Vanilla Lighting Tweaks?

[Alixen]

Rather than putting this in the request forum, i thought it better to ask here, as i'm hoping something like it already exists.

 

There are way too many option to choose from for lighting mods, and i'm actually rather fond of Skyrims vanilla lighting. It is supposed to look 'brisk', there is plenty of atmosphere in dungeons, and areas that the devs intended to look impressive do so.

 

My problem is, that the light 'source' seems to be straight up, at an angle. The side of characters that the sun is not on are more or less black, and even from the front it looks like someone has used black spray paint on areas of characters that should just be gently shadowed. Completely black under chins, arms, breats and crotches.

 

Has anyone seen any tweaks that just change the 'spread' of the lights more evenly, like reality?

 

Alternatively, are there any lighting mods that are close to the vanilla lighting, in such away that old screenshots wouldn't look terribly/very different in comparison? I am keeping a screenshot diary, and my OCD likes consistancy.

[FiftyTifty]

Give this a shot.

 

Open up the console. Type in "applyimagespacemodifier tvfix"

 

Any better?

[Alixen]

I'll go check.

 

Edit: Tried it, and it did fix the shadows... while also removing almost all the contrast, making everythign way too light, and practically erasing every other shadow in the gameworld. So, interesting, but not exactly practical. :D

Edited April 30, 2013 by Alixen

[LargeStyle]

This is all due to the limited graphics engine and coding practice that's norrmally used in Skyrim (and other games') lighting.

 

The main "fault" here (in my opinion and understanding) is the fact that Skyrim wasn't made with ambient occlusion in mind, so as a replacement to this vanilla (and possibly other lighting mods) generally dark shadows are globally applied - this looks great when looking at certain parts of scenery but as you've stated it makes things such as people shadowing look very unrealistic. The game needs lighter general shadowing and rely a lot more on SSAO to be a direct part of the lighting - not just an added extra.

 

As for solutions / get arounds, either wait until an ambient occlusion based lighting mod is released (which I actually planned to do but have now given up on as I had made such a mod and lost it all to hard drive failure) or you can manipulate it yourself. For this manipulation, use the mod Imaginator (it can change basic lighting qualities. Personally speaking I'd use imaginator to reduce contrast a touch (Bethesda overused contrast as part of the lighting system iteself), then increase brightness (/shadows), then reduce sunlight amount to a level where it looks a natural contrast to shadows, then reduce the sky level a touch to bring it back to normal levels again. This should make Skyrim look a little more natural. Once you've made you're adjustments, make a savegame and the new lighting system / imaginator settings will be loaded with that and future saves.

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the manipulation technique kinda has its flaws though - as soon as the sunlight level is changed, an "ambient" setting (which controls 3d grass and tree LODs) would probably need compensating so that everything blends as it should. Regretfully you can't adjust the ambient setting with Imaginator, so this is a Creation Kit thing. If I get time in the next day or two I may upload a video demonstrating all that I've said as it may give you a better idea of things.

Edited May 1, 2013 by LargeStyle

[LargeStyle]

Well, the following video is a slightly elaborate answer to the original post, but it highlights how much work is required to make Slyrim look more natural (I hate the term realistic). I only manipulated one part of one day but it demonstrates that better lighting / shadowing is very much possible, but to not rely on manipulation and do it properly and manually in Creation Kit takes a looooooong time (trust me on that).

 

Anyways...

 

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" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"> Edited May 1, 2013 by LargeStyle

[myztikrice]

Just a glorified Imaginator tutorial vid, which you should mention before wasting anyone else's time.

[LargeStyle]

Just a glorified Imaginator tutorial vid

 

WTF? No it's not. This is a demonstration of 3 things - how to make lighting more balanced (as the OP asked for info on), how to use imaginator and ENBs SSAO together in a custom built way, and how much time and hark work it'll be to do it right (and not manipulated like I showed).

 

which you should mention before wasting anyone else's time

 

Firstly, my initial response to the OP gave my text based opinion and the video simply and literally shows my points instead. I spent bloody ages on that video, and I'm happy and proud of it. Modesty aside for a moment, I go to great lengths to help others out on this forum - look back through my profile if you want proof. I spent over a year modding Skyrims lighting in a near full-time process as I've been ill for over a year, so I know I'm not sounding arrogant when I say that I know what I'm doing.

 

Don't like the video, fair enough, just don't like it. Post another disrespectful and harassing comment to me again and I'll report you to the mods in a heartbeat.

[aluckymuse]

I'll post here since this seems relevant to the thread.
I've been looking for a non mod fix for the super shiny wood and other materials skyrim gets in light. I can't really explain it well so here's a picture of what I'm dealing with:

https://ui4rqw.dm2301.livefilestore.com/y2pWFastX2SfMIKefXlQ5CN1ZTpz_5eFu5aj7tVeTwXmhytlRPAJ4nWYq_LS5Gm1rkv_SOpX25sBrWkXoG18VhC-DvA3mKZwt1Y9vwPSkl5UKo/CONTRASTSKYRIM.jpg

I've tried lighting overhauls, but they don't really get rid of the sun-like strength of the brightness that objects have. (Some tint it another color, but never get rid of it) The only mod that came close was Imaginator but I had to turn contrast down to about -50 but then the sun was too dark! (Not to mention the nights were too bright) It would seem I have a contrast issue, it's too acute where many objects become too intensely bright.

I eventually tried out enbs...really lightweight ones. Finding that they solved this problem I was overjoyed! But they cut my framerate, even after turning off all the extras. Moreover, I had to manually tweak each ENB to force the nights to be darker. For some reason even though the ENBs were SUPPOSED to make nights darker, on my skyrim, they were quite bright. vAfter manually tweaking the darkness I found the added darkness to the ENB night isn't "real" I may be blind at night but the NPC's arn't. Making sneaking an akward expirenece.

I am begining to think, maybe there's something off about my particular skyrim. I use a Dell ultrasharp monitor btw- (mid-level fancy-pants color acurate monitor for my art) soooo it's not my monitor. I've googled this problem countless times, and this is the closes I've gotten to someone having this issue.

So really what it comes down to, is it normal to have objects glow with an intensity that rivals the sun? And if so, how can I fix it as simply as possible because it really hurts my eyes.

[FiftyTifty]

Load up the creation kit, modify the imagespaces and imagespace modifiers.