some screenshots from the upcoming STLM 2.2 [posted by essenthy via twitter]

[Valas991]

some screenshots from the upcoming STLM 2.2 [posted by essenthy via twitter]

So, he recently posted some pictures on twitter, but in case you don't follow him, here they are
[I dare to post them here, as he kinda made them public there, so I think no harm comes to him, but if @essenthy wishes it to be removed, then it will be]

So, with title "final version of skellige for 2.2"

Spoiler

(no title here)

Spoiler

"current stlm 2.2 vs vanilla"

Spoiler

I personally think these images ROCK and I'm eagerly awaiting for the release
Btw, his twitter
https://twitter.com/essenthy

 

[Dubya75]

Wow, you have to hand it to Essenthy for his tireless persistence with this project! And although I found a lot of problems with version 2.1, these images look phenomenal!

 

[DIXI91]

Yeah, I saw those recently too. It looks amazing!

Doubt he will release STLM 2.2 before B&W though. He's probably waiting for that expansion to release STLM 2.2. Gotta be patient!

 

[KeeperOTF]

stlm 2.1
View attachment 33660

stlm 2.2

 

[RasAlgethi24]

From the one image, it looks like he finally darkened the nights.

 

[Dubya75]

From the one image, it looks like he finally darkened the nights.

Really hope so, because that was a deal-breaker for me in version 2.1

 

[DIXI91]

That's not Essenthy''s fault though. The vanilla lighting is also very bright at night. That's the devs fault.

However there are mods that changes the brightness of the nights, Darker Nights + Atmospheric Nights.

 

[thibaudv]

There are still a couple of things that bug me, to give an example: http://imgur.com/DqceyNo

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to the future of this project. It's come a long way!

 

[DIXI91]

You don't need to be rude in your picture @thibaudv . This mod isn't for everyone. You don't like it, then skip it.

Anyway, people need to realize that a lot of issues are basically caused by the engine. For example, shadows and fog are linked to the lighting. Changing the lighting also changes the fog and the color of the shadows. Also, in order to achieve this kind of lighting, @essenthy clearly changed the weather in some parts. The water is also linked to the lighting. It's noticeable when using ULM. When you change lightings with this mod, you can clearly see all of these things change at the same time too. It's unfortunate, but that's how it is.

And by the way, oceans can be flat and calm @thibaudv . I do agree though for the reflections. Too accurate to be realistic, but I don't think it's possible to tweak that specific thing.

 

[Garrison72]

Night time looks much better. I hope he does release it before Blood and Wine, that could be months down the road.

 

[Dubya75]

Night time looks much better. I hope he does release it before Blood and Wine, that could be months down the road.

There is no logical reason to wait for B&W to release this new version. Chances are very good that the new area will also have its own ENVs, which means that @essenthy will have to do a lot of work to get those new ENVs in line with the rest.
So the way I see it is that he'll release it when he thinks it is finished and then work on another update after B&W drops. Or not.

 

[linaswas_001]

Well, from the first B&W pictures there is no blue fog, same as in Kaer Morhen. So MAYBE we will not need the lighting update for this specific location, but hey, I know those are only pictures that are meant to look good.
One man can dream.

 

[essenthy]

There are still a couple of things that bug me, to give an example: http://imgur.com/DqceyNo

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to the future of this project. It's come a long way!

this is why i dont post much here anymore, sometime its better to not comment when you dont know, or better, ask kindly, really but i will go point by point, so :

- its not a random white light, thats the fog getting bright by exposition, its not random in the sense that it fit exactly skellige map limits, it hide the map borders wich are just flat, its not possible to add any kind of light to the game, skellige had always strong distant fog, albeit not as strong as the vanilla

- ther's no chromatic abberation in the middle the screen, its default CA, i didnt change that, and even then its very very sublte and only on the left and right part of the screen, if you see it in the middle you gotta check your monitor

- fog was always there in that specific distant bridge, even in the very first gameplay trailer, i removed it in the previous version by mistake

- the water is not flat, you cant have flat water in the game, even with 0 wind, water always move, it just appear flat because its a screenshot and the micro waves movement are not apparent from this distance

- its blue because thats how it did look before, and i like it blue so dealt with that

- dark shadow are dark because of poor lighting in shadowed area from the engine and lack of light bouncing, you cant have bright and good looking shadow like in the previous demos, actually its impossible to have good lighting currently without CDPR updating the engine tech, and thats actually default shadow lighting from skellige, i didnt even change that

- reflection will never be realistic no matter what, the game use screen space reflection, wich mean anything that is not rendered in the screen is not reflected

 

[DIXI91]

Good to have some STLM news from you @essenthy !

No matter what people say in the end it's your mod and you do whatever you want. I love it personally and I can't wait for your next version release!

BTW, have you seen this reshade essenthy? http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1394 . Your mod + this reshade looks pretty spot on to the E3 2014 trailers ! It's great!

