IMO - highly recommended ini tweak that everyone should do

[oqhansoloqo]

SkyrimPrefs.ini - change the "fLightLODStartFade=" value to something like 12000.

 

Skyrim.ini - change "fLightLODMaxStartFade=" value to something like 16000. Make sure that the one is a greater number than the other one.

 

This controls how far away you can see emanated light. Not how far light emanates from a source to brighten it's surroundings, but how far away you can see the light on the surroundings. It's important to have the one setting lower than the other, otherwise there will be no fade effect as you reach near the limit of the visibility of the light and it will just cut off - the fade effect is a nicer transition. I highly recommend changing these settings in order to be able to see nearby activity at night. The default is WAY too close.

 

What is SO strange is that I can't find ANYONE on the internet talking about this setting, yet I discovered it and find it to be an immense night-time improvement. You can see a group with a torch far off in the distance at night, like you should. Or see that a tower open to the exterior is occupied (if the person occupying has a light source). Perhaps using an ENB changes the way this works, but I do not use an ENB and find this setting modification to compliment my usage of a mod that makes nighttime very dark.

[Aiyen]

Main reason it is not really a thing anymore is because like all LOD altering ini tweaks, there are most likely going to be some issues down the road by using them. Forcing stuff to render further away always has a price tag on it. Be it in the shape of FPS, stability or both. 

Also for vanilla nights then such settings are entirely redundant since it is bright as day, with only a different tint color. 

[torminater]

However since the Mempatch, people who prefer to see more of the game world (quantity), instead of higher quality textures might be able to use those LOD altering tweaks without issues.

 

On a side note:

I've been thinking about starting a playthrough focused on adding as much as possible to the game world (NPCs, Open Cities, new locations), adding all I can think of script-intensive gameplay-mods (Requiem, RND, Frostfall, etc.)and ramping up the uGrids to 9 without relying on lots of texture replacers. Just to see how far I can go, and whether it is more stable than the alternative (use HQ textures and cut back on uGrids, scripted mods, gameplay-mods, etc.).

[oqhansoloqo]

My thing is, if there is a light source on an NPC within my active zone (I assume the active zone is basically the uGrid settings. anyway, I use 5 uGrids in order to prevent events from occurring and missing them due to them occurring too far away for me to notice) I would like to see it from as far away as possible, instead of having their light suddenly pop in on me as I get close. How does increasing the LOD for light lower the texture quality? I haven't noticed a difference.

[torminater]

You misunderstood me.

If you load up more lod your game might become less stable. If you want to keep the burden on your system the same as before you could for example remove some texture replacers.

 

 

Sent from mobile

[Aree]

I did this tweak, the effect is amazing. Just going inside of a large room it lets you see the flames from a torch or the light coming in a window. Never knew how much the missing distance for light would make such a huge difference.

[Spock]

Does this have any negative effects related to Skyrim lighting bugs? Especially in areas where pointlights are already stressed to the limits?

 

If this uses the same distance units as fTreesMidLODSwitchDist, I'd suggest not going over 14000 with ugrids 5 because that's how close you can get to a cell border. Grass seems to work at a 2:1 distance compared to fTreesMidLODSwitchDist though, so those distance units don't seem to be homogenous.

[oqhansoloqo]

I'd like to know that too.  I used the aforementioned .ini distance settings (the ones I gave) because I tested with the Whiterun Watchtower west of Whiterun and with "Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO)" Exterior and Weather lighting at night to see how far away and how nicely the light from the tower showed in the distance and I was happy with the resulting distance.  I tried shorter distances too and they just didn't feel quite right.  It made it so much more immersive and visually appealing to me to be able to use that light to help navigate in a dark night environment.  It just felt a lot more immersive to me.

 

Please let me know if there actually is a good reason to change my value for "fLightLODMaxStartFade=" from 16000 to 14000.

Edited December 31, 2014 by oqhansoloqo

[TechAngel85]

I agree that it's more immersive because it's more realistic to be able to see those lights at long distances. However, mine are currently set to 7000.