Bright Lights Blacking Out Screen

[Taikaru]

So, I was fighting dragons and every time they breathed brilliant fire at me, my screen would darken and I couldn't see anything, and take several seconds to "normalize" so I could see again. This made sense at first.... dragons breath must be pretty blinding, right? So I ignored it even though it made hit and runs vs. dragons very difficult. I noticed a similar effect when looking up suddenly toward the sunny sky. Fair enough there too. But since I finally added the better fire mod which made fires brighter and bigger, it is doing it even indoors in the Jarl's great hall! If I stare at the bright fire, then look up quickly, the whole ceiling darkens for several seconds. It SEEMS to be a deliberate effect... anyone have an idea what it is and how to turn it off?

 

I'm running on Ultra with a GTX 560ti in Vista64 with the latest Beta drivers (on a DLP which has no issues with other games.) The problem manifested itself before I had many mods at all, but became more noticeable as I added the recommended STEP mods. Now I see it everywhere - look at anything bright and expect to be blacked out for several seconds. It's almost like self-polarizing sunglasses... but I didn't realize they existed in Tamriel. :D

 

Much obliged to anyone who can point me in the right direction. :)

Edited December 2, 2011 by Taikaru

[Taikaru]

Bump.

[RobertHowsham]

Not exactly a reply but more an observation. As I see things what is needed is a numerical value for ambient light and also for the source you are looking at, then by comparing the two a temporary darkrning factor could be determined. This should make the light/dark adaption more realistic without noticeable impact on game speed.

If this can be done thruogh scripting it could, hopefully, be done now. If it needs the exe changing then we will probably have to live with it.

[eeebee]

Taikaru,

 

I have encountered the same thing, both in-game and in real life. It seems the game may be simulating the contraction of the iris when exposed to bright light. Go to a dark inn & look at the fire, then turn around. Everything is dark until your toon's "eyes" adjust and you can see better. Look at the fire again and it washes out the detail just like walking into a bright room.

 

This is my guess, at least.

[mindinavoid]

One of those STEP mods, I believe, would be Skyrim Enhanced Shaders, correct?

 

As per the readme PDF, under an explanation of Enhanced Adaptive Bloom:

‐ Skyrim already includes some subtle bloom in its engine, this mod enhances this effect with unique settings for lighter(daytime) and darker (night and interior) scenes

Thus explaining why it happened before you installed the mod. Furthermore:

‐ Combined with the Palette Texture feature, it helps to make lighting sources more 'important' in the game. So, areas near and exposed to light sources will be brighter, and unlit areas will generally be darker.

- You will experience a brief 'adjustment period' when moving from a dark area to a bright area as your 'eyes' adjust... just like walking from a dark home out into a bright day in real life :)

Adding to that the immediate next section:

- Fires and other bright sources will emit a larger and more intense glow. Check out the fire in the Companions building, or the 'aurora borealis', or your magic... anything bright :)

^{I will admit, I dislike the over-use of emoticons. At the very least, they're not all over the place in the readme, just there.}

 

What those two aspects of the Enhanced Adaptive Bloom mean together is that if you are engulfed in dragon fire-- that is, all there is in the available viewspace is BURNING FLAME, which is a light source, and you're dead smack in the middle of it-- it causes everything else to go superwhite. When that flame goes away, your "eyes" have adjusted to everything being searing white, and thus all you see is black for a bit.

 

By extrapolation, anything that intensifies light sources will cause that to trigger. You mentioned that you also installed something that intensified fires? You effectively have:

1)The game adjusting brightness due to perceived light sources,

2)A much brighter light source than the game's default settings were made for,

and

3)A complete screen overlay that is enhancing the degree of brightness adjustment as per its' own settings.

 

And, a final quote to round off this exposition that could be easily solved through gentle and regular application of RTFM:

‐ All bloom settings are FULLY CONFIGURABLE and the effect can be disabled entirely. See the 'CONFIGURATION' section below.

Never, EVER install a mod without making fully certain you know what it does. Read the manual. Read it twice. If something screws up afterwards, read it again. Twice. You only stand to benefit from it, and unless you're disarming an explosive or preventing the deaths of thousands -- and a computer game is neither -- saying you don't have time is not a viable excuse.

_{Edits: Clarification and rationalization.}

Edited December 3, 2011 by mindinavoid