RLO retains some of the atmosphere in dungeons better. One of the first quest-related dungeons (the name escapes me) has an awesome area where you go down a hall and one side is lit up blue and the other red, RLO enhances it but ELFX destroys it. (when I remember the name I'll link a screenshot)
+Terran Loyalist Are you talking about the mines right between Riverwood and Helgen?? Its been a long time since I've been there but I recall a "room" like that in Embershard Mine (I had to look it up... That is what I am talking about). Edit: Wait... Quest Dungeon??? You mean Bleakfall Barrow?? At the top of the mountain you see as you exit Helgen? Where you get the Golden Claw and the Dragonstone?? The first entrance area has a room sort of like what you are describing but Gopher showed that room in the vid.... Is that what you are talking about?? It doesn't show it well on UA-cam but the effect is pronounced in game. Especially at night.
I'll get a screenshot posted in 10~ minutes from now, I'll try and find it (i'll take a screeny with just RLS and true vision enabled, then I'll post some with ELFX and RLO
I know it would be a massive undertaking but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the different Perk Overhauls currently out for Skyrim Special Edition Gopher.
Bit late to the party, but yea. My top mods are always; -Skyrim Flora Overhaul -Static Mesh Improvement Mod -Osmodius texture overhaul -ELFX + enhancer -Darker nights -Obsidian weathers and seasons -Sounds of skyrim -And of course the unofficial skyrim patch. Add to that stuff like ReShade/ENB, frostfall/campfire/ineed, alternate start, open cities, immersive armors/weapons, and a whole bunch of other mods that add to the realism/immersion of the game. Can't really play without them any more. The vanilla game just looks so ugly, dull, empty and unrealistic in comparison. Bethesda really should thank the modders to high heavens for keeping their 8 year old game still relevant, playable and up to date graphics-wise.
@@Hightower2804TP Yea it does. I tend to keep interiors with just ELFX + Enhancer, but nights just aren't dark enough for me so I use Darker Nights with it. I want my nights so dark you can only just barely see what you're doing at night. :P EDIT: Though you can choose between like 7~8 darkness levels with Darker nights. So it doesn't have to be set as dark as I have it.
Honestly I think they looked worse at the bottom where they met the land. They seemed far too... repetitive? looked like someone scribbled over a drawing with a pen. Anyway Blended one is looking the best so far. I think honestly the contrast just need to be reduced and the black lines on the mountains need to be brightened. Maybe I'll give it a go.
I have been working on mountain textures for my texture pack, but believe me when I say that these are the toughest textures to properly replace in Skyrim. Mostly because the normal map has to be top notch in order to keep the mountains looking nice at a distance. Also, my texture pack was updated the day after this video, if you haven't checked out the update you should, a lot of adjustments and Imperial Forts textures.
I was too, I found that I missed Skyrim more than I missed some of the mods. enabled by SKSE. SkyUI and Immersive Hud tho...when/if they come back I will be on my next playthrough.
Why would you resist it? SSE's mods are a whole lot better than SLE's by now, the only thing it's really missing is the MCM, which most mods have found a way to go without until SKSE is done. Plus, it's not like you can't install SKSE later.
The fact it will be months till some of the "required" mods are updated due to SKSE not being updated makes it even worse since I love playing it around Christmas time... Also, I havent even touched Dragonborn or finished the main quest on my last playthrough haha
You probably should've waited for RLO 5.0 before doing a comparison. The screenshots they teased for it look a whole lot better than the current version.
Been waiting for this, thanks. Would love to see a video comparing Vivid weathers and CoT SE next if you have time. I have tried to compare them myself, but you do a much better job of these comparisons than myself.
It is like an Ali vs Holmes fight, rematch. The original version of this video for oldrim made me an ELFX partisan, I still my my dark dungeons!! Gopher, you are a legend in this community and still going strong, even if you don't speak english!
You could argue that RLO looks looks a bit more realistic, but ELFX seriously looks great. It looks a bit more fantasy to me but I love the warmth and smokiness to it. ELFX is the one for me!
I think opposite.. ELFX literally has smoke coming from fire its highly unrealistic to not have smoke coming from fire.. it also makes fire look little more colorful and realistic.. just my opinion
Enhanced Lights and FX is my personal favourite. I love the added pop of colour and the depth of darkness, but the golden glow and smoky effects are incredible to look at. I generally pair it with Climates of Tamriel. I have used RLO and I liked it, but it did exterior lights as well so I had to let it go to keep CoT.
As usual nice vid, but I'm surprised that you didn't talk about the mod "torches cast shadows". It's a great mod that goes very well along RLO and ELFX since you spend much more time using torches ! I recomend it.
