, 2017 by Majorshepard

[Majorshepard]

Still having the main issue occur and in some areas it gets pretty bad with entire areas going dark for no real discernable reason. Maybe I'm the only one that has ever had this issue lol

[nightscrawl]

Still having the main issue occur and in some areas it gets pretty bad with entire areas going dark for no real discernable reason. Maybe I'm the only one that has ever had this issue lol

 

I have it occasionally. I think it has to do with a game limitation regarding the number of light sources an individual cell is allowed to have. It's a shame that the RLO folks disabled comments, otherwise you could ask there. Did you try asking on the ELFX page?

[Majorshepard]

I did not, I figured I wouldn't need to as both mods seem to have the issue. But it might be a good Idea, I'll give it a try.

[Dracotorre]

It's tough to say with one example, but I agree with nightscrawl about likely something is exaggeration light limit issue resulting in popping light or flicker. it's not ELFX or RLO itself as you've deduced, but realize that lighting mods push the light limits so any problems with your setup may increase light-limit-related issues. Could be game engine slow to respond or mod conflicts. Make sure plugins sorted properly and mods installed correctly, perhaps reduce your load, and the problem should go away.

 

 

On your minor bugs list:

 

* the missing Sinding climbing animation is due to Moonlight Tales SE borrowing the animation for a howl; documented on the Moonlight Tales page.

* Random CTDs indicates a problem - check your load order, conflicts, save-game problems such as dangling references, or if too much strain on engine.

* Whiterun texture load: could be related to your primary concern.

* Faldra lighting path at college: Unofficial Skyrim SE Patch fix along with a mod not passing through the fix (or some other change) leads to Faldra missing most of the lights. I've encountered this. Without USSEP then Faldra will likely hit every light. Use xEdit to find conflict and create a patch, or live with it.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Dracotorre

[Majorshepard]

Ah I see, the ELFX creator said the same about the lighting issue when they replied, also that I could've missed meshes when i installed. But if that was the case why would RLO have the same problem, the Light limit seems the problem, at least for now.

 

For the load order it is sorted with LOOT and they are all in the placements it used, I just listed the mods I had in my list and not the plugins (so then everything is shown rather than just ones with plugins). I'll check for conflicts, I thought LOOT also checks for those but I'm not sure if thats reliable. I might be able to use SSEEdit to see if there are any conflicts I'll have to look it up. As for dangling references how do I check for, and fix, those?

 

As for the Sinding issue I couldn't see it on the main page or the posts/bugs. He gets a lot of comments so it might've been lost amongst it all :tongue:.

 

Since the last time for Whiterun it hasn't happened again, very weird.

 

For Faralda I have moved too far along into the game to go back and fix it for my current save but I'll check it for future ones.

 

Update: As a question i recently remembered about Wrye bash and Bashed patches and was wondering if they fix mod conflicts? Or if they are only for reducing mod list size for the oldrim "255" limit. I'll still apply it for now to see if it alleviate any of the issues I'm having.

 

Update 2: Ok so a bashed patch did not fix the lighting issue.

 

Gif of Lighting issue (After Bashed patch):

 

 

College of Winterhold (Student rooms)

Helgen (In Helgen Reborn)

 

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by Majorshepard

[Dracotorre]

The animated images are helpful. I have seen the light blink out against a surface like that on very rare occasion (maybe once every 100 hours) so far only in a city where there are many lights. Never witnessed it in those places or that large of a surface. I had figured it was the engine trying to compensate with the light limit, but your examples appear to have few light sources (though we'd have to count). View angle determining how surface is lit may clue us in.

 

Is your character carrying a light source-torch, spell, or Wearable Lantern? I believe in my cases I had a light. I'll try to record details if I experience this again.

 

Then the question is why worse for you than my experience? Assuming it's worse. I still suspect a game-engine limitation, though.

Edited August 18, 2017 by Dracotorre

[Majorshepard]

From what I can tell it seems to be when I look in very specific spots, like there is an invisible object floating in the air, even if its behind a wall or set of stairs. This was most apparent in the college of winterhold as when I looked above the well in the mage quarters and to the left the walls in the stairway would go black as shown. However looking jsut a little bit to the right it would make it normal. Its like there is a box floating that is casting the shadow effect.

 

As for the lightsource carrying I do have wearable lanterns installed but for the images I took, and most of the game, I am carrying the Dawnbreaker. I use a mod called Daedric Dawnbreaker that makes it cast light in the area, I haven't actually checked to see if this occurs without it equipped.

 

As another thing I noticed, at least recently, none of the lighting problems happen in the open world. It is only in buildings or the cities that I've seen it occur, or at least its most notable. I've never noticed it happening outside in the forests or tundras.

 

Update: Ok so I just tried unequipping Dawnbreaker and trying it without it and the problem actually stopped o.o. I guess with the extra light from the weapon is making it go over the limit, even tried with the travel lantern and a normal torch makes it that also happen. I guess I should just step away from those for the moment until the problem is somehow fixed.

Edited August 18, 2017 by Majorshepard

[Majorshepard]

As a heads up the problem is still there however it is less noticeable without an extra lightsource as the Dawnbreaker or Lantern.

 

And as for Oghma Infinium Texture issue I actually looked into the locations the game were looking for texture of the book and found that there were no such files there o.O. I searched the entire Installation location and found that none of the textures were there anymore, I am not sure if it's missing in the default game or a mod deleted them but that is very weird. I've downloaded replacements and named them the same as the ones in SSE and I'll check to see if that works.

 

Update: It did work and the book now displays the correct textures now, no errors as far as I can tell anyway. So scratch one problem off the list! :D

Edited September 2, 2017 by Majorshepard