Read through this post entirely before trying to change anything.
There are more than a few things to change per .nif in order to lessen the glow. Changing Specular Color using NifSkope would work, but you can also change out Cubemaps (slot 5 under texture sets) and Environmental Masks (slot 6 under texture sets) using NifSkope. This will change the look of the ore as well.
Here are some resources you can use to reference information about .nifs and create your own Cubemaps, if you want. Skyrim Data Folder should already have many Cubemaps for you to use under Skyrim\Data\Textures\cubemaps, though. You attach them by clicking on the slot's icon, and navagating to the image files you want to attach, opening them to the slot.
Open up the ore.nif you want to change in Nifskope. Then click to open 0BSFadeNode, and Look for all the nodes under it with the name "TriShape" in them. Specular Color will be found under the BSLightingShaderProperty nodes. The Texture sets are just below in the same node.
Adjust the Specular Color "Lighting Effect 2" of these from 10 where they are set (much brighter than most things in game) to something more reasonable such as 1, 2 or 3.
A Specular Color "Lighting Effect 2" set to 3 would probably be best if you want more glow without it being too much.
You can also change the Specular Color if you desire, but if you do it's probably best to match the color for all nodes within the same .nif, and throughout the nodes in the other .nifs of the same ore type. Ebony ore has 5 .nifs all together for example. So it would be wise to match them to the same color throughout every node in every ebony ore .nif.
Save the .Nif when you are done applying your changes to its nodes. - - - There's only 1 node per .nif with a Cubemap and Environmental Mask applied to it in the node I am referencing as an example.
That's 22 BSLODTriShape's 25 BSShaderTextureSet.
In theory you could extract the MineOre01_p.dds (an Environmental Mask) from Skyrim's Texture BSA in your Data folder and edit it to be less bright. Then you could re-save it in your texture file somewhere under Skyrim\Data\textures, and apply it to slot 6 of the TextureSet thereby reducing the glow. Doing it this way would mean only editing the images associated with one slot in each .nif file.
That would be faster than changing the settings in every node, for every .Nif, but I have not tested that out using this mod. In fact I'm just here to take 1 .Nif file for custom ore I am creating. So I will not be testing this theory out, but it should work. I've done the same for other mods, but the glow is set so high I am not sure how dim you may want to edit it.
Environmental Masks utilize white to represent what glows, and black for what is to remain uneffected. So the trick is to dim the white to something more grey to black using an image editor of your choosing.
The Tools mentioned here in this post will help you mod in general. So if you want to change a great many things, I recommend getting them. If this all seems like too much effort, I understand. Either way, it's a steep effort to change so many details.
Hello. I had trouble with glowing not appearing. The reason was an .ini performance fix i used before. So far excluding the following from skyrim.ini worked for me: [LightingShader] fDecalLODFadeEnd=0.0600 fDecalLODFadeStart=0.0500 fEnvmapLODFadeEnd=0.0 fEnvmapLODFadeStart=0.0 fEyeEnvmapLODEnd=0.0 fRefractionLODFadeEnd=0.0 fRefractionLODFadeStart=0.0 fSpecularLODFadeEnd=0.0 fSpecularLODFadeStart=0.0
Strange, in my case I can´t see any glowing if fEnvmapLODFadeEnd/Start is set to zero. I searched for a mix of glowing ore and performance fix, so this worked for me:
Why would anyone keep using this in 2018? The resolution on them is terrible, they so blocky it hurts the eyes. There are newer, and far better efforts that do the same job, and don't look like lego blocks in game. Don't believe me? open up one of these in Nif Skope and see how bad they are. Why anyone would think having these in SSE is somehow a plus is mind-boggling.
In 2011, im sure these were the bomb, now, they are just dated. And badly at that.
As of today (6/17/19) there are basically 3 mod options to make ore veins glow for Oldrim or SSE.
OLDRIM Mods: Glowing Ore Veins 300 (This mod, though there is a separate mod called: Glowing Ore Veins 300 Less Glow) CC's Enhanced Ore Veins Ore Veins Glowing Red - Visibility Increased Day and Night Shiny Ore Veins
SSE Mods: Glowing Ore Veins 300 SSE CC's Enhanced Ore Veins SSE Edition Ore Veins Glowing Red - LootVision - Visibility Increased Day and Night (and also the mod Ore Veins Glowing White - Visibility Increased)
Ore Veins Glowing is your quintessential glowing lego block you can see from space and never miss, but is thus extremely un-immersive. CC's Enhanced Ore Veins stopped updating for Oldrim 2 versions ago, and though it could be from any number of user errors/issues, the user posts for CC's SSE version read like the latest update has seriously messed with peoples ore colors (ebony looks silver, iron has no color, etc).
That basically leaves the old tried-and-true Ore Vein's 300. It may look like s#*! on your 4K monitor and texture setup, but at least it is the right color with a glow design that doesn't actually look like a lego block from the other side of the map.
ByblosHex, just wanted you to know this was the first mod I ever downloaded for Skyrim back on Feb 5th in 2012! It is still essential. Thank you for your work!
When used with USLEP - mining becomes impossible. The hero just has a pickaxe at the ore vein, and ore is not mined, and living is no longer active. After removing the mod everything is back to normal.
--- Sorry - the problem was the new version of Purity.
Only downside I have noticed is the color of the ores is now a bit random. Iron can glow orange or white and gold might be silver. Means I don't really know what the ore is until I get into tooltip range but that is really not a big deal at all.
Thanks. A perfect mod for those of us who are blind to small details.
Ever since I got this, my iron ore intake per adventure outside of a city has increased drastically. I never knew there was so much random mining outcrops just everywhere.
