Lighting in House Broken

Soulshine · November 2021

I posted this thread regarding winter hearthfire no longer being a light source.

This fire no longer gives the glow / light it had before the update. The logs are now completely dark, even though the fire is working and you can see flames.

You can still interact with it but the light source is gone. This was happening on PTS and was not corrected.

edit: forgot to say that the only way it will come back is to remove it entirely and then re place the item. But this is actually happening with multiple lights in the house now, every single time I port in and out I have to put away and then take out scones, candles, fires, etc to get them to wai. PLEASE fix it is extremely annoying to have to do this over and over. @ZOS_Kevin

also if anyone else is experiencing similar things would you please reply? thank you

everseeing_njpreub18_ESO · November 2021

Not fires, but i've used several Culanda and Varla stones which stopped giving off light. Rather than remove them and try to replace each of them, I removed them all and then "undo changes" to place them back and they work again.

Later after fixing i noticed some seemed off again, not all that time. Hopefully something will get this fixed up.

Soulshine · November 2021

everseeing_njpreub18_ESO wrote: »

Not fires, but i've used several Culanda and Varla stones which stopped giving off light. Rather than remove them and try to replace each of them, I removed them all and then "undo changes" to place them back and they work again.

Later after fixing i noticed some seemed off again, not all that time. Hopefully something will get this fixed up.

Thanks for reply.

Yes this is what I am doing and what I meant by removing them and then re place. I use the "undo" key to put them back. But it is now happening on both PC NA and PC EU homes, and never before the update so something is now broken with lighting.

I noticed also that the armoury furnishing candles do the exact same thing. They are lit, but the armour pieces and the table goes dark until I remove it and put it back, then the table is lit again. I will try removing it and put it away to see if this addition is the reason that all the other lights are now being affected.

I really wish someone ZoS would at least acknowledge and say they will look into it.

Soulshine · November 2021

updating: looks like it is affecting only flame source lighting. I logged into some houses for sale to preview them furnished, and any light source from flame has the same problem. Flame is there and active but no light. Any lighting such as from a lamp is fine.

@ZOS_GinaBruno could someone please acknowledge this?

Gorak · November 2021

This is happening with the windows that cast light as well. Sometimes I can see the light from them while visitors cannot, or vice versa. It is really intermittent and unpredictable. At first I thought it was caused by the time of day, but that is not the issue. I have stopped using them in my builds as they take up a slot, and if they don't work properly then I can't be wasting slots on them. Not enough slots as it is, but that's for another post.

ShinyBacon · November 2021

im experiencing this in Jodes Embrace with Varla Stones, Skyshards, Midyear mayem flame, That large cage lighting that gives the water effect, and i think some other items.
Especially noticable when i go through the portal and back

Soulshine · November 2021

The fact that they won't even acknowledge is what is the most annoying. There are a lot of people in game reporting this even if they aren't doing so here. Not everyone gets on the forums. We spend a lot of time and resources to get houses as we want them, seems the least someone could do is agree to look into this. It can be easily duplicated so there has to be a way to pinpoint what is the cause.

You can even see it, as I mentioned, by previewing a house you don't even own. Some lights there, especially flames, do the same thing. Guess I will have to resort to spamming tickets or something to get someone from ZoS to respond.

katanagirl1 · November 2021

I am seeing this now on PS5. I just went to my Thieves Oasis, which has a lot of Redguard sconces and Craglorn sword sconces, a Redguard chandelier and a Khajiit firepit in the same room. Each had the central light source on but not the glow that lights up the usual radius. The next room behind it only had a few Redguard sconces in it and they lit up like usual.

I think I have seen it before, in NPC houses. Sometimes I go farming for furnishing plans in a house and it seems darker than usual. That is the first thought I had in my house when I entered, but then when I looked more closely I remembered this post and noticed that it looked just like the image posted above.

Soulshine · November 2021

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I am seeing this now on PS5. I just went to my Thieves Oasis, which has a lot of Redguard sconces and Craglorn sword sconces, a Redguard chandelier and a Khajiit firepit in the same room. Each had the central light source on but not the glow that lights up the usual radius. The next room behind it only had a few Redguard sconces in it and they lit up like usual.

I think I have seen it before, in NPC houses. Sometimes I go farming for furnishing plans in a house and it seems darker than usual. That is the first thought I had in my house when I entered, but then when I looked more closely I remembered this post and noticed that it looked just like the image posted above.

Yep. It's going on in every house that I have.

