A while ago someone mentioned that they prefer Embers HD, and while the exact reasons are unbeknownst to me that got me thinking: why not do something cool and bring back some of the Embers HD vibes for Embers XD, especially seeing that we have almost reached a major milestone release? So that's what I did, and release 3.0.0 features a new Embers HD flame style for anyone still liking that. It comes with its own torch flame style as well (when using Torches Add-On), and as a nice bonus this flame style is also be less performance hungry.
Just so that you know, it was a pretty complex thing to add at this point and I'm sorry but there could be some lingering issues. I will of course look into any issues once I become aware of them, but if you're a perfectionist please skip the new flame style for now (especially so if you're rude, too).
posting just to mark importance of calibrating values in ENB as suggested in Frequently Asked Questions in the end of this page description. I was thinking to remove embers because of some issues... turn out I solved all changing the intensity of varios enb values! Now in this image you cant see much of what was the problem, it was more noticable when moving camera so it was not easy to screenshot it https://ibb.co/jvhqckn lowering windowlight intensity solved and embers is back in my load order (for fire there are some good alternative but damn, embers really terrible without it!)
Thanks for the feedback, you're definitely not wrong.
As a quick recap, here are the various settings categories of ENBSeries which affect Embers XD:
[FIRE] Intensity and color of the flames themselves.
[LIGHTSPRITE] Intensity and color of the fake fire glow (the yellowish one).
[WINDOWLIGHT] Intensity and color of the embers and logs.
COMPLEXPARTICLELIGHTS] Intensity and color of the particle light cast by fire.
[BLOOM] Intensity and color of (often reddish) glow from fire. All the of the above settings will affect the intensity of bloom so for example too high fire intensity coupled with high amount of bloom (or low threshold) may result in an overly bright bloom depending on your ENB preset.
Also worth noting is that if you have adaptation enabled (like you most often will have) the brighter the pixels on the screen are the more possible it is that adaptation will kick in, making the image appear darker. Therefore, it's important to set the intensity of the aforementioned parameters in tandem with adaptation settings.
I would point out that this problem has been totally (for me at least) solved with the new options in the FOMOD where now you can disable and lower the glows
Ever since EVLas came out, I've been using it, and I always use to see white/gray smoke coming from the fires outside.
I recently started noticing issues using EVLas so I stopped using it, and ever since, now all the fires outside, just emit small wisps of black smoke. It's very faint and hard to see, you have to stare closely at the fires to notice it.
So now, I'm not sure how the fire smoke is suppose to look with EmbersXD, white/gray smoke or black, and the amount?
If it wouldn't be to much trouble to ask, and you could please make a video of what we should see, I'd really appreciate it, because I'm not sure with all the mods out there, if any of them, besides EVLas are changing the default looks you intended.
To be honest I haven't noticed EVLAS making any difference but I probably just haven't paid attention.
You can tweak the smoke color using the intensity parameters in the [PARTICLES] section of ENB. There really isn't any right or wrong and it's mostly just down to your preference. Embers XD has been tuned towards more realistic woodfire smoke color so middle gray or something like that, and as long as you keep it like that it should play nicely with your other particles.
When tweaking, make sure to do it in the weather window or enable IgnoreWeatherSystem.
Found this in my dyndolod log: <Warning: Large references found in non master plugin Embers XD.esp DLC1HunterHQWorld "Dayspring Canyon" [WRLD:02001DB8]>
Hi! There is any way for obtain Embers HD flames on lights and Embers XD flames on spells?
Also, should be possible with CS, how can i have all fire exterior lights (campfires, braziers...) use shadows like a point light? I'm using Lux, Via and Orbis (and Embers XD)
As a matter of fact, if you choose Embers HD flames and the Magick Add-On spells will still use Embers XD style flames.
As for the shadow casting lights, I might be wrong since I'm not very familiar with Community Shaders but as far as I'm aware CS (or more speficially Light Limit Fix) doesn't address the engine shadow limit so I don't think you can have any more shadow casting lights than without CS.
So, I had this really annoying issue of there being what looked like a missing texture around the firepits in inns and taverns and such. I spent probably two hours trying to figure out what caused it, and how to fix it. This mod did the trick. Thanks!
Sometimes i get weird texture in braziers, i can see the embers but there is a wierd texture like ice, it happened in whiterun but not on all braziers; and reload the cell fixed the issue.
What can cause this ? if i fid the issue again i will post a picture
Torch flames, wind and movement. I've been trying to find a recent discussion about this but haven't come up with anything, so I thought I would reach out here.
As mindflux has named it, the "sticky" torch flame feels incredibly artificial. The "non-sticky" option also looks horribly wrong, with a very long stream of flame sprites stretching out 5ft that look like a computer glitch. I have capes blowing in the wind, hair moving around, attached gear jiggling as I travel, but the sticky torch feels like a cursor has grabbed this richly animated torch element and is repositioning it around the scene rather than a torch that is held aloft as I journey. I've been trying to make myself just not look at it as I play, yet its one of the single most prominent visuals in the game when playing Lux and 3rd person.