827 comments
There are more than a few things to change per .nif in order to lessen the glow. Changing Specular Color using NifSkope would work, but you can also change out Cubemaps (slot 5 under texture sets) and Environmental Masks (slot 6 under texture sets) using NifSkope. This will change the look of the ore as well.
Here are some resources you can use to reference information about .nifs and create your own Cubemaps, if you want. Skyrim Data Folder should already have many Cubemaps for you to use under Skyrim\Data\Textures\cubemaps, though. You attach them by clicking on the slot's icon, and navagating to the image files you want to attach, opening them to the slot.
https://hdri-to-cubemap-converter.vercel.app/
https://wiki.beyondskyrim.org/wiki/Arcane_University:NIF_Data_Format
Open up the ore.nif you want to change in Nifskope. Then click to open 0BSFadeNode, and Look for all the nodes under it with the name "TriShape" in them. Specular Color will be found under the BSLightingShaderProperty nodes. The Texture sets are just below in the same node.
Adjust the Specular Color "Lighting Effect 2" of these from 10 where they are set (much brighter than most things in game) to something more reasonable such as 1, 2 or 3.
A Specular Color "Lighting Effect 2" set to 3 would probably be best if you want more glow without it being too much.
You can also change the Specular Color if you desire, but if you do it's probably best to match the color for all nodes within the same .nif, and throughout the nodes in the other .nifs of the same ore type. Ebony ore has 5 .nifs all together for example. So it would be wise to match them to the same color throughout every node in every ebony ore .nif.
Save the .Nif when you are done applying your changes to its nodes.
- - -
There's only 1 node per .nif with a Cubemap and Environmental Mask applied to it in the node I am referencing as an example.
That's 22 BSLODTriShape's 25 BSShaderTextureSet.
In theory you could extract the MineOre01_p.dds (an Environmental Mask) from Skyrim's Texture BSA in your Data folder and edit it to be less bright. Then you could re-save it in your texture file somewhere under Skyrim\Data\textures, and apply it to slot 6 of the TextureSet thereby reducing the glow. Doing it this way would mean only editing the images associated with one slot in each .nif file.
That would be faster than changing the settings in every node, for every .Nif, but I have not tested that out using this mod. In fact I'm just here to take 1 .Nif file for custom ore I am creating. So I will not be testing this theory out, but it should work. I've done the same for other mods, but the glow is set so high I am not sure how dim you may want to edit it.
Environmental Masks utilize white to represent what glows, and black for what is to remain uneffected. So the trick is to dim the white to something more grey to black using an image editor of your choosing.
PaintDotNet is great for this, and free too. https://www.getpaint.net/download.html
BSA Browser: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59553
NIfSkope Dev 10: https://github.com/eckserah/nifskope_updated/releases/download/dev10.01/Nifskope-CompressionFix.7z
The Tools mentioned here in this post will help you mod in general. So if you want to change a great many things, I recommend getting them. If this all seems like too much effort, I understand. Either way, it's a steep effort to change so many details.
I hope this helps you regardless.
[LightingShader]
fDecalLODFadeEnd=0.0600
fDecalLODFadeStart=0.0500
fEnvmapLODFadeEnd=0.0
fEnvmapLODFadeStart=0.0
fEyeEnvmapLODEnd=0.0
fRefractionLODFadeEnd=0.0
fRefractionLODFadeStart=0.0
fSpecularLODFadeEnd=0.0
fSpecularLODFadeStart=0.0
I searched for a mix of glowing ore and performance fix, so this worked for me:
[LightingShader]
fDecalLODFadeEnd=0.02
fDecalLODFadeStart=0.01
fEnvmapLODFadeEnd=0.02
fEnvmapLODFadeStart=0.01
fEyeEnvmapLODEnd=0.0
fRefractijavascript-event-stripped0.0
fRefractionLODFadeEnd=0.0
fRefractionLODFadeStart=0.0
fSpecularLODFadeEnd=0.0
fSpecularLODFadeStart=0.0
In 2011, im sure these were the bomb, now, they are just dated. And badly at that.
As of today (6/17/19) there are basically 3 mod options to make ore veins glow for Oldrim or SSE.
OLDRIM Mods:
Glowing Ore Veins 300 (This mod, though there is a separate mod called: Glowing Ore Veins 300 Less Glow)
CC's Enhanced Ore Veins
Ore Veins Glowing Red - Visibility Increased Day and Night
Shiny Ore Veins
SSE Mods:
Glowing Ore Veins 300 SSE
CC's Enhanced Ore Veins SSE Edition
Ore Veins Glowing Red - LootVision - Visibility Increased Day and Night (and also the mod Ore Veins Glowing White - Visibility Increased)
Ore Veins Glowing is your quintessential glowing lego block you can see from space and never miss, but is thus extremely un-immersive. CC's Enhanced Ore Veins stopped updating for Oldrim 2 versions ago, and though it could be from any number of user errors/issues, the user posts for CC's SSE version read like the latest update has seriously messed with peoples ore colors (ebony looks silver, iron has no color, etc).
That basically leaves the old tried-and-true Ore Vein's 300. It may look like s#*! on your 4K monitor and texture setup, but at least it is the right color with a glow design that doesn't actually look like a lego block from the other side of the map.
---
Sorry - the problem was the new version of Purity.
Only downside I have noticed is the color of the ores is now a bit random. Iron can glow orange or white and gold might be silver. Means I don't really know what the ore is until I get into tooltip range but that is really not a big deal at all.
Someone know mod like this for alchemy ingredients. Glowing butterflies, snowberries etc.?
Ever since I got this, my iron ore intake per adventure outside of a city has increased drastically. I never knew there was so much random mining outcrops just everywhere.