MattHunX

Asking modders what setting has any bearing on the distance at which the Detect Life spell's effect (or shader or whatever the technical term is) takes effect. Even if I cast a version with 120ft range I only start seeing it around 20-30 feet, so barely more than what's around the next corner and it's the same outside. I LOVE this spell. I loved it since I first played Oblivion (it was my first Bethesda game and my first open-world RPG), way back when. Detect Life is one of my favorite spells and, as I "rediscovered" it in the remastered, I also happen to like the default effect. Problem is it is "rendered" almost completely useless/ineffective, because it just doesn't render over a certain distance. All of my settings are set low, because of hardware reasons. I have both a pak file (from VynnGfx's Optimized Tweaks OBLR) and a modified ini (from TheHybred's Optimizations). I know they warn against running both kinds of alterations at the same time, but it doesn't seem to cause any problems (unless my Detect Life not rendering properly IS such a problem). I honestly can't even tell if either one of them gave me much of a performance boost (but adding some additional lines to the ini from dr3dre's Force Enable FSR3 Frame Generation definitely doubled my FPS both in and outside). Anyway... What could be the culprit, here? Cell loading? The modifications conflicting? Some line and a number in the ini set too low? Bethesda? The government? Aliens? What?

This always annoyed me, especially when it's done through walls or even within the same room, where there are more NPCs with their backs turned. How do any of them just magically know it's not any of their allies walking about? They immediately go on alert, like hearing footsteps could only automatically mean: ME! (I mean it DOES, yes, but they shouldn't know that!). How can developers (definitely not expecting Bethesda here) make this be more dependent on, say, line of sight, for confirmation, when you're moving along a corridor, passing between rooms, so they won't get alerted until they see you and realize it's not one of them. OR, when it's all in one room, one of the enemies pottering about won't automatically switch to search and destroy mode, if they hear some feet shuffle anywhere behind them, because it just might very well be the other person in the room with them (I mean it's NOT, but they shouldn't know that!) Maybe they ought to give NPCs an attribute called "nerves" or something, that, depending on their level and particular skills, would determine their calmness, so they may or may not be jittery. They'd either be generally more relaxed and wouldn't immediately investigate or even care to turn around when they'd hear footsteps that could be from their allies (when they have them - conditional) or they might jump at a flea farting.