Getting the most out of graphics.. shadows in particular..

[thefinn]

I visited a site for a clan called "Do not argue" who happen to have a skyrim config creator where you can make a config from options you choose on their site.

 

They have options there for creation of 7168 shadows and 6144, but when I tried their config it broke a bunch of stuff - basically it creates a WHOLE config for you and won't just tell you how to just do these nice shadows for your character.

 

Unfortunately for me the LOD magic they can do on those configs breaks a lot of other things - striping on buildings and other issues... However I noticed the character shadows were incredibly nice.

 

If anyone has a clue how I can just get the player shadows working along these lines I'd be really interested in the config changes.

 

(Changing just the Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini to the specs below just causes the shadowmaps to revert to some low-end specs... I would love to find out how to do this as the blocky shadows really suck ;)

 

 

Skyrim.ini:

[Display]

bAllow30Shaders=1

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=7168

bDo30VFog=1

fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.0000

fSunUpdateThreshold=0.0000

bUse Shaders=1

bDoSpecularPass=1

 

SkyrimPrefs.ini:

 

[Display]

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000

fShadowDistance=8000.0000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=7168

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=7168

iShadowSplitCount=2

iMaxAnisotropy=16

fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000

fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000

fGamma=0.8400

fDecalLOD2=1500.0000

fDecalLOD1=1000.0000

fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000

fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000

fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000

iTexMipMapMinimum=0

iTexMipMapSkip=0

iWaterMultiSamples=0

iMultiSample=8

iShadowMode=3

bTreesReceiveShadows=0

bDrawLandShadows=0

bFull Screen=1

iSize H=1050

iSize W=1680

fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000

fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=3072.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=4096.0000

iScreenShotIndex=2

bShadowMaskZPrepass=0

bMainZPrepass=0

bFloatPointRenderTarget=1

sD3DDevice="AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series"

bFXAAEnabled=1

iShadowMapResolution=7168

fShadowBiasScale=0.1600

iShadowMaskQuarter=4

iAdapter=0

iPresentInterval=1

iShadowFilter=3

bTransparencyMultisampling=0

bDrawShadows=1

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=175

iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=54

[MorwynKelm]

That config-maker is disastrous. And your inis have some screwball numbers, dude.

 

The "shadows" in Skyrim are a joke. No amount of tweaking will get them to look good both up close and far away.

 

They're borked. Period.

 

If you're running a 6900 series card, I'd be pushing it a LOT harder than that.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Morwyn Kelm

[thefinn]

Yeah I realise it's disasterous, but I did manage to get the shadows to at least 4096 while only changing the numbers in the ini's. It does look MUCH better.

 

Just wondering if anyone knows any magic to get it higher...

[MorwynKelm]

Setting them to 8192 doesn't make enough of a difference to merit the overhead. Really, the best solution is to set the fShadowDistance to something like 2048, and the fShadowBias to 1.0

 

Those are the only values worth tweaking.

[thefinn]

Actually I found the issue.

 

I have no idea why, but you need to set your shadows to medium first...

 

Play the game, save.

Go out, edit the ini to 4096 everything, then it works. No idea why it doesn't work on ultra... more odd skyrim behaviour ;)

 

Ever notice how nobody ever TWEAKS skyrim? It's always a FIX lol

 

Props to the guy who made this:

 

Edited May 6, 2012 by thefinn

[thefinn]

Just confirming too, levels of 7168 do work instead of 4096.

 

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t106/magar_bucket/ScreenShot2.jpg

Edited May 6, 2012 by thefinn

[Thoreai]

Yeah the shadows are terribad...but i got used to it..kinda.....my shadows are all at low settings but i have pushed the distance in wich they are shown to really far away...i just hate how washed up the whole game looks without them in the distance.

[daisytx]

Actually I found the issue.

 

I have no idea why, but you need to set your shadows to medium first...

 

Play the game, save.

Go out, edit the ini to 4096 everything, then it works. No idea why it doesn't work on ultra... more odd skyrim behaviour ;)

 

Ever notice how nobody ever TWEAKS skyrim? It's always a FIX lol

 

Props to the guy who made this:

 

 

 

Oh, will this fix the annoying shadows on my character - I was looking for the setting to disable self shadows, but haven't found it - gonna try this out - hope it works!

 

Thanks for posting this.

 

Did not work - shadows all over my character body - i hate it :(

Edited May 12, 2012 by daisytx