What i'm looking for in a lighting mod is, the removal of all ambient light, light coming for all fires/candles/things that would be producing light, darker nighttime/shadows, (making it pitch-black anywhere that doesn't have a light source, including outside) and longer/realistic light range. Also, candles aren't supposed to give off thick wisps of smoke.
Great video as always, Gopher! Your channel was my first stop for modding SSE. As for the next topic, maybe you could cover the lore-friendly character/npc texture overhauls? I think the only ones out for SSE currently are Total Character Makeover (TCM) and Windsong Immersive Character Overhaul (WICO), but I could be wrong. Both are fairly large in scope, as far as I can tell, and I haven't found a good comparison of the two yet.
You should check out Vivid Landscapes. It was just released on SSE Nexus. It's in the Hot Files right now and if not, you can find it in the Landscape Changes category. The Mountain texture as well as just about every texture in the package is amazing.
i remember using a mod for the original skyrim that when u entered a dungeon it removed lightsources in caves crypts etc and gave a spell to turn lightsourcres back on i think it was called true darkness. that mod helps for areas that lighting mods dont affect like modd addedd dungeons
Podrick Payne : not that hard... Download manually all the mods you want a part of. Open up the texture folder of each mod and compare. Chose the textures you want and put them in a new texture folder. Archive it with 7zip or any other archive software and add to your Data folder or use the '+' icon on your NMM. Good luck!👍🏻
Podrick Payne : I mix and match from old Skyrim and SSE.... On the top of my head : Skyrim 2017, SSE Textures, Vivid Landscapes ( SSE version ) , TreesHD ( from old Skyrim ) to name just a couple. To view .dds files you probably need extra software, just google it
I've recently installed NobleSkyrimMod HD-2K on my Oldrim. The mountains I thought looked nice with it. It is also compatible with SSE. It is a big overhaul but it has separate files to retexture specific things. If you want to look at only the mountains you can install NSM - Landscape Only from under Optional Files.
i personally love ELFX. one huge reason is day and night, vanila makes windows dark, RLO makes the room darker, ELFX also makes the room more blue which really gives the idea of night. yes, it is to un unrealistic level in places, but it does really sell your (or at least my) brain on that it is night.
ELFX is my favorite. It makes it so comfy looking when coming to an in after a long, chilling hike with realistic needs and diseases+Frostfall enabled.
I used to not use RLO because I didn't like the lighting pop-in effect that it had. It might be that I've just gotten used to it but I haven't noticed it being an issue in my most recent playthrough of SSE.
I don't know why, my guess is it's the shadows that are cast by the environment but there is something about E.L.F.X that makes the textures and the character models look a bit nicer. I also like how warm E.L.F.X seems make the taverns feel really make them seem like a good place to go have some mead, hear some songs and brag about how easily you killed a dragon while on the road.
I'm going with RLO. I just wish it didn't remove light sources. Example: 8:40 there are candles on the counter in the vanilla version. I didn't expect RLO to remove them.
Northfire's Photoreal Mountains is probably the best mountain mod I've seen so far, but you'd have to add the textures manually to SSE since it's only on the skyrim nexus.
Also ELF has more of a blue tint over the whole scene then RLO does. More then likely because of the smoke even tho the light sources are more warm the whole scene itself looks cooler because of either the smoke or a blue tint applied to the entire thing. At least in houses that is.
Just the video I was looking for! Thanks a lot Gopher. I have been using ELFX, but was kinda hating how it made all light sources orange. For many ppl this is great, and has a completely different vibe, but I'm sticking with RLO :)
RLO is adding a lot of new features for 5.0. It is adding candle, brazier and torch smoke. Also some other cool features. Though "head to head" battle usually makes fans of either mods fight! lol
Have you tried brown mountain? Dont know if its out for special edition but its the one i use and i think it is the best one as mountains are actually slightly brownish. Vey few mountains are 100% grey. If you look up a image of a mountain with snow on it this is possible to see.That is my take on it anyways. =)
Gopher speaking from a let's play watcher perspective, I think ELFX would be better for your videos. It is darker, but from the scenes you've shown it was still dark, but not to the point that nothing could be seen, and there wasn't a massive loss of detail. So my opinion on the subject is I'd probably play with RLO, but I would much rather watch someone playing with ELFX. On a related side note the ELFX feels more like the type of lighting you would see in a movie like Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter. So it really does have more of a cinematic quality than RLO. (judging from the video)
Big freaking fan of Pfuscher aka Zerwas1 (author of Skyrim 2017 Textures). His textures are absolutely stunning, using them in my SLE playthrough atm and I will be using them in my SSE playthrough. :)
Gopher, Amidianborn landscapes by Cabal120 from classic Skyrim has very nice mountain textures that works fine in SSE. You should check it out. The actual landscape textures do not work in SSE sadly.
