Realistic Lighting with Customization

Version 2.3 by 757823, Pluto, and Leviathan1753

***CONTENTS***


***INSTALLATION***

Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) Installation (www.skyrimnexus.com/content/modmanager):
  1. Download through NMM, and activate there.
  2. Configure the RealisticLighting.ini for any desired settings.
  3. Run the included Realistic Lighting Patcher.jar.
  4. Follow as from 3) below
Manual Installation:
  1. Unzip the files anywhere.
  2. Move the ESP file 'Realistic Lighting', the RealisticLighting.ini, and the Realistic Lighting Patcher.jar into the Data directory of your Skyrim installation (located inside the steam folder, under steamapps/common/skyrim).
  3. Delete the optional files from previous versions. (They all have "RL -" or "Realistic Lighting -" prefix)
  4. (Optional) Move the files you want from the optionals folder to the Data folder. Click here to see descriptions of them.
  5. Configure the RealisticLighting.ini for any desired settings.
  6. Run the included Realistic Lighting Patcher.jar.
  7. When starting Skyrim, click on data files, and make sure the 'Realistic Lighting - Full.esp' & 'Realistic Lighting Patch.esp' or the optionals you want are checked.
  8. Run Skyrim!

***FILE LIST***

Main files:
Realistic Lighting.esp: Includes all changes. See basics and change log for details.
Realistic_Lighting_Patcher.jar : The patcher that implements changes in the ini. Just run it after configuring the ini file.
RealisticLighting.ini: The controlling ini file. This contains options to change most of the data in the plugin.

Optional files:
The optional files are modular and can be used together.
RL - Lights B.esp: Same as lights, but brighter

Load this after the full ESP if you want even brighter lights. May cause lighting glitches in cities.

Optional textures:
Textures\sky: Textures for more smooth overcast clouds and darker clouds in general, as well as a custom sun and sunglare texture. Minimal difference from "vanilla".
Textures\landscape: 1024x1024 custom snow textures with lower brightness if you don't like being blinded by the vanilla snow.

***BASICS***

Makes the lighting more realistic without the use of screen shader injections or other post-processing. This means there will be no performance decrease at all, and all weather and locations have unique light settings!

The "fixes" in this mod for exteriors: For interiors: This affects all weather, all interiors, and all dungeons. Some special quest areas or quest weather states may not be affected. This can also give the game a considerably darker and ominous feeling than a "fantasy paradise" feeling that Oblivion and the default Skyrim have. Also note that this won't decrease performance at all, and for some people the removal of bloom may actually improve performance. All ENB/FXAA Authors -> Please, feel free to distribute a custom ini file for compatibility!

***SCREENSHOTS***

(1680x1050, maximum game settings, 16XAF, 8XAA, FXAA, SSAO)

RL 1.6
RL 1.4
Unmodified

***VIDEOS***

Fantastic timelapse by Arsenalrobert.
RL 2.3

Video starts @ ~6:10 for Realistic Lighting.
RL 2.3

***DEVELOPMENT NOTES***

What to expect for this mod after the release of the CK:

Most things can be done now too, except for effective scripting, quest-making, and by-hand building of cells. These things CAN be done already, but they would take ages without the nice interface and tools in the CK.

What will change... depends on how powerful the new scripting language is. If it's very powerful, then there could quite possibly be some huge improvements. If it's a lot better and more powerful then Oblivion scripting, things that could change are:
- Real HDR adaption through scripting
- Dynamic replacement of all point lights in a cell to delete lights without a light source and add lights to all light source models
- Droppable torches/other light sources that give off light

If it's the same or similar to oblivion, then it will be pretty limited and only minor things will change. With an oblivion-style scripting language, it might be possible to have:
- moon phases affect night brightness
- torches give off less light at day and have a bigger radius at night/in dungeons
- buildings with windows get brighter during the day and darker at night

---

Known problems as of current version:
- Some textures can be too bright at mid-day. Waiting for a real HDR shader to fix this, or you can use the optional darker 1024x1024 snow textures.
- Some objects' lighting gets darker/goes away when you move far away from an object at night. This happens in vanilla as well, but it harder to notice because lights aren't as strong at night. Example:
http://imgur.com/a/a1Tnl#0
It appears to be an engine bug. I guess there's a maximum number of lights that can apply to entities at once, or something like that, and if a torch is nearby then the other lights in the area don't apply correctly. Seems to only happen with carried lights nearby, from NPCs or the player.
- Some interiors use the wrong lighting templates or imagespaces, so they may be brighter or darker than intended. Don't want to change because it requires editing the cells, and I wouldn't do it until the CK anyway.

***CHANGE LOG***