You can even preview a house you don't own and have this happen because I tested it on both PC NA and PC EU

Something is broken with the lighting now and you have to constantly reset the lights at random times, over and over and over.

Really annoying they refuse to acknowledge this. It needs to be fixed.

katanagirl1 · November 2021

My Stone Eagle Aerie, not a single radius glow from a lighting furnishing whatsoever!

It’s just a dark space now. All the beauty there is gone. Just pinpoint lights.

Wait, after going outside the house to the terrace and then back in I got some of the lights back. The regular lamps and chandeliers are now on and have an external glow but the enchanted lights (Soulsplinter Weed, Blackreach Geode, and Glowtendril mushrooms) don’t. I have a Dwarven Crystal Sconce, Mirror and there is no light at all from the crystals on it.

This is not cool. The whole house is affected.

Soulshine · December 2021

katanagirl1 wrote: »

My Stone Eagle Aerie, not a single radius glow from a lighting furnishing whatsoever!

It’s just a dark space now. All the beauty there is gone. Just pinpoint lights.

Wait, after going outside the house to the terrace and then back in I got some of the lights back. The regular lamps and chandeliers are now on and have an external glow but the enchanted lights (Soulsplinter Weed, Blackreach Geode, and Glowtendril mushrooms) don’t. I have a Dwarven Crystal Sconce, Mirror and there is no light at all from the crystals on it.

This is not cool. The whole house is affected.

Yep. still going on for me in all of my houses.

Worse, they are now selling the crown store the New Life Festival pack, which contains the fireplace I posted above and which categorically will not work now. You constantly have to remove it/replace it, turn on / off to get it to glow properly just like the other lights at random.

The armoury candles also do this, and I am still convinced that the introduction of this piece is part of the reason why it is now happening everywhere.

If anyone even bothered once to log in a check this, it can easily be duplicated - even in previewing homes you don't own.

What I don't appreciate is this being completely ignored by ZoS. There are a lot of people in the housing community that invest time, game gold, and crowns to make their homes as they would like. I get they don't consider housing bugs important to bother with right away but frankly the fact nobody can even acknowledge the issue and agree to look into it is really inexcusable. Just because this thread isn't filled with 3k responses doesn't mean the problem does not exist. Every home owner I have talked in the game has told me they have the same issue going on with their lights in many homes. IT NEEDS A FIX please!

@ZOS_GinaBruno.

Raideen · December 2021

Soulshine wrote: »

If anyone even bothered once to log in a check this, it can easily be duplicated - even in previewing homes you don't own.

@ZOS_GinaBruno.

I have not been able to duplicate this and I just purchased the seasonal pack and I am using a the provisioning fire in my fire place.

Its apparently not how many lights, nor furnishings that cause it. I wonder if it is drivers, or graphics card type, or memory.

I am running an RTX 2080 6g and 32g ram at 2560x1440

Soulshine · December 2021

Raideen wrote: »

Soulshine wrote: »

If anyone even bothered once to log in a check this, it can easily be duplicated - even in previewing homes you don't own.

@ZOS_GinaBruno.

I have not been able to duplicate this and I just purchased the seasonal pack and I am using a the provisioning fire in my fire place.

Its apparently not how many lights, nor furnishings that cause it. I wonder if it is drivers, or graphics card type, or memory.

I am running an RTX 2080 6g and 32g ram at 2560x1440

I can be duplicated when you have more than just a few random lights. Loading in to a house that has lamps, fires, cooking sources, and other lights sources like candles repeatedly make this pop up. There is a problem with loading fixed light vs flame. I have had houses in the game for literally years and never had this happen even once until Deadlands was released. I have more that 20 homes on NA and more 15 on EU. Some of them have this and some don't depending on the number and type of lights. If you are not having the issue, good for you but it is happening to every person in game I have talked to who has multiple houses since they notice it happen at random also in their different homes, so it is not just a user end issue or computer set up problem for me.

Raideen · December 2021

Soulshine wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

Soulshine wrote: »

If anyone even bothered once to log in a check this, it can easily be duplicated - even in previewing homes you don't own.

@ZOS_GinaBruno.

I have not been able to duplicate this and I just purchased the seasonal pack and I am using a the provisioning fire in my fire place.

Its apparently not how many lights, nor furnishings that cause it. I wonder if it is drivers, or graphics card type, or memory.

