Skyrim - Buggy Shadows EASY FIX (NO FPS LOSS)

[harald2011]

Great fix, but it was too much of an impact on my pc! Great nevertheless

[0011Darkone]

"No performance hit" pffft!

All it does is increase the resolution and decrease the render distance.

He basically told you to set your shadows to ultra, and then chop them off past 2000 units to save fps. It's not a fix, it just hides the problem. You can easily tell if you look at a distance.

[NewbSpammer]

@0011Darkone cool story bro

[Maqmarus]

It works! Really, very helpful! THX MAN! ;] You are great! ;D

[FREENAMEFTW]

I have tried to change about all settings in the document with only minor ingame changes. I can run it at 8192 at highest setting without any problem at all. BUT I still got the shittiest shadows, err not ever. its actually same shadows as in halflife 1

[Taaplari]

@FREENAMEFTW

Try this:

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=32 (if too soft, decrease)

fShadowDistance=3000

iShadowMapResolution=4096

iShadowMaskQuarter=4 (if too soft, increase)

[gdgsdfgdfgdf]

this didnt help me

same garbage shadows

Bethseda should be ashamed. FUCK THEM for releasing a garbage game in terms of shadows and textures

[MintFinkeldove]

@gdgsdfgdfgdf Unfortunately it's called console systems. The PS3 and Xbox 360 built pre 2006 is the reason for Skyrim having to be dummed down graphically to work on their old ass hardware...

[Denso481]

Nice, thanks! Fixed it for me, FINALLY! But I get a massive hit on on fps even with the lower setting. running the game on ultra, except for shadows on mid, with usually 35 fps. After this I get like 24 FPS. have to play around with the shadows settings ab it.

Thanks for solving this mate!

[stonehallow]

worked like a charm but with my 580s in sli hit like 2fps turned off sli then constant 60 with vsync and fixed shadows

[MatrysPL]

when i start the game evey changes i've done on SkyrimPrefs.ini i restarting. Could you tell me why?

[VulKain1]

iShadowMapResolution at 4096 makes my game stutter like hell when I turn camera with crossfire enabled. Disabling it and stutter disappears ... and high framerate too :/

[MintFinkeldove]

My Shadows look awesome and no performance hit. Thanks, the shadows were a huge pet peeve for me in the past!

[MickehDaHuskeh]

I can't find "iShadowmaskquarter" in my .ini D:? Help me!

[deluxer321]

Yeah thanks,now my game laggs even more FUCK!

[EricDavoust]

My SkyrimPrefs.ini has a "ShadowMapResolutionSecondary" and a "ShadowMapResolutionPrimary"?

[hap134]

@EricDavoust Change the Primary

[FREENAMEFTW]

@EricDavoust mine didnt. but I add them and it didnt do shit. then I removed the entire file and the game made it again and this time it had those settings, I removed them changed them tried everything but nothing mattered. so I guess you can remove or change them as you wish.

[wolfer255]

This is perfect man thanks, well that took about an hour to find this perfect sweat spot and make the shadows work, now it's only a couple of days left of tweaking until this game plays like it should.

[gunlockz]

@JimmyTheJelly bro, got a question, i tweaked my shadow, it works, the shadow looks smoother, but i gain huge fps loss ~5 drops. my pc isnt that bad, i use load of mods, but no enb series(cause fps loss too). is it my driver?

[happyblackness]

I've been up 36 hours wrangling the INI files, and this worked a treat, thankyou!

[wexa89]

Thx +1 Like For You  ^.^

[notthere83]

plus, shadowmap resolution of 8192 at least screws up my system indoors. e.g. at riverwood trader, i get 85fps with 4096 but 10fps(!!!) by only increasing this value to 8192! that's fucking ridiculous!

(before i figured out why it suddenly stutters like hell, i've already uninstalled various texture mods, decreased AA, etc. - but it was actually just this!! in fact, after activating all the textures, 8xSGSSAA and AO again, my fps went up by 5!)