*Damn, I forgot how awe-inspiring ELFX is. It was always one of my essential mods, especially the hardcore version. I wish there was an ELFX mod for Fallout.*
You should check out Skyland v2. Newer and better mountains. It's a version of the eroded version of Real Mountains. Also all of the ground textures are slightly larger and newer color pallet.
I always went with ELFX due to some of the mods I used didn't play nice with RLO. When SKSE64 goes live (so not soon enough!), I'll have to give both a try. I've always liked the options ELFX provided, though.
I saw ELFX was in Nexus and downloaded it immediately. It wasn't until I was in game that I realized I was missing wearable lanterns. Still need to see if that's made its way to SE yet. Otherwise, I'll need to actually stock up on torches.
I love Vivid Landscapes both for ruins and mountains. Also, while I love ELFX, I think ELE looks great with SSE, particularly if you aren't going to play with an enb.
I want purity for special edition sooo bad. it had my favorite water, rock, lighting, and weather changes all in one package. fantastic mod, but the author said it was his last contribution, I hope so much that he ports it over to SSE
ELFX's Candle smokes is optional, at least with current version. I also think that you should have mentioned the ELFX Enhancer, the optionall ELFX plugin that makes interiors darker, which I think you used in your video. I know you mentioned the hardcore option but that is not the same.
As for mountain textures, I can't recommend the one's from Vivid Lanscapes enough. They do look superb in both quality and art style (but be aware that they're not oriented on the vanilla look). Another one could be Rustic Mountains. Haven't tried that out yet, but it does look superb, and it's also orientated on the vanilla mountain's look. Just wanted to inform you about those in case you didn't knew about them before =D
I'd also make an argument for Noble. It manages to create the appearance of depth and texture where other packs tend to leave landscapes looking flat and/or dull.
Funny but important to note, I'm assuming Gopher had the first iteration of Skyland installed. Skyland was recently, rather hugely updated and one of the changes was actually including Real Mountains. Unfortunately I'm not sure if it's the standard or eroded version.
You said you're going to see which of these mods you're going to use... does that mean we should expect a third skyrim let's play sometime in the near future :)
Hey Gopher, if it's any help the Noble Skyrim texture pack has an update for SSE on it's regular nexus Skyrim mod site and covers most landscape textures including mountains. I'm actually using it at the moment and it seems to work well.
Gopher: Wondering if I could get an opinion from you. I use Climates of Tamriel for a lot of my weather and lighting overhauls (it makes Frostfall and Campfire so much more challenging when the weather is so variable), and I really like how it works... but the regular darkness of dungeons is way too bright, and when I go for the darker dungeons, I literally can't see a damn thing, even when standing right next to a brazier of burning coals. And a torch hardly helps, and I can't get my followers to take out their torches... it's almost as though light sources don't cast as much light as you think they should with CoT installed. Would you think that either of these mods might be more my cup of tea? either in conjunction with, or instead of, CoT, but since I think it's necessary for some of the weather changes I'd prefer to use it in conjunction with either ELFX or RLO, only overriding the bits of CoT that I need to. I like my dungeons and nights dark enough to really need illumination like a torch... but I like when standing next to a burning brazier or whathaveyou actually lets me _see_
I really like using both RLO and ELFX in combination with Lanterns of Skyrim. RLO changes the physical sources of light in 3d space, and ELFX changes the way those light sources act in 3d space. Adding LoS creates additional outside sources of light along the road and in towns. Add wearable lanterns and it's like playing Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen style! Of course, no light mod is complete without a great texture overhaul mod! I start with SMIM, add a general texture pack like Noble Skyrim, then start specializing in smaller areas of the game like Flora Overhaul, Ruins Clutter, and Ethereal Clouds. Start big and then specialize. The key is to let the bigger mods take care of aspects that the smaller ones do not overwrite. SSE modding is so much fun! Again, it would be a lot easier to mix and match if we had an actual MOD ORGANIZER and not just an installer. Ya know? One where you can turn individual files on and off within a mod ... like before...?
