Actually, E3 lighting , or close to it, is what I'm looking for. For the simple reason that I want to play the game as the devs intended us to play, without taking into account any limitation in console hardware or what not. So let's see what Eguitar01's mod brings to the table.
Alleluia ! If only people would listen to you. Or how to let 30 minutes of video waste your whole Game of the Year experience, if not for the Witch Hunters staring, I'd be saying what I think, but I'll be choosing the Ethic Path ... Yeah, Ethic path, that was it
I say this all the time. I do not get the fascination with the E3 or concept stuff. Make stuff in your own vision, the best you can. Not so old clip that everyone wants to emulate.
it looks good, but on what e3 trailers is your mod based, 2013 or post 2013, because i personaly think that e3 2013 trailer had the best atmosphere, but the final game had this brighte,colorfull,sunny tone that really doesnt fit in with the witcher universe
May I friendly suggest that the whole lighting thing has nothing to do with the supposedly dumbed down of the PC version in favour of the console. Not only is the console / PC debate sterile ( as highlighted by CD Project in the first place, because the absence of console version would have resulted in an absence of PC version, or at least, would have resulted in its dumping down even further ), but also, the lighting change has NOTHING to do with graphical performance. Texture size reduction, limited water tesselation, limited Anti Aliasing technology [...], sure. Lighting atmosphere modification : no. It's just an artistic choice. I shall just friendly remind people that despite this "dumbed down" PC version, very limited hardware can play it in Maxxed Ultra 1080p (w hairworks on), not speaking of a lagfree 4K experience.
No, this is misguided. CDPR changed the lighting because, like our dear quiet Star Wars teddy bear mentionned (@IQuietIWookie), CDPR has succeeded to bring a good lighting to all the areas. If maybe not perfect (what is really ?), pretty good already. They have delivered an artistic choice, and if this artistic choice has not necessarily resulted in everyone appreciating the final result as much as they appreciated the phantasm they had about the early build, it's still better than any attempts to mimic the early build, as any lighting mod comes with Pros & Cons, and if to some, Pros are outweighing the cons, for others, cons are outweighing the pros.
So, while we happily wait for more modders to deliver "their vision of the game", why don't we simply stop thinking "CDPR this, CDPR that, they BROUGHT this onto them ! they did **** with the engine, because of those ***** consoles".
Pretty much all other mods succeed in doing so. I mean, mods all have a common purpose : to improve the game. To make it better than vanilla (at least for whoever agrees with the vision of the author). Why can't we simply accept the fact that it's the same for lighting ? Or do you truly believe CDPR didn't know they could lower the fog ?
Have you noticed the fog is more intense in Skellige for instance ? Maybe CDPR estimated that the isle of midst was better .... in the midst. And to be fair, as I played TW3, the foggy nature of Skellige added to the atmosphere. Sure, it looks gorgeous without the fog (if you don't reach the void of the sea), but it destroys the myth a bit.
I didn't really want to recreate the exact E3 effect, I just made something that was somewhat similar, and looked best for me personally. I think that's why I won't really call it E3 Lighting Mod, but "Grim, Dark Environment and Lighting" or something.
It is somewhat E3 Lighting, but it's not the very same. I'll release it soon, check it out for yourselfAlright, you named it E3 just to hype it ? didn't you ?
that's an excellent suggestion !
it could be a wink at "middle-earth: shadow of mordor"
anyways, the name of the mod should reflect its nature, and i think "Darkness and shadows" does that well.
i got it !
"Shadows and Fog of War"
what do you think ? not only does it reflect the effect of this mod in terms of color palette and other SFX, but also give this distinct feeling of "scortched and stained land by war" kind of feel.
I would like to start by saying that I don't know if I should answer you or not since this discussion isn't related to the topic at hand but hey, can't resist.
About the console/PC debate, you can consider it sterile yourself, I for myself consider this debate pretty vivid still. I honestly can't believe that the end product lighting reflects what they had in mind for the game, It has obviously been changed for downgrade reasons. Saying that CDPR has succeeded in bringing a good lighting to all areas is a matter of taste. I personally think that it isn't the case. About those changes supposed to be an artistic choice, while I'm convinced that this is their official point of view on the subject, I'm still highly doubting it. Also if you're going to talk about Maxxed Ultra hairworks shouldn't be included imo. It sure looks nice, at least on monsters, but it's more of a fun plugin than anything else. Also it serves the purpose to make PC users believe that they have the superior version, while obviously this doesn't change much.
Now may I also frendly remind you myself that those lighting mods don't only change the color tone or reduce the fog, but also litteraly improves lighting. At least for essenthy's mod, modifications to the AO and reflections were involved.
I did notice that the fog in skellige is much better than in other zones. The skellige one has this whitish greyish coloring that suits skellige well since it indicates that there is snow in the air. The velen one though is very ugly, looks like a bugged blue filter (this is my opinion, maybe there are some people that like this type of fog).
Anyway the biggest problem I'm having with vanilla lighting really isn't the fog. It's just the fact that it looks really bad in a lot of conditions in my opinion.
Still, if modders want to bring "their vision of the game" do so. As I said before I'll happily download this mod even if it's not an attempt to reproduce E3 lighting. I'm still hoping though that one day I'll be able to play an almost similar version to their E3 build either through mods or even released by CDPR (don't have much hopes on that).
Last edited:
Out of adversity, persecution and just general oppression, creativity is born! Shadows and Stone....I love it!
Now if only @eguitar01 will agree and not stifle our blossoming creativity any further...
Last edited:
Well, I'm not going to argue while it's useless to do so. If you truly, in your own mind, believe that the change of lighting was introduced for downgrading reasons, while there ain't any ground to those claims, as any "lighting" attempts is bringing the exact same performance, which by itself should be enough to prove that it was not the cause.
As to graphism and what they bring... It's a debate which is as old as computer gaming. Eventually, you can probably play the witcher 3 in a mix of medium / high and have very little differences with maxxed Ultra. As with any game. Higher settings generally tend to bring very little for a very high performance cost. Like a high end gfx card will bring you very little for the extra cost (a 980 ti doesn't perform twice better than a 970, yet yields twice the price. Not even speaking Titan here).
It doesn't "literally" improve the lighting. It does "literally" change the lighting. I know, this seems hard to grasp, but there is no improvement to speak of. No new technology involved in the lighting rendering, no new technology involved in the Ambient Occlusion rendering. Thus, it doesn't improve, but modifies.
Whether one is more to your or my taste is irrelevant, and cannot be argued. Different people have different taste. That's why modding is important, but being misguided to the point where you believe the lighting choice of CDPR was guided by a performance research is simply mind boggling (and very grudgy, months after the release). Also, I'll lastly friendly remind you that you have seen not more than 30 minutes of this "phantasm E3 2014 build". You cannot know how this was performing in all the conditions where you have been able to judge vanilla, hence the uselessness of your argument about why the lighting was changed (and it was said why it was, simply because it didn't produce the effect wanted in some conditions).