Excessively high contrast?

[AdmBorkBork]

First off, this is an AWESOME guide. I went through the manual process (took me a couple nights, first time even applying mods to Skyrim), followed step-by-step, and it's made the game look really, really, sweet (especially wilderness settings). So, I must give thanks and props to the hard work and dedication it takes to put something like this together. Thanks!

 

With that said, however, I'm having an issue that I can't seem to solve on my own. Not knowing terribly much about the behind-the-scenes stuff (e.g., what this particular .ini setting actually does), even though I'm rather computer savvy, it's been frustrating.

 

The issue I'm having is in indoor environments that are dimly lit, with single point-sources (e.g., a few candles or torches). I get an excessively high contrast between the way-overbright candles and the completely-dark surroundings. (I've included a screenshot, below, of an average area; they can get much, much worse than this). I'm playing a Khajit, so I've been able to get by using my night vision; in some darker dungeons, however, it's to the point where I can't see anything when I'm standing next to a light source, unless I turn on the night vision, so it's been annoying.

 

System specs:

Intel Core i5-2500K (overclocked)

ASUS Maximus IV GENE-Z motherboard

8GB DDR3

nVidia (EVGA) GTX 670 4096MB (recently upgraded from Zotac GTX 570)

Latest 304.79 beta drivers

All other system drivers are up to date

 

Please feel free to ask me questions or request further specifics. I deal with computers as my day-job (I work at a managed service provider), so I'm rather savvy, as I said ... which makes this doubly frustrating.

 

Thanks for the help!

-Bork

[LeetMiniWheat]

that's from RCRN, you can press Pause/Break key to toggle the effect on/off or just uninstall it if you don't like it. it can be a bit excessive sometimes, but other times it makes things look great (especially outdoors)

 

also, regarding .ini settings have a look over here at MadWizard25's INI tweak collection. (you can manually add them if you don't use Wrye Bash)

[frihyland]

Yeah RCRN is awesome when it works and awful when it doesn't (which really isn't that often, unless you spend a lot of time underground), if you don't mind toggling it on occasion its a great mod. Myself I'm searching for the perfect combination of ENB and RLWC (I still might have to toggle on extremely rare occasions) but overall its glorious, anyway that's the plan and it will no doubt be included in the first post processing pack if I ever find the holy grail.

[AdmBorkBork]

Thanks for the pointers, I think we're on the right track, as the toggle did distinctly make a change -- note the highlights on the column to the left. It doesn't seem like enough that it made a huge impact, as the walkway area is still completely drowned in shadows.

 

RCRN ON

 

RCRN OFF

 

So, given that, is there something else that could be causing the excessively dark shadows?

 

Also, thanks for the super-speedy replies! I didn't realize you guys were so active, or I would've checked back up on the boards sooner. :?

 

-Bork

[LeetMiniWheat]

Are you using any kind of ENB series or FXAA injector? those can significantly alter contrast/colors/brightness

 

Edit: also, the brightness slider in-game is at default right?

Edit2: it could also be More Dynamic Shadows and Striping fixed, it adds/removes lights everywhere and while 99% of the time it's great, there might be a spot the guy missed

[AdmBorkBork]

No, no other ENB or FXAA mods -- I just went straight down the list from the STEP pdf guide, taking all recommendations as-is.

 

It's not a fluke spot on the ground or something, though -- the prior screenshots just happened to be where my character was. I meandered around Windhelm a bit looking for another spot, and found a stairway example. This stairway section (between the bottom steps and where I'm standing) is almost completely black like this so long as there's something bright-ish onscreen.

 

It's like the game has a set range of brightness possiblities (say, 0 to 100), and if something is supposed to be really bright (say, 30 points "brighter" than the current on-screen brightest), but the current onscreen ranges from 0 to 90, it makes everything else really really really dark to compensate, if that makes sense? In my analogy, suppose it squishes the 0-90 range into a 0-70 range so it can then fit the bright points at 30-points-higher, i.e. 100. However, this has made the bottom range (which used to be 0-20) all collapse onto 0, turning it just solid black.

