September 5, 201411 yr I don't use them as they flicker and look bad on my PC I think it has to do with my drivers 337.88 They will flicker a whole lot less if you set GROUND_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=4096 in your config under [GRAPHICS]. 2048 isn't too bad either, but at 1024 or less the tree and building shadows really start to flicker a lot. Martin Sims: MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024 and X-plane 11 Home Airport: CYCW - Chilliwack, BC Canada i5 13600KF 32GB DDR4 3600 RAM, RTX3080TI Meta Quest 3
September 5, 201411 yr They will flicker a whole lot less if you set GROUND_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=4096 in your config under [GRAPHICS]. 2048 isn't too bad either, but at 1024 or less the tree and building shadows really start to flicker a lot. Thanks for the hint but it doesn't work for me either. Still a lot of flickering if I set the vegetation shadows on. Will try later if I can do something else but it doesn't bother me very much to have it off. Spirit
September 5, 201411 yr The shadows are what makes P3D stand out from FSX. If had performance issues the vegetation shadows would be the last to go :-)
September 5, 201411 yr Never tried this option. Will tonight! Thanks for the comparison! William Sequeira
September 5, 201411 yr I have found that I really like for the vegation to "receive" shadows but not to cast them. One reason, casting causing odd terrain flickering unless I have shadows at the max and it dives the FPS (GTX 770) also as others mentioned really clashes with the shadows already on the terrain texture. But receiving the shadows allows them to darken with the terrain when clouds go over which helps immersion a bunch. Good tips guys!
September 5, 201411 yr Orbx ENG etc comes with shadows, so OFF for me, I will spend that CPU/GPU time else where. David Murden. MSFS • Fenix A320 • PMDG 737 • MG Honda Jet • 414 / TDS 750Xi • FS-ATC Chatter • FlyingIron Spitfire & ME109G • MG Honda Jet • • Fenix A320 Walkthrough PDF • Flightsim.to • DCS • A10c II • F-16c • F/A-18c • F-14 • (Others in hanger) • Supercarrier • Terrains = • Nevada NTTR • Persian Gulf • Syria • Marianas • • [email protected] All Cores HT ON • 32GB DDR4 3200MHz • RTX 3080 • TM Warthog HOTAS • TM TPR • Corsair Virtuoso XT with Dolby Atmos® • Samsung G7 32" 1440p 240Hz • TrackIR 5 & ProClip •
September 6, 201411 yr Thanks Jeroen for the best tip I've gotten in a long while!! This simple change makes the world look so much more real. It adds depth and richness that I haven't seen in any flight sim before. Well worth the small hit in fps! FWIW I'm not getting any shimmer or sparkle with these shadows on. Scott
September 7, 201411 yr Hmmm ... I'll have try this setting again, last time I made changes (in Beta) 4096 had a significant performance impact. Cheers, Rob.
September 7, 201411 yr I have found that I really like for the vegation to "receive" shadows but not to cast them. I have tried this option for vegetation, and I have to say it looks really nice. So for the moment I have only checked "receive" for vegetation. Normally now I need to check the "receive" option for buildings too, but I will test the performance hit for the vegetation first. Patric
September 7, 201411 yr I think 'receive' for vegetation and buildings is a must when you have cloud shadows enabled, otherwise those objects stick out too much when they are in the shadow. The performance penalty for receive isn't big (or even very small). I already had that option enabled on my old PC.
September 7, 201411 yr Hello Jeroen, Thanks for the peformance info of the "receive" option. I have cloud shadows enabled, so I think it is a good choice to activate the "receive" option for vegetation AND buildings. Patric
September 7, 201411 yr Commercial Member I have veggie, as well as buildings set to cast and receive shadows. This truly give the platform more of a 3D feel. I REX AccuSeason Developer REX Simulations
September 8, 201411 yr Wow, don't know you guys do "receive" on building and Veggie shadows ... - I get about a 33% performance hit when I enable ... cast is ok, but receive seems to be too much for my system. EDIT: that was an interesting test ... and maybe I spoke too soon. I added "receive" to building and veggie shadows and saw a 33% drop in performance. So exit, P3D, go back into P3D via saved flight (fxml) and the performance is back to normal (not 33% lower). This would indicate I need to exit P3D after any "shadow" adjustments I make and then launch P3D again. Hmmm...this seems odd, might have to report this to LM. Cheers, Rob.
September 8, 201411 yr This would indicate I need to exit P3D after any "shadow" adjustments I make and then launch P3D again. That's odd indeed! Maybe this was a one time thing? Perhaps because you haven't used that option before? I can switch shadows on and off 'on the fly' without really noticing any difference in performance, certainly not 33%: no need for a restart here. Is this reproducible on your PC?
September 8, 201411 yr @Jeroen and Rob at first glance I couldn't see a heavy impact on frames, too. But up to now I didn't finish a first flight by using the new shadow settings. Anyway everytime I change the shadow settings I exit P3Dv2 and delete all shadow files at ...AppData\Local\LM\... Patric
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