Lights & Shadows Bug (Flickering)

[JaredNomac]

I'm getting a rather irritating bug with various areas of lighting/shadows all over the game. It's always fixed in the same areas and it's becoming so distracting that I actually have stopped playing until I can find a fix. I've tried reinstalling/uninstalling all my various mods and nothing seems to make any difference. Short of reinstalling and reverting back to 100% vanilla I'm not sure what else to try.

 

I do have any videos myself but I've found a few videos of people who experience similar issues.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQkMUUeKqQ

 

Fyi I'm running a GTX 660 TI on the latest nVidia 314.22 drivers.

 

I usually run The Wilds ENB, CoT, Enhanced Lights and FX and a few others. I have tried to disable and uninstall all of these getting as close to the vanilla game as I can and nothing seems to fix it.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated because this is driving me crazy!

[Georgiegril]

Skyrim will only allow so many lights to be on in a cell at one time, this is a limitation of the game engine. The second video is demonstrating that effect. This is more common with mods that increase lighting (like house mods or lighting mods)

The first video might be demonstrating that, or it may be the specific settings of your Prefs.ini or graphics card. If you will post both of those, i will look to see if I have any suggestions. (Or maybe someone else will)

(For the .ini I only need the [Display] section.)

[JaredNomac]

Skyrimprefs

 

 

 

[General]

fBrightLightColorB=1.0000

fBrightLightColorG=1.0000

fBrightLightColorR=1.0000

iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1

bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0

[imagespace]

bDoDepthOfField=1

iRadialBlurLevel=2

[Display]

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000

fShadowDistance=8000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

iShadowSplitCount=2

iMaxAnisotropy=16

fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000

fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=3600

fGamma=1.0400

fDecalLOD2=1500.0000

fDecalLOD1=1000.0000

fSpecularLODStartFade=2000

fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000

fLightLODStartFade=3500

iTexMipMapMinimum=0

iTexMipMapSkip=0

iWaterMultiSamples=0

iMultiSample=8

iShadowMode=3

bTreesReceiveShadows=0

bDrawLandShadows=0

bFull Screen=1

iSize H=1050

iSize W=1680

fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000

fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=3072

fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=4096

iScreenShotIndex=19

bShadowMaskZPrepass=0

bMainZPrepass=0

iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100

bFloatPointRenderTarget=1

sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 "

bFXAAEnabled=0

iShadowMapResolution=4096

fShadowBiasScale=0.15

iShadowMaskQuarter=4

iAdapter=0

iPresentInterval=0

iShadowFilter=3

bShadowsOnGrass=0

bTransparencyMultisampling=0

bDeferredShadows=0

bDrawShadows=1

[Grass]

b30GrassVS=1

fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000

fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000

fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000

iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=6

[MAIN]

bGamepadEnable=1

bCrosshairEnabled=1

fHUDOpacity=1.0000

bSaveOnPause=1

bSaveOnTravel=1

bSaveOnWait=1

bSaveOnRest=1

fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000

[GamePlay]

bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1

bShowQuestMarkers=1

iDifficulty=3

[interface]

bDialogueSubtitles=1

bGeneralSubtitles=0

fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000

bShowCompass=1

[Controls]

fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000

fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0125

bAlwaysRunByDefault=1

bInvertYValues=0

bGamePadRumble=1

bMouseAcceleration=1

bUseKinect=0

[Particles]

iMaxDesired=750

[saveGame]

fAutosaveEveryXMins=5.0000

[AudioMenu]

fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000

fVal7=1.0000

uID7=0

fVal6=1.0000

uID6=0

fVal5=1.0000

uID5=0

fVal4=1.0000

uID4=0

fVal3=1.0000

uID3=94881

fVal2=0.5000

uID2=466532

fVal1=1.0000

uID1=554685

fVal0=0.8000

uID0=1007612

[Clouds]

fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000

fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000

fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000

fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000

[TerrainManager]

fTreeLoadDistance=75000

fBlockMaximumDistance=250000

fBlockLevel1Distance=70000

fBlockLevel0Distance=35000

fSplitDistanceMult=1.5

bShowLODInEditor=0

[NavMesh]