I am running an RTX 2080 6g and 32g ram at 2560x1440

I can be duplicated when you have more than just a few random lights. Loading in to a house that has lamps, fires, cooking sources, and other lights sources like candles repeatedly make this pop up. There is a problem with loading fixed light vs flame. I have had houses in the game for literally years and never had this happen even once until Deadlands was released. I have more that 20 homes on NA and more 15 on EU. Some of them have this and some don't depending on the number and type of lights. If you are not having the issue, good for you but it is happening to every person in game I have talked to who has multiple houses since they notice it happen at random also in their different homes, so it is not just a user end issue or computer set up problem for me.

I am not dismissing your concerns, I am asking questions to help narrow down what the issue could be. This is not a slam on your work, nor your hardware,

katanagirl1 · December 2021

I have been visiting my houses lately and have taken some snapshots to show this is happening on traveling to the house via Collections, but re-entering it via front door fixes it sometimes. Hopefully tomorrow I can get them off the console and onto the computer and I will then post here.

Note that some of these houses haven’t been visited since before U32 so it might be a bug related to that patch, since this is the first I am seeing it and so no new items have been added.

I am on PS5 but running PS4 version ESO.

katanagirl1 · December 2021

Some very limited testing I have done might help shed some light on the issue. I believe the problem might only be when using the Collections tab to travel to your house. I never use the map so I can't predict what that would do. I traveled to 3 houses from the front door just now and the lights all look fine. When I use the Collections tab to travel they do not.

Note that this only applies to after U32 as I mentioned before.

Okay, here is an image when I use Collections tab to travel to my Stone Eagle Aerie house:

Here is when I go through the front door:

Here is my Potentate's Retreat when I use Collections to travel there:

Here is when I go through the front door:

Here is Thieves Oasis when I use Collections to travel:

Here is when I go through the front door:

On a separate note, is the Daedric Enchanting table supposed to have more light than this? It has no reflected light even when the rest of the house lights look okay.

I hope this helps the devs figure out what might be going wrong now.

everseeing_njpreub18_ESO · December 2021

Just to keep this post moving along, I've been having the issue with Culanda/Varla stones for a few weeks, but not fires until today, now some of my fires give off no light.

+1 for a hopeful fix.

katanagirl1 · December 2021

So has anyone else noticed the lights working when entering through the front door, or do you all do like I do and use Collections tab or the map?

I would guess that somehow everything in the house doesn’t get loaded properly when not using the front door now, even though it has worked before in the past. Conversely, maybe all of the the area you were previously in doesn’t get cleared from memory so there is not enough room for all the house assets to load properly.

It’s similar to issues I have seen with wayshrines and the blue flames within them. If you fast travel to one, do something in the area around it, then travel back to the wayshrine the blue flame is gone. I have seen this specifically in the Reach and Fargrave.

I meant to add that in the other post but forgot.

ShinyBacon · December 2021

i have the same issue in basically all my houses, (XBOX) regardless if i travel from the map, from collections or walk in the fron door.
A couple of lightings that i can remember: (sorry if i dont have the exact furniture descriptions at hand
Enchanted snow globe:

New LIfe festival Christmas tree (bought and decorated last year)
Jubilee Cake
Alinor Candles on a stand
Dark elf Lantern
candle common
Candle Nord
Breton Scone

Tel Galen

Vampiric Lamp Azure Triple (this one bothered me the most, as usually switching it on/off fixes most lights, if not placing again. but with this one i had to remove entirely and place it again from my inventory, just to break again as soon i cam up the lift)
Dres Candles Meditation
these glow cabbages i cant remember the name at all
Leyawiin Lantern
Candle Nord

ill have a more detailed look in the other houses at the weekend

i hope we do get a fix soon. Lots of Christmas housing competitions atm, and it just doesnt look festive if all lights are out

Soulshine · December 2021

katanagirl1 wrote: »

So has anyone else noticed the lights working when entering through the front door, or do you all do like I do and use Collections tab or the map?

I would guess that somehow everything in the house doesn’t get loaded properly when not using the front door now, even though it has worked before in the past. Conversely, maybe all of the the area you were previously in doesn’t get cleared from memory so there is not enough room for all the house assets to load properly.

It’s similar to issues I have seen with wayshrines and the blue flames within them. If you fast travel to one, do something in the area around it, then travel back to the wayshrine the blue flame is gone. I have seen this specifically in the Reach and Fargrave.

I meant to add that in the other post but forgot.

It is happening for me regardless of walking in the front door, or traveling through collections.

When I was working on Ossa Accentium house on PTS I reported the issue then, as it was the first time I ever saw fire sources no longer giving light. Nobody responded. Now the same issue here on live.

