I need help deciding on a lighting mod. There's so many...

[Shotokanguy]

First off, I already have ELFX installed and think it's great. So interiors should be covered. What I'm looking for is pretty much the same effect, for exterior areas. The idea behind the mod is what would help me decide - I like how ELFX makes the light sources already in the game work in a way that light really would work.

 

It seemed like Relighting Skyrim has the same design philosophy, removing fake light sources and making the spots that should be a light source give off believable light...but the effect is hard to see compared to ELFX because it doesn't really change the look of the light, whereas ELFX has that fiery orange glow.

 

Can anyone recommend me a simple one that just makes the light work like it should, or give me a rundown of the big lighting mods?

[myztikrice]

If your only concern is exteriors then your only two choices are Relighting Skyrim and Realistic Lighting Overhaul. They just add light sources and it's up to you really. RLO is more prone to add a bunch of objects to the world though if that isn't your thing. Climates of Tamriel will actually affect outdoor lighting and make it darker/moodier.

[Shotokanguy]

Actually, I don't think the author of Relighting Skyrim considers it to be "adding" light sources. He might have added some, but I think he mostly edited the vanilla game.

 

But there are several more mods. I'm looking at the Ultra Realistic World Lighting video right now, and it looks kind of similar to ELFX in that the fires give off that orange glow. The only reason I didn't consider this mod before was because in Gopher's videos, he said it didn't really look "ultra realistic" at all, but it seems fairly normal in the video...

 

Another part of my hesitation comes from the fact that I assume at some point down the road I will use RCRN and/or ENBs, so I have no idea what light will end up looking like. So for the moment, all I want is lighting that makes sense.

[myztikrice]

Right, he edited the vanilla game by adding light sources.

 

URWL hasn't been updated in ages and looks poopy.

 

ENBs allow you to change how saturated lights are.

Edited April 9, 2013 by myztikrice

[Shotokanguy]

Well, if you agree with Gopher that it doesn't look great, maybe I'll try something else...

 

I'm looking at the Skyrim GEMS page, and it lists RCRN under lighting, and that it works well with Lanterns of Skyrim and ELFX. This is where my confusion comes in, because I was looking at some lighting mods as "okay, this one will make the lighting make sense/work correctly" and others as "this one will make the lights look really cool".

 

Am I looking at this all wrong?

[Deleted3765355User]

If you're not using an ENB now, I suggest picking one before picking a lighting overhaul.

 

I currently use COT 3.1, ELFX, and Project ENB, and the lighting is realistic and attractive. I recommend also using the Imaginator mod to further change the saturation, brightness, contrasts, and tint of your game to further suit your preferences.

 

Claralux also adds some interesting new lighting effect and sources as well, so it's worth checking out.

[billyro]

URWL is actually pretty realistic, but there is some problems at night time (things glow).

 

Dynavision adds some nice depth of field which helps with screen archery if you're wanting to take screenshots.

 

Imaginator is also quite excellent.

[TelcontarTargaryem]

I used RCRN for a while, and I was very satisfied. I did a reinstallation of the game, so I am in a huge dillema which one should I use now.

I am a bit of a noob when it comes to modding Skyrim, so I am not sure what ENB does.. but from what I've seen on youtube and screenshots, I will either go back with RCRN or go with Climates of Tamriel. But I am unsure weather CoT changes indoor lightning and puts real light sources...

[ArtMurder]

I personally use Climates of Tamriel and IMAGINATOR, most of the lighting overhauls mods do really stupid things (like making the interior of an inn pitch black in broad daylight or making caves brighter then the day time sky in the middle of the night.

 

I've tried RLO, RCRN, and a couple others, and ALL of them have weird funky glitches SOMEWHERE, because they edit cells on a cell by cell basis, so you will ALWAYS come across a random stray cell that isn't edited and completely ruins the immersion and the effort you've put into lighting the game. ENBs are even worse, they make the game look AMAZING, but good luck actually playing the game with a decent one active, ESPECIALLY if you try and combine it with a lighting mod. Glowing water, inverted blacks, glowing fog, pitch black shadows during day time, and most of them totally BUTCHER the 'night eye' effect (or just make it do nothing at all), which as it turns out you REALLY need with most of them, since they have a habit of making nights insanely dark (not that that's a bad thing) And then most of the ones that try to give 'realistic' light by making it come from sources don't do what they say at all. I used RLO, and it just adds a dull glow NEAR light sources like candles, I can barely see a lit candle because it's so dark, yet the ground underneath is clearly lit up by a magic non-existent light. I personally prefer the vanilla method of HIDING the non exist lights myself, instead of just sticking them remotely near light sources.

 

Basically, the point I am getting at it, is with lighting mods, the SIMPLER the better. Most of the obnoxiously overly complicated ones people swear by do look good when they work, but unless you just play skyrim for 5 minutes a day to take screen shots and brag about how pretty your skyrim is, they just AREN'T worth it. BUT, maybe that's just me. I've downloaded around 300-400 mods and the only ones I have ever had trouble with that didn't end up just being some silly mistake on my part, or the part of the modder, was lighting mods, and a lot of them can totally ruin save games. Not through corruption, but because any time you save with a lighting mod or ENB installed, it permanently messed with the lighting in that save, and some of them mess with them beyond repair. I lost one save game with about 70 hours of play because an ENB made it dark as vanilla night during the day time, even thoguh the sky was just as bright as normal, and made my screen PITCH BLACK at night. I don't mean just really dark, like literally, my screen was SOLID black. I uninstall the ENB, and it fixed the solid black nights, but everything still looked like night time during the day.

 

My personal suggestion, is pick ONE lighting mod OR one ENB, and if you like it STICK WITH IT. It's very tempting to think "This looks amazing, so more must look better!" Use IMAGINATOR with whatever lighting mod or ENB you use to tweak to your exact likings. Imaginator is easy to use, you can see the visual feedback of your tweaks instantly, and best of all, if you decide you don't like it, just reset the settings and uninstall it, and it's like it was never there! Also, if your graphic card has the option, you can turn on many effects ENBs give to your game directly through your graphics card, doing it this way lags the game much less, and has almost the same visual effects, ut often much less glitchy. Between Imaginator and tweaking my graphic cards options I do not need an ENB anymore. I have really dark nights, bright, sunny days, cold harsh snow storms(Thanks to COT), Ambient Occlusion(thanks to my GPU)

 

Dynavision can also feel in the one gab for enb free fameplay, adding in DoF, I personally dislike DoF, since I wear glasses IRL and the blurry screen gives me a bad headache.