I prefer the general mood of elfx but it's far larger than rlo, so it really comes down to storage space for me and rlo gives you more bang for your buck
Any good mods that tweak with the light that should be there from either casting magic or just having the magic out? I know there were a couple in Skyrim.
gotta say at 9:45 it doesn't look very realistic like sure its better than vanilla, but there is way to much shadow going on where some areas look pitch black in the middle of the day
ELFX is so superior, it ads dinamic interior lights that change depending on the day/night time, it ads amazing contrast and colors depending on light sources, and all lights can be shut down with water or ice spells! and the relit with fire, perfect for sneak gameplay.
i've just settled on vivid weathers/truestorms with ELE and a enb called sin ENB, vibrant, dark and nice and clear. texture wise i'm still hoping amedianborn will either port his/there packs or give someone permission to port cause they've just been my textures for everything possible, caves, armors, whiterun, landscape they all look brilliant just worried that i'll mess up the conversion or that the textures/meshes will end up messing with SSE in the long run :( noticed vivid landscape textures just got ported over :D does ELFX still mess with spiderwebs and such? used it for ages until i got sick of trying to fix spiderwebs >.>
Gopher, it's not the mountains you want to replace: it's the rocks. Try to find "Bigger and Boulder". It's a crying shame SparrowPrince hid the file on Nexus for some reason, but I'm sure it's floating somewhere on the internet. Hey, if you know the guy you should ask him where he hid the file. It was the best rock texture mod out there.
i cant get either of the mods to stop flickering. i put each one at the bottom of my load order but the light sources just keep flickering in both mods
I'm a bit new to modding lighting.. so this may be a stupid question... I like E.L.F.X. and I was going to try pairing it with Vivid Weathers.. but Is this good enough to not need an ENB? If not, what is a good ENB and what is the purpose of it...?
Im really unsure about the new special edition. its been a while, but most all the mods i use dont even mention special edition on their nexus page... is there a separate nexus for special edition or something?
You should start a series where you fix our broken Skyrims looking at our load orders. Haven't been able to play SSE since 1.2 update. Can not figure out why.
Love both but ELFX is my favorite because of the atmosphere it gives.
Yeah, I agree. It is not as bland as RLO in opinion
RLO retains some of the atmosphere in dungeons better. One of the first quest-related dungeons (the name escapes me) has an awesome area where you go down a hall and one side is lit up blue and the other red, RLO enhances it but ELFX destroys it. (when I remember the name I'll link a screenshot)
+Terran Loyalist
Are you talking about the mines right between Riverwood and Helgen?? Its been a long time since I've been there but I recall a "room" like that in Embershard Mine (I had to look it up... That is what I am talking about).
Edit: Wait... Quest Dungeon??? You mean Bleakfall Barrow?? At the top of the mountain you see as you exit Helgen? Where you get the Golden Claw and the Dragonstone?? The first entrance area has a room sort of like what you are describing but Gopher showed that room in the vid.... Is that what you are talking about?? It doesn't show it well on UA-cam but the effect is pronounced in game. Especially at night.
J_Eilonwy
No, it's the dungeon where you get the jurgen windcaller horn I think
I'll get a screenshot posted in 10~ minutes from now, I'll try and find it (i'll take a screeny with just RLS and true vision enabled, then I'll post some with ELFX and RLO
I know it would be a massive undertaking but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the different Perk Overhauls currently out for Skyrim Special Edition Gopher.
I'm personally using Ordinator so you can try that, seems to be the most expansive one yet
ELFX has always been on my top 3 mods list. Now I can start playing again :)
Bit late to the party, but yea. My top mods are always;
-Skyrim Flora Overhaul
-Static Mesh Improvement Mod
-Osmodius texture overhaul
-ELFX + enhancer
-Darker nights
-Obsidian weathers and seasons
-Sounds of skyrim
-And of course the unofficial skyrim patch.
Add to that stuff like ReShade/ENB, frostfall/campfire/ineed, alternate start, open cities, immersive armors/weapons, and a whole bunch of other mods that add to the realism/immersion of the game.
Can't really play without them any more. The vanilla game just looks so ugly, dull, empty and unrealistic in comparison. Bethesda really should thank the modders to high heavens for keeping their 8 year old game still relevant, playable and up to date graphics-wise.
@@Sanquinity Does "Darker Nights" work with ELFX? Like darker interiors?
@@Hightower2804TP Yea it does. I tend to keep interiors with just ELFX + Enhancer, but nights just aren't dark enough for me so I use Darker Nights with it. I want my nights so dark you can only just barely see what you're doing at night. :P
EDIT: Though you can choose between like 7~8 darkness levels with Darker nights. So it doesn't have to be set as dark as I have it.
@@Sanquinity thanks a lot! It's almost winter time so perfect for Skyrim ;D
These are funny looking mountain textures :P
Some of them were pretty good, but yes, some of them looked strange at the top.