fObstacleAlpha=0.5000

fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000

fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500

fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000

fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500

fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000

fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000

fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500

fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000

fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000

fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000

fEdgeThickness=10.0000

fPointSize=2.5000

[Trees]

bRenderSkinnedTrees=1

uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20

[Decals]

uMaxDecals=1000

bDecals=1

bSkinnedDecals=1

uMaxSkinDecals=100

uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60

[LOD]

fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15

fLODFadeOutMultItems=15

fLODFadeOutMultActors=15

fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000

[Launcher]

bEnableFileSelection=1

bShowAllResolutions=0

uLastAspectRatio=4

[blurShaderHDR]

bDoHighDynamicRange=1

[blurShader]

bUseBlurShader=0

[Water]

iWaterReflectHeight=512

iWaterReflectWidth=512

bUseWaterDisplacements=1

bUseWaterRefractions=1

bUseWaterReflections=1

bUseWaterDepth=1

Skyrim.ini

[General]

sLanguage=ENGLISH

uExterior Cell Buffer=36

uGridsToLoad=7

[Display]

fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0

fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0

fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

bAllowScreenshot=1

[Audio]

fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0

fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0

fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0

fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]

bAllowCreateGrass=1

bAllowLoadGrass=0

iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=6

[GeneralWarnings]

SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]

sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa

sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

[Combat]

fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0

fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

[Papyrus]

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0

bEnableLogging=0

bEnableTrace=0

bLoadDebugInformation=0

[Water]

bReflectLODObjects=1

bReflectLODLand=1

bReflectSky=1

bReflectLODTrees=1

[Camera]

fOverShoulderCombatAddY=0.0000

fOverShoulderCombatPosZ=20.0000

fOverShoulderCombatPosX=33.000

fOverShoulderPosZ=20.0000

fOverShoulderPosX=33.000

fActorFadeOutLimit=-100

fOverShoulderHorseAddY=-12.0000

fOverShoulderHorsePosZ=75.0000

fOverShoulderHorsePosX=30.2000

All graphics settings set to ultra/max btw.

[JaredNomac]

Renderer Device Information:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660

nvd3dum.dll

RenderPath : BSSM_SV_3_0

PSversion : 300

VSversion : 300

VStarget : vs_3_0

PStarget : ps_3_0

PS2xtarget : ps_3_0

maxPS20inst : 512

3.0 Support : yes

3.0 Lighting : yes

Nonpowerof2textures : yes

FP16ARGB blending : yes

FP16ARGB filtering : no

Bloom lighting : no

Refraction : yes

2.0 hairw : yes

SLI mode : no

NVapi enabled : yes

Multisample Type : 8

Transparency MS : no

HW Thread Count : 4

[JaredNomac]

Downloaded Fraps and uploaded a video of exactly what is happening to me

 

[Georgiegril]

First off, if you are using 7 ugrids you must change your uExterior Cell Buffer to 64. (though that is not related probably)

 

Lighting pop-in is an issue I think since the start.

You could try adding this to your prefs.ini (display section)

fFlickeringLightDistance=4096

[JaredNomac]

I've never noticed it until now and it's driving me crazy.

No luck with that "fix" unfortunately, any other ideas?

Edited April 5, 2013 by JaredNomac

[MrDeftino]

I had this before in The Bannered Mare. Turns out it was a conflicting lighting mod. Might have been RLO with Climates of Tamriel. But I removed one of them in place of the other and it fixed it.

 

Check your mod list for any mods that change lighting. If you have 2 mods that affect lighting in the same kind of areas i.e Interior Lighting or something like that then remove one and only use 1 for that specific area. When these mods clash sometimes you can CTD but I've only ever had different lighting effects depending on my players point of view. Like I looked left and I saw Climates of Tamriel effects, I looked right and then RLO kicked in. Repeat.

 

I may be wrong, but I thought I'd suggest how I fixed this issue when it happened to me :)

[JaredNomac]

Turns out it was a combination of issues. Enhanced Lights and FX was causing the issues inside buildings in Solitude and the "Enhanced Towns and Villages" mod for Solitude was causing the issues outside. Odd that it would only seem to have this effect on one town/city.

[dbboli01]

thish fixed it http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/71214/?