So I came up with this guide idea after being asked about what settings I'm using in screenshots for the assets I had published recently.
And I must admit - it's a hard work to go through all mods that appeared in the past 8 years on the workshop, all the options they offer and sometimes with no information on the menu, just to get what you want.

I have decided to give obviously tips on exactly what I have achieved so far, but also on other possibilities there so everyone can tinker to their liking. Not everyone likes exactly the same settings but there are elements they would like to have the same in their screenshots.

So let's have a look into the options we have here.

There are a few mods that will be required here, plus a number of map themes. There is one LUT that I'm using recently and it's provided by the base game free update in the patch 1.16.0-f3 - Financial Districts. It's Neutral LUT and it turned out surprisingly good, a lot better then the best LUTs on the workshop.... or at least that's how I can see it ;)

Lets' start with mods:



- Theme Mixer - whatever version is the newest - and some people may skip the remaining 4 and move onto Map Themes

- Render It! - it will be helpful in adjusting lightining and colours, especially that of buildings, to fit it in the chosen Map Theme. Daylight Classic mod won't give you that much control and can be frustraiting (it's got only a few options).

- Dynamic Resolution - purely for a huge screenshots resolution but once you stop taking them, remember to slide down from 400% otherwise you will also get huge electricity bill (well... higher than usual)

- Cubemap Replacer and a bunch of sky maps in 4 different mods - it works independently of Render It settings (apart from the one that enables these clouds pictures); they are beautiful, georgeous... but static.

And here is a list of cubemaps that will work; I haven't listed the pastel maps as they have trees and houses as well which looks weird - having a massive tree or a house on a horizont; and a lovely looking HDRI 2K Cubemap Pack started throwing some errors (try yourself, it may work on your PC: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591584836)

• https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1771841274
  
• https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2170999920
  
• https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1585691173
  
• https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3007545704 - it has just one map and is not quite spectacular but someone may like it though

- AD Cloud Replacer - can be used instead or together with Cubemap Replacer (mixing both maps looks great); also while both are subscribed, they can be used seperately - I'll show you the settings in Render It that allows that; it is also dynamic so the clouds will move across the sky when game is unpaused. You will also need a few packs of clouds... of which Clouds Pack 01 has got what I usually need:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2851906117
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2964738898
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2985826785

Now here is a choice. Sometimes a very good quality sometimes not so.
I'm assuming some people would love to know where to get those ridges on mountains and hills from, the same as in the main image for this guide. And that's where Theme Mixer mod comes very handy.

You'll need a bunch of map themes and mostly it comes down to your own preference: what grass do you like, how your gravel should look like (not a big choice here), sand or ruined texture.

Just pick a few map themes that you like so you can mix them here and create your own favourite setting. What you need to add here are map themes that have interesting cliff texture. And here is a choice, 2 of them were in my screenshots.

If for example, you love the map theme Cleyra, it will give nice looking grass texture. But then you will need to change its cliff texture... ruined probably as well as it may influence the look here too.

In the images below I have chosen Realistic v 1.4.5 European map theme and then mixed it with different cliff textures.


Here is the list of map themes where you can get those interesting looking cliffs from:

- any that has got "boreal" in its name - they are mostly the same so pick one https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=656487499 will do here
- https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1899883811 - Reaper's one will be one of the best ones


- https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=684083743 it's a very different boreal cliff texture and a nice one too

- https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=656487499

- https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1786961917

- https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2859037881


- https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=627618982



That doesn't stop on choosing your best texture. You will need to adjust it in Theme Mixer to make it look like in the images or to suit your needs.
Open the Theme Mixer again and go to Terrain again (2nd from top in current settings/version). In the section where you're choosing cliff texture, there is a slider - it's not very useful as you will need very small fractions here, use the field next to it to enter any number between 0.0001 and 0.0009. While 0.0001 will give you nice results for far-away hills and mountains, it won't be very clear when you have a cliff right next your camera; try instead anything slightly higher, even 0.0002 gives good results already but the closer to 0.0009 the more repetetive texture will become (seen from a distance):




Now... you may also adjust Cliff and sand normal texture. It's a lot smaller area, usually found on more steep river banks, but also in mountains, which will show a tiny change when you choose a different texture. Some of the above map themes will also have interesting texture for this section.

And one more thing - so you don't have to do it all over again... save it :) And it would be best to have a corresponding name to the chosen LUT so you can easily match it with Render It - it's because each LUT requires different settings, for example you may fancy some rocky mountains with Neutral LUT, and green slopes with Realistic LUT (or with both LUTs , so add some additional info in your mix name: Neutral LUT with rocky hills or Neutral LUT with Coosbay cliffs).

