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About this mod

Completely transform your dungeon exploration experience! Explore Skyrim's dungeons in realistic, immersive, complete darkness. This mod dynamically turns out lights as you enter a dungeon based on detailed settings controlled by you. Fires, sconces, candles, torches, dwemer lights can all be re-lit as you explore the darkness.

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Dynamic Immersive Seriously Dark Dungeons
(Eternal Darkness Redone)


Discover the sheer immersion and intensity of exploring Skyrim's crypts, ruins, forts and ruins in realistic utter complete darkness.  This mod will completely change the way you explore dungeons in Skyrim.

Features
  • Lights, fires, candles, torches, glowing fogs and all the other things that light up the dungeons of Skyrim are scanned upon entering each dungeon and disabled according to your preferences.
  • Exploring in the dark, you will be able to dynamically control light sources.  Light up the dungeon as you explore in darkness.
  • All lights not near an actual lit light source are automatically detected and removed.
  • Individual settings for dwarven ruins, nordic ruins, caves, give you complete control over just how dark your dungeon exploration will be and what actor types use what type of lighting.
  • Areas occupied by NPCs will still have lighting, but you have control over lighting range and overall coverage within NPC occupied zones.  Actor Type lighting preferences for Humans, Draugr, Dwarven Automatons, Falmer, Hargraven, Riekling and Vampires let you tailor your immersion according to your preferences.
  • Careful attention has been made to maintain all naturally occurring lighting effects.  This includes sunlight, mists and fogs lit by sunlight, glowing mushrooms, magic glows and effects for the ultimate Skyrim exploration experience.
  • This works for dungeons added by other mods, as long as those dungeons are using vanilla assets (i.e. this works very well for Forgotten Dungeons by Juhaantero68)
  • It also works with most other lighting mods.  For ELFX, use the provided ELFX Patch esp included in the main download.

The net effect is one where you will find realistic lighting in areas occupied by NPCs, with specific settings controllable by you.  However, as you move further into the depths, the darkness will close in around you, engulf you, and you'd better have a good supply of torches or other lighting sources.

Check out the video by Tonycubed2 of Sands of Time acclaim. 


Installation  
Requirements
  • New Game is NOT required.  However, I strongly recommend you back-up your save in case you do not like this mod.  It uses scripts that will need to be removed using a save game script cleaner.
  • Skyrim Special Edition
  • USSEP - Not a master, but USSEP is required for corrected actor and location keywords used in script logic for this mod. 

Complimentary Lighting Mods

While this mod removes light sources throughout Skyrim's dungeons, to achieve full darkness it needs to be combined with another lighting mod or ENB that also darkens the background/ambient lighting in interior dungeons. Options include:  


One of the above options is a MUST to get the desired effect from this mod, as standard Skyrim imagespaces are very bright.  For ELFX 3.0+, do not install the Hardcore Module - the Hardcore Replacer provided in the FOMOD takes its place. 

Other complementary mods:

  • Simple Drop Lit Torches by Snotgurg - frees up your 2nd hand in combat while keeping the immediate area lit
  • Wearable Lanterns by Chesko - a good realism compromise if you don't like managing a torch supply.
  • Sands of Time and/or Genesis by Tonycubed2 - these make dungeon exploration MUCH more challenging and intense - I have tested this mod with both running - highly recommended!
  • Skyrim Underground by AncientKane - use the Compatibility Patch in Optional Files

Install

  • Normal install using Mod Organizer (recommended) or your favorite mod manager
  • Ensure JBMod.esp is enabled in your load order
  • If using ELFX 3.0+, do not install the ELFX Hardcore Module.  Download and install the ELFX 3 patch in the Optional Files. 

Load Order

  • LOOT sorts correctly
  • If using ELFX or SMIM, load assets after ELFX & SMIM (left side of Mod Organizer should be lower than ELFX/SMIM)
  • This overwrites a few SMIM meshes in nordic dungeons in order to eliminate glowing candles - I will check on making a compatibility patch


How the Mod Works
The goal of this mod is to dynamically set realistic lighting in Skyrim's dungeons, and to allow you to have some control over what "realistic" means.  Think of dungeons as having occupied areas and unoccupied areas.  Areas can be occupied by humans, Draugr, Dwemer Automatons, Falmer, Hargraven, Riekling and Vampires.  Humans are most likely to use light.  You may be a strict believer in lore, believing that Draugr maintain all of those lights in their crypt, Falmer too despite their being completely blind.  If you do, then the Mod Options settings give you full control of your lore.  If, however, you find Skyrim's lighting in Dungeons to be completely unrealistic, then this mod allows you to turn everything off, providing a completely dark and creepy experience in exploring Skyrim's dungeons.

