VGI Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 (edited) Hi, I'm new here. (Then again maybe not because I used to play a heavily modded Morrowing back in the day, so I may just have forgotten whether I am already a member of this forum or not). I got TES4: Oblivion last Christmas season in Steam during Steam's Holiday Discount Weeks. A few weeks ago I downloaded it into my rig to replace ZenoClash which I finished rather quickly. Then I discovered the mods and became very active in Steam's Oblivion forums. I got a lot of threads there. LOTS. But nobody seems to be answering this one. So I am posting here. Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys vs Illumination Within Revived mod Ok, so I'm almost done with Beautifying Oblivion the Complete Guide's VISUAL portion. Someone suggested Animated Window Lighting System and Chimneys to me, and it sounds quite interesting. However, note a portion of AWLS's readme file: ===============================================Textures Pack======================================================Brumbek’s Mixed Texture Pack (most options and recommended install)Ismelda Gray Pack (not recommended, totally incorporated into Brumbek’s Pack)Texian's Window Lighting System (not recommended)Illumination Within (not recommended) Illumination Within Texture Pack is not recommended??? Why not? Should I switch from Illumination Within to AWLS? 1. If I have Illumination Within Revived mod active in OBMM, and I install AWLS and go with the Brumbek's Mixed Texture Pack, will it work? 2. Should I deactivate Illumination Within when I decide to use AWLS? Edited February 14, 2011 by VGI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkInMKUK Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 AWLS and Illumination Within Revived both do effectively the same job, but in slightly different ways. Illumination Within has a higher performance hit, though both are very slight on most modern rigs. AWLS adds smoke to chimneys as well which is a nice touch, however I believe Illumination Within does some stuff with shutters where fitted. Unless one specifically clashes with or enhances another mod, I would suggest they are much of a muchness - just pick the one you like best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VGI Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 (edited) AWLS and Illumination Within Revived both do effectively the same job, but in slightly different ways. Illumination Within has a higher performance hit, though both are very slight on most modern rigs. AWLS adds smoke to chimneys as well which is a nice touch, however I believe Illumination Within does some stuff with shutters where fitted. Unless one specifically clashes with or enhances another mod, I would suggest they are much of a muchness - just pick the one you like best. Do you think they will work fine together? Or will doing so just be redundant? I take note that Illumination Within Revived only has 55 endorsements, while AWLS has an outstanding 534 endorsement, with 4 negative. What do you mean by Illumination Within has a higher performance hit? I'm leaning towards AWLS because of the sheer number of endorsements. Edited February 14, 2011 by VGI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkInMKUK Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 Illumination Within and AWLS both try to do the same thing, so either one is redundant and may cause a clash. From my understanding of the two mods (please post a correction if I'm wrong) Illumination Within Revived has more complex scripting, hence the slightly higher performance hit. Also it relies on custom positioning of windows, so if you add a mod such as better cities, the windows are not included unless there's a compatibility patch. With AWLS, there's less scripting, hence slightly lower performance hit, and the textures replace the originals so EVERY window using the default textures will use the new lit ones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InAComaDial999 Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 AWLS uses animated meshes to create illuminated windows. It replaces the window meshes that are used by the various building types, with ones that have a "lit" and "unlit" state. It does not modify the buildings themselves, just the windows, so it will work with any mod that uses the stock window meshes (which is basically all of them). So if you have a mod that adds a new village, house, cathedral, etc, they will have lit windows. AWLS controls the timing of the lighted windows using scripts which monitor the time and weather and set the state of the windows accordingly. This is where the CPU hit happens with AWLS. On the other hand, IWR replaces specific windows, not all of them. It also places light sources at specific places in the world. This means that it works fine with vanilla buildings and towns, but will not know about structures added by mods. And it has a much higher performance hit because of the real light sources, which cast shadows, reflections, etc, and really tax your graphics card. AWLS does not use "real" light sources, so its FPS impact is much less than IWR. Even the most complex AWLS script, the "advanced" one, has a much smaller framerate hit than IWR. These mods should not be used together as they conflict. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VGI Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 AWLS uses animated meshes to create illuminated windows. It replaces the window meshes that are used by the various building types, with ones that have a "lit" and "unlit" state. It does not modify the buildings themselves, just the windows, so it will work with any mod that uses the stock window meshes (which is basically all of them). So if you have a mod that adds a new village, house, cathedral, etc, they will have lit windows. AWLS controls the timing of the lighted windows using scripts which monitor the time and weather and set the state of the windows accordingly. This is where the CPU hit happens with AWLS. On the other hand, IWR replaces specific windows, not all of them. It also places light sources at specific places in the world. This means that it works fine with vanilla buildings and towns, but will not know about structures added by mods. And it has a much higher performance hit because of the real light sources, which cast shadows, reflections, etc, and really tax your graphics card. AWLS does not use "real" light sources, so its FPS impact is much less than IWR. Even the most complex AWLS script, the "advanced" one, has a much smaller framerate hit than IWR. These mods should not be used together as they conflict. IWR casts shadows...while AWLS have chimney smoke. Why do we don't have a merging of these two? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InAComaDial999 Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 There is no merging because the AWLS team wants their mod to remain compatible with every other mod without requiring patches. IWR's light sources are static objects, they are always in the same spot and not attached to anything. If you have a mod that moves or adds buildings, you can end up with light sources floating in the wrong spot. The only way to fix that would be a compatibility patch for IWR that moves the light source to match the new layout. Maintaining compatibility with every mod out there would require an insane number of patches. The approach AWLS took requires none of this. Also, one clarification. You said: However, note a portion of AWLS's readme file: Quote===============================================Textures Pack======================================================Brumbek’s Mixed Texture Pack (most options and recommended install)Ismelda Gray Pack (not recommended, totally incorporated into Brumbek’s Pack)Texian's Window Lighting System (not recommended)Illumination Within (not recommended) Illumination Within Texture Pack is not recommended??? Why not? Should I switch from Illumination Within to AWLS? The README file is referring to the Illumination Within texture pack for AWLS, not the Illumination Within mod itself. When you install AWLS, you really install two things: a set of meshes, and a set of textures. There are several different texture packs available, and one of them uses the textures from IWR. And, once again, you should not use IWR with AWLS, they don't work together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkInMKUK Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 Thanks for the clarification, InAComaDail999 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehcar Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 InAComaDail999 did an excellent job of explaining both mods. I'm just going to say that personally I much prefers AWLS (it's the one I use myself), IWR is good but unfortunately as InAComaDail999 said, it's mechanism is much different than AWLS, it achieves the effect by directly placing the light sources into the game world and that's why it has serious compatibility issues. AWLS just replaces the window meshes, without making any modifications whatsoever to the game world, which is why it's so great with other mods. I'm not sure about IWR, but I do know that AWLS does have support for Shivering Isles which is a huge bonus. I also use Better Cities (which does not have up-to-date IWR compatibility patches that I know of), as well as a lot of other town, city and building mods, so AWLS is great for those. It's the one I recommend personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkInMKUK Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 In addition to the above, I use the Real Light mod for indoor lighting - the light now actually seems to COME from the lights, not look like a floodlit room Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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