Shadowmaps and other Skyrim settings

[majin662]

Have been talking to Torminater for a week or two now and decided to move some of this from pm's to info section so more folks can get some info on the game we all love.

 

As I've said to him, the problem with creation engine is knowing what the engine actually uses, what it discards no matter what you think, and what is just left overs from old games and how all of that relates with actual directx tech.

 

Here is an interesting read for people on shadowmaps. Something skyrim does indeed use. Problem is in deciphering how creation kit labels technique with what the technique actually does.

 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee416324(v=vs.85).aspx

 

https://aras-p.info/blog/2009/11/04/deferred-cascaded-shadow-maps/

 

both of the above are good reads on what shadowmaps actually do and some of the techniques associated with them

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-buffering

basic Wiki article on Z buffering (note the mention of 16bit z buffers producing z fighting)

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-fighting

quick one on z fighting. there's a bunch more on that topic out there.

 

https://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/69/

great read on LOD bias and it's affects on perceptual quality.

 

 

Things like shadow acne and moire patterns are usually fixed by bias settings, no mods needed for all that. I'll keep posting stuff as I find it and believe it relevant I'd love for other to do same.

 

Enjoy

[MadWizard25]

Hmmm, totally missed this. Thanks for the info majin, always useful to have more information :)

 

Especially thanks for the LOD bias article! Knew absolutely nothing on that, even thought i tweak it, and would not have checked it out without your link :D

[z929669]

Note that LOD bias is something that Ethatron is essentially addressing in his new pre release of DDSopt. Essentially, he is implementing a correction of foliage mipmaps, by degrees, with increasing mipmap levels, improving contrast and lightening textures at higher levels to offset alpha-test aliasing artifacts (Skyrim uses "alpha test" method in alpha-texture super-sampling ) ... read on on that thread for some pretty cool info on latest DDSopt pre and potential impact.