Gopher you should try Gecko realistic mountains, it looks a lot better than any of these..
Gopher : I agree with trying out Gecko and I also would like to tell you about Mountains-Natural Granite . Really nice rock mod
And there's also Rustic Mountains
Honestly I think they looked worse at the bottom where they met the land. They seemed far too... repetitive? looked like someone scribbled over a drawing with a pen. Anyway Blended one is looking the best so far. I think honestly the contrast just need to be reduced and the black lines on the mountains need to be brightened. Maybe I'll give it a go.
I have been working on mountain textures for my texture pack, but believe me when I say that these are the toughest textures to properly replace in Skyrim. Mostly because the normal map has to be top notch in order to keep the mountains looking nice at a distance. Also, my texture pack was updated the day after this video, if you haven't checked out the update you should, a lot of adjustments and Imperial Forts textures.
I think you should do a weather mod comparison between climates of tamriel and vivid next..
+Jeremy Alexander How in Nirn would that work?I know COT and VW's both have True Storms patches,but using COT and VW seems odd
Everyone one of these SSE Mod talks tempts me into going back in before SSE's script extender is out... I must resist
I was too, I found that I missed Skyrim more than I missed some of the mods. enabled by SKSE. SkyUI and Immersive Hud tho...when/if they come back I will be on my next playthrough.
Why would you resist it? SSE's mods are a whole lot better than SLE's by now, the only thing it's really missing is the MCM, which most mods have found a way to go without until SKSE is done. Plus, it's not like you can't install SKSE later.
SkyUI 2.2 works fine on SSE just ignore the warning message. The only thing you wont be able to do is use the item search tool.
I feel your pain.
The fact it will be months till some of the "required" mods are updated due to SKSE not being updated makes it even worse since I love playing it around Christmas time... Also, I havent even touched Dragonborn or finished the main quest on my last playthrough haha
ELFX on hardcore really makes dungeons creepy ... especially with a nice audio overhaul.
Tacomaholic yup, even on console
Friends don't let friends play on console.
Informative as ever, you never fail in helping me cobble together mods for my playthroughs.
Keep up the awesome work!
I need more of these Mr. Gopher.
I'm very pleased to have heard you say, "...which of these mods I'll use" rather than "which one of these is better".
You probably should've waited for RLO 5.0 before doing a comparison. The screenshots they teased for it look a whole lot better than the current version.
Been waiting for this, thanks. Would love to see a video comparing Vivid weathers and CoT SE next if you have time. I have tried to compare them myself, but you do a much better job of these comparisons than myself.
It is like an Ali vs Holmes fight, rematch. The original version of this video for oldrim made me an ELFX partisan, I still my my dark dungeons!!
Gopher, you are a legend in this community and still going strong, even if you don't speak english!
You could argue that RLO looks looks a bit more realistic, but ELFX seriously looks great. It looks a bit more fantasy to me but I love the warmth and smokiness to it. ELFX is the one for me!
I think opposite.. ELFX literally has smoke coming from fire its highly unrealistic to not have smoke coming from fire.. it also makes fire look little more colorful and realistic.. just my opinion
Hey @Ghoper thanks for taking the time to make this greatly appreciated
this guy is great his coverage of mods and suggestions make my game time even better
Enhanced Lights and FX is my personal favourite. I love the added pop of colour and the depth of darkness, but the golden glow and smoky effects are incredible to look at. I generally pair it with Climates of Tamriel.
I have used RLO and I liked it, but it did exterior lights as well so I had to let it go to keep CoT.
As usual nice vid, but I'm surprised that you didn't talk about the mod "torches cast shadows". It's a great mod that goes very well along RLO and ELFX since you spend much more time using torches ! I recomend it.
glad to see your doing skyrim modding again. it is a great series.
What i'm looking for in a lighting mod is,
the removal of all ambient light,
light coming for all fires/candles/things that would be producing light,
darker nighttime/shadows, (making it pitch-black anywhere that doesn't have a light source, including outside)
and longer/realistic light range.
Also, candles aren't supposed to give off thick wisps of smoke.
Am I the only one to find that these "improved" mountain textures are far worse than the original ones and make them look like piles of grey mud ?
That's correct. The texture is better at close but from distance the mountain looks strange, not realistic at all.
The modding scene if freaking amazing. I can't wait to play Skyrim again!
Great video as always, Gopher! Your channel was my first stop for modding SSE. As for the next topic, maybe you could cover the lore-friendly character/npc texture overhauls? I think the only ones out for SSE currently are Total Character Makeover (TCM) and Windsong Immersive Character Overhaul (WICO), but I could be wrong. Both are fairly large in scope, as far as I can tell, and I haven't found a good comparison of the two yet.