I don't remember the Embers XD torch flames being such an obstacle to immersion previously, perhaps I just accidentally ran STAC after Embers XD so never saw this torch visual - although it also seems like a switch to the current "sticky" torch flames could have been introduced for performance reasons if I read some comments here correctly. It looks super frumpy, but my impression was that the STAC/vanilla torch flame has a more organic and 'correct' looking movement effect.
Last ~20 seconds of this video shows what correct torch movement looks like.
Is there a mod/patch/rework out there for a good looking, movement reactive torch effect? I would take a performance penalty or compromise on visuals to get something that may not look as perfect as the current torches do when still, but still look better than vanilla and have a better more organic movement visuals than vanilla. FYX has done some work on throwing sparks and wind reactivity, which seems like an exciting step in this direction although it doesn't currently effect torches.
p.s. Mindflux, this feedback aside, your tireless work on this mod has created a piece of the joy millions of us experience playing a mod-enhanced Skyrim, thank you so much for all of it!
What could be the reason for missing flames at "giant" type campfires? I have modded a couple of wabbajack modlists lately, and sometimes i get flames, but sometimes the flames are missingj - even though my load order is apparently correct. The pic below is not a "giant" location, but the fires there are exactly the same - no flames.
iMaxDesired is 6000 in the profile INIs. I gotta check if some other INI in MO2 is not overwriting this. And i'll try a setting of 10000.
And yes, i use Mists Of Tamriel and Obsidian Mountain Fogs in my load order. I'd post a link to it, but currently Load Order Library is having problems (ever since they changed to the new design) and i can't upload anything new...
Thx, Mindflux. I tried even 2000000 (i checked the setting in-game), but nothing changes. Could it be that something is overwriting the mod? I'm not an xEdit expert, but i'm gonna try checking for conflicts.
Alright, closer inspection revealed a mesh conflict. When i moved Embers XD to the end of the install order, the flames show up.
[UPDATE] The issue was the mod FYX - Sparks of Fire reacts to the Wind. Turns out it has two Embers versions - one normal and another one for the "less sparks" Embers XD install. I had a mismatch. Glad i fixed it, and maybe this can be of use to others.
Important update: I lost the flames again, the next day. Nothing changed in my modlist though. Very weird. Uninstalled FYX - Sparks of Fire reacts to the Wind, and the flames were back.
This is the second time i have a problem with these FYX mods, first time was with two of the water FYXes in combination w- RW2 (yes, i had the correct versions) - one FYX broke water splashes, the other one broke my water surface. In both cases: big transparent white rectangles instead of splashes and on the water surface.
So if anyone else has mesh problems AND you use a FYX mod - try disabling the latter first, before you look elsewhere.
It's possible that the FYX mod uses outdated meshes that causes issues but to me it sounds like it's also possible that it's just a coincidence and somehow depending on chance Mists of Tamriel gets a priority over Embers XD, leaving it with no particles, or the other way around. If you happen to encounter the same issue again even without FYX then most likely that is the case.
I'm pretty sure the game has an internal cap on the particle amount so increasing iMaxDesired can only get you so far.
6645 comments
My eternal gratitude to those who have taken the time to help with the compatibility patches:
agentw
amastermiind
Czasior
enthe
Iqbalev
Janquel
LORDSAVEX
Masterofchim
NeduZ
ReTr0TeK
SMB92
Wolfpack49
Special thanks to robertkorkor and Skyrimer3232 for help with testing.
A while ago someone mentioned that they prefer Embers HD, and while the exact reasons are unbeknownst to me that got me thinking: why not do something cool and bring back some of the Embers HD vibes for Embers XD, especially seeing that we have almost reached a major milestone release? So that's what I did, and release 3.0.0 features a new Embers HD flame style for anyone still liking that. It comes with its own torch flame style as well (when using Torches Add-On), and as a nice bonus this flame style is also be less performance hungry.
Just so that you know, it was a pretty complex thing to add at this point and I'm sorry but there could be some lingering issues. I will of course look into any issues once I become aware of them, but if you're a perfectionist please skip the new flame style for now (especially so if you're rude, too).
I was thinking to remove embers because of some issues... turn out I solved all changing the intensity of varios enb values!
Now in this image you cant see much of what was the problem, it was more noticable when moving camera so it was not easy to screenshot it
https://ibb.co/jvhqckn
lowering windowlight intensity solved and embers is back in my load order (for fire there are some good alternative but damn, embers really terrible without it!)
As a quick recap, here are the various settings categories of ENBSeries which affect Embers XD:
[FIRE]
Intensity and color of the flames themselves.
[LIGHTSPRITE]
Intensity and color of the fake fire glow (the yellowish one).
[WINDOWLIGHT]
Intensity and color of the embers and logs.
COMPLEXPARTICLELIGHTS]
Intensity and color of the particle light cast by fire.
[BLOOM]
Intensity and color of (often reddish) glow from fire. All the of the above settings will affect the intensity of bloom so for example too high fire intensity coupled with high amount of bloom (or low threshold) may result in an overly bright bloom depending on your ENB preset.
