Tweaking Shadows

[mtar925]

A little Googling reveals that shadow quality is a pet peeve in Skyrim. After spending several hours over the last 3 days tweaking, I'm about ready to give up on them and disable all shadows, which raises my fps by 30-80% (depending on whether ishadowmapresolution is set to 2048 or 4096).

 

With ishadowmapresolution=2048 shadows are barely tolerable. They are jagged and exhibit a constant crawl or flicker. At 2048 they are actually intolerable on actor faces, but I found a tweak to remove them from faces by raising iShadowbiasScale to 2. This disconnects shadows from their source of origin by a little bit but that's a lot less distracting than ugly shadows crawling and flickering across an Actor's face.

 

Changing fShadowdistance between 2k and 4k only seems to make a small difference in fps so I have it at 4k. Jumping to 8k is too big a hit on fps.

 

fInteriorShadowDistance reduced to 1000 seems to help fps a little indoors and makes interiors look a little better IMO, a little like the screenshots of those lighting mods I've seen.

 

iBlurdeferredShadowMask=32 blurs the edges of the shadows and makes the jaggedness and crawling less obvious, with no discernable performance hit. And shadows from diffuse light sources like campfires and giant moons should be blurry, anyway.

 

I've got no idea what the other variables like iShadowmode, iShadowfilter, and iShadowMaskQuarter do. Also, not sure what fShadowmapResolutionPrimary and Secondary do....they don't seem to have much of any effect. Likewise, fShadowLODMaxStartFade in skyrim.ini.

 

Shadows are much better at 4096. Combined with the high IBlurDeferredShadowMask setting they look almost natural! But my machine cannot deliver playable FPS there, even with vanilla textures (no HRDLC), HiAlgo and any combination of ini settings I've tried. The GPU itself, not the VRAM, seems to be the bottleneck.

 

Below are my full inis. Any suggestions or discussion?

 

Perhaps some kind soul would care to look over the inis and see if I'm losing fps somewhere else, maybe unrelated to shadows? I thought my CPU would be my weak point but it's running at 50-60%, and with vanilla textures I haven't exceeded 1mb VRAM yet on my 3mb card. My GPU, though, is pegged at 99% while delivering 25-35fps with shadows at 2048. I have AA turned off and installed SMAA (which increased fps by 10-15% over 4xAA with no obvious change in quality), AO turned off and AF at 8x. I am following the STEP process and so far have only installed the Fixes and Interface mods, getting down as far as SkyUI on the list. None of the mods so far have had a noticeable impact on FPS, or on shadows. No HRDLC, pure vanilla textures.

 

Skyrim.ini:

 

 

 

[General]

sLanguage=ENGLISH

 

uExterior Cell Buffer=36

sIntroSequence=

fFlickeringLightDistance=8192

 

[Display]

fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0

fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0

fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

bAllowScreenshot=1

fSunShadowUpdateTime=0

fSunUpdateThreshold=2.0

 

[Audio]

fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0

fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0

fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0

fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

 

[Grass]

bAllowCreateGrass=1

bAllowLoadGrass=0

 

[GeneralWarnings]

SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

 

[Archive]

sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa

sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

 

[Combat]

fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0

fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0

f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

f1PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.7

f3PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.7

 

[Papyrus]

fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0

bEnableLogging=0

bEnableTrace=0

bLoadDebugInformation=0

[Water]

bReflectLODObjects=1

bReflectLODLand=1

bReflectSky=0

bReflectLODTrees=1

 

[Actor]

fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000

 

 

 

 

skyrimprefs:

 

 

[General]

fBrightLightColorB=1.0000

fBrightLightColorG=1.0000

fBrightLightColorR=1.0000

iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1

bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0

[imagespace]

bDoDepthOfField=1

iRadialBlurLevel=0

[Display]

 

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=32

fInteriorShadowDistance=1000.0000

fShadowDistance=4000.0000

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

iMaxAnisotropy=8

fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000

fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000

fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=3600.0000

fGamma=1.0000

fDecalLOD2=1500.0000

fDecalLOD1=1000.0000

fSpecularLODStartFade=400.0000

fShadowLODStartFade=400.0000

fLightLODStartFade=2000.0000

iTexMipMapMinimum=0

iTexMipMapSkip=0

iWaterMultiSamples=0

iMultiSample=1

iShadowMode=3

bTreesReceiveShadows=1

bDrawLandShadows=0

bFull Screen=1

iSize H=1080

iSize W=1920

fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000

fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000

fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=3072.0000

fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=4096.0000

iScreenShotIndex=2

bShadowMaskZPrepass=0

bMainZPrepass=0

iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=3

iMaxDecalsPerFrame=10

bFloatPointRenderTarget=0

sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M    "

