THIS MOD HAS NOW BEEN MERGED INTO DEPRAVITY LIGHTING - A VELEN AND LIGHTING PROJECT!

I WOULD SUGGEST ALL HERESY USERS TO USE THAT FOR THE BEST RESULTS

PROLOGUE
The Witcher games have always had exceptional atmosphere but I personally feel the Witcher 3 kinda dropped this ball really hard. Novigrad was hit pretty hard after the downgrade and it felt like all the atmosphere it might have had was simply drained. Unshaded grass, yellow putrid foliage, too much blue smoky fog and the lighting had this sorta ugly haziness too it which was off putting. It didn't feel right. Haziness can work for a place like Toussaint but not for Novigrad imo.

I wanted Novigrad to feel like a depraved medieval city surrounded by beautiful countryside (the game has too many trees and it doesn't feel like a true countryside but you get the idea) with rolling hills, beautiful foliage and clear lighting. At nights, the torchlit streets should feel dank and cold, as was intended by the devs. The nights outside the city even more dark for the less privileged.

All in all, this is just my attempt at a simple lighting mod which tries to inject some atmosphere and some semblance of an artstyle into Novigrad and it's surroundings.

FEATURES
The mod's primary aim was to bring out the surrounding vistas and terrain with a mix of fantasy inspired and realistic atmospherics. RDR2 does this exceptionally well (the vistas and distant terrain) and this mod takes a lot of inspiration from it. The bloom at night is also inspired by RDR2 and also W2.

The sunlight is clear, complimented by dark skylighting, cinematic tonemapping and W2 inspired bloom.

The cutscenes are probably the highlight of the mod with subtle cinematic tonemapping and reworked lighting. The characters won't glow and if they are in shade they will appear as such but the same time similar to films and cinema, their faces and expressions will still be visible, even in darkness.

Cutscenes are one thing the vanilla game actually excels at and is the primary shortcoming for a lot of lighting mods. I've experimented a lot and tried to make both gameplay and cutscenes look good as opposed to just one.

All in all, the lighting for Novigrad has been completely redone with most interiors being overhauled. The nights should feel atmospheric with bright torches and bloom. The moon's silverlight illuminating the various buildings housing dark secrets.

The mod still goes for atmosphere over realism. With Heresy, Novigrad should truly feel like a large medieval city surrounded by the countryside bordered by distant mountains. The countryside will be green and inviting and the city at night will truly feel like a corrupt center of corruption with darkened alleys and dank sewers lit by torchlight.

RECOMMENDED MODS
Any lighting mod for improved Velen lighting (IL is a good consistent one)
Fall Birches - https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/5754

AUTHOR'S NOTES/KNOWN ISSUES
Compatible with other lighting mods but you must give this mod priority!

This mod is very much a WIP. The rainy weathers and cloudy weathers are still incomplete and until I can make them unique and have Novigrad use it's own envs, I doubt I'll make them so use a mod like IL or Took lighting to get those cloudy weathers.

Also, I hate the cumulus clouds in this game and I have seriously turned them down. I hate how flat and yet how strong CDPR made the normal maps for them. It’s like they are made out of thick swollen cardboard and barely even resemble clouds. Thankfully the fine folks at the GudMods Discord repurposed the B&W bob clouds and Took gave me permission to use them from his mod.

BUGS
There are a few harsh bloom transitions such as when exiting Dijkstra's bathhouse which are inevitable (vanilla issue).

Some apparent transitions when entering and exiting the city, entering exiting Dandelion's tavern. Vanilla issues.

Enjoy and keep it tracked. I still urge people to try the mod is as it is fully playable. Bug reports will also help.