Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines

Softer Shadows
131 Comments
Snake 18 Jul @ 7:16am 
This looks great! I subscribed, but it's not showing up in my list of mods in the content manager. Is this expected behavior?
FairyKomet 16 Dec, 2024 @ 7:01am 
For people wanting to simulate this effect with Render it! and Theme mixer, 1. Go to light tab and reduce the intensity of sunlight to 0, this will get rid of the diferential brightness between faces of the buildings completely. 2. Go to theme mixer and adjust the exposure of sunlight until brightness fits. You could also try adjust the sliders in Render It! color tab equator colors according to the render it guide linked in the mod page. If pursuing 1 and 2, rule of thumb is total brightness = intensity + exposure, adjust intensity to achieve softer shadows
darcula2000 30 Nov, 2024 @ 6:45pm 
Daylight Classic + Softer Shadows + Dynamic Resolution + Real Neutral LUT,Thank you, these four mods are still valid until December 2024.

I respect and thank every mod creator, but I have to admit that after 9 years, the simplest and most effective mods in terms of light and shadow effects are still those from 8 years ago.

this 4 mods combination still cannot be replaced, such as' Render It! ',' Lumina ', and' Relight '. Although these complex mods are more flexible and free, they require patience to adjust the values. Most players just want to achieve a simple and beautiful light and shadow effect.

What I most want to adjust is the part of the building that faces away from the light. The latest Mod [Natural Lighting] can replace [Daylight Classic], but still cannot fully replace [Softer Shadows]
Aharo 19 Jul, 2023 @ 8:21am 
A gamechanger for me, thx!!
Garymeister76 | Castaway.tf 28 Jun, 2023 @ 9:34pm 
Render It! has this covered
Saplaiceen 13 May, 2023 @ 9:53am 
of all the cool things you can adjust in this game, making shadows not a void of darkness never seems to be a thing you can do...
boulossami584 12 Mar, 2023 @ 3:33am 
It doesn't work for me
mranderson 15 Feb, 2023 @ 1:46pm 
I don't think I lost resolution. This mod was making my colors shift while I moved the camera. I;m still having an issue with flickering lines on the ground, if anyone knows what might be causing that.
jeffnaugh 9 Feb, 2023 @ 12:46am 
did this make anyone elses city lose resolution
gmrsb
Elivenya 8 Feb, 2022 @ 12:32pm 
It also does not work with with daylight classic. But it kind of works without DC, but just with the vanilla LUT.
EvanBear 7 Feb, 2022 @ 11:24pm 
@boformer Well that was my issue, I didn't have classic sun color enabled. My bad!
boformer  [author] 7 Feb, 2022 @ 7:45pm 
make sure to also install Daylight Classic and enable classic sun intensity/color/position.
This mod is just an addition to make the shadows a little bit brighter.
Elivenya 6 Feb, 2022 @ 9:39pm 
It does not work anymore. The shadows are as dark as without the mod.
NameInvalid 6 Feb, 2022 @ 7:43am 
It is weird why the "dark side" was fine before, and after a week of not playing, it broke. Become really really dark. This mod lighten it a bit but still was unable to recover back to what it supposed to looks like. See my detail here : https://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylinesModding/comments/slcujq/what_might_be_the_cause_of_such_weird_dark/
EvanBear 1 Nov, 2021 @ 10:16pm 
This just either doesn't work for me or I need the shadows to be even less dark because it does not have the same effect as your screenshots show. I'm using this mod, daylight classic and just the default boreal lut.
IvanFTW 14 May, 2021 @ 4:21pm 
Same here @lemonsterOG @Dr_J0nes
LemonsterOG 12 May, 2021 @ 8:33pm 
@Dr_J0nes -- I know this is listed as a conflict on the Relight page, but I've been using this with Relight, Ultimate Eyecandy and Theme Mixer 2 all at the same time without a single issue, and for over a year now. Are you experiencing an issue?
Dr_J0nes 12 May, 2021 @ 8:13pm 
Is there any way to make this mod work with relight?
Agamemnicon 29 Mar, 2021 @ 3:38pm 
This is great! I had been using Shadow Strength Adjuster, but I realized it wasn't affecting quite the objects I wanted. In fact, it made my trees look "washed out"

This mod is just what I needed!
boformer  [author] 14 Feb, 2021 @ 11:23am 
it's fine. I hope you managed to find the look you wanted!
THZ 9 Feb, 2021 @ 10:06am 
Yeah, you are right. I kept trying that at UEC just the past few days.(reduced one intensity and increased another one.)
(and trying with other color settings like Theme Mixer 2, Relight.)
And, I find my comments on February 6, the link-picture is totally wrong and unnecessary.
Because the “Relight mod” description said “Definite conflict” with “Softer Shadows”.
Therefore my picture (February 6) is wrong, Softer Shadows did not work in my picture. I’m so stupid that’s my fault.
Please ignore my comment on February 6. Sorry I wasted your time.
In order not to cause misunderstanding, I will delete my comment of February 6.
boformer  [author] 9 Feb, 2021 @ 7:01am 
I think the mod still uses the default values at night, but I don't think that's the issue here.