The mod scans the dungeon upon entry.  When scanning for lights, it uses the Mod Option settings for nearby NPCs and the location type to determine whether or not that light should be turned on or off.  If an NPC is nearby, then the NPC Overrides settings in the MCM determine whether or not that NPC is likely to be maintaining that light.  If an NPC is not nearby, then the Location Type Overrides in the MCM is used to determine whether or not the light is turned off.

Here are the details:
Spoiler:  
Show

Dungeon Entry - Initial Scans

  • When the Player enters a dungeon, the mod checks to see if the dungeon was previously scanned.  If not, then the scanning process starts.  The mod determines whether the player has entered a dungeon using a loctype keyword rather than maintaining explicit lists.  Therefore, it will recognize dungeons added by other mods, as long as those mods set their loctype keywords correctly (most do).
  • It also categorizes the location type according to the following categories:  Cave, Dwarven Ruin, Nordic Ruin, or Default (none of the others).  It will use the location type to determine probability of lights being lit based on the Location Overrides section in the Mod Options Menu.
  • If the Blackout option is enabled in the Mod Options Menu (it is enabled by default), then the screen is maintained in a blackout state for the first ~10 seconds of the Scan.  The Blackout minimizes the probability that you will see lights being disabled, thereby increasing overall immersion.  However, you may not like this delay when playing, so you can disable the Blackout in the Mod Options Menu.  Just be aware that you will probably see lights flicking off when you enter a dungeon.
  • Once the location type is determined, all NPCs in the dungeon are scanned depending on Mod Options settings.  All found live NPCs are categorized as follows: Default (normal human), Draugr, Dwarven Automaton, Falmer, Hargraven, Riekling and Vampire.  All of these NPC types have lighting preferences defined in the NPC Overrides section in the Mod Options Menu.  There is also an exclusion list (currently containing only Arvel the Swift in Bleak Falls Barrow) for specific NPCs that would not be lighting any lights.
  • After NPCs are scanned, then a short version of the below scans is run for nearby lights.  The nearby scan is to minimize the amount of time for the Blackout period.  I have tuned this in an attempt to strike a balance between the Blackout period duration and minimizing the chance of immersion breaking lights being disabled in front of your eyes.  There may need to be some ongoing adjustment based on player feedback.
  • Once the nearby lights are disabled, then the screen is faded back in, and you can begin dungeon exploration in the dark.  The script will complete it's scan as described below for the next ~10-15 seconds, depending on Mod options, CPU and overall script loading of your mod order. 

Light Bulb Scan

  • Once the initial scans are complete, the full scan for light bulbs starts.  A light bulb in Skyrim is an invisible object that emits light.  It is usually associated with a light source object (but not always for those who are familiar with the clunky design of Skyrim lighting).  
  • When the scan finds a light bulb it first checks to see if it is on the disable list (the mod maintains formlists of base objects that we disable).  The fact that we use formlists of base objects means that this mod typically works for dungeons added by other mods, as long as those dungeons have keywords set correctly and use vanilla assets (most do).  If there are mods that do not use vanilla assets, then a compatibility patch can easily be made simply by adding references to the mods assets to my formlists.
  • If it's on the disable list, it then checks for a nearby light source.  A light source can be a fire, torch, candle, lantern, chandelier, dwemer lantern, or other artificial light source (the mod has lists of all of these base objects that act as light sources).  
  • If it doesn't find a light source, then it automatically disables the light.  This process automatically removes the various lights placed in dungeons throughout Skyrim that do not have nearby light sources.
  • If it does find a light source, then it categorizes the light based on the nearby light source either as a Fire, Candle or Dwemer light source type.  
  • Once the light source type is determined, it checks for any nearby NPCs using the NPC Scan Distance in the MCM.  If it finds a nearby NPC, then it checks the NPC Overrides to determine the probability that the particular NPC type lighting the light type.  The script then uses a die role with a logarithmic probability slope to determine whether that light will be left on or disabled.  Lights further away from the associated NPC will be less likely to be lit.
  • If there is not a nearby NPC or if there were and the light failed the die roll, the mod then checks the Location Type Override settings to check the probability that the light would be on in an unoccupied zone.  This is based on the probability setting in the MCM based on Location Type and Light Source Type.

