Enhanced Lighting for ENB, updated 25 November-14

[Kermles]

Some questions/thoughts:

How does the one value determine all the others? Are the CK values that closely related? Wouldn't you need at least two to be accurate, like a sun irradiant light sample and a reflected sunlight sample, or a horizon sample, or something in the CK scene to use as an analogue for a white balance card to adjust the lighting values properly? Or are you going to use aggregated estimates from a variety of photos and hope that the averages are usable for the calculation? I don't really know, but it just sounds complex to do that with one value because lighting in a scene can vary so much.

For the HDR sampled data, if you are using a value in range of 0-255, then isn't that gamma corrected LDR, or tonemapped HDR, not actual HDR data? You would need some way to read the data from the HDR image file before tonemapping, it can't come from sampling in an editor with a color picker since then it will be mapped to 8bit. Does this actually matter without HDR textures in skyrim? Or maybe that's not what you meant.

This has me thinking of a kinda related project, although it would be pretty massive. But maybe it would be possible to try to approximate a physically based renderer with something like this if someone could make the proper textures and if it was done in a coordinated manner.

Figure out proper reflectance/specular properties for the materials in the game by taking hdr photos with the same exposure setting of different analogues for those materials under constant lighting so that you can measure the relative brightness of the objects in the image without it getting clipped, then read the raw HDR data somehow, and use those photos/values to determine the properties of the textures/meshes by adjusting the range of sampled values to fit in whatever skyrim can use. Then use a lightmeter to measure averages over several days of the real-world sun, cloudy and night sky irradiance and use that to set the properties of them in the creation kit also. Find out which range of lighting values produce the most realistic result for the materials. Take photos at the same time as you measure light and sample the colors of the light sources and sky to use for the light coloration values. Tonemap the photos of the materials to achieve a realistic/pleasing result, then use the same operator with similar or proportional settings for skyrim. Tada, physical rendering approximation thanks to ENB...? Probably not I guess, must be more complicated.

Would be pretty interesting to try something like that though! How much easier it would be to make realistic presets then? I will keep dreaming. Really interesting project you are doing anyway!

[--JawZ--]

Creation Kit operates in LDR space as far as I can remember so creating HDR calculations beyond the 0-1 or 0-255 range is something I don't think would prove useful.

I shouldn't have used HDR image in my explanation before as the current calculations uses 0-255 range just as Creation Kit. Any source image of any definition is useful with this calculator.
It's just that I have used HDR photos during the development but I have also used in-game and in-Creation Kit images as well.

Figure out proper reflectance/specular properties for the materials in the game...

For such calculations I would have to create a boat load of different calculators to cover all the possible mesh and texture altering mods available to the game, such specific adjustments is unnecessary.
If I ever create such an calculator it would have to be for a game or renderer that operates in HDR space and not LDR space.

The first release is almost finished for testing just need to enter the last equation for Fog Far and do a test run, or test runs rather, with it and see that it has for now OK equations.
It will remove some amount of guess work involved to figure out good blends between color values, but there is always room for improvement and fine tuning. After all this is based on what I myself think produces good looking values.

Then I will also implement calculation options such as;
Location Type: Interior or Dungeon
Atmosphere type: Regular interior(House's, Inn's), Snowy locations and probably some more still looking into various atmosphere types.

[Kermles]

Oh, okay, that makes more sense. I was thinking you were trying to recreate the photo lighting kind of, my mistake. Also about the reflectance, I wasn't very clear, sorry. I didn't mean you should do that, I was just daydreaming of how it could be done. But I meant that such a project would use its own new textures, anyway it's irrelevant, just a stray thought.

This sounds like it will be great for getting a preset just right, I am excited!

[--JawZ--]

That would require code skills that are beyond me currently. First time using Visual Studio and first time coding in Visual Basic as well.
Yeah I understood that it was just an idea for a possible advanced color calculator, and the thought was and is intriguing but I currently have no idea where it would be useful. There aren't many modifiable games that could utilize such a calculator to it's fullest.
I got that after I sent the message, been coding for 12 hours straight learning the basic operations of Visual Studio, Visual Basic and developing the math equations so my head isn't all there right now, and now I'm working on CNC codes at school,
man "all-nighter" are a terrible, terrible idea.

Once released I suggest trying it out with ELE-Interior Lighting to allow for a better control of where the new values are assigned. Personally I always use Whiterun locations as my testing environment.

[evok99]

Are the files on the front page all up-to-date? Can you provide and All-in-One download? What does the new ELE-Skyrim Combined.esp.esp do?

[--JawZ--]

evok99;

They are the latest files I have released for the public, Use the NMM Installer, That is a test version of a future release where all modules are combined into one, Skyrim-Combined, Dawnguard-Combined, Hearthfire-Combined and Dragonborn-Combined. For users planning on using all modules.

[--JawZ--]

Here is the latest revision of the RGB Calculator. I had to redo it as I accidentally deleted the project folder with all it's content.
And I got my tablet working kind off and ended up with an icon/background during the testing of the tablet.


RGBCalc Rev2 by anders.wedin, on Flickr


Current features

• Calculations for regular interiors only.
• Color boxes to serve as an visual aid of the chosen and computed colors
• Clear button to clear all values for an easier user experience compared to having to delete all all values one by one manually.

Planned and possible future features

• Calculations for Interiors and Dungeons with atmosphere types such as Regular(House, Inns etc), Snowy(Mostly Caves and such) and Foggy
• Calculations for Weathers with atmosphere types such as Clear, Cloudy, Fog, Rain, Snow, Snow-Storms and Rain-Storms
• Implement a way to show examples of good Intensity values to be used. Fog Near and Fog Far comes in mind here.
• Integrated Color Picker similar to any Color Picker found in Photoshop, GIMP or other image editing software.
• A more visually elegant application layout and general optimizations of the form.

Nothing is set in stone yet so I will see what will be done with the RGB Calculator and when.

In the mean time here is a test version, still lots to do with it but functions OK at least.
Download RGB Calculator Rev2

[tony971]

Awesome tool! As far as the combined esps, are you going to have different versions? Like a main version that includes everything but the Relighting Skyrim Stuff, a Relighting Skyrim version that replaces light bulbs with the Relighting Skyrim stuff, an ELFX version that gets rid of incompatible modules, etc? Or just a main version?

[--JawZ--]

Combined will be for ELE only, Relighting Skyrim and ELFX just as the NMM installer is currently. But it won't handle light bulb changes at all when it comes to RS and ELFX compatible ELE parts because those mods does that.

[--JawZ--]

Layout feedback of the calculator would be appreciated if given, as well as general feature implementation.

Interior work layout, dual monitor setup;

Interior View by anders.wedin, on Flickr

Weather work layout, dual monitor setup;

Weather View by anders.wedin, on Flickr