Lux Via | Skyrim Special Edition

Lux Via is reworking main roads while focusing on lighting, adding consistent light sources between towns and villages, improving or reworking many bridges and crossroads from scratch, and adding a lot of points of interest to make roads a little more interesting.

Creator: GGUNIT

Lux Via

DESCRIPTIONS

Lux Via is the crowning achievement of my Skyrim lighting project. Because vanilla roads are rather dull, I’ve attempted to breathe new life into all of the main ones. The main goal is to add consistent lighting between towns and villages; however, depending on the hold’s climate, lore, or town proximity, light sources may be different and less or more sustained.

Most bridges have been improved or completely reworked from the ground up, and many crossroads now have better lighting and have been reworked as well, depending on location and situation. Most changes have been made with consistency in mind; vanilla assets I use are dependent on vanilla locations (basically, I use Imperial fort assets when I’m near an Imperial fort, for example).

Compatibility is also important; Lux Via should be compatible with many mods out of the box; I didn’t edit inner cities and instead focused on town and village surroundings without getting too close. The most conflicting areas are near some bridges because navigation had to be redone; patches for popular mods that edit these locations are included in the FOMOD.

Features

• More light sources and lighting along major thoroughfares. The type of lightsource may be determined by the hold’s lore, the town’s proximity, and/or events.
• New lightsource assets are ENB light compatible; some have been improved with better environmental mapping, while others, such as new magical lanterns near Winterhold, have been created from scratch.
• Bridges that have been reworked or improved. Most vanilla bridges have been improved or completely rebuilt from the ground up, and they now have proper lighting.
• Better crosswalks and roadsigns. Many intersections and road signs have been improved or completely redesigned.
• There are numerous points of interest and minor improvements along most roads. Most of them are for lighting, while others are only for consistency, but all of them are for bringing some life to otherwise lifeless vanilla roads.
• I designed the entire Lux Via mod with compatibility in mind; most mods should be compatible out of the box or not conflict with each other at all. The majority of changes have been made in and around cities, with little or no impact on the cities themselves. Bridges may conflict a lot because I may have edited navigation meshes or the landscape, but some patches are provided to ensure everything works as well as possible, especially since new towns like Amber Guard and Lainalten have been added right next to bridges.

INSTALLATION

Install the FOMOD just like any other mod. Upon installation, all current patches and an optional no-ENB light version are available.
Lantern and post resources have been separated from the main Lux Via resources and will almost certainly be used as a master for upcoming mods or even Orbis when I have enough time to replace the majority of vanilla lanterns with better ones. As a result, Lux Via relies on two master plugins, one for all lantern assets and another for Lux Via.
I’m also adding a light plugin to make it easier for people to manage conflicts. The light plugin basically forwards the most important vanilla changes like navmesh or landscape edits.

It is strongly advised to use DyndOLOD.

Download Lux Via files:

Main file
? Lux Via	Via main FOMOD, including all assets, plugins and patches.
Update file
? Missing SMIM ropes textures	Missing SMIM rope textures for some wooden bridges and non-SMIM users.
Optional file
? Better Dynamic Snow 2 patch	Optional and unsupported patch for BDS2. One can also run the BDS patcher but I’m providing this one if needed. I’m not using BDS myself so don’t ask for more support !

Because the main Lux Via plugin edits vanilla assets, I would recommend loading it as low as possible, especially below mods that edit landscapes. In my opinion, it should be loaded last, after all other master plugins. Light plugin should also be loaded near the bottom of your load order; however, because both mods are editing Solitude vanilla lanterns, Orbis should win most conflicts.

Running the ENB Light or synthesis patcher on Lux Via plugins with the appropriate factor (by default, it’s using a 2.0 factor to cut fade values in half, anything less than 1.0 will increase my own lighting fade values – usually 0.7 works well for people who don’t use any ENB).

Content

Assets with or without ENB light.
Master plugins for all lantern resources and main Lux Via plugin.
An additional light plugin (ESPFE) with forwarded navmesh and ladscape edits to help with load order and compatibility.
Patches for:

• Amber Guard
• BDS 2
• Cutting Room Floor
• Diving Elegance
• Granite Hill
• Eli’s Halla player house
• Keld Nar
• Lainalten
• NSUTR
• Oakwood (Arthmoor)
• Old Hroldan Ruins
• Roadsigns Overhaul
• Skyrim Bridges
• Waymark
• Whistling Mine

Compatibility

Some compatibility patches have already been completed and incorporated into Via FOMOD. Via is incompatible with mods that serve the same purpose. Bridge, roadsign, and crossroad renovations may cause significant conflict; however, some have been patched. However, all mods that change the texture or design of road signs are fully compatible; I’m only changing their placements.
However, all mods that add lighting along roads are incompatible; at best, they stack and thus create a lot of dupes; at worst, they break the landscape with too much lighting or even cause shadowcasting light conflicts. As a result, all lantern mods are incompatible with Via.

Lux Via is fully compatible with Orbis and Lux, as they were all designed to work together and be used concurrently.

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