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Howellerman

Head First Down the Rabbit Hole

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Don't waste your time on the Repair thing. I tried that too. Just bite the bullet and do a complete uninstall and put in the new version. Make sure you use a good search and remove tool to get rid of all the associated files that you don't normally see or use with the product.

 

Oh, so now you tell me!    :P

 

Yup, didn't do a goldarn thing... 

 

Just by coincidence, reading the comics this morning I glanced at my horoscope, first time in a long time. "It is time to move out of the past and embrace the future". Okaaaaay - if the future could fix my shadow problems!!!

 

Will report back after a full re-install. I wonder how many re-installs does Lockheed Martin allow?


John Howell

Prepar3D V5, Windows 10 Pro, I7-9700K @ 4.6Ghz, EVGA GTX1080, 32GB Corsair Dominator 3200GHz, SanDisk Ultimate Pro 480GB SSD (OS), 2x Samsung 1TB 970 EVO M.2 (P3D), Corsair H80i V2 AIO Cooler, Fulcrum One Yoke, Samsung 34" 3440x1440 curved monitor, Honeycomb Bravo throttle quadrant, Thrustmaster TPR rudder pedals, Thrustmaster T1600M stick 

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I wonder how many re-installs does Lockheed Martin allow?

 

  As long as you uninstall P3D using their installer, you should not have any issues. 

 

As for the reindexing of scenery, I only got this after installing Orbx scenery. On a clean install, P3D just loaded up without any delays.

 

  Craig

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Well, still no love from the shadows. After a complete uninstall/reinstall the 8-bit shadows prevail.

 

I am going to just turn them off completely - got by for two years without them with FSX and V1.4 - and start building my "world". This is at least fun!


John Howell

Prepar3D V5, Windows 10 Pro, I7-9700K @ 4.6Ghz, EVGA GTX1080, 32GB Corsair Dominator 3200GHz, SanDisk Ultimate Pro 480GB SSD (OS), 2x Samsung 1TB 970 EVO M.2 (P3D), Corsair H80i V2 AIO Cooler, Fulcrum One Yoke, Samsung 34" 3440x1440 curved monitor, Honeycomb Bravo throttle quadrant, Thrustmaster TPR rudder pedals, Thrustmaster T1600M stick 

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Hi John,

 

Sorry for delay in seeing this, just super busy working on my GoFlight programming/mapping.

 

Here are my shadow settings in prepar3d.CFG:

 

[Graphics]

SHADOW_QUALITY=4
TERRAIN_SHADOW_CAST_DISTANCE=0
CLOUD_SHADOW_CAST_DISTANCE=6
OBJECT_SHADOW_CAST_DISTANCE=2
CONTENT_NO_SHADOW=0
INTERIOR_SHADOWS_CAST=1
EXTERIOR_SHADOWS_CAST=1
SIMOBJECT_SHADOWS_CAST=0
TERRAIN_SHADOWS_CAST=0
VEGETATION_SHADOWS_CAST=0
BUILDING_SHADOWS_CAST=1
CLOUD_SHADOWS_CAST=1
INTERIOR_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
EXTERIOR_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
SIMOBJECT_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=0
TERRAIN_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
VEGETATION_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=0
BUILDING_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_LOW=4
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_MID=5
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_HIGH=7
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_ULTRA=12
GROUND_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=2048
CLOUD_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=512
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_LOW=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_MID=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_HIGH=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_ULTRA=0.850000
 
Not exactly sure why you aren't seeing good quality shadows ... but those two settings above will have a significant impact on shadow quality ... you can use values 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 ... but be warned setting any to 4096 will have a significant performance impact during dusk and/or dawn (any time sun position that creates LONG shadows as it will be very hard on the GPU).
 
Happy new year.
 
Cheers, Rob.

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Here's a few screen shots showing VC shadow quality at 4096/2048/1024/512 values of

GROUND_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=

Notice how the shadow of some cargo meshing at the rear of the plane disappears at 1024/512.

