Cave Interior Visibility

[MagnusThorek]

Good morning,

Recently I'm experiencing a very weird and annoying bug with some caves added by mods which are preventing me to fully explore them.

So far I noticed this bug in two caves: Adal Matar Cave, inside Adal Matar Mine, a location part of Adal Matar - Fight against the Thalmor I mod and, if I'm not wrong about the name, Soul Shadows / Snow Cave, part of Borderlands mod, right after killing the giant after cross the White Mountain gates. Both these names refer to the same cave, but for some reason the related sidequest uses one name but the cave entrance says other.

The bug itself is I have almost zero visibility inside these caves. For a very short instant, less than a second, I can see the cave normally, but right after this "blink" everything gets darker than most dark Falmer cave Bthesda provided us (Darkfall Cave, maybe?) and I can only see a few colored parts of them which, with full visibility could be the light reflections in the walls.

If I'm hit by anything inside these caves, which adds a blood splat in the screen representing I'm wounded, instead of the normal and simple blood I see a red circle, like with some texture was missing.

First time I noticed this bug was right after test the Optimizer Textures application. Thinking this could be the problem, I reverted the backup but the problem persisted.

Also, I already tried disable any mod I thought could be causing light issues like Wearable Lanterns, Colorful Lights - No Shadows, Pure Weather, Lanterns of Skyrim (and patches) and even Solstheim Climate Overhaul (just in case).

And nothing solved the issue.

I'm adding the list of mods I have, most of them are enabled (preceded by a plus sign) but there are some only installed (minus sign):

# This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer.
+The Aldmeri Domain - Fight Against the Thalmor III
+The Cyrodiil Frontier - Fight Against the Thalmor II
+Adal Matar the Lost Stronghold - Fight Against the Thalmor I
+Rainbows
-Borderlands - Reborn of the Blades
+The Hanging Gardens
-BTRH Waifu Skyrim NPC Overhaul
+Ponytail Hairstyles - Alternate Textures
+Ponytail Hairstyles
+SG Female Eyebrows
+HN66s Long Eye Lashes
+Smile in HD
+Safety Load
+ScreenShot Assist
+The Oblivion Realms Serie - Chapters Linker
+The Oblivion Realms Serie - Dremora Update
+The Oblivion Realms Serie - Morthal Pain
+The Oblivion Realms Serie - The Gate of Solitude
+Quest - The Fifth Gate
-Follower Trap Safety
-Move it Dammit for NPC Companions and Followers
-Feminine Running and New Dash Animation
+SG Female Textures Renewal
-Immersive Patrols
+Unique Border Gates
-More Immersive Dawnguard Entrance
+The Shadow of Meresis
+Undeath
+Xvision Children Redone - Wyrmstooth
+Xvision Children Redone - Falskaar
+Unofficial Dragonborn Patch
+Skyrim Project Optimization - Dawnguard
+Skyrim Project Optimization - Dragonborn
+Skyrim Project Optimization
+Pure Weather - Lanterns of Skyrim Patch
+Lanterns of Skyrim - All In One
+Pure Weather
+Falskaar - Dawnguard Compatability Plugin
+Better Shaped Creature
+A Matter of Time - A HUD clock widget
+Skyrim Search Plugin
+Wyrmstooth
+Leather Tents and bedroll
+Immersive College of Winterhold
+Better Falskaar and Wyrmstooth Map With Roads
+Falskaar
+ApachiiSkyHair natural Retexture
+Automatic Crossbows
+Wearable Lanterns
+Solstheim Climate Overhaul
+aMidianBorn bonemold
+Torch Design
+Crossbows Basic Collection
+aMidianBorn Nordic Carved
+FPS Counter
+The Dark Brotherhood Armor - TS Edition
+Opulent Outfits - Mage Robes of Winterhold - Common Robes
+Dead Body Collision Fix
+Even Better Ice Wraiths - Completely Redone
+No Menu and Loading Smoke
+Unofficial Hearthfire Patch
+Unofficial Dawnguard Patch
+Opulent Outfits - Mage Robes of Winterhold - 4.0 Update
+Oblivion Hair Pack - 3.1 Update
+Gemling Queen Dragon Claws
+Fores New Idles in Skyrim - Creature Pack
+Fores New Idles in Skyrim - FNIS
+Better Stealth AI for Followers - No Torch while Sneaking
+Inhabitants of Skyrim - NPC Overhaul
+JKO Dragonplate Armor HD
+HD Ore And Ingots
+Radiant and Unique Potions and Poisons HD - Default Alchemy Poison Bottle - Poisonous Green
+Radiant and Unique Potions and Poisons HD - Default Alchemy Potion Bottle - Deep Red
+Radiant and Unique Potions and Poisons HD
+Calientes Vanilla Outfits for CBBE - Townsperson Pack
+Jewels of the Nord - HD rings and necklaces
+Better Circlets HQ - Dark Onyx
+Better Circlets HQ
+Dark Brotherhood Babette Replacer
+Xvision Children Redone - USKP Patch
+Xvision Children Redone - Interesting NPCs
+Xvision Children Redone - Complete
+Dawnguard Rewritten - Arvak
+Proper Aiming
+No NPC Greetings
+Brynjolf and Vex Followers
+Thieves Guild Followers
+Nightingale Hall Restored - Karliah as a Follower
+Marriable Serana
+Harkons Sword - HD Retexture
+ApachiiSkyHair
+HDT HighHeels System
+Acquisitive Soul Gems
+Azuras Star Retexture
+Real Clouds
+Bigger Better Sun and Moons
+EotW Dawnguard DLC Textures Remastered
+The Paarthurnax Dilemma
+Karliah Fix - No Hood
+SkyJubs Invisible Helmets - No Helmet Mod - Hide Helmet Mod
+Opulent Outfits - Mage Robes of Winterhold - USKP Patch
+Remodeled Armor for CBBE Bodyslide and BBP - Opulent Outfits - Mages of Winterhold Patch
+Opulent Outfits - Mage Robes of Winterhold
+Lore-Based Loading Screens
+3D Loadscreens
+Height Adjusted Races with True Giants
+The Dance of Death - A Killmove Mod
+Atlas Map Markers with Dragonborn Dawnguard and Blackreach Addons
+Remodeled Armor for CBBE Bodyslide and BBP
+Face to face conversation
+Guard Dialogue Overhaul
+Konahrik's Accoutrements - Dragonborn Add-On - Sabourok Silver Replacer
+RANs Eyeliner Replacer
+ApachiiSkyHair - Extra Male Hair
+ApachiiSkyHair - Extra Female Hair
+XP32 Maximum Skeleton
+Shouts in the Dragon Tongue
+Dragon Soul Absorb More Glorious
+Book Covers
+Oblivion Hair Pack - with NPCEditor Support
+ShowRaceMenu Precache Killer
-Immersive Weapons
+Serana - No Magic Stand Alone
+Calientes Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition -CBBE-
+Serana - Remove Hood
+Ultra High Definition Enhanced Vanilla Dragons
+Craftable Circlets
+Inigo
+Skyrim Beautiful Followers
+Sjel Blad Castle
+Female Mannequins Heartfires Breton
+Breezehome CTD Fix
+The Choice is Yours - Dawnguard
+The Choice is Yours - Main
+Interesting NPCs
+Glowing Ore Veins
+Skyrim HD LITE - Misc
+Skyrim HD LITE - Dungeons
+Skyrim HD LITE - Landscape
+Skyrim HD LITE - Riften
+Skyrim HD LITE - Towns
+SkyUI
+Better MessageBox Controls
+EZ2C Dialogue Menu
+The Eye of Beauty - NPC Replacer
+The Eyes of Beauty - Dawnguard Update
+The Eyes of Beauty - Player
+Dragon Priests Enhanced
+Konahrik's Accoutrements - Dragonborn Add-On
+Konahrik's Accoutrements - Dragon Priest Armory
+Non-Automatic Skill Books - Organized Books Compatibility Patch
+Non-Automatic Skill Books - Better
+Organized Books
+Colorful Lights - No Shadows
+Project Ultimatum
+Brighter Torches with Larger Radius
+OneTweak
+A Quality World Map
+Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Also, a screenshot of the zero visibility issue (click to enlarge):

