So use Render it! + Theme Mixer 2! + Play it! + Dynamic Resolution
(You do not need Fog Controller, Daylight Classic, Clouds & Fog Toggler, etc.)

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1794015399
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2954236385
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2741726428
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=812713438

Do you recommend these for a new player? the game kinda looks like a poopy behind by default and need my game to look good.

Originally posted by Roku:

Do you recommend these for a new player? the game kinda looks like a poopy behind by default and need my game to look good.

If the game's looks are really important to you, something like top 3 priority, I would encourage you to try all options and find your favorite.

RenderIt has many, many settings to tweak to your liking. Relight will give you quick results with way less tweakability.

Cool, thanks

Originally posted by StayHungryStayFoolish:

So use Render it! + Theme Mixer 2! + Play it! + Dynamic Resolution
(You do not need Fog Controller, Daylight Classic)

As someone who has used Relight for a long time, you don't really *need* any of the dependencies listed on the mod page. Ability to read, maybe I agree that they're old and useless. Ideally they shouldn't be shown on this mod page.

The sunlight intensity provided in Eyecandy, Theme Mixer, and RenderIt is optional, depending on which LUT you choose. One LUT might need a little boost, another could use a bit less, another is just fine without adjustments.

I like the Relight Neutral and Average variations. For those I keep the sun slider at default and raise Brightness and Gamma in Relight settings to taste instead.

Daylight Classic is (used to be?) only needed to enable a customizable skybox texture. I rarely look at the sky in C:S so I haven't touched Daylight Classic in ages. I'm sure these days there are other options to customize the sky.

Adjusting shadow strength to full, as recommended in the Relight description, is optional too. There is a technical caveat, but it mostly depends on what sort of visual you're going for - strong shadows in a tropical setting make sense but in real life, even very sunny places have overcast days and different sunlight angles and strength throughout the year. time of day, and so on. Shadows never look the same for too long.

To quote the Relight description:

"Shadows must be set to max using Shadow Strength Adjuster otherwise it will look like the sun is leaking through objects." -- This 'leaking through' I mostly notice on certain fences. The shadow will be offset, which makes the fence look like it's floating. I saw Shadow Bias options in the current version of RenderIt, which from the tooltips in-game sounds like it might fix that offset, but I haven't tested it yet. This might be the only thing that I could argue as a dependency, if it works as I'm reading it.

Personally, I haven't touched a shadow strength slider in ages while using Relight. Personally I enjoy neutral-ish shadows in C:S, which the default setting pretty much nails. So that dependency is very subjective. I will test the Bias setting in RenderIt though.

So, with somewhat pale shadows, an unmoving sunlight slider and not looking at the sky, personally I'm sorted out with Relight as my only visual mod. All these dependencies don't mean much when the look of the game just comes down to taste. I'm sure there are people who are happy with only RenderIt and nothing else. Better yet, I'm sure there are people who pick their favourite vanilla LUT and that's it. No dependencies there.

I guess one thing Relight's mod description did is accidently make people copy Ronyx's style and taste. People interpret the other mods like "this *depends* on those to function" when, in a technical sense, that's not true. In that sense, listing dependencies for visual mods is not productive. At best they should be recommendations - optional, subjective, individual, to taste.

Originally posted by CAKE-FLAT MINOR:

Adjusting shadow strength to full, as recommended in the Relight description, is optional too. There is a technical caveat, but it mostly depends on what sort of visual you're going for - strong shadows in a tropical setting make sense but in real life, even very sunny places have overcast days and different sunlight angles and strength throughout the year. time of day, and so on. Shadows never look the same for too long.

To quote the Relight description:

"Shadows must be set to max using Shadow Strength Adjuster otherwise it will look like the sun is leaking through objects." -- This 'leaking through' I mostly notice on certain fences. The shadow will be offset, which makes the fence look like it's floating. I saw Shadow Bias options in the current version of RenderIt, which from the tooltips in-game sounds like it might fix that offset, but I haven't tested it yet. This might be the only thing that I could argue as a dependency, if it works as I'm reading it.

Personally, I haven't touched a shadow strength slider in ages while using Relight. Personally I enjoy neutral-ish shadows in C:S, which the default setting pretty much nails. So that dependency is very subjective. I will test the Bias setting in RenderIt though.

one thing: "leaking through" in that context does not mean bias (offset). it is brightness difference in of the shadow and the face without sunlight. so shadows should actually always be set to 1.0.

Here's an example
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1020761334092148838/1070967276704104488/shadow.png


adjusting the shadow strength correctly can be achieved by adjusting between sunlight and ambient light, as in Relight description

Originally posted by 네인 | neinnew:

one thing: "leaking through" in that context does not mean bias (offset). it is brightness difference in of the shadow and the face without sunlight. so shadows should actually always be set to 1.0.

Thank you for the clarification! I've never noticed this myself, will keep an eye out.