People across platforms are reporting it since the update, so until ZoS admits it needs looking into and gives a fix, it will remain a problem.

From this point, I refuse to buy another house until this is fixed. Tired of dealing with it.

katanagirl1 · December 2021

Ah, well I hate to hear it’s not working regardless of how others are entering their houses, I thought I was onto something.

Like I said it was very limited testing so I realized that it might not work every time but wanted to share the info anyway.

I’ll keep adding more comments if I think of anything else. When I traveled through the front door of the houses I had just logged into that character - I don’t know if that is relevant or not. Maybe it gets worse the longer you’re logged into that toon and/or if you travel to a lot of different zones, which I tend to do.

I’ll also check out some of the smaller houses and see if there is a problem there too, the ones above were all notable houses, though none of them were more than about 450 slots full.

katanagirl1 · December 2021

I just put one too many of those Luxury vendor ferns in my Varlaisvea house and now the lighting is hosed there too. Just over 250 slots too.

Please acknowledge this bug and get us a fix.

Pixiepumpkin · December 2021

u guys using too many lights or have low memory on computer

Soulshine · December 2021

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

u guys using too many lights or have low memory on computer

As I mentioned in the thread, this can happen even when you load into a house on the preview menu, which barely has any lights at all.

My computers are also top end both on memory for the video card and RAM, so no - it's not on the user end. This started with the last chapter and has nothing to do with system set up.

There are also people reporting this on different platforms, not just on PC.

katanagirl1 · December 2021

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

u guys using too many lights or have low memory on computer

Things were working before and now they are not, even when no more lights were added. I would expect that if one placed one too many lights that you would immediately see a change when it was added, but that is not what I am seeing. Instead, I visit my houses sometime much later, and many visits after I placed the lighting, and suddenly it’s not working.

I did visit my Mournoth Keep house, which is Classic instead of Notable, and it does not have the problem. Of course there are fewer slots for this house, but I did have to put in a lot of lights to make it bright enough to see any of the furnishings. Since I decorated it in Orc style, it uses those lighting furnishings exclusively. The lights are also fairly closely spaced since the house is not overly large. All lights were working there.

katanagirl1 · December 2021

I wanted to add some more info here after visiting some of my houses today.

Earthtear is my first notable house, and the one with the most slots so far, over 510. I have a lot of soulsplinter weed, those cerulean spadeleaf glowing plants, the small glowing mushrooms that Luxury Guy had this weekend, Moonlit Vines, and wedding flowers. All are enchanted lighting furnishings. I have no problems with lighting in this house. *fingers crossed so far*

Thieves Oasis, like I said, has lighting problems when traveling but better when re-entering through the front door. The lights that don’t work are not always missing the glow around them. Only some of them don’t glow, others do. I can also place a new one and it works where the old ones don’t. I think I have almost as many slots filled here as Earthtear. This house is always dark the first visit when traveling now.

Stone Eagle Aerie has soulsplinter weed as well, plus the large glowing Blackreach mushrooms. It also has the lights that came with the house, more Markarth lighting plus a few Clockwork large lights sunk into the floor and ceiling. This house is always dark the first visit when traveling. I have one of the Blackreach geodes in this house and one in Thieves Oasis and it doesn’t have the glow in either house. Even when I exit and re-enter the Aerie from the front door some of the lights start working but the geode glow and the soulsplinter glow do not in this house. The geode glow in Thieves Oasis doesn’t work, either. This house is consistently dark the first visit when traveling now.

I don’t know if it’s the houses or the furnishings at this point. Maybe I should remove the Blackreach geodes and see if it gets better?

I am getting frustrated that my houses that looked great before are now dark and lifeless. Like someone above said, I have zero interest in spending crowns to buy any new houses if they are going to have this problem as well. Why take a chance?

katanagirl1 · December 2021

I have some new info about this post so I am going to add to it. My apologies if I seem to be monopolizing one that is not my original post, I only want to keep attention on this issue until we get some confirmation about this bug and get a fix.

I visited my Thieves Oasis house again, and always now it has the lights but no glow. I received a Redguard Brazier, Enchanted in one of my New Life reward boxes today, and I went there to quickly drop it off before logging off for lunch.

Now, in terms of decorations and where they are located in this particular house, the structure on the right hand side, when you enter, is pretty much full. The left hand structure has crafting stations in the lower level but not a lot upstairs. I have another brazier in a Redguard gazebo in the center of the pool of water. I also have a Redguard brazier from the luxury vendor near there too, before you enter the water. Other than that, the outside has only plants and trees near the buildings. The rest is untouched. Again, I am nowhere near the limit of 700 slots, maybe 500 or so.

