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Dynamic Rain

NOW WITH TRANSPARENCY!!! This mod adds dynamic raindrops to the game. The raindrops are simulated with the physics engine of Skyrim and they dynamically interact with the game world. That creates the impression as if rain flows down slopes. You can even interact with the raindrops yourself if you, e.g., push those in front of you away with the unrelenting force shout. However, note that this mod uses only an approximative approach, see the limitations below.

Version 1.1



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USAGE:

1) To test this mod, hit "^" to open the console, and then enter "fw c821f" to start rain (both times without the quotation marks). Note that depending on the area you are in, e.g., snowy regions, it may vanish quickly.
2) In the player's inventory, you can find a book called "Dragon Blood". Just open and close it to change the transparency level of the rain (none, medium, or high).


INSTALL / UNINSTALL:

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VERSION HISTORY:

Version 1.0 Initial Release
Version 1.1 Transparency added (see USAGE and pic 7)


LIMITATIONS:

1) Use this mod on your own risk, I am not responsible for any problems.
2) This mod may strongly reduce your framerate, you have to test this on your own. My framerate is typically reduced by about 10% during rain, but I have also encountered drops of up to 30% in some regions with lots of world details, like cities, but only if you stand still for a while and lots of dynamic raindrops appear before the player.
3) The lower the framerate is already without dynamic raindrops, the less dynamic raindrops will be visualized if dynamic rain is activated.
4) Originally, I wanted to remove the rain shader and to have only dynamic raindrops. However, this would require more dynamic raindrops than the game engine can handle in a reasonable manner, and therefore dynamic raindrops appear together with the rain shader.
5) Moving quickly, e.g. by using a horse, will let the dynamic raindrops nearly vanish due to their limited number.
6) This mod does not simulate individual raindrops but clusters of raindrops. That way the framerate drop is reduced. Note that not each raindrop but only the center of such a cluster has a collision mesh.
7) On horizontal surfaces, the raindrop clusters may stop their motion and this looks somewhat weird.
8) To not stress the game engine too much, the raindrops are chosen rather large and then they look like bubbles in the vicinity of the player.


INTERESTING SIDE EFFECTS:

1) When shooting at a target with an arrow and the arrow accidently hits the center of a cluster of raindrops during its trajectory, then the arrow will interact with the raindrops and thus miss its target. That way, archery becomes minimally harder during rain, which is, however, realistic.
2) Just like archery, sorcery is affected by the raindrops, i.e. spells will not always hit their targets if there are too many dynamic raindrops present in front of you.
3) The dynamic raindrops look like air bubbles underwater.


ADDITIONAL:

Probably, the framerate drop could be reduced by not rendering a sphere for each raindrop but something only 2-dimensional. However, I have decided to use spheres such that the raindrops can get nicely lit by light sources.


COMPATIBILITY:

This mod does not remove anything from the game or alter existing things. It essentially merely adds a new, hidden rain quest to the game together with two scripts that handle the raindrops. Therefore, there should not be any compatibility issues.


KNOWN ISSUES:

1) If hitting water, a fraction of the raindrops causes the water to splash like if a stone is dropped in it. I have tested all the ways the raindrops can interact with the game world, but whenever I found one without the splashing issue, some new, in my opinion worse problem occured.
2) Clusters of raindrops hang in the sky in the large, northeast balcony of Dragonsreach during rain. The reason is probably the collision mesh there and thus this issue is unresolvable. There are probably more places where such things will happen.
3) Sometimes lots of raindrops appear at one spot on the ground. I do not know why.
4) The transparent rain version appears white if one looks at the sky from underwater during daytime. I found no way to resolve this.


MODIFICATION:

You do not need my permission if you want to use this mod for your own noncommercial purposes, just give credit to me. However, a utilization for commercial purposes is prohibited. This would be earning money from foreign work.


CREDITS:

Thanks to Bethesda for the masterpiece Skyrim.



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Enjoy.