[Macestrom]

@notthere83 Only increasing it from 4096 to 8192? You are coming across as if this is a small increase. You quadrupled the area of one of the heaviest graphics processes.

[notthere83]

@Macestrom ah come on, it's just shadow maps... games are able to do occlusion and bokeh real time but you're telling me a stinking shadow map from one light source is too much to ask?

[notthere83]

@Macestrom and if it really is that intense, i guess they should've used a different algorithm... i've never seen shadows in a game that looked as crappy. not in this generation at least.

[FREENAMEFTW]

@Macestrom how is that a quadruple? its only twise as high number and it defines how many pixels the game should use to calculate the shadows pattern, if I understand correctly.

[Macestrom]

@FREENAMEFTW I'm gonna send you back to 3rd grade to relearn multiplication. Now do this out with me.

2x2 = 4

2x4 = 8

4x4 = 16

[ThePixelChaos]

wow hey this works well. used the mid-higher pc settings. I wondered why all my shadows looked like revenge of pacman. Bit of FPS loss but i can deal with that.

[Cashprt]

Huge FPS drop but thanks anyway. Settings do fix the shadows.

[Arthounot]

Dear JimmytheJelly. I can't find the line Iblurdeferredshadowmask in my skyrimprefs.ini file. What to do!

[Arthounot]

@Arthounot Oh wait! got it, it's ABOVE the other settings!

[atheistgodling]

@Arthounot Add the line yourself if it isn't there under the proper directory...that would be My Computer > (C:) > User > (Your user name here) > My Documents > Games > Skyrim > SkyrimPrefs

[Arthounot]

@atheistgodling I made a mod myself, or am working on it, I am almost there, making realtime shadows in skyrim! Of course, time goes a bit faster there, so...

[Arthounot]

@Arthounot Not really my behaviour, but the settings are almost done :)

[Arthounot]

@Arthounot .... : watch?v=DhbudFEHP98

[Arthounot]

@Arthounot What do you think? This is medium shadows...

[Nhordmyr]

Sorry but if you are playing on ultra settings this is no improvement. Might look good on low-med.

[Arthounot]

@Nhordmyr This is actually an improvement, since shadows on ultra still look like blocks.

[mitra32203]

hey thanks a lot for this, it actually works

[Nhordmyr]

Fucking console ports

THIS IS WHAT YOU GET OUT OF IT! You have to do everything by your own.

Seriously, are WE the developers?

I like modding yes, but I like modding even more when I'd get paid for it and not HAVE to pay for it.

[ThePixelChaos]

@Nhordmyr man dude take a chill pill, its an INI modification for higher end PC systems. Be thankful they ALLOW us the option of messing with these files.

This doesnt remind me of a console port. With a bit of time the mod community has already transformed skyrim into a complex RPG. the dev/publisher did ok on this one.

[SpaceChild4000]

THANKS!

[LoLXxDXLmao]

Thanks this really helped!!! :D

[Gamezalot]

This trick DID work, until the 1.3.10.0 patch. Now my shadows do NOT respond to these shadow map parameters.  Even if I crank it up to 8192, they still have blocky/flickering edges. Bethesda fucked it up!

[Jediron007]

Tried both, and both settings affect my framerate. From 38 down to 24 or 28. So, myth busted!

Only lower shadows quality improve your framerate, things like this SHALL affect your framerate.

But the most disappointing thing is, the flickering every 8 a 10 seconds, it is still there.

[Dyrdekification]

Trying the Mid/High change in combo with the LAA. I am running the game on 12.1 catalyst preview off a 6970 overdrive off MSI afterburner enabled on High settings even though the auto detect says Ultra/High

[ArknineYT]

This does work, you can do some hilarious things with the shadow options. I like 8192 maps with no blur, but until shadows are the domain of the GPU solely (instead of cpu) it's too much of a FPS hit. (50-80->30-50)

[Spike1x4]

I love you.