I think you could probably get the look you want by increasing the global illumination and reducing the sunlight strength. The ultimate eyecandy mod might have a setting for that.
THZ 6 Feb, 2021 @ 4:26pm 
I noticed some values were 255, 255, 255 (Source Code/ github ). I’ve guessed that it may be the brightest in some parts. I still came to ask, just for a hope.:) Thank you for response anyway.
boformer  [author] 6 Feb, 2021 @ 3:05pm 
this mod already sets the brightest possible values (pure white)
THZ 5 Feb, 2021 @ 10:44am 
I have "shadow strength adjuster", The 2 mods handle different shades.
The shadows on the buildings itself are not changed by that adjuster mod. It can be changed by your mod. However, I need less dark shadows on the building itself.
I'm satisfied with that sort of shadows adjusted by "shadow strength adjuster". I hope your mod have a slider as well.
boformer  [author] 5 Feb, 2021 @ 9:44am 
I think there is another mod called shadow strength adjuster
THZ 4 Feb, 2021 @ 5:54pm 
I love the mod. I need more. Could you add a bar to adjust less dark? It's still too dark.
Therealmapa 21 Nov, 2020 @ 5:37pm 
When I enable the mod in the content manager and load my game, my buildings and networks don't render unless my camera is very close to them.
colart1 14 Sep, 2020 @ 3:45pm 
Beyond a shadow of a doubt this is a very good mod. :)
xmrun 16 Aug, 2020 @ 7:14pm 
imagine throwing shade at ronyx lol :steamhappy:
xxx78 20 Jun, 2020 @ 12:11pm 
Amazing mod, thanks. After using this i can actually see something on the shadow side of vehicles :D
maxpower 6 Jun, 2020 @ 2:28pm 
@boformer. OK. Thanks!
LemonsterOG 6 Jun, 2020 @ 9:57am 
Wow....the shade of it all. :ap_reallyhappy:
boformer  [author] 6 Jun, 2020 @ 9:47am 
@xerxesaria idk probably some bullshit mod that thinks it knows better what works and what does not :P
maxpower 3 Jun, 2020 @ 4:00am 
Hi boformer. This is a fantastic mod. After 5 years of playing, I don't know why I hadn't seen it before....
However, I also use Relight. My asset compatibility report says that "Relight" is incompatible with this mod. I have been using them both actually in my games and have had no problems at all. They both work side by side. So I am wondering why this "incompatibility report" shows up? Can you please let me know?
LemonsterOG 3 May, 2020 @ 11:21am 
@XDorazio -- It should be "incompatible" with any other mod (meaning it will crash your game), but there would obviously be potential conflicts with other mods that control shadows, as they may use the same game controls. Example: It's possible the Shadow Strength Adjuster mod would conflict with what this mod is trying to do. (Note: I have not tested them together. This is just a guess.)
XDorazio 3 May, 2020 @ 10:58am 
Hello, is this Mod incompatible with any other Mod?
Connor.Enriquez 17 Feb, 2020 @ 3:35pm 
From one side of my city the skyline would be really dark and ugly, real game changer
boformer  [author] 28 Jan, 2020 @ 4:13pm 
Also use a neutral LUT that doesn't darken the shadows!
boformer  [author] 28 Jan, 2020 @ 4:12pm 
it is not adjustable. it does what you can see on the screenshots. It's recommended to combine it with Daylight Classic for best results
echos 24 Jan, 2020 @ 11:12am 
Unfortuantely I don't see any result of this mod work. It is listed in content manager, switched on, but no corresponding item in mod options in game. No any keyboard shortcut list in description, and i don't see any effect.
Is it adjustable or not? Is there any menu, GUI or adjuster?
Of course i can suupose that it works witout any user menu or gui, but... i don't see any significant effect anyway. Shadow from sun opposed side are totally black. I have last actual verison 1.12.3.
Please advise
PhatR 12 Dec, 2019 @ 7:51pm 
Actually, I think I need almost none in snow... SNOMO..... Thanks for the open source!
PhatR 12 Dec, 2019 @ 5:06pm 
Wow, this is needed in snow.
M-Rocka 11 Nov, 2019 @ 2:57pm 
An absolute must.
boformer  [author] 19 Mar, 2019 @ 11:21am 
no, doesn't affect performance at all.

If the game lags, try to set your graphic settings to minimum.
ValskraaCapo 19 Mar, 2019 @ 7:33am 
does this make the game lag less?
boformer  [author] 4 Mar, 2019 @ 2:48pm 
Nice to hear that. I wonder what they were thinking when they made the game.
Mvek 4 Mar, 2019 @ 1:22pm 
Thank you very much, the game was for me almost unplayable with those often even "black" like ashes walls in shadows in vanilla.
boformer  [author] 25 Jul, 2018 @ 1:17pm 
Nice that it works for you! It's actually just 37 lines of simple code :D