bFXAAEnabled=0

iShadowMapResolution=2048

fShadowBiasScale=1.5000

iShadowMaskQuarter=4

iAdapter=0

iPresentInterval=0

iShadowFilter=3

bShadowsOnGrass=1

bTransparencyMultisampling=0

bDeferredShadows=1

bDrawShadows=1

[Grass]

b30GrassVS=0

fGrassStartFadeDistance=3000.0000

fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=4000.0000

fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000

[MAIN]

bGamepadEnable=1

bCrosshairEnabled=1

fHUDOpacity=1.0000

bSaveOnPause=0

bSaveOnTravel=1

bSaveOnWait=1

bSaveOnRest=1

fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000

[GamePlay]

bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1

bShowQuestMarkers=1

iDifficulty=2

[interface]

bDialogueSubtitles=1

bGeneralSubtitles=0

fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000

bShowCompass=1

[Controls]

fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000

fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0300

bAlwaysRunByDefault=0

bInvertYValues=0

bGamePadRumble=1

bMouseAcceleration=0

bUseKinect=0

[Particles]

iMaxDesired=500

[saveGame]

fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000

[AudioMenu]

fAudioMasterVolume=1.5000

fVal7=1.0000

uID7=0

fVal6=1.0000

uID6=0

fVal5=1.0000

uID5=0

fVal4=1.0000

uID4=0

fVal3=1.0000

uID3=94881

fVal2=0.4000

uID2=466532

fVal1=1.0000

uID1=554685

fVal0=0.8000

uID0=1007612

[Clouds]

fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000

fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000

fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000

fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000

[TerrainManager]

fTreeLoadDistance=5000.0000

fBlockMaximumDistance=50000.0000

fBlockLevel1Distance=15000.0000

fBlockLevel0Distance=5000.0000

fSplitDistanceMult=1.1000

bShowLODInEditor=0

[NavMesh]

fObstacleAlpha=0.5000

fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000

fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500

fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000

fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500

fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000

fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000

fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500

fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000

fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000

fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000

fEdgeThickness=10.0000

fPointSize=2.5000

[Trees]

bRenderSkinnedTrees=0

uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20

[Decals]

uMaxDecals=100

bDecals=1

bSkinnedDecals=1

uMaxSkinDecals=35

uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=20

bDecalsOnSkinnedGeometry=1

[LOD]

fLODFadeOutMultObjects=10.0000

fLODFadeOutMultItems=8.0000

fLODFadeOutMultActors=9.0000

fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000

[Launcher]

bEnableFileSelection=1

bShowAllResolutions=0

uLastAspectRatio=3

[blurShaderHDR]

bDoHighDynamicRange=1

[blurShader]

bUseBlurShader=0

[Water]

iWaterReflectHeight=512

iWaterReflectWidth=512

bUseWaterDisplacements=1

bUseWaterRefractions=1

bUseWaterReflections=1

bUseWaterDepth=1

 

 

Thank you so much.

[rootsrat]

Please use [spoiler ][/spoiler ] tags (no spaces) for stuff like ini contents, load order etc. It makes the post tidier and allows for more posts to fit in 1 page. Thanks :)

[mtar925]

Sorry, will do in the future.

[torminater]

What is your fps with Vanilla skyrim hr dlc on Ultra settings? Also your gpu is Not powerful. You'll Not get a nicely performing Game with shadows racked up that high, especially After step.

[mtar925]

I've installed STEP core now, except for the big texture mods. I skipped the official HRDLC entirely, but am running the HRDLC Optimized mod with 1024 textures only, and SMIM, and a couple of other limited texture replacers that looked lightweight and, from the screenshots, like they added some value. On my monitor things like shadow quality, lighting, fade distance and of course fps generally affect my enjoyment of the game more than hi-res textures. I also want to leave room for some of the population-type mods because I recall from Oblivion how much I enjoy them, and how they can affect framerate. Things like Lively Taverns and Populated Cities....haven't installed either of those yet but I hope to.

 

So with that install and my current ini settings I'm running around 30 fps inside and out while walking, gaining 5-15 when static. That's with shadows at 2048 and shadow blur mask at 64, which hides the jaggedness somewhat. Fade distances around average, with distant detail and tree distance below average, no skinned trees or tree shadows. I actually like low distant detail because it makes Skyrim feel bigger. I'm also running 4xAA after trying and failing to get SMAA to work with Hialgoboost. In my tests SMAA seems more efficient by maybe ~3 fps but I can't get it to work with Hilago. FXAA is just too durn ugly.

 

With Hialgoboost to help out in a few slower areas this seems very playable. Skyrim Performance monitor shows my CPU running 40-70%, RAM and VRAM well within capacity and GPU generally pegged at 99%.

[torminater]

So are you currently happy with your performance?