Vividian - Weather & Lighting enhancement - CoT - RCRN and Pure Weather

[z929669]

The new version of this mod (4.01) is very good ... even better than the previous.

 

Still a couple of things to address though (hopefully not too subjective):

• Fire - This is now not attached to weathers, but it may be worth attaching, since it is a light source and would vary just a little, depending upon the weather. Not that important though. More important is that fire should be very yellow and nearly invisible in any daylight (cloudy/clear and to some extent, even overcast). Curve and intensity should both be lower, IMHO. Orange and intensity should increase as light fades away.
• Lightsprite - This is quite a bit too high in the daytime for almost all weathers. The only exception is fog, where it should be higher even in the light. I am generally lowering in most conditions but for night and fog, where I am increasing the intensity and altering curve such that more color is apparent in darker conditions.
• Skylighting - there should be some visibility in all shadows, and the more light overall, the more ambient light should be in shadows. Under cloudy/overcast, shadows should not be very apparent, so light should generally be a bit lower outdoors, but ambient light under shade should be quite high under intense cloudy/overcast such that shadows and shade are more subtle. This is due to increased light scattering. This could be tricky to set though.
• Point lighting -  much too intense in many cases. I am reducing point lighting and increasing ambient light in most weathers/situations in my config.
• Sunset/sunrise - are really about the same with regard to light. The only difference is that sunrise comes with higher chance of fog due to warm sun warming up cool earth. This will increase the glow just a bit (probably lightsprite more than fire). Furthermore, light at sunrise/set is somewhere between day and night, so sunrise/set values should always fall somewhere between day and night values for all light-affecting variables. Ambient light under the current CoT presets is usually way too prevalent at sunrise/set/night and not prevalent enough during the day (skylighting and environment). However, moon light and aurora should drastically increase ambient light at night if that is even possible.
• Indoors - settings for indoors should not fluctuate much, and there should be relatively little difference between night and day indoors. Day should have more ambient light though in all respects. Day should also have more red and green whereas night should have more blue and less red ... the same is true outdoors as far as color tone goes. Warm colors are the first to fade in low light, while cool colors hang on longer (ocean divers will know this). Ambient light is a bit low indoors, and should be increased just a bit, IMO (skylighting and environment).

I use CoT/ELFX/ELE as prescribed by this ENB (and this is a fairly common lighting scheme I think), so some of the lighting issues I see are problems with ELFX I think (note the brightness of the outside of Riften's main entrance at night and the relative difference with the inside of the same door ... this is same weather and same conditions, each with two torches, yet the outside is glaringly bright relative to the inside). Some of the light sorces in this lighting scheme are surely to blame and not this present so much.

[Mangaclub]

Hi z.

Fire: We will have a look in that still. So far it was important to find relieable values to build upon.

Lightsprite: will investige into this also as soon our new Colorsystem is completley done:)

Skylight: the new color system we work on has visible and not ultra dark shadows by default, considder this as 98% fixed ;)

sunset: ok ;) I will revamp all sunrises/sunsets to the new colorsystem enyway.

Indoor: The new colorsystem has 0% color fluctuation already. We will have to work a bit indoors still i think you will be pretty amazed the next release ;)

 

Thanks for the usefull hints! Always nice to tewak on details

[z929669]

Glad to help (especially if you see my nits that way!). I would like to see this evolve, so that is why I am investing the time into nitpicking :P I think this and Skylight have the most potential as versatile ENBs for STEP ;)

 

I added some qualifiers to my previous post (I almost ALWAYS re-read and re-edit my posts after posting, bad habit I guess).

[Neovalen]

I forgot to post here but Vividian 4.01 has been selected as the recommended ENB for SR:LE.... I love this preset so keep up the good work. Hope it brings this underrated ENB more traffic! :)

 

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

[z929669]

I think that this thread has racked up 6 pages in the last week. It was going almost unnoticed before then! Very happy it is getting attention, since this stokes the flames of development (I hope anyway!).

[Neovalen]

Reading above... hope the new shadows aren't too bright as I am a fan of dark corners and ambiance. :)

 

My biggest irk with vanilla was too much ambient light.

 

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

[Mangaclub]

@nevolaen

Wow asome thanks!! This is a great guide btw!

 

As it is easy to tewak the colors and brightness its also easy to globalyl reaise and drop shadow brigtness too. So if you think the shadows are too bright its easy todo a darker shadows version byaltering a few sliders ;)

[Aiyen]

Everything is easy when you spent months doing it! :P

[Mangaclub]

Lol, well lets say its easy now... i remember times where there was no ENB Gui ... this was... horrible...:D

[z929669]

Regarding dark shadows ... this is not realistic, and realism is the best solution for all I think ... remember, shadows in caves or big spaces with low light will certainly be inky dark. I just don't think it makes any sense to have super dark shadows when there is plenty of diffuse light being scattered around in a room and especially outdoors in daylight.

 

Dark shadows should remain but only where it makes sense (no nearby diffuse light source of any significant 'strength' ... spotlights don't count, but window light and overlapping light sources do count ... and outdoor daylight is a huge overlapping, multireflected light source ;) ).

[benhat]

new optional Beta:

Vividian - More Nice Bad Weather DG - Beta

Vividian - More Nice Bad Weather DG AOS - Beta

 

More Weathers per region, Higher Chance for Snow/Rain/Storm/Fog

(Please read Requirements and Article!)

[dem1an]

I forgot to post here but Vividian 4.01 has been selected as the recommended ENB for SR:LE.... I love this preset so keep up the good work. Hope it brings this underrated ENB more traffic! :)

 

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

Nice choice.

[Mangaclub]

indeed :)

 

@z

even though theres now a new Release 4.10 its not the one i have talked about a few posts back.

We decided to spend more time in the new Color system for now till we release it an all the fixes that comes with it. 

[z929669]

indeed :)

 

@z

even though theres now a new Release 4.10 its not the one i have talked about a few posts back.

We decided to spend more time in the new Color system for now till we release it an all the fixes that comes with it. 

No problem, an enhanced color system is also great ;)

[phazer11]

Aiyen has ruined me for another ENB >V<. Tried this out, if Aiyen's preset weren't around this would probably be the one I'd use. However, there are a few things bugging me and one of the big ones is just how BLUE the water is it's almost like it's dyed.