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

Adal Matr Cave while looking to the its entrance (exit back to Adal Matar Mine)

Additional details:

- I'm NOT using ENB or FXAA.

- I'm using latest version of SKSE with following directives added to skse.ini:

[Memory]
DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB=768
ScrapHeapSizeMB=256
 
[General]
ClearInvalidRegistrations=1

I'm using latest HiAlgoBoost only because I'm currently using a iGPU and sometimes the FPS drop too much. However this iGPU, defined to use 1GB of RAM (maximum allowed by my ASUS motherboard) never gave me any other issues, and I'm already with 126 active mods according to B.O.S.S.

Also, I disabled it before enter this cave and problem persisted.

Last lines (and more issues):

The "Load" option in System Menu is grayed out, preventing me to load a previous save inside the cave. This is not major to me because I save several times along my way almost all of the times.

I can't open the Local Map inside the caves. I press the button and nothing happens. Usually I don't need these maps, but complex caves/dungeons, like Nchuand-zel (the bug doesn't happen here, it's just an example of Local Map usage), it's important.

And finally I can't open the Journal. The associated key, instead of trigger the Journal, opens the System Menu and all the upper options, which could allow access to "Quests" option are also grayed out.

Phew! I detailed my problem as much as I could and I hope anyone can help me here. But if you need anything else, just ask.

[MagnusThorek]

I have an additional information which, if posted together with main post, could pass unnoticed.

I accidentally noticed that if I run faster than your follower I can "teleport" from one room / cave to other before him / her. And I did this while entering Adal Matar Cave, leaving Serana behind. And all the visibility returned.

I went back, and then I saved and tryied to enter again and this Serana came with me and the problem happened again. I went back one more time, asked her to stay there, and when I entered no problems occurred.

So, now, before entering any cave I think it may mess up anything, I ask her to wait, I enter alone and then call her with console and ask her to follow me again.

It's working, but how? Or better, why?