Hey guys!
I'm looking for shader mods for the Night-eye and Detect life effects that has these qualities:

• Night-eye shader that shows the player where the shadows are.
  I noticed that dark areas (i.e. shadows) are indistinguishable from ares that are lit with the "vanila" shader and those from other mods (judging from their screenshots).
  I think this defeats the usefulness of this power to the sneaker.
  Basically, I can't tell when I'm stepping out into the light with this power active.
  
  What I'm after: a shader that simply lightens the player's view so that they can see through the darken areas but without actually removing the darkened areas from it.
  
  
• Detect life shader that doesn't make "blobs" out of the living things that I see and that does not give away what the creature is behind that wall or door.
  With the "vanila" shader, I find it hard "examining from a far" NPCs that are easy prey. (Because my games are usually difficult, I always try to pick my battles carefully.)
  And with the shaders from other mods (judging from their screenshots), I find that they reveal too much about a creature that the player shouldn't know anything about.
  I think the player should simply get a hint that there is some life around that corner instead of KNOWING exactly what that creature is.
  
  What I'm after: a shader that is simply a small glowing spot somewhere in the middle of the model. This could be the creatures heart.
  It should be small enough so that, from a far, I can "scrutinise" those creatures that I can actually see.
  And, for those creatures that I can't actually see, small enough to simply reveal where the creatures are NOT what sort of creatures they are.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks, guys!

For Night eye shaders I use http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7327 that is a compilation of a bunch that you can change via the omod. Several styles - look at the user uploaded pictures - edge detect might fit the bill.

LAME has an ok life detect shader that creates a ghost like image out of the people, but he opted for the original games pink - so pink ghosts. At one point I edited it to amber color, but then forgot and overwrote the esp.

Now I use http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25204 by tejon, which has a crazy amount of versions with a neat BAIN install package. Certainly feint and small are on the list - not sure about color though.

I once saw a vampire one that seemed to imitate like veins, but I lost the name/link.

Hmm, I wonder if you could re use the "detect"(attitude, danger, guard, etc.) effect in LAME for life detect. As I recall it's basically just a colored smoke type effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b8sQL4JEqE

At around 0:45

Yeah my paladin character has sense evil from RBP birthsign the ritural, it is OK but I prefer using life detected.

Oh I thought it as the same as sense attitude - no the sense evil looks like a cone of small sparks shooting up about the size of the NPC abdomen - reddish. Can't tell at all what the creature is.

I use http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14917 If you selected a 'normal mask' this would give you normal peripheral vision, and thus able to distinguish shadows, with a circle of night-vision in the centre.



If you find it, I'm interested too I've tried Tejon's mod as suggested by Psymon. I liked the idea (for me it was like sensing a life force but not actually seeing it) but not the execution. If the dots could be made less garish, smaller, fuzzier and concentrated in the middle of the creature/NPC, I would use it. Possibly it could be done with his mod but testing was a bear and I just settled for the LAME version.

Hmm... a quick search turned up:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2270 (the "vampire" one Psymon mentioned)

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2280 (not what you're looking for, I know, but I use it and like it).

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3602 (another pulsing red particle effect that mimics bloodflow)

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2447 makes the cloud smaller (but you can still see through walls, and it still gives a vague shape)

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3052 Yet another shader change for vampires

I couldn't find any nighteye mods like what you wanted, though.

There is also this one, that also gives a red effect and it is the one i have been using till now.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8574

But that X-Ray version looks pretty good, thanks WalkerInShadows.

Edit: this was quite rude thread hijacking, I apologize.

There is also Tejon's Life Detected, but they may reveal too much for Kuertee's taste / need. They do look good though, come in vary many shapes and sizes.

I wish there was a way to create a night-eye effect that simply changed the ambient cell lighting slightly. Just enough for you to be able to grope about without it changing the colours. Probably not feasible while the player is running around though!

Yes, I'd really like a night eye shader that isn't actually a shader but just something that will provide for a minimum amount of ambient light. I'd also love it if Khajiit characters didn't have to fiddle with needing to cast a spell for it to work.

Two Khajiit Night Eye Toggles: http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1797 & http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8755

One vampire night eye toggle: http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25397

Kuertee - I'm curious what you settle on.

Timeslip's shaders for night eye are great (Psymon linked them in the first reply, above). I use Circular Expand, which seems to match all of your criteria, and also my own preference that Night Eye shouldn't be good for daytime use. If you prefer to toggle it on 24/7 with your khajiit, one of the other options will probably serve.

The object shader interface is pretty straightforward. If the Life Detected shaders all give too much coverage and/or are too opaque, both density and alpha blending should be easily adjusted. Color too, for that matter. Hardest part of that mod was making a good "dot" texture that wasn't too clean or too soft and actually came out round... everything else was a breeze once I figured out what number does which thing!

Bad news, though: you do need to have a particle cloud, or you can't detect invisible enemies; and that cloud emanates from the entire skeleton randomly. No way to just have a central dot. Totally obfuscating the creature's identity pretty much requires turning them into a buzzing swarm of particles, and even then you can see basic height/width/length proportions. Sharply reducing the frequency of particle emission might be the best solution, really.

In TRAP, I took away direct control of khajiit night-eye and instead automatically toggle it depending on the player's light coverage. Anyone who wishes to borrow that script may do so. In fact, I'm pretty sure someone released it as a stand-alone -- I know I gave permission for this -- but I totally forget who and don't have a link.

