SSE Question about dungeon lighting per room

[Sankese]

So, im making a dungeon mod where every cell (each "level") is deeper and deeper into the bottom of Skyrim. As such, I want every cell to be darker than the last. However, I am not sure how to accomplish this. Can someone explain to me how to lower the brightness, because i've been messing with the Power and Max settings in the cells lighting tab but it doesnt appear to be doing anything. Pls help D:

[thumbincubation]

Something that should give you a bit more flexibility, will require a bit of experimentation, ( best to do this in a new, disposable mod) go into the lighting tab, uncheck all the presets, then switch to "none". Take each of the color panels, drop them all to zero and it should be pitch black in there. Up them each to 50 and it will get lighter, 100 lighter still. With them all matching, your color should be a neutral gray, but you can increase some and decrease others to change that. It's been a while since I've done this, so I don't know for sure if you have to worry about the fog color panels, if you've unchecked the fog above, but if it doesn't want to cooperate with just ambient and directional, that's the next place I'd go. If you do say 150 at 2nd floor, 100 at ground floor, 50 in basement with slit windows, 0 in subbasement, you should get the incremental darkness you need.

 

Then, you can give it that old school look by using holding S and sliding the mouse, to expand the radius of your placed light sources. Ctrl + Alt + S to increase brightness. Be careful to avoid expanding non-shadow lights through the walls.

[Sankese]

Something that should give you a bit more flexibility, will require a bit of experimentation, ( best to do this in a new, disposable mod) go into the lighting tab, uncheck all the presets, then switch to "none". Take each of the color panels, drop them all to zero and it should be pitch black in there. Up them each to 50 and it will get lighter, 100 lighter still. With them all matching, your color should be a neutral gray, but you can increase some and decrease others to change that. It's been a while since I've done this, so I don't know for sure if you have to worry about the fog color panels, if you've unchecked the fog above, but if it doesn't want to cooperate with just ambient and directional, that's the next place I'd go. If you do say 150 at 2nd floor, 100 at ground floor, 50 in basement with slit windows, 0 in subbasement, you should get the incremental darkness you need.

 

Then, you can give it that old school look by using holding S and sliding the mouse, to expand the radius of your placed light sources. Ctrl + Alt + S to increase brightness. Be careful to avoid expanding non-shadow lights through the walls.

Yeah, I eventually figured out that everything but ambient and directional does nothing.

So ambient controls the color, while directional controls lighting intensity/brightness.

Thank you :D

[maxarturo]

1) Never set your 'Lighting Template' to "0", once you enter the cell with "0" values the "Eye Adaptation" will never return to normal and the screen will remain black no matter what you do.

2) 'Ambient' and 'Directional' are 2 different things, they are 2 different kinds of lights that are used by the 'Lighting Template' to handle the global environmental light.

Ambient = is the global light that does not have/uses a direction, it's the global environmental light which does not cast shadows on 'Normal Maps', the 'Normal Map' height and depth will not execute/be visible/applied on the mesh by using only 'Ambient Lighting'.

Ambient light defines the mood/atmosphere color of the environment as a the total brightness, but its intensity is defined also by the directional light and vice versa.

Directional = is the light that uses a casting source direction that the 'Normal Maps' will use to project their height and depth always in consideration of the lighting direction, it's in a way a 'Shadow Light' that only cast shadows on the 'Normal Maps' and on the mesh geometry.

'Ambient' and 'Directional' go hand in hand to achieve a close simulation of how the "Real World Global Environmental Light" works.

"So ambient controls the color, while directional controls lighting intensity/brightness."

No, 'Ambient' and 'Directional' have each their own color, intensity and brightness values that they are added to the total environmental lighting of the 'Lighting Temlapte'.

* As i mentioned before: "its intensity is defined also by the directional light and vice versa".

* You have to create your own "Lighting Template" and experiment in-game to understand how both always work together and not seperate.

"Yeah, I eventually figured out that everything but ambient and directional does nothing."

Every piece of adjustable data inside the 'Lighting Template' works and has its own "responsibility", nothing in there is there by mistake.

When you understand and learn how the 'Lighting Templates' work, you will be able to achieve different and high quality atmospheres/environment moods using ONLY 'Lighting Templates'.

If you add to this the knowhow on how to work with 'Camera Attach FXs' - 'ImageSpace Modifiers' - 'Shader Particle Geometry' - 'Visual Effects' - 'Effect Shaders' - 'Sound FXs' - 'Movable Static VFXs', your mod/cell's overall environment and quality will raise by 1000%.

* You can see a few examples of how 'Ambient' and 'Directional' light works in one of my mods screenshots, which i've given more than just a lot of attention to the environment and atmosphere mood.

The mod uses all the the CK tools to create atmospheres and environments, and it even goes further than what CK and the game can actually do...

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/103522

Have a happy modding.

Edited March 17, 2021 by maxarturo