Official STEP Lighting Solution

[JudgmentJay]

Version 4.0 of Realistic Lighting (formerly Realistic Lighting With Customization) was released today and contains many lighting placement fixes. Probably worth a look!

 

https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30450/

[z929669]

Definitely need to test this one

[torminater]

Well currently every hour there is a new hotfix so maybe testing should be postponed a little bit...

[rpsgc]

Version 4.0 of Realistic Lighting (formerly Realistic Lighting With Customization) was released today and contains many lighting placement fixes. Probably worth a look!

 

https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30450/

"We fix issues that affect the lighting and also include the wonderful Particle Patch by Mindflux. This means you will no longer need shadow striping fixes mod, removed interior fog mods, mods that fix lighting placements, missing lights and so forth."

 

Intredasting!

[z929669]

STEP continues to assist Skyrim enthusiasts in enhancing the vanilla experience. However, STEP has not consistently addressed a lighting/weather solution to top off all of its existing visual enhancements. The reason being that lighting and post processing both can have dramatic impacts on each other, and there are many solutions for each with a near infinite array of possibilities. Couple this with the subjectivity of lighting and PP, and it gets pretty difficult to decide upon a single Baseline STEP solution.

 

We have an admin discussion about an official STEP lighting solution and if we should break down and support a default lighting solution to round out the STEP experience. My answer is "yes", and I think most others feel the same way. The trick is to decide on which is the best Baseline solution.

 

To make the task of deciding more efficient, we are bringing the conversation here, in the public forum, to help arrive at a solution. The task is greatly simplified by the STEP Mandate (enhance the aesthetics of vanilla Skyrim). Thus, all of the more "creative" lighting solutions are non-starters. The goal then is to use the simplest and most efficient solution that does not change the sort of fantastical vanilla lighting style, but rather enhances this experience and corrects any of the more obvious issues with vanilla lighting and shadows. Here are the rules:

• No ENB shall be part of the Baseline lighting solution for STEP
• Vanilla light levels should be fairly well approximated (i.e., no darker dungeons/nights)
• Vanilla style should be preserved as much as possible
• Vanilla lighting inaccuracies and inconsistencies should be 'fixed'
• Performance impact should be minimal

The main contenders are ...

• No lighting adjustments (the present state)
• RLO
• EL&FX
• Relighting Skyrim
• Climates of Tamriel

... awaiting community feedback ....

 

See the stickied threads at top of Mod Suggestions Forum for details

[rpsgc]

Like I said in its thread, I'm all for RLO.

 

 

And to be honest, looking at the rules, EL&FX shouldn't even be considered as it changes the placement of hundreds of objects and light sources. The end result is a far cry from vanilla Skyrim.

[stoppingby4now]

Like I said in its thread, I'm all for RLO.

 

 

And to be honest, looking at the rules, EL&FX shouldn't even be considered as it changes the placement of hundreds of objects and light sources. The end result is a far cry from vanilla Skyrim.

So does RLO. But that's the entire point, to make lighting more realistic as there are a lot of fake and unrealistic light sources throughout the game.

[rpsgc]

Like I said in its thread, I'm all for RLO.

 

 

And to be honest, looking at the rules, EL&FX shouldn't even be considered as it changes the placement of hundreds of objects and light sources. The end result is a far cry from vanilla Skyrim.

So does RLO. But that's the entire point, to make lighting more realistic as there are a lot of fake and unrealistic light sources throughout the game.

I'm talking about moving and removing actual objects (chandeliers, horns, candles).

[kryptopyr]

While I realize that it's not out yet, the Vision Lighting version of RLO may be more in line with STEP's goals. It's suppose to include all of the changes from RLO but uses lighting templates from Vanilla Skyrim, which should make interiors the same relative brightness as their vanilla counterparts. It will be worth consideration, at least, particularly given the rules, as almost all of the other lighting mods I've seen or tried have had darker interiors and nights.

[TechAngel85]

According to the rules, neither RLO or EL&FX should be listed as they both change vanilla aspects. I haven't noticed it in RLO; however, in EL&FX it actually removes some light source (like candle horns) to achieve it's effects and anything that starts removing or moving objects in-game is bound to run into issues down the road. RLO just changes the lighting from these sources and makes dungeons and nights quite a bit darker.

 

With that said, I'm 100% for RLO as well and that's saying something considering I'm a die hard RCRN fan. RLO brings the realism to a whole new level. I haven't tried Relighting Skyrim. And as for CoT, I don't think it's much of a lighting mod. I'd consider it more of a weather mod because during my testing with it I couldn't tell any difference between it and vanilla unless you used it's optional addons or it was around sunset/rise.

[z929669]

Just a quick coarse correction concerning the "rules":

 

Yes, we need to try and honor vanilla Skyrim as best as possible; however, I cannot stress enough that vanilla style is probably the most important. This means that lighting realism is second to lighting quality and dynamics.

 

Specifically, I see EL&FX as adhering more to vanilla style and artistry than RLO. The latter has great lighting, but realism is the main goal ... elimination of the fantasy-like aspect of much of vanilla Skyrim's lighting. Vanilla has more light-color variation than RLO, and I find that EL&FX, while adding and moving light sources, tends to honor hue and saturation of reflected light more "obediently" than RLO.

 

RLO is great, and it simply does what it says ... but the fantastical nature of vanilla's lighting artistry is something that should be preserved IMHO. At least for Core STEP anyway.

[ath3nos]

Has anyone tired using them both at the same time? I really like RLO, and EL&FX was ok by itself. I'm interested to see what it looks like with both since RLO says it is compatible. Separately my vote is for RLO though.

 

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

[EssArrBee]

When used together ELnF you don't get RLO's cell changes, so I'm guessing everything else is used.

 

From RLO Readme:

RLO is not Compatible with ELnFX, but using the RLO for ELnFX allows you to use all of Enhanced Lights and FX's cell changes instead of RLO's cell changes.

[MontyMM]

I've been using ELnF since I returned to Skyrim, and I rate it highly.  It adds dramatic atmosphere.  I've dabbled with the others, but haven't been tempted away.  I may not be the best person to contribute to this discussion though, since I loathe the vanilla lighting and its horrible ambient glows.  Nothing that sticks close to vanilla is likely to gladden my heart.

[TechAngel85]

I may not be the best person to contribute to this discussion though, since I loathe the vanilla lighting and its horrible ambient glows.  Nothing that sticks close to vanilla is likely to gladden my heart.

 

I agree with this and will go out on a limb to say that this is the reason most people use lighting mods. Not to say that Z's rules aren't a valiant effort but I would say with those rules and his more recent explanation, he's only targeting a very small percentage of the users and the reason they use lighting mods. Most people want a change from vanilla, not an "enhanced vanilla". They're either looking for something more fantasy like or more realistic. I'm going with RLO because it doesn't add or remove lighting sources (candle horns, candles, lanterns, etc), it just simply changes the lighting from the vanilla sources to something that is more realistic and in-depth. I don't see anything "fantasy like" about the vanilla lighting and when comparing textures and mods we're always talking about realistic this and realistic that. I don't think we should change that view just for the sake of lighting.