Well, I went inside the crafting building to place that new item inside, but I couldn’t find anything agreeable. Then I went way up on the ledge on the other side of the water and placed it. Lo and behold, when I went inside the crafting building all the lights were working again! Even when exiting and re-entering I could never get this to work. Am I onto something? I sure hope so. Does the housing editor do something funny when you only populate a small area of your house and then work properly when you place something farther away?

I will check again next time I visit and see if the lighting is still working. I will be crushed if it does not.

katanagirl1 · December 2021

Alright, so the lights weren’t working (no surrounding glow) when I visited Thieves Oasis today. Placing that enchanted brazier on the other side of the water, far away from the houses did not cause the lights to start working again.

However, just walking over there and back fixed them today when I visited. I guess it’s like when you pick up a survey and have another of the same, and walk or ride a distance away and return and the nodes are back again. It forces the area to get reloaded.

There is still an issue with the enchanted lights in my Stone Eagle Aerie that cannot be fixed by walking to the far end of the housing area and returning. That is a separate issue but also one that needs to be addressed as well. It has been well documented here on the forums.

I would suggest someone at ZOS look into why regular lighting objects surrounding glow does not get loaded properly at the entrance of the houses. If any of them are able to visit my houses on PS NA server I would gladly give them a tour.

katanagirl1 · December 2021

Further update:

I asked a couple of my long-time ESO friends to visit my Stone Eagle Aerie primary house and see if the lighting furnishings were working for them. Both of them said they saw what looked like my second snapshot above, the one with all of the lighting on. They were both on PS4 Pro.

I got my PS4 Pro back out, waited for the latest patch to download and install, and visited my house. All of the lighting was indeed working for me by just traveling to the house from Collections. It never works that way on PS5 running PS4 version ESO. I assumed this bug on PS5 was because of the latest patch, but this confirms that it was not because both PS consoles are running the same update now.

So, what does this mean? It’s the same code on both consoles. PS5 has native 4K HDR. The PS4 Pro claims to have 4K HDR output, but I believe it is upsampled from 1080p format so it is not the same, though.

What could possibly be going on here? Are there other things I could do to help debug this problem?

@ZOS_Kevin you have helped me with another post. Is there someone who can investigate this and hopefully work towards a solution? This has ruined at least three of my notable houses, which are only about half full as far as furnishing slots are concerned.

EDIT: adding video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VVt-FW8fOI&list=PLGGjwEyVKCjpNeVP6-MCuwzs0s7bzrkc9&index=73

chillfirepup · January 2022

I'm on PC NA. So far, I have only noticed this with the Winter Festival Hearthfire and the candles on the armory station in many houses, including those I visit (such as in guild halls). They don't emit much light anymore in many houses. Of the houses I have or have been in so far, I've noticed it in Grand Psijic Villa, Lakemire Xanmeer Manor, Mournoth Keep, Alinor Crest Townhouse, Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery, Exorcised Coven Cottage, Coldharbour Surreal Estate, Bouldertree Refuge, Cyrodiilic Jungle House, and Black Vine Villa.
I bought 3 of the hearthfires (primarily because of the amazing light it was designed to give off), and those and the armory I notice this patch aren't giving off the light they used to upon entering most houses. However, there are two houses that I've noticed, so far (Sleek Creek House in Reaper's March and Sweetwater Cascades in Blackwood), where the armory candles still seem to always be fine upon entering these homes - except one time in Sweetwater Cascades, when the armory did not light much (but now seems to be fine). I don't have Winter Festival hearth fires in these homes, though.
Putting them away and then reversing that to replace them turns them back "on" again, but that can get cumbersome to always have to do.
One example in a smaller house - upon entering:

After putting away and then reversing that action so it is replaced:

Also, I found that if I "fix" them like this, leave my character inside the house, then log off and back on, they will still be fixed when logging back into that character placed in the home. That was interesting, but while in-game, porting to the house, entering it through the door, etc. results in the lack of lighting seen above.

G1Countdown · January 2022

This issue is still ongoing (PC/NA). Grand Topal Hideaway is also having issues. None of my Varla stones are lighting up. And, I cannot turn those off and on again.... They are just off.

I have candles in other homes that are lit, but once again no light.

This lighting issue is now becoming a common conversation in the housing guild I am in. This bug has been around too long.

@zos, Please assist. And, please don't wait till the next major update to fix this. Many player homes are literally dark.