Disapperaing shadows when moving/turning

[Scathane]

Same thing just started happening to me yesterday. I've just started testing a new build and I'm incrementally installing about 5 mods at a time and then testing them, sometimes starting a new game each time depending on the nature of the mods.

 

I have a 2070 super video card and ENB loaded (no presets yet, but I plan to use Re-Engaged). No weather or lighting mods installed either, though I plan to use Obsidian and ELFX. When the problem happens, ALL shadows disappear when I move my character or even look around in 1st person or in 3rd person mode. Usually an exit to the desktop and restart of Skyrim fixes it. I haven't had to reboot the whole PC yet because I'm still loading mods and testing. I just upgraded the video driver and turned off Ambient Occlusion in Bethini per other's suggestions. My first test after that showed no problem, but it's been hit or miss (completely random) up to this point.

 

I do have Improved Camera Beta 4 loaded in case that's a common factor. Also, when I turn off ENB in the game using SHIFT-F12 the problem is still there. Only a restart of the game fixes it. A reload of a save doesn't fix it.

I'm having the same problem on my new PC 2070 card as well. Do you remember what you changed when it happened. When playing on my old INIs with nVidia recommended settings (GeForce), I didn't have this problem. I then got some new INIs from a friend who was already running a high-end system and took over his nVidia settings (nVidia settings panel) and the shadows started popping in when moving or turning head. I tried several INI-advice found around the web but nothing worked so far.

 

I'll make a vid of the problem and post it and order my INI's so that they are easily readable and then post them here. Perhaps you could post your INIs after that as ell, so we can compare?

 

Edit 1: This is the problem I have:

 

https://youtu.be/EpeokR07lek

Edited September 10, 2020 by Scathane

[Hannibal139]

It seems to be something related to cache and shadows. Try to go to Nvidia Control Panel -> Program Settings. Look for Skyrim-SKSE and check Shadow cache or something like that (i am not sure about the name, spanish user in my case). I have the same problem and disabling It solved the problem. Hope it works for you

 

It is shader chache actually and no disabling it is not recommended because it somewhat benefits your pc. Research shader chache on google.

[Glanzer]

I recently turned off shader cache in my ENB and so far that seems to be working. That change also solved a blue tint I was getting in my shadows. If the problem comes back I'll also try turning the shader cache off in my nVidia settings as you suggest. Thanks for the response.

[Scathane]

I'll give the shader cache a try, thx...

[Glanzer]

Well, so much for the shader cache idea. The flickering has come back, so I tried also turning it off in the Nvidia settings and it still happens. Sigh. So I'm turning the shader cache options back on.

[Glanzer]

So the latest thing I'm trying is to exclude all of the temporary and caching files that are dynamically built and used in the game from my antivirus and my backups. My reasoning is that maybe the OS is locking those files in a way that's conflicting with the game or the ENB.

[Scathane]

That sounds like quite the task...

[Scathane]

I am by now wondering is what I have isn't a lighting issue rather than a shadow. I have this spot in the player home where the light shine drops when i turn away from it. I read on the webs that Skyrim can only handle a x number of lighting sources. Perhaps the shadows flickering are actually lights popping in and out because of Skyrim constantly having to switch between lighting sources. I am now trying to figure out exactly which my installed mods affects lightning and turning them off one by one. I'll keep you posted...

[Glanzer]

No it's not caused by the limited light bug in the Skyrim engine. When it happens to me, all shadows disappear in the game. This is outside not inside. In other words it is as though the sun gets turned off completely everywhere when I move, then comes back on when I stop.

[Glanzer]

Hey everybody, I *THINK* I've found the final solution, at least one that applies to my situation. If you look through all my posts in this thread you'll see that I have tried a LOT of things. So... For me the problem occurs when anything that the game uses is being accessed by the Windows operating system for any reason. In my case, it's my backups. I'm using a cloud-based backup service (SpiderOAK) and I have it set to back up everything in my mod list and game directory/subdirs dynamically (i.e. immediately when anything changes). After downloading a big mod (e.g. 500MB+) and then going into the game, I get the shadow flickering problem. I then exit the game and then I verify that the backup app is indeed backing up those new game files.

 

If you are having consistent problems with the shadow flickering problem, then try completely disabling anything that might touch (even in READ mode) a file used by your game. That includes disabling (temporarily) your antivirus, backups, etc... ANYTHING that might be reading a file that the game uses AT ALL. See if that solves the problem for you.

 

I finally did a short video of the shadow flickering problem and linked it below; notice that every time I move it removes the sun and shadows, and if I move the camera in 3rd person it removes them too:

 

https://i.imgur.com/pHlKqQI.mp4