Darkened Main Menu/Loading Screens

[Meatbarrier]

Hey there everybody!

 

So, recently I have noticed my main menu and loading screens have becoming excessively dull, dark and washed out, and it is rather annoying since I have installed mods to overhaul them (NCLS - Nexus Community Loading Screens and Immserive Old Map Main Menu Replacer), and make them look pretty. I recently installed the Cathedralist ENB, and I am thinking that may be the issue, though I am also using the Luminosity Lighting Overhaul for Cathedral Concept. Is there a way I can brighten these menus in the ENB settings, or via a mod? If I could find the easiest way to export my mod list, I would post it, but at the moment, it will take a while to transcribe it all. Here are some images from before the ENB and after: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ak__07tyAIGg93e7XwLtOUjF7blf?e=Pw1HV7

 

Thanking you!

Edited November 13, 2019 by Meatbarrier

[anjenthedog]

I'm not on that computer right now, but I will be in a little while. In any case, yes, there's a mod that allows adjusting saturation brightness etc.

 

I'll post back in about an hour or so with the name. Sorry for the "suspense" I just don't want to forget, and posting this will stick it in my minds's eye todo list..

[anjenthedog]

It's called Imaginator

 

 

IMAGINATOR is a stand-alone, in-game, image modification tool.

It allows you to separately control visual elements like Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sky Brightness, Sunlight Output, Bloom and Tint all from within an easy-to-talk-to magic-man-menu.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4577

 

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I use it. Works well. I'm surprised at how long it's been around. It isn't nearly as prominent as I'd have expected in the all time best category (nexus). In fact, I stumbled on it while searching the wider net for an entirely different skyrim question. The link was provided in some thread that didn't turn out to have anything to do with what I was searching for

[Meatbarrier]

Does t

 

It's called Imaginator

 

 

IMAGINATOR is a stand-alone, in-game, image modification tool.

It allows you to separately control visual elements like Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sky Brightness, Sunlight Output, Bloom and Tint all from within an easy-to-talk-to magic-man-menu.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4577

 

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I use it. Works well. I'm surprised at how long it's been around. It isn't nearly as prominent as I'd have expected in the all time best category (nexus). In fact, I stumbled on it while searching the wider net for an entirely different skyrim question. The link was provided in some thread that didn't turn out to have anything to do with what I was searching for

his work for just the main menu/loading screens? As the ENB I am using does a good job of making everything else a nice level of brightness, except for the screens that aren't in game, but for some reason are affected by ingame lighting, especially indoor lighting.

[anjenthedog]

Not sure about opening menus offhand. I figured (perhaps mistakenly) that it works on all the in game elements, but I haven't paid much attention to the menus

 

Sorry if I misled.

[johnsnough]

Alright guys! I've found the solution!

 

The brightness of the main menu and the loading screens are controlled by these 2 lines of code in your SkyrimPrefs.ini:

 

fShadowDistance=1000.0000

iShadowMapResolution=256

 

These are the same 2 lines that disable all shadows in the game when their values are set to 0. When all shadows are disabled (i.e. when both values are set to 0), the main menu and loading screens appear dim. To be specific, fShadowDistance affects the main menu while iShadowMapResolution affects the loading screens.

 

I know it's 2021 already but I hope this information is still of some help for those who might need it. God knows I did!

[wfandrews]

It may depend on your rig but iShadowMapResolution is 4096 in both SSE and Legendary.by default in my game. That may be because I play on Ultra and that setting may change depending on what resolution you are playing at. I leave fShadowDistance alone in SSE but set it to 3500.000 in Legendary.

 

Your brightness can also be affected by fGamma.

[BartlettBob]

I have a, hopefully, related problem. No issue with opening screen brightness, instead I'm having what might be described as an infinite load screen. A little background. I use Profiles in Vortex to allow me to have different characters use different sets of mods. This is in both Skyrim and Skyrim SE. So I have created a new Profile and set the "Save Games" to "yes". Then I boot up Skyrim. The game starts, I click "New" at the Main Menu. Screen goes to black with the words "Bethesda Game Studios". That fades and is replaced with "Presents". The black background begins to fade being replaced with "Skyrim" and the opening sequence where two wagons ,carrying prisoners, and traveling along a road begins to appear. Everything in second wagon seems to be OK, people talking, facial expressions showing, bodies moving; but the horses don't appear to be walking and the background scenery doesn't change. It's as if the wagons are on a treadmill. They never get to Helgen and the game doesn't start. Ralof and the horse thief have their dialogue then nothing. Screen doesn't go dark but there is no further movement from then on until I C-A-D and close the game. Anyone have any idea what's happening?

 

Note: The game works fine in existing profiles. I can create new characters in them and everything loads as it should. Also, when I tested this, I made sure that only the essential mods, FNIS, USSEP, SKSE, etc. were enabled.