You should check out Vivid Landscapes. It was just released on SSE Nexus. It's in the Hot Files right now and if not, you can find it in the Landscape Changes category. The Mountain texture as well as just about every texture in the package is amazing.
Welcome back Gopher.
Gopher leaking his indecisiveness on everybody. Damn it, I don't know which one to pick !
Loving this series! I'm also waiting for a good solid base of mods to come out for my Skyrim swansong! :)
i remember using a mod for the original skyrim that when u entered a dungeon it removed lightsources in caves crypts etc and gave a spell to turn lightsourcres back on i think it was called true darkness. that mod helps for areas that lighting mods dont affect like modd addedd dungeons
If you want a really good texture mod check out noble skyrim.Its for the original game, but you can still use it for sse.
The Omega Potato : not my style.
I pick textures from all kinds of mods and make my own texture mod
Podrick Payne : not that hard...
Download manually all the mods you want a part of. Open up the texture folder of each mod and compare. Chose the textures you want and put them in a new texture folder. Archive it with 7zip or any other archive software and add to your Data folder or use the '+' icon on your NMM.
Good luck!👍🏻
Podrick Payne : I mix and match from old Skyrim and SSE....
On the top of my head : Skyrim 2017, SSE Textures, Vivid Landscapes ( SSE version ) , TreesHD ( from old Skyrim ) to name just a couple.
To view .dds files you probably need extra software, just google it
I've recently installed NobleSkyrimMod HD-2K on my Oldrim. The mountains I thought looked nice with it. It is also compatible with SSE. It is a big overhaul but it has separate files to retexture specific things. If you want to look at only the mountains you can install NSM - Landscape Only from under Optional Files.
Not a fan of those mountain textures at all
i personally love ELFX. one huge reason is day and night, vanila makes windows dark, RLO makes the room darker, ELFX also makes the room more blue which really gives the idea of night. yes, it is to un unrealistic level in places, but it does really sell your (or at least my) brain on that it is night.
Gopher, for landscape use Y.A.L.O., its perfect for high quality plus realism. Also drastically improves mountains too.
Having played extensively with both RLO and ELFX, I prefer ELFX. It's just more atmospheric.
ELFX is my favorite. It makes it so comfy looking when coming to an in after a long, chilling hike with realistic needs and diseases+Frostfall enabled.
Thank you so much for making this!
Oh my god - two videos in a row?! :O
Been a fan of ELFX for years ...so very glad it has come to Skyrim SE.
Vivid Landscapes has a better mountain texture than all of the mods you looked, im surprised you didnt feature it.
Really like ELFX and Osmodius textures. Out of the mountain textures shown I think I liked Real Mountains (Eroded) the most.
I used to not use RLO because I didn't like the lighting pop-in effect that it had. It might be that I've just gotten used to it but I haven't noticed it being an issue in my most recent playthrough of SSE.
i really hope aof detailed mountains get ported i prefer that one for lighting i like relighting skyrim from the classic
@Gopher -- look into Majestic Mountains, definitely the best looking one
I don't know why, my guess is it's the shadows that are cast by the environment but there is something about E.L.F.X that makes the textures and the character models look a bit nicer.
I also like how warm E.L.F.X seems make the taverns feel really make them seem like a good place to go have some mead, hear some songs and brag about how easily you killed a dragon while on the road.
Do these work well with Vivid Weathers?
I use ELFX with vivid weathers, it works fine. There might have been a compatibility patch, look for that in both of their optional files.
Just don't install the exterior lighting and weather modules for RLO or ELFX.
vivid weathers can be used with ELFX, just don't install the weather module, the rest works.
It does, and I'm using it.
Great video Gopher! I actually prefer the atmospheric/warmer feel of ELFX. Both outstanding mods but, can only use one and I choose ELFX.
I'm going with RLO. I just wish it didn't remove light sources. Example: 8:40 there are candles on the counter in the vanilla version. I didn't expect RLO to remove them.
Gopher its February! We Need MOAR!!!
Northfire's Photoreal Mountains is probably the best mountain mod I've seen so far, but you'd have to add the textures manually to SSE since it's only on the skyrim nexus.
Also ELF has more of a blue tint over the whole scene then RLO does. More then likely because of the smoke even tho the light sources are more warm the whole scene itself looks cooler because of either the smoke or a blue tint applied to the entire thing. At least in houses that is.
Just the video I was looking for! Thanks a lot Gopher. I have been using ELFX, but was kinda hating how it made all light sources orange. For many ppl this is great, and has a completely different vibe, but I'm sticking with RLO :)
I love these videos!