Although one might get away with empty skies when taking screenshots of their assets, it's generally a lot better looking when you have some shapes above your head - it's not always deep blue sky with no trace of condensation :)

And while cubemap packs offer a choice, be it a static choice, AD cloud packs offer ... different sort of clouds. These 2 types usually don't go well together but for 1 exception (possibly more): Furry Clouds that can be found in the very first pack:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2851906117

This one and most of cubemap clouds will mix very well and give a distinctly different look, which where quite visible, I added to the images below.

It's mostly Render It settings dealing with adjusting the colour balance , saturation and brightness to the chosen LUT. Therefore you would be best to save those settings with a name that is somehow associating it with a chosen LUT.

All that trouble only because those who are creating assets, they need to darken their texture and de-saturate it (make it less colourful) before uploading in the game's asset editor which is turning these values up. The problem is - no one knows exactly by how much. There are existing guides on what is the best options, as some people tested these options... but then it's all down to the creator's eye (and their eyesight), and/or their computer screen settings too :)

This is why your settings won't ever be perfect for all the assets. As long as you are happy with the general look of it then just enjoy it.

If someone knows much more about it, then give me a shout to add some better information here :)

Before we jump onto Render It mod, just a word on map themes again - just to remind you, each map theme has different settings, that includes lighting (exposure) as well. Once you choose one, go back to the Atmosphere settings (5th icon from the top in it's current version, the one with the sun) and adjust:

- longitude (that will move your sun in west-east directions on the globe) - very useful when taking screenshots from different sides of your asset, so it doesn't stay dark in a shadow
- latitude - how high the sun is over the horizont (so south-north position as it does at different times of the year)
- exposure - brightness, boreal maps tend to be darker so brighten them up
Also each map tends to have different longitude and latitude as well as they tend to reflect the region they are designed to mimic, and that's why you'll find them always at different levels of brightness.
It would be brilliant if there were settings in Theme Mixer to override such things and whenever you choose a new map theme, to have it displayed with the same level of brightness (longitude, latitude and exposure, and probably the remaining settings too) but obviously it's not that easy :)

Now if you're not using cubemaps with static clouds, turn the Static Fog option off (see screenshots below, in green colour) and you will be able to use the following Theme Mixer options to modify the sky:

- rayleigh scattering - will change the sky colour, nice to have a very deep blue sky or red flame evening sunset
- mie scattering - makes very subtle changes to the tone of that colour, best visible when rayleigh scattering is above 1.4
- sun anisotropy - similar to mie scattering (the last two effects are not shown in the screenshots but yes, they do make some changes :) )


There are also settings for the sky at night time so be curious and experiment with them - take a screenshot first of the settings how they are before you change anything, so you can refer to it in case you wanted to go back to the old settings (or save them as a new theme mix).

That can give you some nice effects when using together with AD Cloud Replacer mod - they don't get their colour changed though and they remain white. But they do have some settings to change their appearance anyway.

Let's make this section short and sweet - the amount of settings here is... more than enough I'd say; most of it is for those who know what they mean.
To me it mostly was guessing and experimenting (even after reading some other guides).
What I have set up for my Neutral LUT is as per screenshots below.

If you already have some favourite settings that you want to modify but also to keep the old one, instead starting afresh click on:




On to the Options now:
- first is lighting and here it looks complicated but it's actually one of the easiest parts ;)

Change Sun Intensity together with Exposure in Theme Mixer - have them both opened at the same time on the screen - to have it best adjusted.


- Colours
I did not change anything in here. If you want to you can play with it later, I just left these settings as they were all turned off.




- Textures
I have followed here instructions in this youtube video (amonngst other instructions initially as well):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STsq9qE-w5M

You can either use Texture part only, or try some other settings presented here, too.



- Environment
This one is a bit tricky as I get the impression that some of its settings are conflicting with each other and the final effect depends in what order they are changed :)

First one - Static Fog - enable it if you want to use Cubemaps with static clouds. The rest is as follows:





- Post-Processing
Here is a lot of options so let's have it all on one screen - Enhanced Effects options open seperate windows of which Colour Grading is the longest (hence 3 seperate images of it).
Here is also where you override the colour correction LUT chosen in Theme Mixer (have them both the same when saving your settings against the similar name referring to the same LUT).

AD Cloud Enabler mod adds dynamic clouds... well... they are moving across the sky but the shapes stay the same, so don't have your hopes too high :)

It's got a choice of clouds that need to be downloaded in 3 (at the time of writing it) seperate mods. And as mentioned before, if you want to mix them Cubemaps, Pack 1 contains Furry Clouds that suits most of Cubemaps. Obviously you may find others that do their job too :)

You can also adjust those clouds appearance in Properties tab but it doesn't seem there is an option to save multiple of them - it saves the last custom settings and that's it.

And that would be all actually.
I don't use Daylight Classic anymore, as mentioned before. Also Relight options are all in Render It and Theme Mixer.

Enjoy it and if you know a lot more on the subject above, let me know to add some missing information :)

Thank you all.