 

This is with RCRN OFF and the brightness slider in game set all the way to maximum. There are actually two people in that stairway, believe it or not, my follower and a random patrolling guard.

 

Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

-Bork

[LeetMiniWheat]

hmm that's really strange.

 

I wonder if rcrnshaders.esp is still doing some funky lighting even with the effect off. can you try disabling rcrnshaders.esp? (when enabling it again, you should run BOSS to fix load order)

 

other than that, like I said you could try removing More Dynamic Shadows and Striping Fixed. here's the files it adds:

 

 

Folder PATH listing

 

| alvor's house dynamic.bsa

| alvor's house dynamic.bsl

| alvor's house dynamic.ckm

| More Dynamic Shadows.esp

|

\---Scripts

| LightingBall.pex

| LightingBallController.pex

|

\---Source

Light.psc

LightingBall.psc

LightingBallController.psc

 

 

again, make sure the .esp's are enabled again when you put them back and re-run BOSS after you enable it

[frihyland]

No, no other ENB or FXAA mods -- I just went straight down the list from the STEP pdf guide, taking all recommendations as-is.

 

It's not a fluke spot on the ground or something, though -- the prior screenshots just happened to be where my character was. I meandered around Windhelm a bit looking for another spot, and found a stairway example. This stairway section (between the bottom steps and where I'm standing) is almost completely black like this so long as there's something bright-ish onscreen.

 

It's like the game has a set range of brightness possiblities (say, 0 to 100), and if something is supposed to be really bright (say, 30 points "brighter" than the current on-screen brightest), but the current onscreen ranges from 0 to 90, it makes everything else really really really dark to compensate, if that makes sense? In my analogy, suppose it squishes the 0-90 range into a 0-70 range so it can then fit the bright points at 30-points-higher, i.e. 100. However, this has made the bottom range (which used to be 0-20) all collapse onto 0, turning it just solid black.

 

This is with RCRN OFF and the brightness slider in game set all the way to maximum. There are actually two people in that stairway, believe it or not, my follower and a random patrolling guard.

 

Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

-Bork

I wouldn't recommend using Windhelm as a good area for testing as vanilla windhelm textures and meshes are the worst in the game.

 

If your getting a lot of shininess try completely disabling AA in the ini and in your driver both.

[AdmBorkBork]

Yay! You fixed it! I completely disabled RCRN and I can see again. :D I even turned my brightness down a couple notches. Re-enabling and re-running BOSS turned it back to blackness. Doesn't seem like the More Dynamic Shadows and Striping Fixed impacted what I was experiencing at all.

 

I'm only using Windhelm because it's where my character happened to be. The problem I'm describing is happening throughout the game, and it was only while trying to navigate around the stairways and tunnels in Windhelm that I finally got fed up enough with it to seek assistance. :happy:

 

This is now with RCRN disabled (though I didn't remove the files) and brightness two notches below maximum.

 

I'm kinda sad that I'm now missing out on the rather neat RCRN effects (sunrise now is kinda, blah, hehe), but if it means I can see underground, I'm OK with that. I'm going to start looking into other lighting mods from the link in the STEP pdf and see if a different one has a combination that works for me. I'll keep you guys updated!

 

-Bork

[LeetMiniWheat]

there's many alternatives to RCRN like RLwC, and the many many ENB series and post process injectors.

 

you can read TheCompiler's article on lightning mods here:

 

though it's a bit obsolete at this point.

 

 

also, there are other remnant texture files from RCRN, but a lot are overwritten by other mods. it shouldn't cause an issue i think. but if you really want to get rid of all the files, I can give you a list minus the conflicted ones provided by other mods.

 

Edit: I'm currently hunting for the best lighting mod myself, but none are perfect, every one of them seems to have some kind of flaw

Edit2: the default lighting is really not that bad, Enhanced Vanilla ENB keeps the same lighting but just adds a few extra touches to it. might want to check it out. (shift+F12 to disable/enable on the fly instead of Pause/Break like RCRN)