P3D v2.1. Notice what a difference shadows make in the animated gif at the bottom of this post.

 

1. Some people don't have Terrain cast enabled: look what a difference it makes! It's the LEAST you should have enabled!

 

2. Notice how much difference vegetation shadows make: the shot was taken at the end of the afternoon on a sunny summer's day.

 

3. Notice how the trees stick out in the shadows when you have trees only set to cast!

 

4. Notice how real things finally look with both terrain and vegetation receive and cast enabled and how the transition from everything to only terrain receive makes everything look bland, flat and lifeless!

 

5. Take note that for the upcoming cloud shadows to have the best effect, you will need to enable at LEAST terrain and vegetation receive but for the best result you should enable everything. (Obviously.)

 

Since the picture is quite heavy, I posted it as a link only.

 

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7373/13667733785_24e3245c91_o.gif

Indeed, the difference between water and wine!

 

João Alfredo

Or water and whine...depending on the performance

Great comparison! Would be even better if it had FPS figures attached.

It does really make a huge difference. I've yet to find the right balance on my machine where i can have them turned on without my machine melting down on me, and not having to sacrifice much else eyecandy. 

 

One day i shall have shadows too!  :lol:

Great comparison! Would be even better if it had FPS figures attached.

 

Without shadows fps is my max of 34. WIth ALL shadows (vegetation autogen at Dense) fps was around 28. So it comes at a cost... I will keep it on if possible though (and by that I mean if possible alongside the v2.2 cloud shadows). I am going to get a new PC anyway this coming summer so I don't mind fps dipping a little right now. ^_^

 

BTW Even though I always fly over rural area's I tend to do most of my testing above large cities, knowing they are heavier on my system. But of course that is a bit odd... With my current settings I would probably drop below 20 if not 10 above FTX PNW Seattle but why should I care about that if things look great and perform well above small cities like Hope, Canada, in my screenshot? Sometimes (cough) I don't understand my own 'logic'. Anyway, I love those shadows and hopefully the cloud shadows won't hurt performance too much.

I have shadows disabled for vegetation, not due to the FPS hit (which my PC can generally handle), but because it makes my flights look less real to me. Unless you can set the vegetation autogen at extremely dense, the forest are not nearly thick enough in most areas (at least where I fly the most), and seeing shadows for all the individual trees just make this look even less real. In the real world, you actually see very few long shadows for individual trees, when looking at a heavily forested area from above.

I have shadows disabled for vegetation, not due to the FPS hit (which my PC can generally handle), but because it makes my flights look less real to me. Unless you can set the vegetation autogen at extremely dense, the forest are not nearly thick enough in most areas (at least where I fly the most), and seeing shadows for all the individual trees just make this look even less real. In the real world, you actually see very few long shadows for individual trees, when looking at a heavily forested area from above.

 

Well, with v2.2 and my new PC I plan on setting vegetation to Extremely dense so I should be fine. I hope. ^_^

 

You've got a point though, about realism. However, for the cloud shadows you will have to enable at least vegetation receive or those trees will stick out way too much!

I completely agree!

 

With shadows on you now see were the scenery developers have fooled us and used photoscenery and backed in shoadows instead of autogen for vegetation or buildings ...