RLO is adding a lot of new features for 5.0.
It is adding candle, brazier and torch smoke. Also some other cool features.
Though "head to head" battle usually makes fans of either mods fight! lol
Have you tried brown mountain? Dont know if its out for special edition but its the one i use and i think it is the best one as mountains are actually slightly brownish. Vey few mountains are 100% grey. If you look up a image of a mountain with snow on it this is possible to see.That is my take on it anyways. =)
Gopher speaking from a let's play watcher perspective, I think ELFX would be better for your videos. It is darker, but from the scenes you've shown it was still dark, but not to the point that nothing could be seen, and there wasn't a massive loss of detail. So my opinion on the subject is I'd probably play with RLO, but I would much rather watch someone playing with ELFX.
On a related side note the ELFX feels more like the type of lighting you would see in a movie like Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter. So it really does have more of a cinematic quality than RLO. (judging from the video)
Elfx also seems to have batter lite peaking through screen where RLO didn't at least doing by the images you've shown
Big freaking fan of Pfuscher aka Zerwas1 (author of Skyrim 2017 Textures). His textures are absolutely stunning, using them in my SLE playthrough atm and I will be using them in my SSE playthrough. :)
Dude Gopher you have really busted our balls with those bloody mountains...
Just use the same texture you used in Classic Skyrim
Gopher, Amidianborn landscapes by Cabal120 from classic Skyrim has very nice mountain textures that works fine in SSE. You should check it out. The actual landscape textures do not work in SSE sadly.
*Damn, I forgot how awe-inspiring ELFX is. It was always one of my essential mods, especially the hardcore version. I wish there was an ELFX mod for Fallout.*
Speaking about mountain textures, have you tried RUSTIC Mountains? It is amazing :D
you should look at follower overhaul or something like that
You should check out Skyland v2. Newer and better mountains. It's a version of the eroded version of Real Mountains. Also all of the ground textures are slightly larger and newer color pallet.
I always went with ELFX due to some of the mods I used didn't play nice with RLO. When SKSE64 goes live (so not soon enough!), I'll have to give both a try. I've always liked the options ELFX provided, though.
I saw ELFX was in Nexus and downloaded it immediately. It wasn't until I was in game that I realized I was missing wearable lanterns. Still need to see if that's made its way to SE yet. Otherwise, I'll need to actually stock up on torches.
Could you in the future take a look at weather mods, CoT, Vivid Weathers, etc?
I love Vivid Landscapes both for ruins and mountains. Also, while I love ELFX, I think ELE looks great with SSE, particularly if you aren't going to play with an enb.
I want purity for special edition sooo bad. it had my favorite water, rock, lighting, and weather changes all in one package. fantastic mod, but the author said it was his last contribution, I hope so much that he ports it over to SSE
Yeah purity was awsome
ELFX's Candle smokes is optional, at least with current version.
I also think that you should have mentioned the ELFX Enhancer, the optionall ELFX plugin that makes interiors darker, which I think you used in your video. I know you mentioned the hardcore option but that is not the same.
dude i love your voice, you should do some voice acting in mods or even some games if you haven't already.
As for mountain textures, I can't recommend the one's from Vivid Lanscapes enough. They do look superb in both quality and art style (but be aware that they're not oriented on the vanilla look). Another one could be Rustic Mountains. Haven't tried that out yet, but it does look superb, and it's also orientated on the vanilla mountain's look. Just wanted to inform you about those in case you didn't knew about them before =D
I'd also make an argument for Noble. It manages to create the appearance of depth and texture where other packs tend to leave landscapes looking flat and/or dull.
enhanced lights and fx (hardcore) shoul come with an option to lit candles, torches and the like in the dungeons.
Funny but important to note, I'm assuming Gopher had the first iteration of Skyland installed. Skyland was recently, rather hugely updated and one of the changes was actually including Real Mountains. Unfortunately I'm not sure if it's the standard or eroded version.
ELFX was one of the reasons I got the mod that makes spells give off light. So. much. better.
You said you're going to see which of these mods you're going to use... does that mean we should expect a third skyrim let's play sometime in the near future :)
Vivid Mt man...you can't go wrong with it :)
GODD WORK I E.L.F.X
Hey Gopher, if it's any help the Noble Skyrim texture pack has an update for SSE on it's regular nexus Skyrim mod site and covers most landscape textures including mountains.
I'm actually using it at the moment and it seems to work well.