Also worth noting is that if you have adaptation enabled (like you most often will have) the brighter the pixels on the screen are the more possible it is that adaptation will kick in, making the image appear darker. Therefore, it's important to set the intensity of the aforementioned parameters in tandem with adaptation settings.
Ever since EVLas came out, I've been using it, and I always use to see white/gray smoke coming from the fires outside.
I recently started noticing issues using EVLas so I stopped using it, and ever since, now all the fires outside, just emit small wisps of black smoke. It's very faint and hard to see, you have to stare closely at the fires to notice it.
So now, I'm not sure how the fire smoke is suppose to look with EmbersXD, white/gray smoke or black, and the amount?
If it wouldn't be to much trouble to ask, and you could please make a video of what we should see, I'd really appreciate it, because I'm not sure with all the mods out there, if any of them, besides EVLas are changing the default looks you intended.
THANKS
You can tweak the smoke color using the intensity parameters in the [PARTICLES] section of ENB. There really isn't any right or wrong and it's mostly just down to your preference. Embers XD has been tuned towards more realistic woodfire smoke color so middle gray or something like that, and as long as you keep it like that it should play nicely with your other particles.
When tweaking, make sure to do it in the weather window or enable IgnoreWeatherSystem.
Also, should be possible with CS, how can i have all fire exterior lights (campfires, braziers...) use shadows like a point light? I'm using Lux, Via and Orbis (and Embers XD)
As for the shadow casting lights, I might be wrong since I'm not very familiar with Community Shaders but as far as I'm aware CS (or more speficially Light Limit Fix) doesn't address the engine shadow limit so I don't think you can have any more shadow casting lights than without CS.
What can cause this ?
if i fid the issue again i will post a picture
As mindflux has named it, the "sticky" torch flame feels incredibly artificial. The "non-sticky" option also looks horribly wrong, with a very long stream of flame sprites stretching out 5ft that look like a computer glitch. I have capes blowing in the wind, hair moving around, attached gear jiggling as I travel, but the sticky torch feels like a cursor has grabbed this richly animated torch element and is repositioning it around the scene rather than a torch that is held aloft as I journey. I've been trying to make myself just not look at it as I play, yet its one of the single most prominent visuals in the game when playing Lux and 3rd person.
I don't remember the Embers XD torch flames being such an obstacle to immersion previously, perhaps I just accidentally ran STAC after Embers XD so never saw this torch visual - although it also seems like a switch to the current "sticky" torch flames could have been introduced for performance reasons if I read some comments here correctly. It looks super frumpy, but my impression was that the STAC/vanilla torch flame has a more organic and 'correct' looking movement effect.
Last ~20 seconds of this video shows what correct torch movement looks like.
Is there a mod/patch/rework out there for a good looking, movement reactive torch effect? I would take a performance penalty or compromise on visuals to get something that may not look as perfect as the current torches do when still, but still look better than vanilla and have a better more organic movement visuals than vanilla. FYX has done some work on throwing sparks and wind reactivity, which seems like an exciting step in this direction although it doesn't currently effect torches.
p.s.
Mindflux, this feedback aside, your tireless work on this mod has created a piece of the joy millions of us experience playing a mod-enhanced Skyrim, thank you so much for all of it!
My apologies for not having Kudos awarded to you for so long...
This gem is my Nr 1 Visual enhancing mod, hands down!
Keep up the good work!
But some do have missing flames:
To me that seems like you're running out of particles.
And yes, i use Mists Of Tamriel and Obsidian Mountain Fogs in my load order. I'd post a link to it, but currently Load Order Library is having problems (ever since they changed to the new design) and i can't upload anything new...
Thx, Mindflux. I tried even 2000000 (i checked the setting in-game), but nothing changes. Could it be that something is overwriting the mod? I'm not an xEdit expert, but i'm gonna try checking for conflicts.
Alright, closer inspection revealed a mesh conflict. When i moved Embers XD to the end of the install order, the flames show up.[UPDATE] The issue was the mod FYX - Sparks of Fire reacts to the Wind. Turns out it has two Embers versions - one normal and another one for the "less sparks" Embers XD install. I had a mismatch. Glad i fixed it, and maybe this can be of use to others.
Thanks for taking the time helping me.
This is the second time i have a problem with these FYX mods, first time was with two of the water FYXes in combination w- RW2 (yes, i had the correct versions) - one FYX broke water splashes, the other one broke my water surface. In both cases: big transparent white rectangles instead of splashes and on the water surface.
So if anyone else has mesh problems AND you use a FYX mod - try disabling the latter first, before you look elsewhere.
It's possible that the FYX mod uses outdated meshes that causes issues but to me it sounds like it's also possible that it's just a coincidence and somehow depending on chance Mists of Tamriel gets a priority over Embers XD, leaving it with no particles, or the other way around. If you happen to encounter the same issue again even without FYX then most likely that is the case.
I'm pretty sure the game has an internal cap on the particle amount so increasing iMaxDesired can only get you so far.