Just wondering who all plays the game with the brightness turned down in the game options so that when it is dark during the night or you are in a cave or dungeon the only way to see is to use a torch or a candlelight spell.

I would....BUT that means the shadows in the daytime are WAY too dark...so no.

No i use a mod that makes the night time pitch black.

I don't turn the brightness down but I wish they made at least some of the caves/dungeons really dark (as in no torch, no see) as they should be without magic light sources.

I may be using the same one. It can also make interiors, especially dungeons and caves, gloomier. Nothing like picking a path through the dark in a blizzard only to have a sabrecat come out of nowhere!

Have you all seen the size of Masser (and even Secunda) in the night sky? I think it's safe to say Skyrim has realistically dark nights

Before i never had to use a torch once. Now i can't go in a cave or dungeon without one.

Lol, yeah. Sometimes I can miss a lot in those deep shadows. I always make sure my follower is stocked with torches, too. However, they aren't too, er, bright about using them sometimes. Solo, carrying a torch blocks too much of my view, though I like the candle light spell. The weird thing is the spell makes me very detectable to most things, yet they don't seem to notice a torch!

I'm waiting for the Real Lights mod, removing all light sources that don't have a torch, a window or such.
I hear there are a mod out there already, might go check it out.

I tend to have pretty good night vision once my eyes adapts in real life, so I just leave it at default settings. But it does make the inclusion of torches in the game a little less immersive. But in saying that, I still do miss some loots in dungeons.

I do, minimal brightness, like i do in all those horror game.

I miss the darkness of Oblivions dungeons, if you ran out of torches in them, you were pretty much screwed.
I dont think i've had to use a single torch in Skyrim

Oh no, that's wrong. No Bethesda games i've played have been truly dark.
If your torch ran out in Vanilla Oblivion and you couldn't see anything, your brightness was all the way down.
Or you had some monitor settings making it darker than it was.

Normally, I'd be a little bit bothered by somewhat unrealistic lighting. But I think Skyrim did an alright job. I keep the brightness at a reasonable level, and I find the nighttime scenes are realistic enough. I mean, for starters, we have two giant moons hanging like lanterns in the sky, and much of Skyrim is totally blanketed in snow, providing ample reflection. It looks about right in most instances. Some of the dungeons, and being in deep woods at night, could be darker. But I suppose some mods will come along (or already have come along) to change it up.

No, but i use a mod for darker night and interiors. You don't need a sleep requirement to spend a night at inn if you can't see beyond what your torch reveals. Also makes khajiit's night eye a must for character who wishes to exploit the darkness Due ot that i also reduced timescale to 6, making days and nights last longer, around 2 hours (real time) each.

i keep my brightness turnd all the way down and sometimes i have to use a torch or something, but it could be darker

my brightness settings in game and my tv are perfect...some caves are too dark to see without torch/cadlelight and night feels right

turning up brightness to see everything makes it lose that real feel

Even the first horse you buy at Whiterun starts looking like a giant shadow if you turn down the brightness. Caves are still pretty dark , and I love having to rely on torches or magic!

I just wish people who shared screenshots turned off their darkness mod and provided ample lighting.
It gets really old to click on a link to a black square.

Its fine if people want to change their game to be more dark, but it shouldnt be like that in the main game.
People need to be able to see, and if I would play with a darkness mod I would probably only see a black screen, like in those screenshots people link.

I had to return a silent hills game because playing a game where you only see a black screen is a bit weird. There was no way to set it so I could actually see. Its like playing a game when youre blind. Gamemakers should not put great effort into gameworlds and graphics and then make people unable to actually play them because they cant see anything.

So I think Skyrim's lighting is fine. I can see in caves mostly, sometimes I have to use a light spell.

Zaria feel sorry for the lesser races who don't have night eye, however it get a bit annoying switching between it and aura whisper.

Most dungeons in Skyrim are so linear you can navigate them with closed eyes anyway. When you bump into something hostile, press the attack button till it dies.

I like to see where I am going.

I'm using a mod called "Realistic Lighting without Post Processing", it makes everything realistically dark, and it's probably my favorite mod right now. I really like having to use candlelight spells or night vision to get around, though I can see why the devs made everything well lit - a lot of the dungeons they made look pretty spectacular (plus having to recast candlelight every 60 seconds is kind of annoying.) I'm glad I played through much of the content with things well lit, so I could really see the stuff they made, but gameplay is a lot more fun when things are dark and creepy. Now I just need to make it so that candlelight and vampire vision don't wink out until I tell them to.

I tried playing with brightness turned down, but it didn't look natural. Everything was darker, even well-lit places - not very realistic. So I installed Realistic Lighting Without Post Processing and it looks great now!

I have turned the brightness down maybe 25%. I like the dungeons to be dark enough that I have a reason to use Magelight!