Enhanced Lighting for ENB, updated 25 November-14

[--JawZ--]

The way they vertex color was assigned I would say they tried to simulate the visuals of thin cloud "mist" shapes that can occur filling out the gaps between cloud formations during early and late mornings or even during the day on semi cloudy day, or a very bright cloudy day.

Like this, best example I could find on short notice;


I'm referring to the cloud on the sky that is very faint, not the mist above the city landscape, nor the 5 small very distinctive cloud shapes on the left.

[Marcurios]

ah, i understand, like smudgy blobs more or less..

so did you make it gradual, like a gradient then ?
I mean in three distinct layers/lines ?

So if i would add some extra vertices to up the fidelity and blend the colors more into eachother like a gradient, then the horizon/lower/upper sky colors would probably blend more naturally eh ?

[--JawZ--]

More vertices won't make a very noticeable difference in the visual appearance of gradient banding. Better positioned vertex rows, more evenly spaced, with proper division between the color range from the horizon up to the top of sky dome will suffice.
I did make a version with added vertices myself, without really noticing any real change that was worth the extra work required to produce and maintain such a mesh.

If I remember correctly there are 8 rows, so 1.0 dividied by 8 ~= 0.125.
I'm not sure but that was basically how I ended up assigning a smooth gradient transition between each vertex row.
"Max color range value, 1.0" / number of rows = "linear +- value" to create a smooth gradient.

Red = Horizon
Green = Middle Sky
Blue = Top sky

Horizon bottom vertex row = 1.0, 0.0, 0.0
Between Horizon and Middle Sky = 0.5, 0.5, 0.0
Middle Sky = 0.0, 1.0, 0.0
Between Horizon and Middle Sky = 0.0, 0.5, 0.5
Top Sky = 0.0, 0.0, 1.0

And all the vertex rows in between those I gradually increased and decreased the value by 0.125, i.e, 0.875, 0.125, 0.0

[Aiyen]

If all you want to do is remove banding from the sky, you can just put in some saturated noise.. even unnoticeable amounts of it will reduce banding and smooth out the gradients up to the point where you can no longer notice it. Unless you got really wonky settings going on.

[Marcurios]

OK, thanks, that is a good help, i'll see if i can enhance the current dome as it is .

@Aiyen, i know, it will be allright if the colors are close together and the ENB settings and imagespaces are correctly configured.
but it couldn't hurt to make it a little bit better, that way there is more space for wonky settings.

[Marcurios]

so i checked the Fallout domes, it seems that in fallout the vertex colors are only red and white and shades inbetween that.
and the upper and lower domes vertex colors interlock in a star pattern.
i don't think there is much i can do to improve that to be honest, only if i made the mesh have much more triangles, but i'm not going to do that.
i also noticed that if you use a very smartly deviced palette, that you can reduce the banding that occurs in very light and very dark conditions.
also, if you use uncompressed dxt textures for clouds, a lot of banding from the bad compression technique dxt uses is eliminated.
that together with choosing colors for the sky in the weather mod that have a mid range illumination eliminates banding alltogether.
so the routines in the ENB are sound, it's all due to choosing your dome/sunlight/ambient color brightnesses wise and use the best texture quality for clouds.

[Marcurios]

I also found that, in Fallout the vertex colors on the Skydome are primarily used for cloud colors, has nothing to do with the skycolors,
skycolors are regulated in the skyshader with vertex positions it seems.

[cora0]

i only use ELE - Interior Lighting with ELFX without Enhancer, and out of nowhere it stopped working. when i created my character and played a bit it was working, but after i closed my game and went to play the next day it wasn't working. i uninstall and install it again, but nothing

[onem4nb4nd]

JawZ suggests sorting ELFX and ELE like such:
- ELE - Spell and Torch Lighting.esp
- EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
- ELE - Interior Lighting.esp
- ELE - Weathers.esp
- ELE - Weather Addition.esp

But LOOT has another agenda:
- ELE - Weathers.esp
- EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
...about 60 plugins later...
- ELE - Spell and Torch Lighting.esp

[--JawZ--]

--STATUS UPDATE--

Found a new way to fix the black void that works with Boris new rendering of sky content under the horizon fix introduced in v0.262 and newer versions.

Comparison

Vanilla;


Sky Mesh for v0.262;


Sky Mesh for v0.262 + new fix;


Vanilla + new fix;


I need to do more testing to see that it works without introducing any bugs. One visual bug encountered which is easily fixed, most present in the last pic.