 

[RasAlgethi24]

It looks good. Im looking forward to trying out 2.2

 

[KeeperOTF]

love this man, love this attitude, lov this mod. If ever he asked for feedback and help in the past, I did my best to serve him. If he didn't I kept shout. if he adds yellow tint, and I really like it, it's great for me, if he does somethin, I don't like, I'm allright with it. It's his mod, not mine. I'd rather start my own mod, than complain or bother him, with my opinion of things I have no clue of. All I can wish for is to see it public. nough said.

 

[Domhnallaich]

I think Essenthy is to be commended for his hard work. But, I am beginning to dislike the pushing back of the fog, as I think it highlights issues with the overall look of the game (something I did not notice before due to me loving the draw distance). I believe this to be an issue with the game/engine though, not with Essenthy's vision.

To highlight where I am with this, for the third pic, which shows a comparison between vanilla and 2.2. I'd take the top half of the vanilla screenshot (trees and above) and the bottom half from 2.2. For this reason, I think I am going to stick with eguitars grim lighting mod as I personally feel it has a better blend between, colour desaturation and other vanilla characteristics.

 

[essenthy]

Good to have some STLM news from you @essenthy !

No matter what people say in the end it's your mod and you do whatever you want. I love it personally and I can't wait for your next version release!

BTW, have you seen this reshade essenthy? http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1394 . Your mod + this reshade looks pretty spot on to the E3 2014 trailers ! It's great!

yeah i saw it ! i though it work good on stlm 2, but i already removed most of that blue teint in 2.2, novigrad look pretty different than 2.0

---------- Updated at 08:48 AM ----------

I think Essenthy is to be commended for his hard work. But, I am beginning to dislike the pushing back of the fog, as I think it highlights issues with the overall look of the game (something I did not notice before due to me loving the draw distance). I believe this to be an issue with the game/engine though, not with Essenthy's vision.

To highlight where I am with this, for the third pic, which shows a comparison between vanilla and 2.2. I'd take the top half of the vanilla screenshot (trees and above) and the bottom half from 2.2. For this reason, I think I am going to stick with eguitars grim lighting mod as I personally feel it has a better blend between, colour desaturation and other vanilla characteristics.

that closer fog does not make sense for the PC version and it wasnt there in the old trailers, even if i dont follow closely the old trailers anymore i still take them as example of how the game should look, they got it closer just to hide very low LOD from the consoles version, and since we know PC is just a console port and the LOD is already higher, that fog has no reason to be there, at least not in a clear weather

the fog distance difference is farily low between 2.2 and vanilla

 

[TudorAdrian]

this is why i dont post much here anymore, sometime its better to not comment when you dont know, or better, ask kindly when you're completely clueless about what's going on modding this game, really but i will go point by point otherwise peoples will think that am a cocky hot blooded modder, so :

- its not a random white light, thats the fog getting bright by exposition, its not random in the sense that it fit exactly skellige map limits, it hide the map borders wich are just flat, its not possible to add any kind of light to the game, skellige had always strong distant fog, albeit not as strong as the vanilla

- ther's no chromatic abberation in the middle the screen, its default CA, i didnt change that, and even then its very very sublte and only on the left and right part of the screen, if you see it in the middle you gotta check your monitor

- fog was always there in that specific distant bridge, even in the very first gameplay trailer, i removed it in the previous version by mistake

- the water is not flat, you cant have flat water in the game, even with 0 wind, water always move, it just appear flat because its a screenshot and the micro waves movement are not apparent from this distance

- its blue because thats how it did look before, and i like it blue so dealt with that

- dark shadow are dark because of poor lighting in shadowed area from the engine and lack of light bouncing, you cant have bright and good looking shadow like in the previous demos, actually its impossible to have good lighting currently without CDPR updating the engine tech, and thats actually default shadow lighting from skellige, i didnt even change that

- reflection will never be realistic no matter what, the game use screen space reflection, wich mean anything that is not rendered in the screen is not reflected

@essenthy: man your 2.2 version looks sweet. there's so many people eagerly looking forward to it and who appreciate your work. You shouldn't get worked up about people asking for this and that - this always happens with art . Just do your own thing man 'cause I'm sure that for every one person picking nits at your stuff, there's another 100 out there who appreciate your efforts and understand why you choose to do what you did (ie. the fog which actually doesn't look bad and does a great job at masking the map's border). The engine was tamed to allow the consoles to run this great game but your hard work actually brought a lot of its tamed potential forward. Also seen some of your 4K pics of STLM 2.2's progress on your twitter and they look very good. Anyway, great job - I eagerly await the release of 2.2

 

[TudorAdrian]

-- Deleted post --

well it's nice to see pics of how this mod's progressed so I 100% agree about trying to keep this one clean and/or constructive.