Gopher: Wondering if I could get an opinion from you. I use Climates of Tamriel for a lot of my weather and lighting overhauls (it makes Frostfall and Campfire so much more challenging when the weather is so variable), and I really like how it works... but the regular darkness of dungeons is way too bright, and when I go for the darker dungeons, I literally can't see a damn thing, even when standing right next to a brazier of burning coals. And a torch hardly helps, and I can't get my followers to take out their torches... it's almost as though light sources don't cast as much light as you think they should with CoT installed. Would you think that either of these mods might be more my cup of tea? either in conjunction with, or instead of, CoT, but since I think it's necessary for some of the weather changes I'd prefer to use it in conjunction with either ELFX or RLO, only overriding the bits of CoT that I need to. I like my dungeons and nights dark enough to really need illumination like a torch... but I like when standing next to a burning brazier or whathaveyou actually lets me _see_
real Mountains and skyland are now combined
I really like using both RLO and ELFX in combination with Lanterns of Skyrim. RLO changes the physical sources of light in 3d space, and ELFX changes the way those light sources act in 3d space. Adding LoS creates additional outside sources of light along the road and in towns. Add wearable lanterns and it's like playing Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen style! Of course, no light mod is complete without a great texture overhaul mod! I start with SMIM, add a general texture pack like Noble Skyrim, then start specializing in smaller areas of the game like Flora Overhaul, Ruins Clutter, and Ethereal Clouds. Start big and then specialize. The key is to let the bigger mods take care of aspects that the smaller ones do not overwrite. SSE modding is so much fun! Again, it would be a lot easier to mix and match if we had an actual MOD ORGANIZER and not just an installer. Ya know? One where you can turn individual files on and off within a mod ... like before...?
THANKS!!! I was looking for this comparison!. Could you please make a comparison between Verdant and Unbelievable Grass 2?
I prefer the general mood of elfx but it's far larger than rlo, so it really comes down to storage space for me and rlo gives you more bang for your buck
Don't need a Torch for dark dungeons, since you can use the light spells to see and free both of your hands.
Any good mods that tweak with the light that should be there from either casting magic or just having the magic out? I know there were a couple in Skyrim.
Real mountains looks a lot better now with the latest version.
If anyone is still looking at this video to find a good mountain re-texture. I would highly recommend Majestic mountains. (I have the main version).
gotta say at 9:45 it doesn't look very realistic like sure its better than vanilla, but there is way to much shadow going on where some areas look pitch black in the middle of the day
ELFX is so superior, it ads dinamic interior lights that change depending on the day/night time, it ads amazing contrast and colors depending on light sources, and all lights can be shut down with water or ice spells! and the relit with fire, perfect for sneak gameplay.
I've always used ELFX in the past, but now I'll try RLO. Gopher try Mountains - Natural Granite(5099) or Rustic Mountains(4896).
the mountains bugged me too. Have you taken a look at the mod 'Gecko's 4K Mountain Textures' ? i like this mod better than the ones you listed. :P
I was just about to recommend the same thing. Skyrim 2017 texture pack for everything except mountain. Gecko's 4k mountain texture is the best so far.
i've just settled on vivid weathers/truestorms with ELE and a enb called sin ENB, vibrant, dark and nice and clear.
texture wise i'm still hoping amedianborn will either port his/there packs or give someone permission to port cause they've just been my textures for everything possible, caves, armors, whiterun, landscape they all look brilliant just worried that i'll mess up the conversion or that the textures/meshes will end up messing with SSE in the long run :(
noticed vivid landscape textures just got ported over :D
does ELFX still mess with spiderwebs and such? used it for ages until i got sick of trying to fix spiderwebs >.>
Gopher, it's not the mountains you want to replace: it's the rocks. Try to find "Bigger and Boulder". It's a crying shame SparrowPrince hid the file on Nexus for some reason, but I'm sure it's floating somewhere on the internet. Hey, if you know the guy you should ask him where he hid the file. It was the best rock texture mod out there.
What about Dolomite Weather VS Vivid Weather VS Climate of Tamriel VS Surreal Lighting for the Mod Talk #4? Anyway, very good video.
i cant get either of the mods to stop flickering. i put each one at the bottom of my load order but the light sources just keep flickering in both mods
I'm a bit new to modding lighting.. so this may be a stupid question...
I like E.L.F.X. and I was going to try pairing it with Vivid Weathers.. but Is this good enough to not need an ENB? If not, what is a good ENB and what is the purpose of it...?
Im really unsure about the new special edition. its been a while, but most all the mods i use dont even mention special edition on their nexus page... is there a separate nexus for special edition or something?
You should start a series where you fix our broken Skyrims looking at our load orders. Haven't been able to play SSE since 1.2 update. Can not figure out why.