tweaking shadows

[maje90]

I'm tring to tweak the .ini files to make shadows better, but im blocked by a lot of odd problems, and i want to know everything better before start by myself....(i hope im in the right section)(i hope im in the right section)

maybe exists a link to a good detailed guide, but i cant find one good....

 

1- in C:\Users\user\My Documents\My Games\Skyrim there are 2 ini files (Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini) and also in the root directory of the game there is a Skyrim.ini file;

in each of theese 3 .ini files there are lines like iShadowMapResolution=2048 ... i want to ask: ...WHY? is one of the above the others? its just to know, but i could be easier if all in a single file...

 

2- the command usable ingame in the console: refreshini ... dont reload ALL ... I'm doing something wrong? for some changes i must restart the game to see the differences...

 

3- in SkyrimPrefs.ini there are 3 similar lines: iShadowMapResolution=2048 , iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048 and iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=2048

what each of them do different to the other 2? why 3 lines for shadow resolution? (i hope in a good explanation here)

 

4- going trough the web I've seen some others lines for shadow settings/tweakings and there are some that i cant understand at all:

- iShadowMaskQuarter=

- iShadowFilter=

- iShadowSplitCount=

- iShadowMode=

- iShadowBiasScale=

- iBlurDeferredShadowMask=

(also here, I'm searching for a very good explanation here,... for now i dont even know if its better to increase or decrease the valors in some lines!)

 

thanks in advance for every answer!! also the shortest one!

[maje90]

plz someone... any idea?

mainly im searching for the usage of "iShadowSplitCount=" (i dont even know if its a good point for tweaking); and an easier way to reload ini.... its hard to try tweaking restarting the game EACH time i modify the .ini file