Re-Lighting Lights
Once the dungeon scan is complete, you have the ability to dynamically light and extinguish lights.  The following are ways to control lighting:
  • Fires, candles and torches can be lit or extinguished by "activating" them (the mod dynamically adds activators to all light sources to give you control of lighting).  You must have a torch equipped to light.
  • Fires, candles and torches can also be lit by a fire spell or torch bash and can be extinguished using a frost spell.
  • Dwemer lights must be lit using a Sparks spell and extinguished using a frost spell.

Mod Options Menu
On startup, the mod adds the Dungeon Darkness Configuration book to your inventory.  If for any reason you drop or otherwise lose the book, simply save and re-load, and the book will be re-added.  Read the book to get the following options menus.

Basic Configuration

  • Mod is Enabled (enabled by default) - Check to enable or disable the mod.  Disabling the mod will not reset any dungeon lights that have already been disabled during a dungeon scan.  To reset any lighting, you first must use the "Reset Dungeon" option below and then disable the mod.
  • Do Fadeout on Dungeon Entry (enabled by default) - the Fadeout causes the screen to remain blacked out for a few seconds after the dungeon loads.  This is to allow for the initial scans to complete, disabling nearby lights.  The player is frozen, but NPC AI is not disabled.  This is to save time on the fadeout.  In all of my testing, the frozen NPC does not trigger any discovery by hostile NPCs.  However, please let me know if you find any dungeons where this causes a problem.  It can be disabled if the Fadeout becomes a problem.
  • Disable lights in Dwarven Ruins? (enabled by default) - uncheck this, and the scan will not run at all for Dwarven Ruins.
  • Prompt for Scan Dungeons without Keywords (disablee by default) - The intention of this mod is to work seamlessly with new dungeons added by other mods.  However, not all mod authors use the proper keywords for dungeon cells.  If you enable this option, if the mod doesn't find a keyword for an interior cell, it will ask you if you want to run the scan.
  • Mod Presets (default is Realistic Dark) - various presets Milk Drinker, Lore Drinker, Realistic Dark, and Hardcore Dark.  Use these settings to experiment with different levels, and then customize by setting your own overrides below.
  • NPC Scan Distance (default 3500) - this is the value in Skyrim distance units that is used to scan for NPCs near a light source.  If an NPC found within the Scan Distance of a light source, then the light source is determined to be in an Occupied Area, and the probability of that light staying lit will be determined by the Occupied Area Lighting Probability or the Actor Type Overrides below.  If no NPCs are found within the Scan Distance, then the light source is said to be in an Unoccupied Area, and the Unoccupied Area Lighting Probability or the Location Type Overrides will determine the probability that the lighting source is lit.  Recommend setting in the range of 2,000-4,000.  Above 4,000 and you will start to see lights in unoccupied areas due to NPCs in levels above or nearby with the twisting and turning of Skyrim's dungeons.
  • Relighting Options - If you want to play ultimate hardcore, you can disable the re-lighting options, meaning it will be just you and whatever light source you can carry with you.  All are enabled by default.
  • Mod Compatibility - The mod automatically checks for ELFX and SNEAKTOOLS.  For ELFX, if you install with candle-smoke, ensure the option is checked here.  For Sneaktools, check the option to disable sneak tools dynamic lighting in dungeons, as it conflicts with this mods' logic.  It will continue to work outside of dungeons, however.
  • Papyrus Debug Mode (default off) - Check this to enable logging of mod activity in the Papyrus logs.  Note that you must enable Papyrus logging in your skyrim.ini.
  • Notification Level (default Minimal) - Set this to None, Minimal, or Detailed depending on the level of on-screen notifications you want to see regarding mod scanning activity.
  • Reset Current Dungeon - You must be inside the dungeon you wish to reset.  Check this option, and then exit the MCM menu.  This re-enables all lights and light sources that have been disabled by this mod for the current dungeon.  This is useful if you want to change the MCM options and re-scan the dungeon.  You have to then exit the dungeon and reenter.  If you are uninstalling, you have to reset each dungeon individually before disabling the mod and uninstalling.

Location Type Overrides

Recommend experimenting with the Presets above to get familiar with the effect of different overrides.  

