Shadows disappear when outside and not moving

[TheHumungus]

As the title states, shadows seem to completely disappear only when outside and standing still. Screenshots attached at the bottom.

 

 

I have ENBseries and some lighting mods and I'm sure it's something to do with those. I've tried reinstalling all lighting mods and it didn't help. The oddest thing about this is that I've played 30+ hours totally fine with this load order and it just started happening yesterday. I have made no recent changes to my mods that would explain why it just now started doing this.

 

I'm at my wits end trying to fix this. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Specs:

AMD Ryzen 3700X

2080RTX

16GB RAM

 

 

Load order with suspect plugins highlighted below:

0 0 Skyrim.esm

1 1 Update.esm

2 2 Dawnguard.esm

3 3 HearthFires.esm

4 4 Dragonborn.esm

5 5 Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp

254 FE 0 UHDAP - MusicHQ.esp

254 FE 1 UHDAP - en0.esp

254 FE 2 UHDAP - en1.esp

254 FE 3 UHDAP - en2.esp

254 FE 4 UHDAP - en3.esp

254 FE 5 UHDAP - en4.esp

254 FE 6 RealisticWaterTwo - Resources.esm

6 6 ClimatesOfTamriel.esm

7 7 SkyUI_SE.esp

8 8 Mortal Enemies.esp

9 9 SMIM-SE-Merged-All.esp

10 a TKDodge.esp

11 b UltimateCombat.esp

12 c UltimateCombatSekiro.esp

13 d NB-Scars.esp

14 e RaceMenu.esp

15 f RaceMenuPlugin.esp

16 10 Beards.esp

17 11 icepenguinworldmapclassic.esp

254 FE 7 AIMFIX.esp

18 12 FNIS.esp

19 13 XPMSE.esp

20 14 ClimatesOfTamriel-Dungeons-Darker.esp

21 15 Summermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim.esp

22 16 Skyrim Immersive Creatures Special Edition.esp

23 17 Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp

24 18 Skyrim Unbound.esp

25 19 Immersive Encounters.esp

26 1a FNISspells.esp

27 1b Immersive Weapons.esp

28 1c Smilodon - Combat of Skyrim.esp

29 1d DSerArcheryGameplayOverhaul.esp

30 1e Cloaks.esp

31 1f Skyrim Revamped - Complete Enemy Overhaul.esp

32 20 Cloaks - USSEP Patch.esp

33 21 Immersive Patrols II.esp

34 22 Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp

35 23 Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim.esp

36 24 Mortal Enemies - Smilodon Patch.esp

37 25 dD-No Spinning Death Animation Merged.esp

38 26 Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp

39 27 ClimatesOfTamriel-Interiors-Warm.esp

40 28 iHUD.esp

41 29 SRCEO - SIC patch.esp

42 2a Ars Metallica.esp

43 2b Cloaks - Dawnguard.esp

44 2c ClimatesOfTamriel-Nights-L1.esp

45 2d Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp

46 2e Apocalypse - Ordinator Compatibility Patch.esp

47 2f Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul.esp

48 30 ELE_SSE.esp

49 31 Immersive Citizens - ELE patch.esp

50 32 RealisticWaterTwo.esp

254 FE 8 RealisticWaterTwo - ELE Patch.esp

254 FE 9 Bashed Patch, 0.esp

51 33 Guards_Armor_Replacer.esp

Edited June 14, 2020 by TheHumungus

[Shabdez]

Over at Lexy's LoTD Guide discord this has been mentioned by several users lately (myself included). Possible fixes include:

- just relaunch the game

- update your graphic card drivers

- disable sun transition in the game ini (BethIni has this on one of the tabs if you are using this tool)

[TheHumungus]

Over at Lexy's LoTD Guide discord this has been mentioned by several users lately (myself included). Possible fixes include:

- just relaunch the game

- update your graphic card drivers

- disable sun transition in the game ini (BethIni has this on one of the tabs if you are using this tool)

Interesting. I did use the beginning of her guide to prep my game for modding, but that's it. I relaunched the game maybe 30 times so that wasn't it and I assumed that updating drivers would be a bit of a stretch (didn't try). I messed with some sun ini values and that also didn't work.

 

I did end up fixing the issue however, but I don't think it's going to be a solution others would hope for. I ended up completely removing Climates of Tamriel and the the Re-engaged ENB preset that went along with it and swapped it for Vivid and its corresponding Re-engaged ENB preset. Problem solved and the Vivid ENB preset just plain looks better anyway.

 

In other words, the problem was stemming from Climates of Tamriel or the Re-engaged ENB preset for it (or both).

Edited June 16, 2020 by TheHumungus

[TheHumungus]

Problem is back. Switching to Vivid weathers and reshader seemed to only temporarily solve the problem and after a few days the exact same thing started happening again.

 

What happened next makes this even more bizarre. I tried updating my drivers and this at first appeared to fix the problem until I realized that all outside lighting look exactly like vanilla. Somehow updating my drivers completely removed any lighting/shadow changes that ENB/Vivid/Re-engaged made, but ONLY when outside. Interiors still look as gorgeous as ever.

 

Does anyone have any idea what's happening here?

[joaquin5892]

I think I am having the same problem but when I'm still the shadows are fine. When I move with the keyboard or mouse the shadows disappear. I have been trying to find anything that can help fix (ini settings, enb tweaks, disabling mods, rebooting the computer, etc.) IDK what to do anymore, it's super weird that this happens in SE but when I play LE I never come across this. Did you find any solutions?

[febrian60]

I think I am having the same problem but when I'm still the shadows are fine. When I move with the keyboard or mouse the shadows disappear. I have been trying to find anything that can help fix (ini settings, enb tweaks, disabling mods, rebooting the computer, etc.) IDK what to do anymore, it's super weird that this happens in SE but when I play LE I never come across this. Did you find any solutions?

For me, disabling sun transition fixed it.

[TheMidnightMayor]

Absolutely no idea how to fix this, and I've tried just about everything.

[xlwarrior]

Hi all.

One question, do you have Dynamic Volumetric Lighting and Sun Shadows installed?

As it does not contain esp it does not appear in your list of mods.

You may even have some skse mod that modifies your ini causing the error to appear.

 

Disable sun transition, make your shadow textures have a resolution of 2048 inside your ini, set your card drivers to default, even clean your graphics card if none of this works...

Edited February 13, 2021 by xlwarrior

[Skurk]

Hi all.

One question, do you have Dynamic Volumetric Lighting and Sun Shadows installed?

As it does not contain esp it does not appear in your list of mods.

You may even have some skse mod that modifies your ini causing the error to appear.

 

Disable sun transition, make your shadow textures have a resolution of 2048 inside your ini, set your card drivers to default, even clean your graphics card if none of this works...

 

Hi, just wanted to post this in case anyone else with a similar issue finds this thread through Google. As xlwarrior states, if you have DVLSS installed you need to follow his recommendations and the bug will dissapear. Thanks xlwarrior, was really helpful!

[Glanzer]

If all shadows disappear and reappear when moving/not moving there is a thread that talks about that here.