Candles, lanterns, and fires (oh my!) that shine through solid stone walls

Wintergreen · January 2

Anyone know a work-around for this problem? It really interferes with the look of adjoining rooms to have light coming from a glowing wall of stone. I've tried putting paintings and plants and other things behind the source of light on the wall I don't want it to shine through and it doesn't work. Or are there lighting items that don't show through walls. If so, I'd appreciate specific names of those items so I can make some. Thanks!

Arunei · January 8

This is an annoying thing I noticed a looooong time ago when I was using Ravenhurst. I made a full second floor using the wide plank things we have, and I noticed that light from below these would show above, and vice versa. At first I thought it was just b/c the light wasn't registering there was something there to block it since the floor I made wasn't part of the actual house, but once I moved my char's house from Ravenhurst to Gardner House, I noticed it was still happening.

In the first set you can see how the pots/vases reflect the light through the floor, while in the second set the far upstairs wall is illuminated by the lantern from downstairs. Knowing how ZOS is about fixing bugs, I'm not holding my breath on this getting taken care of, but it'd be nice to see this issue dealt with.

SirAndy · January 8

The problem happens when a walls is put on a flat surface that isn't sub-divided along the walls edges.
The shader for the light is applied to the complete surface and has no knowledge of the wall.

There are several ways to solve this, listed from cheap (fast) to expensive (eats a lot of resources):

- Calculate occlusion maps for each object within the lights radius and then use projected shadow maps on the surfaces. For static lights, this can be precalculated.

- Split the geometry along the edges of objects that touch each other and do a simple raytrace from each vertex to the light source.

- Do raytracing for each point on the surface to the light source.

ApostateHobo · January 8

There's also those lights that have the sort of aura kinda glow around them, so then through walls you see this glowing orb thing unless you put it a good distance away from any. Lighting in this game is really wonky.

Kagukan · January 8

Lighting through the walls can be annoying.

ghastley · January 8

I haven't checked this in-game, but I'd imagine that a light that casts shadows would be affected by walls etc. but a simpler non-shadow light wouldn't. The Skyrim CK had both kinds, and there were separate limits for how many of each could be in a cell.

If all the placeable lights are the latter kind, you get better performance, because you only need to consider the surface angle, distance etc. and not look for occlusion. So my bet is that was the choice made, and all light sources are like that. If you complain enough to get shadow-casting lights, you'll get limits on how many light sources are allowed.

The only way to avoid the problem is to make sure items are beyond the light radius of the source. That information is hard to find documented, but you can test in-game to find out.

Catsmoke14 · January 8

You may be able to "fake it" with EHT FX in certain cases.

Here is a stone block fireplace I made as seen on the PTS. I believe it shows what Sir Andy is talking about - the light from the fire travels the surface of the floor and wall since it doesn't know anything about the stone blocks. Of course if you can't see the floor (or the wall) you won't see that effect, but ordinary in-game rugs share the effect as you can see on the carpet in the foreground. Also, this seems like an "Area Effect" since it shows up on the end of the storage chest in the scene like ghastley says.

Here is a prototype "Fake Rug" from EHT. Well its just a colored panel, but rugs are on the list I think. It doesn't share that effect.

And here is that corner with both a Fake Wall and a Fake Rug. I don't see the glow - but a good question might be is it worth the trouble?

Xerikten · January 8

I like it as you can do some really unique and interesting things with it.

Catsmoke14 · January 8

Yes, EHT is certainly a fun and desirable add-on.

I mean is using it for this purpose worth the trouble. Once R_K adds rugs I will try them out for this purpose.

Wintergreen · January 8

I'll definitely be checking out those rugs when they're added.

Catsmoke14 · January 9

Wintergreen wrote: »

I'll definitely be checking out those rugs when they're added.

But we may have a long wait

Here is just a partial list of things R_K includes with every new version in his "too-do list" from change.log

Add new Effects:
* Trees:
- Ghost Trees (Blueish Achievement ones), Wisteria, Bamboo, Bonzai
* Heat Waves (Distortion)
* Panel that hides in-game FX (like the smoke from Incense)
* Signage
* Animate Door
* Animals: Snakes & Lizards
* Sound Effect: When passing through: Sounds like water splashing
* Global, Overlay Weather FX (rain, underwater, etc.)
* Hedges
* Add the Effect Outline as its own Effect.
* Maps
* Poles, Chandelier Extenders, etc.
* Shadows (have a hint of color) (maybe even tie in with in-game time of day)
* Mountains (Environmental Effect)
* Doors
* Pets:
- Colored Frogs
* Armor/Weapon Racks
* Armor/Weapons incl. Arrows
* Plaque-mounted Armor/Weapons (Crossed Axes, etc)
* Mannequins
* Hist Tree Bloom & associated particle effect
* Flowers:
- Nightshade
- Rose Bush
- All existing harvestable flowers
- Soul Gem + Binding Bubble + Sparkle Effect
- Gears
- Vaermina Mirror
- Glow Worms
- Target & stalker Target Mannequins
- Maps
- Water Spigot
- Fishing Net
- Decorative Plaques
- Reliefs
- Nine Divine Stained Glass
- All manner of [nice] stained glass & mosaic
* Mirrors
* Beams / Supports
* Carpets / Rugs

Carpets/Rugs at the bottom here, but that list is even longer. Some of these seem to be in (Rose Bush? Weapons?) but who knows when he will be able to get to rugs with such a long list?

So lots of potential there. I do like the things he creates that hang flat on walls or flat on floors (Paintings for sure. Any on floors? The floor veneer itself so far?). They strike me as very convincing and - as a bonus - can save me a few furniture slots.

Tigerseye · January 9

It's interesting you mention this now, as I have just had this experience with a fire I placed on the wall of the stable in Old Mistveil.

I don't really mind it, there, as it lights (and would warm) the area my horse's shelter (as I've stolen the poor thing's stable!) is in and I just put some other lighting fairly nearby, anyway.

So, it probably looks like it's coming from that, unlesss people look really closely...

If possible, I have been putting fireplaces on walls, inside houses, back-to-back.

As portions of the fireplaces can protrude through the wafer-thin walls, otherwise.

In the Alinor Townhouse, I put one on the wall of the small front room (on the left of the front door) and then, another one on the other side of that wall, in the large room behind it.

Obviously, this also disguises any bleeding of light through the wall.

Wintergreen · January 10

Thanks, Tigerseye - I've also done some of those things to disguise bleeding of light, but I've never put fireplaces back-to-back...I just might try that somewhere! I guess this is just a thing we'll have to work around.

Tigerseye · January 10

Yeah, think it is, to be honest - no problem and good luck.