Shadow blockiness

[Rennn]

Normally, you can use fShadowDistance= in the SkyrimPrefs.ini to make shadows much, much more crisp and less blocky. It befuddles me as to why Bethesda decided to break the shadows like this in the first place, but whatever. The problem with this method is that by the time it's low enough to ensure crisp shadows at 4096 resolution, you end up with shadows popping in right in front of you because resolution seems to scale directly with viewing range to ensure similar performance no matter what this value is. Does anyone know a way (or a mod) to keep smooth shadows while increasing the distance at which they are drawn?

[LuDux]

I'm sorry I don't know of a mod, but I'd just like to say that even with .ini tweaks, the shadows still look awful.

 

Why, Bethseda, why? Even Left 4 Dead 2, a game that came out /years/ ago has better shadows. /Most/ games released in the past decade have better shadows.

 

-_-

[Rennn]

The shadows don't look awful with tweaks. If you have fShadowDistance=1000 (or less), the resolution at 4096, and iBlurDeferredShadowMask=5, you end up with good shadows. The problem is, that makes them fade very quickly at a distance. Hopefully there's a way around it.

[MrBuio]

Normally, you can use fShadowDistance= in the SkyrimPrefs.ini to make shadows much, much more crisp and less blocky. It befuddles me as to why Bethesda decided to break the shadows like this in the first place, but whatever. The problem with this method is that by the time it's low enough to ensure crisp shadows at 4096 resolution, you end up with shadows popping in right in front of you because resolution seems to scale directly with viewing range to ensure similar performance no matter what this value is. Does anyone know a way (or a mod) to keep smooth shadows while increasing the distance at which they are drawn?

 

 

Engine is built for consoles with almost no PC optimization, which means we who play on PC get stuck with a lot of the limitations from that. Like the low quality shadows for example. Bethesda seems to complain how it's hard to support multiple systems and languages. Maybe it's because of the tools or engine they have. But when hackers can improve performance with a huge amount by optimizing the game with TESVAL and Skyboost, you start to wonder why that wasn't in the game from day one instead of now being implemented with 1.4.

 

I also bought Saints Row The Third for PC some time before Skyrim, and it had DX11-support, great shadows and extra PC features/optimization from launch. Funny how they managed to do it, and I'd guess they don't sell as much on PC compared to Skyrim (with relative numbers).

Edited January 29, 2012 by MrBuio

[metasyntactic]

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=32

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000

fShadowDistance=8000.0000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

 

Has good results for me, no noticeable pop-ups at all (even with extra ugrids) and smoooth shadow edges. I've found by playing around that setting high ShadowMapResolution values really kills the GPU, but BlurDeferredShadowMask is much more efficient.

 

Which explains by settings above - The only weird visual artefact I have noticed from this is that when your character is standing in the light but in front of a shaded area they end up with a slight halo effect from the high iBlurDeferredShadowMask value. It doesn't bother me but you could reduce this value to find the sweet spot for sharpness/smoothness that works for you.

[thesapien]

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=32

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000

fShadowDistance=8000.0000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

 

Has good results for me, no noticeable pop-ups at all (even with extra ugrids) and smoooth shadow edges. I've found by playing around that setting high ShadowMapResolution values really kills the GPU, but BlurDeferredShadowMask is much more efficient.

 

Which explains by settings above - The only weird visual artefact I have noticed from this is that when your character is standing in the light but in front of a shaded area they end up with a slight halo effect from the high iBlurDeferredShadowMask value. It doesn't bother me but you could reduce this value to find the sweet spot for sharpness/smoothness that works for you.

 

Yep, and the fShadowDistance also has a big impact on framerate. Yours, at 8000 can be set that high by using the advance settings tab and selecting ultra from the shadow's drop down menu. Actually, the only line you changed was my favorite, the blurring amount. For me, I keep the fShadowDistance at 4000 which is still the "high" setting but not "ultra" because I can barely tell the difference in game except for the cost in fps. iBlurDeferredShadowMask has a much more dramatic impact on shadow quality but without the drop in frames.

 

I actually really love that halo effect. It's still there with Skyrim's default settings but less noticeable. I wish it worked with all shadows behind lit objects but only seems to work with shadows drawn from one object to another, like on the ground. The way it is, you can be basking in the sun with a house behind you facing its shaded side but no halo until you reposition to where the houses shadow on the ground is your backdrop, then, presto, the cool halo. Funny, it's another reason I like upping the iBlurDeferredShadowMask value to get more of that cool effect. But I also like using ample bloom in the enbseries settings, at least 0.5, day and night, with lots of AO darkening and illumination and no sharpening of any kind.