[wildanS]

You didn't show us in your video what impact fShadowdistance=2500 has on more distant shadows. There are alot of shadows poping up because they're not drawn very far. To me everything below 4000 is not worth it. What does help is to set iBlurDeferredShadowMask to a rather high value, somewhere between 16 and 32.

[SuperUberDeano]

THANKS!!! for all the haters saying this wont work, there borderline retarded. This works a treat and finally the only issue with this game that bugged me has gone (ATI HD 6870)

[JimmyTheJelly]

@SuperUberDeano Lol glad to hear!

[Arthounot]

@JimmyTheJelly After more than 2 hours searching for a solution, i end up here. This actually makes sense ;) Thanks! From a long Elder Scrolls player.



[Arthounot]

@Arthounot But how does it work in the distance? Are shadows still cast far away?



[Delorien100]

One question in my SkyrimPrefs.ini located in the directory you indicated i have 2lines for the ishadowmapresolution:

ishadowMapResolutionSecondary=­1024

ishadowMapResolutionPrimary=20­48

So am i supposed to make them both 4096?

or just the primary or secondary?

[SuperUberDeano]

@Delorien100 look again, thats not the correct line (it almost had me too) keep looking, its about 6 lines above the [Grass] section or 38 lines below the lines you mentioned.

[AlinMCs]

@Delorien100 You are not looking at the correct .ini file, there should be no Primary and Secondary settings in the one specified in video description. You are incorrectly editing the one in the game's folder. Go in My Documents etc.

[Subcidal]

@AlinMCs You do realize bethesda adds stuff to the ini with patches every now and then right?

[RTALaggzor1]

all my settings was already set on this settings ... yet the shadows look like crap

[iSwayzak]

I'm getting FPS drop...

[Gamezalot]

Umm... my iShadowMapResolution was already set for 4096 by default. ??? Explain that.

[Gamezalot]

As far as which SkyrimPrefs.ini to edit, I've edited the one in the game installation folder for things like iTreesReceiveShadows and iDrawLandShadows and it DID have an effect. The one in the Users\name\My Games folder DID NOT have any effect when I edited it, so it's the exact opposite of what it says in the description of this video.

[Gamezalot]

@Gamezalot Crap... nevermind. I found it.

[Pakku1]

iShadowMapResolution=8192 for best shadows in Skyrim. You will need a really good GFX card for this.

[Khalirei]

@Pakku1 It still stretches the shadows across the fshadowdistance. So if you want the best quality shadows you make fshadowdistance really short, if you want shadows half a mile away, you set it to 8000 but you'll still have a pixelated mess because it's stretching the shadow bitmap.

[Khalirei]

These settings are much better, unfortunately the shadows that are cast on the actual characters STILL look like shit. But i've tried a ton of settings and there's just no fixing that. I loaded up a bunch of saves and these settings look great everywhere, except during character creation and on up-close noon type of shadows on people. Otherwise, this is the best you're gonna get.

[MolocHlevel30]

fShadowDistance=2500 is nice around the player> but if i walk around i can see the shadows comes in 2 meters in front of me...... ugly too!

[PolloSpeedo]

Gonna try it as soon as I can. Thanks for sharing!

[Overlordlaharl21]

Thank you, works great! :)

[DaftSneak]

Set your skyrimprefs.ini file to read-only so it never gets modified unless you want it.

[JimmyTheJelly]

@DaftSneak Yes that's a good idea! But remember to set it back if you ever want to change say difficulty, audio or some other settings... or of course they won't save.

[keem85m]

Why do I still have problems even after this fix? Take a look at my ubeleavable ugly shadows!! youtube.com/watch?v=JVm7ELS7ld­M

I linked a forum post there showing my specs too..

[JimmyTheJelly]

@keem85m Hello! I commented on your video.

[cataxo444]

Works great for me ! (lower-mid setting or yellow colored)

I think that bethseda optimized the shadows too much for the consoles especially the 360 and left the pc behind, theres in blur in the shadowmask in the low settings, blur doesen't take more ram or use more cpu so i don't really get why they didnt use it for lower configs.

