Okay, the pseudo-realism is nice and all but the automatic dilation effect isn't done well enough to mimic true pupil dilation (i.e. it's getting annoying).
First of all, true pupil dilation takes into account the time spent in the light or dark environment. Second, the change is much quicker and not nearly as extreme as the game shows it. Third, dilation is affected by point of focus (whether you are looking directly at the bright light or off to the side). Finally, the in game effect is done all wrong to begin with.

Let's take the scenario of a dark night (or as dark as ES games get) battle with a dragon. The dragon swoops down and breathes on you. The breath is extremely bright and the instant it's over the whole screen is nearly black. You count...one, two, and the screen brightens up to it's normal levels. This is what happens currently.

Here is what should happen if you wanted to more closely mimic pupil dilation and image burn-in (no, it doesn't only happen to monitors). The dragon swoops down and breathes on you. The breath is extremely bright and even once it's over the negative burn-in of the breath attack is still present in your field of vision. The rest of the screen will brighten to it's normal levels almost instantly and the negative burn-in will slowly fade (a few seconds) as your retina's recover. This is how it SHOULD work. Unfortunately, with such a narrow field of vision (your monitor) this could result in your entire screen being affected if you were say, strafing during the breath attack.

In short, good try but it's getting a little annoying. Especially for those with sensitive eyes like myself.


Is there a way to limit the brightness and darkness extremes? I still want to see the effect just not get totally blinded when I really shouldn't be.

I'm not aware of any way to turn HDR off or adjust it in the ini. There is a variable but it doesn't work. I've been using the ENB shaders and they completely fix the problem, so you might need some sort of shader mod if you can run it.

I also totally despise the effect. It's too sensitive, too frequent, and too intrusive. I don't really need the camera to simulate eyes anyway- I have eyes. Do subtle things to enhance what my eyes are already doing, but not attempt to be a second pair of eyes.

yes u do need it to simulate your eyes, or is your screen as bright as the sun on a clear sky.... thought not.

ie: I like it

Yes.

I thought the HDR effect, whilst often times irritating, was done well for the most part. The only thing I REALLY couldn't stand was the extent to which water blinded you, that was straight up [censored]. It's kinda cool to feel disorientated after a dragon breaths fire at you, then again not everone is going to enjoy this attempt at realism, and an option to turn HDR off would of been nice.

I think it's over-done, and intrusive - it also seems to happen differently on different systems - I know someone else who's running the game and the effect seems less intrusive. I would like to be able to turn it down/off.

I would also like to know why waterfalls are an extremely bright light source according to the fake-HDR, but don't actually glow.

One of many mysteries.

It's a simulated effect, exaggerated on purpose. If you want the proper effect go take a walk, get some sun.

I myself would appreciate an eye patch patch, cause I heard I liked patches...

Fine, great...then let me at least turn it off or tweak it.

There is MOD somehwere that removes the obnoxious post processing altogether. The game afterwards feels like Morrowind on steorids minus the high resolution textures of some community addons.

But those affect all post processing, right? I don't want to do that.
Ideally, I'd like to just turn down the extremes that this dilation effect will go to.

Wait for the CK to come out. The CK will have weather options to modify weather settings. Included in this should be advanced options to modify the HDR settings. This would allow us to completely remove the extremely overdone HDR effect at no performance cost.

I'm looking very much forward to weather mods, as Skyrim's lighting is not only really outdated, but also just simply poorly chosen. Poorly chosen overdone settings.

This. I love HDR, but not to the extent that Skyrim provides. My real life eyes have to keep adjusting to the HDR simulation on my character's eyes... WAY too over the top.

TES:6 will come with a flashlight to strap on the top of your monitor at this rate, switching on whenever you look at anything brighter than a grey stone wall, and opening up to send a tiny fist of fury flying straight into your face whenever you look directly at the sun.