Shadows or shadowed areas too dark

[RokHere]

Hello. I understand that the shadows or shadowy parts in the screenshot attached, for example, are perhaps intentional or "working as intended", but is there a way to actually brighten up those shadowed areas? As I said, the glaring contrast between the brightness right under Senna's feet and the darkness of her face and clothes may be intended, but it just does not make sense personally to me, and it bothers me in dungeons and stuff when it is even darker. Of course the Brightness slider in the settings is completely useless for this; otherwise I would not be posting here. If I increase the brightness, those already bright areas become too bright and "washed out", but the shadowed areas remain as dark as ever, and that's what makes it annoying and frustrating sometimes.

 

A while back, many people playing Mass Effect 2 felt the same way and the issue was discussed on forums related to that game; one of the community members there, after much debate and many suggestions, came up with a solution that seemed genius. The solution was about finding a file called UberPostProcessBlendPixelShader.usf within the folder path "Engine -> Shaders", and simply omitting a number in one line (precisely omitting -0.004 in the below), but the whole block that contained that line said:

 

#if ENABLE_FILMIC_RESPONSE

float3 x = max(0,InLinearColour-0.004);

float3 FilmicColour = (x*(6.2*x+0.5))/(x*(6.2*x+1.7)+0.06);

 

// for now we don't have the algorithm for non-gamma fit, so we'll just

// hack it

return (half3) ( FilmicColour * FilmicColour );

#else

return InLinearColour;

#endif

 

Does this give you some idea of the "hack" I'm supposed to implement in any of Skyrim's files to produce the effect I need, brighter shadowed areas without brightening the already bright non-shadowed areas?

 

I would be grateful for someone's help.

Edited January 15, 2012 by RokHere

[RokHere]

Is there a way I can use the settings of the mod called FXAA Post Process Injector to achieve what I need? By the way, I also find that when I try to use a "workaround" for my problem by spamming the Candlelight spell, it just makes things in front of me ridiculously too bright that it literally feels like a glare in the screen that just offends the eye. I really don't understand how this stuff was produced the way...either too dark or too bright.

 

At the time of writing these words, FXAA Post Process Injector is hidden on Skyrim Nexus, but available on FilePlanet. I find that it does improve the look and colors of the game, and I'm really desperate for it to hopefully do something about the excessive darkness of the shadowed areas.

Edited January 15, 2012 by RokHere

[Slythe01]

I have this same problem. Surfaces in shadow are simply too dark. I can't make out any details of a face that's a meter from me in-game. Even though it's a dimly lit room with a light source behind the object I'm looking at, there's enough ambient light where I should be able to make out the details of a face or any surface for that matter.

[Darkpriest667]

Ive been having a similar problem... I believe it has to do with HDR bloom and FXAA but I disabled FXAA in my options and that didn't seem to help... Ive been desperately waiting for a fix.

 

 

There are caves and even outside in some cities where literally I cannot see any details.. its just pitch black. I have the brightness all the way up on my monitor and the game.. and the brightness so high on my monitor it makes everything too bright and in skyrim I still cant see inside these shadows.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Darkpriest667

[eric31415]

In your Skyrim prefs.ini, raise the value of this line;

 

fShadowBiasScale =

 

Lower values give darker shadows. I set mine to 1.000, if that's still too dark try 1.500.

[Darkpriest667]

Good god mine is at .1500 I hope 1.000 helps

[Er1zzt]

Good god mine is at .1500 I hope 1.000 helps

 

tried this, no help - to the point where i can only see silhouetted figures that want to talk to me in dark caves.

 

funny though, if i use a torch to illuminate the area, i'm warned not to set any fires.

[nessassin85]

I have been having the same problem in the last 24 hours! Everything is so dark I can't see hardly any details on armor or faces n the parts I can see glow so bright and seem to give off an annoying shine! Also the sky is weird and foggy and the grass glows and it looks like the texture pack I recently got has just up n vanished! Iv tried rebooting reloading taking off n deleting all my mods! And nothing helps I just tried changing the fshadowbias thingy and am waiting for it to reinstall to see if this helps , thank you if it does! n if not I sure hope they fix this up soon I just got my dragonkin woman looking awesome and this happens!! sooo disappointed in last update! ! Bethesda please fix this like yesterday! Concerned Fan! Edited December 2, 2012 by nessassin85

[nessassin85]

Raised my shadow bias to 2.000 n still looks terrible!!!

[BoredErica]

Do you have realistic lighting mods installed?