[JimmyTheJelly]

@cataxo444 You're welcome... I'm using the yellow colored ones myself.

[Filsoh]

fShadowDistance means that from 4000 you are lowering it to 2500 wich makes close shadow's too look good but you can't see shadow's in the distance, sorry but this is not a valid tweak

[JimmyTheJelly]

@Filsoh Of course it's valid, 2500 is plenty! And it's also better for the framerate. Skyrim's engine basically forces you to choose between good looking shadows and very distant shadows, you simply can't have both high quality and high distance. And 2500 is the perfect balance, trust me I made over 30 comparison screenshots trying every combination, did that so you don't have to :)

[Filsoh]

@JimmyTheJelly Well jimmy i set mine to 3000, anyways what about the other 2 option ur editing what do those mean?

[JimmyTheJelly]

@Filsoh Well basically the first one does just what it says, higher resolution for shadows so they look crispier. And the next two (the Mask ones) complement that, meaning they handle the edges of the shadows and their sharpness/smoothness. They're all dependent on eachother so it's not that easy to find a great setting. But after going through tons of screenshots, those posted by me seem optimal by far. Both on still images and in motion.

[Filsoh]

@JimmyTheJelly iShadowMaskQuarter handles shadows indoors like if you set it to 0 you will not see indoors shadows so its not about jagged edges i think how about iBlurDeferredShadowMask ?

[JimmyTheJelly]

@Filsoh No it's not just indoor, it has a big impact on the edges for the shadows everywhere, but yes if you set it to 0 you won't have any indoor. iShadowMaskQuarter the higher you set it, the sharper the edges look. And it's the exact opposite with iBlurDeferredShadowMask, the higher the blurrier. So just need to find a perfect balance. The command that handles only indoor is fInteriorShadowDistance but irrelevant to edges.

[Filsoh]

@JimmyTheJelly how about this fShadowBiasScale this is suppose to fix the flickering problem and also fShadowLODStartFade what do those 2 mean?

[JimmyTheJelly]

@Filsoh I recommend setting fShadowBiasScale=1.5 (or anything over 1), it can fix some rare flickering issues when you're using high iShadowMapResolution such as 4096 or 8192, with no impact on FPS and other visuals. But the areas where that certain flickering occurs are very rare, something like... one very small part of some rock. And the other command fShadowLODStartFade doesn't do anything whatsoever for me.

[starforcers]

THANK YOU SIR ALL WORKS GREAT FOR ME FINALLY !!

[JimmyTheJelly]

@starforcers Wohoo

[JimmyTheJelly]

@starforcers You're welcome!

[Roxas3310]

Can't find iShadowMaskQuarter in the ini files...

[JimmyTheJelly]

@Roxas3310 You are probably looking at the wrong ini (the one in the game folder). The correct SkyrimPrefs.ini file is located in C:\Users\YOURNAME\Documents\My Games\Skyrim.

[davidalediaz]

@JimmyTheJelly Hi there pal. I tried it out but shadows look the same. I've been searching ALL day for a fix but I can't find anything, do you have any idea? I got an i5 processor, NVIDIA GeForce 301M, 4 GB RAM and I play on High quality.

[davidalediaz]

@davidalediaz I mean NVIDIA GeForce 310M :)

[davidalediaz]

@davidalediaz Thank you for answering. I think that mi .ini file has no effect over the game but I don't know why... Do you know what could be the problem bro?

[JimmyTheJelly]

@davidalediaz Are you sure we're talking about the SkyrimPrefs.ini file from C:\Users\YOURNAME\Documents\My Games\Skyrim folder? There are other .ini files as well but that's where you should look at.

[davidalediaz]

@JimmyTheJelly I fix the problem already. I was editing the SkyrimPrefs from C:\Program Files (x86)\The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim\Skyrim, that's why it remained the same. Thank you very much pal, your video was very helpful. I had to reduce the fShadowDistance to 500 though, but shadows look fine now. :)