I've been complaining about the lack of lighting and bugged windows in Eslweyr over on the housing feedback thread, but even after several PTS updates nothing seems to have changed. So now I'm starting to panic that Elsweyr may actually go live like this which would be a disaster that ruins the visuals of almost every interior in the game, and also makes all the work that went into creating detailed furnishings go to waste.
So please fix the lighting!
I'm not sure if it's just me on my setup (I'd be surprised but happy, so by any means please prove me wrong people!) but Elsweyr interiors seem to be the worst ever made when it comes to lighting. The windows in player homes are bugged and don't light up properly. Same for non-player-home buildings that remain extremely dark as they don't get enough illumination either from windows or lamps. Elsweyr interiors are thus completely out of touch, and look like dark basements rather than the welcoming inns they're supposed to be, in a warm sunny zone. If anybody actually saw well-lit Elsweyr interiors with working windows, please let me know as I'd actually be extremely relieved to be wrong.
Here are some comparison images that should make it clear why the lighting in Elsweyr is a huge problem
![smywwnxrbz28.png]()
On the left we see the utterly bugged windows of Elsweyr. The top left is from Jode's Embrace, the bottom left is from the Sugar Bowl Suite inn room. The windows clearly don't light up. On the right we see examples of other interiors (also taken at the same time, during daytime), with examples of windows working properly and how big of a difference it makes. Top right is the House of the Silent Magnifico in Sentinel, and bottom right is Sleek Creek House outside Rawlkha. I can't understand why a chapter that ships with such a pricetag has broken windows (not to mention additional costs, such as Jode's Embrace probably costing a bunch of crowns on top of that). Did nobody check that they worked?
![1qdbj17qcr1t.png]()
Even worse than player housing are the non-player-house interiors that we can't even attempt to 'fix' by having to add tons of extra lights ourselves. Top left is Rimmen palace, a similar model to Jode's Embrace, with the same bugged windows, and
the interior in there is incredibly dim. You can barely make out many of the furniture, and have basically no chance to see the intricate details on the smaller items. We also can't see the warm colours (brown, red, rich blues, golds, some greens) of the interior for what they actually are, as the darkness obscures everything. Top right is a shot from Kragenhome, and sadly even dark elf houses in volcanic wastelands let in more light than the houses of sunny, warm Elsweyr.
Bottom left is what the Sugar Bowl inn looks like during daytime. It's supposed to be a luxurious and comfortable Elsweyr inn. And it would be, if we could see anything. The view distance in there (with three windows!) is abysmal, you can't see about 70% of the tapestry's details, and you can't see the colours properly. The wall in the magnified section is the same red as the wall next to the candles. Bottom right is Orsinium Keep, which is literally carved into the side of a mountain and is still better lit. Neither the walls nor the celiing nor the red tapestries way above me fade into darkness as much as the tapestry a few meters away in Elsweyr.
Bonus activity: Let's play 'spot the guard and the redguard' in the inn. Time yourself how long it takes you to actually see them, winner gets a sweetroll (that they can eat as they cry after all the failed lights in Elsweyr destroy their hopes and dreams).
![reisjlyac463.png]()
Top left here is the outside of Rimmen, on a cloudy day too, still with warm colours and vibrant contrasts from the red and green bits. Top right is one of the Cantons in Vivec obviously, which doesn't exactly have windows either and thus serves to highlight how bad the next image is. The next image, bottom left, is the interior of the Sugar Bowl Inn downstairs. I included it to show that
the problem isn't just the broken windows as in the earlier Sugar Bowl image, but also that the lights that were placed in the houses don't do the job. Instead of staying the rich warm browns, strong reds, luxurious golds and lush greens (that we see outside or if we place the furniture in our own home and blast them with a clockwork illuminator or something), the colours all fade into dark browns and pale browns. Bottom right is the single 'working' window I found, on one of the walls of the Sugar Bowl Inn room, but it's too little too late.
On the whole, the colours of Elsweyr are almost all lost, as the interiors are incredibly dark and dull and fade into a monotonous shadowy earth-tone blob. It's heartbreaking to see the potential of the entire zone and the much-awaited Khajiiti architecture fall so painfully short. All it would've taken to make the colours flourish and the details pop was to put some stronger lights in the interiors and to brighten up the many bugged windows that are currently dragging down the buildings into even more darkness.
Suggestion: either go back and fix all the bugged windows ASAP, or at the very least chuck some britghter lights in there instead of those two sad candles per house that seems to be the average (which is clearly inadequate). It's genuinely bad to play in Elsweyr at the moment because the interiors are all terrible. Don't make us stare at bugged windows please. And don't do a disservice to the furniture designers by making all details and colours almost entirely obsured by the dim lighting.
You can see my original comment with more pictures (so I don't have to repost them here) on the housing feedback thread:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/468637/pts-update-22-feedback-thread-for-housing-furnishings/p1
PS: And yes, I'm aware that my gamma settings are quite extreme. I don't play that way on live, but changed it on the PTS since with my normal settings everything in Elsweyr was faded into a washed out camel color with no contrast whatsoever. However I took the comparison images on the PTS with the same settings so clearly the older interiors such as the Redguard, Khajiit and Vvardenfell inns don't have the same problems that seem so rampant in Elsweyr. That said, the disclaimer at the start of the post still stands, if this is somehow just me and the windows and lights work properly for others, I'll be the happiest to have been wrong, honestly.