For both Override sections, lighting is categorized as either a Fire, Candle or Dwemer light type.  Location Overrides specify the minimum probability that the specified light type will be lit in an Unnocupied Area (see NPC Scan Distance above).  For example, if you think that Dwemer ruins should have some percentage of Dwemer lighting lit regardless of whether or not any NPCs are found nearby, then you might set this to 20%

  • Default Location Types - Set the location override for Unoccupied Area lighting for each light type for any dungeon that does not fall into one of the below categories.
  • Cave Location Types - Set the location override for Unoccupied Area lighting for each light type within Caves
  • Dwarven Ruin Location Types - Set the same parameters for Dwarven Ruins
  • Nordic Ruin Location Types - Set the same parameters for Nordic Ruins

Candle Clutter:  Within each of the location types, there are two other options around candle clutter, as follows:  

  • Candle Clutter Probability - Reduces candle clutter in dungeons to thin out re-lighting options.  Set for a lower value for more hard-core play (default = 50%).
  • Candle has Candle Probability - Sets the probability that a candle fixture will have a candle in it that can be lit.

Adjust these two options, along with your candle lighting options to get the right balance of hardcore play and more realistic clutter in your dungeons.

Actor Type Overrides

Actor Type Overrides specify the probability that the specified light type will be lit in an Occupied Area that is occupied by the specified Actor Type.  Experiment with these settings to set actor type preferences for a particular lighting type.  For example, if you believe that Dwemer Automatons maintain Dwemer Lighting in areas in which they occupy, then set this to a high percentage.   Likewise, if you believe Draugr maintain fires and/or candles, then set these parameters higher.

Actor Types are as follows:

  • Default - Any NPC actor type (primarily humans) that are not listed below (ghosts and dead people excluded).  Default is 100% for Fire & Candles, 0% for Dwemer.  If you think humans are smart enough to make Dwemer lighting operational, then you can increase this.  Also, if you want overall darker occupied zones, then set the Fire & Candles to 50-75%.
  • Draugr - Lore-mongers think Draugr maintain lights in Nordic Ruins, but I don't buy it.  Default is set to 0%, but try setting Draugr preferences for fire to 20-50% if you believe in the Lore.
  • Dwarven Automatons - Default is 0% for all types.  If you believe the automatons maintain Dwemer lighting, then you can set Dwemer to your preference.  Personally, I wouldn't go above 50%.
  • Falmer - Blind creatures, so why would they need ANY light?  Default is 0% for all light types.
  • Hargraven - Default is 100% for candles, 25% for fire and 0% for Dwemer lighting.  Hargraven need those candles for their rituals, probably some fire as well, but what would they do with Dwemer lighting? 
  • Riekling - Default is 100% for fire or candles, 0% for Dwemer.  Feel free to adjust to your preferences.
  • Vampires - Default is 100% for candles, 0% for other light types.  Vampires hate light, so feel free to adjust the candles down to the ~50% range.
You can use the override settings to get creative in controlling the lighting for different dungeons.  For example, you might set Vampires to only use minimal candle lighting and no other light types.  Hargraven may have a propensity for lots of candles and some fire.  Riekling may be the opposite.

Keep in mind that the more Actor Type / Light Type combinations you set, it will have a slight impact on how long the scans run when you enter each dungeon.

Uninstall
  • (Optional) Reset lighting in any dungeons by entering each dungeon and using the "Reset Current Dungeon" option in the MCM Menu.
  • Exit any dungeon you are in.
  • Save Game
  • Uninstall using Mod Organizer or whatever mod manager you are using.
  • If desired, clean your save using SkyrimTools - Script Cleaner by Mark Fairchild (all scripts/instances are prefixed by "jbMO") (note - if you are not comfortable with using the script cleaner, you can leave scripts in.  They won't hurt anything because all of the scripts in this mod are event based, and so none will be running if you follow the above instructions.

Credits
  • Tonycubed2 for the inspiration for this mod and for crucial help and feedback along the way
  • www.creationkit.com - for the crucial scripting reference
  • Mod authors Chesko, kuertee, and borgut1337 for making their Mods' script source code available for reference (none of their work exists in this mod, but seeing how they code in Papyrus helped me significantly).
  • anamorfus for ELFX and for permission to use his Hardcore module to make my ELFX Patch.
  • Of course, Bethesda - for making Skyrim open for mod'ing - keeps me playing.