Does 'easily' in this context include tinkerer's such as myself or only real modders such as you or Kuertee?

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

re: NIght-eye
Unfortunately all the Night-eye shaders I tried remove shadow information for them to be effective.
With the Night-eye shaders on, I can't tell where it is safe to hide in the shadow or when I am stepping into the light from the shadows.
Compare these screenshots to see how available Night-eye shaders removes where the shadows are located:
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-0.jpg, https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-6.jpg, https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-7.jpg
As we all know, sneaking in the shadows is part of the game.

Having it on is quite detrimental. It's better to just have Life detect active.
Unfortunately for the vanilla vampire players, Life detect and Night-eye is one power.

I am using zeroed's Less overpowered Night-eye. (Thanks wetblanket!)
It is not perfect. Even its "dark" option is too bright/desaturated that the shadows are very hard to distinguish from areas in the light.
It is still possible with it, though.

re: Life detect
As for Life detect shaders, I've come up with my own:

• it doesn't reveal what the creature is when it is behind a wall or when the creature is in the dark
  
• is is less visible when the creature is in the light, so that the player can actually see the creature

screenshots:
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-0.jpg - behind walls
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-1.jpg - creature in the dark
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-2.jpg - creature stepping out of the dark into the light
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-4.jpg - creature partly in the light
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-5.jpg - in the light, the shader is still visible but very soft that it is almost invisible
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-6.jpg - with Less overpowered Night-eye shader
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/Life-detected-shader-7.jpg - with the default Night-eye shader. the life detected shader works poorly with this.
Here's a pre-release version: https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/kuerteeSimpleDetectLifeShader.esp

Unfortunately, all the shaders tutorial seems to have gone.
I've done some HTML5 Canvas HSL code - so I have an idea on what I need/want to do with the pixel-colour information.
I just don't know the syntax for shader programming.

Sounds like you want a night eye shader that just turns the brightness up - I can see the advantages of using something like that for sneaking and stealth.

Oehhh, I like the idea of a single bulb at the center of an actor representing a heart/core.

Tried out the pre-release version briefly and rather like it. The only quibble would be that occasionally it didn't seem to work and there was no pattern to this that I could discern.

Hey Kuertee I think this may help it comes from a Night eye shader switcher mod http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19476
It makes no sense to me but I hope it helps you out.
Writing HLSL shaders
====================

There are a couple of guidelines to follow in writing a HLSL shader for the nighteye effect.

The screen texture is passed into the shader as Src0 and you must use the line:

samper2D Src0

The main function that gets called by the pixel shader must be called main i.e.

float4 main( float2 Tex : TEXCOORD0 ) : COLOR0

I've set the compiler target to pixel shader version 2.0. If you need to compile to a later version then let me know
and I'll add an option to allow you to set what version the shader compiler compiles to but ps 2.0 should be good
enough for most people.
Edit
Also the http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Oblivion_Shader_Editor has a lot of information in it that may help more detailed then what I posted above for several different effects.

That HLSL night eye shader switcher is a good way to do things. Original shaders are in ASM which is not something I would like to deal with. If you have something in mind, apply it in Gimp/photoshop and tell me the steps, I will gladly replicate them in shader form .

It's just a bunch of boxes with numbers in them. You have to learn a few terms to understand the labels, but they're mostly well-documented on the CS wiki, and the results are fairly obvious if you just look at them in-game. If you can figure out the knobs and sliders on a good surround-sound system, you've got what it takes.

Kuertee, did you try Timeslip's Circular Expand shader? http://www.asis.com/users/liefc/Oblivion/CircularExpand.png in a nice familiar location, with Let There Be Darkness installed. Note the obvious difference between lit and non-lit areas: the player is standing in darkness, there's a torch in the hallway. The actor's shadow is plainly visible.

Thanks for the pointer. I used Life Detected - Burst - Huge - 1.esp as a starting point and ended up, despite my best intentions, with something that's closer to vanilla:
- http://imgur.com/ZkIgX.jpg
- http://imgur.com/Iywfv.jpg
- http://imgur.com/5M9ln.jpg

I'm still not happy but it was fun!

Wasn't wrinklyninja going to do something like this as a companion to Cava Obscura? Seems like it would use the same scripts/system...

Hey Thanks vtastek!

Here is my idea. I'm not sure if it is possible in Oblivion's shader system.
Basically, if a pixel dips below a certain colour/brightness value (e.g. 64 in the R, G and B components), add a hue to it and increase its lightness (e.g. arbitrarly, 64).
E.g.: If a pixels R < 64 and G < 64 and B < 64, add R + 64, G + 32, B + 32. I think that should increase that pixels lightness while giving it a red tinge.
I can imagine that in-game, any pixel that is lit (e.g. R, G and B values all above 64) will look as normal - i.e. how you see it in game.
But those in the dark, will have a red tinge and will not be "wholy covered" in black.
Note that these numbers are simply examples from me. I'm not really sure what values would work best in-game.
And also note, that I don't want to hold you to this.
This is simply me thinking out loud of what I think a good Night-eye shader should be like.

Anyway, here are some quick PS work I did:
I simply used Colour select on the dark areas of the first screenshot, and filled it with a dark colour (e.g. R64 G0 B0) on a layer with a 75% opacity on top of one of the lit screenshots.
https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/no-night-eye.jpg, https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/night-eye-blue.jpg, https://sites.google.com/site/kuertee/night-eye-red.jpg

Oh? I'll have to look-up Cava Obscura.