Underwater visibility correction LE

Reduces ugly underwater blur and pushes underwater fog back to the appropriate distance without affecting depth of field.

The main vortex file for this mod requires Realistic Water Two! (Highly recommended!)

If you're not using RW2, make sure to get the Pure Waters or Vanilla version! You don’t need both, just one or the other.

All before/after pictures shown use RW2.

I searched the internet for a fix to reduce underwater blur because I thought it looked so blocky/jagged/bad. The most common advice I see is to turn off depth of field in the .ini file, which will completely disable DOF and make underwater look unrealistically transparent! So after searching some more I figured out how to make the change! This is the result! :)

To fix just the blurring issue, it's actually a very simple solution, once you know where to look, I changed 2 fields in the UnderwaterImageSpace - Distance and Range. Changing the distance to a positive number is what really fixes the root cause of severe blurring, the other settings in DoF just come down to personal preference, so you can change it to whatever you like in SSEEdit!

After that, it definitely looks better underwater.. but being so close to the fog, you still can't see very far. So after some more searching I finally figured out how to push back the fog and make it look good underwater again! :D

I've included where to find all the edited images in case anyone wants to play around with them to suit your own liking. Post pictures of your results, I'd love to see them! :D

what it does

Lowers the amount of underwater blur so your character is visible without jagged edges or awkward shadows, and pushes the underwater fog back so you can see more than 5 feet in front of you while still feeling "underwater". Also fixes most unnatural looking cloudy/sharp shallow water.

compatibility

Fully compatible: (This is my current setup!)

Real Water 2 (use RW2 version, then load UVF)

Water's Edge Fix (not necessary unless you're less foggy like me)

obsidian weather

real storm

clammy

Enhance Lights and FX (load UVF if using enhancer)

iNeed/Realistic Needs and Illnesses

NOTE: The "Cause Damaged" flag is a flag required by mods to detect when the player is standing in water. It doesn't actually cause damage, but a side effect is that it disables the "splash" footprint effect. If you don't use any requirement modules, you can safely remove the flag in xEdit!

Curious about other water-related mods? If it's just texture, that's fine! Probably not if it changes the actual water. If you want to know for sure, check if there is a conflict in xEdit or just leave a comment and I will check it for you ~

I may provide more compatibility patches/versions if needed, please leave a comment with any you use ~

Unless that's the case, I won't even play Skyrim again in the future, so I probably won't be checking it out here. But if that's the case, anyone who wants to can: feel free to mod! :)