These were all taken with TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024
so that value seems to have no effect here.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/0jpgkmg75vvlg4k/A2015-1-1_14-24-25-420-4096.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hyrk3wnst5o57v1/B2015-1-1_14-21-45-956-2048.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/96j0h69fovsc9wh/C2015-1-1_14-18-35-161-1024.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y4w7nsu4ywgf3nm/D2015-1-1_14-14-5-641-512.jpg?dl=0


However I'm not convinced this is the full story due to some inconsistencies I have seen in the past.
I'm sure the OP would agree.

gb


YSSY. Win 10, 6700K@4.8, Corsair H115i Cooler, RTX 4070Ti, 32GB G.Skill Trident Z F4-3200, Samsung 960 EVO M.2 256GB, ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger, Corsair HX850i 850W, Thermaltake Core X31 Case, Samsung 4K 65" TV.

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Heya GB, 

 

Thanks for the samples! My shadows looks exactly like your 1024 shot - jagged edges (the "8-bit" effect I alluded to), soft, ill-defined, etc. However, I think your 512 and 4096 shots are both 4096? That 512.jpg is really clear!

 

Heya Rob, 

 

No worries, and Happy New Year to you as well. I will check all of my shadow settings against your list and verify I have them correctly set.

 

And I was kidding myself when I said I would "just turn them off". Even with 8-bit shadows it is just amazing to have the shadows turn inside the cockpit during a lazy late-afternoon flight. Tessellation is pretty darn cool, too!

 

Thanks for the assistance, guys - I will report back!


John Howell

Prepar3D V5, Windows 10 Pro, I7-9700K @ 4.6Ghz, EVGA GTX1080, 32GB Corsair Dominator 3200GHz, SanDisk Ultimate Pro 480GB SSD (OS), 2x Samsung 1TB 970 EVO M.2 (P3D), Corsair H80i V2 AIO Cooler, Fulcrum One Yoke, Samsung 34" 3440x1440 curved monitor, Honeycomb Bravo throttle quadrant, Thrustmaster TPR rudder pedals, Thrustmaster T1600M stick 

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Heya GB, 

 

Thanks for the samples! My shadows looks exactly like your 1024 shot - jagged edges (the "8-bit" effect I alluded to), soft, ill-defined, etc. However, I think your 512 and 4096 shots are both 4096? That 512.jpg is really clear!

 

 

 

Hmmmm.....that is strange as I put all 4 shots on 4 tabs and jumped between them.  On my setup (680) the 512 looks very poor and the 4096 looks "so perfect" it looks fake.

For me the 2048 looks the most lifelike.

 

Ken

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gb,

 

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD  isn't used to govern shadow quality so it shouldn't have any affect.

 

John,

 

Not sure what you mean ... I see a significant difference between 512 and 4096 images posted by gb?

 

But like I said, be warned, 4096 at dawn/dusk will have a huge impact on FPS ... at least it does on my system (Titan Blacks).

 

Cheers, Rob.

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I swear my computer is getting increasingly non-deterministic everyday - I just clicked on the link again and 512 looks properly poorly...

 

So, I had previously matched Rob's settings pretty much to the dot, the exception being SHADOW_QUALITY was set at 2, and I reset it to 4. Here is my current set of definitions.

 

[GRAPHICS]
MIPMAP_VC_PANELS=1
TESSELLATION=1
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=2048
NUM_LIGHTS=4
COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1
AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=1
LANDING_LIGHTS=1
DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1
LENSFLARE=1
HDR=0
BLOOM_LEVEL=2
SHADOW_QUALITY=4
TERRAIN_SHADOW_CAST_DISTANCE=0
CLOUD_SHADOW_CAST_DISTANCE=3
OBJECT_SHADOW_CAST_DISTANCE=2
CONTENT_NO_SHADOW=0
INTERIOR_SHADOWS_CAST=1
EXTERIOR_SHADOWS_CAST=1
SIMOBJECT_SHADOWS_CAST=0
TERRAIN_SHADOWS_CAST=0
VEGETATION_SHADOWS_CAST=0
BUILDING_SHADOWS_CAST=1
CLOUD_SHADOWS_CAST=1
INTERIOR_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
EXTERIOR_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
SIMOBJECT_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=0
TERRAIN_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
VEGETATION_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=0
BUILDING_SHADOWS_RECEIVE=1
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_LOW=4
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_MID=5
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_HIGH=7
SHADOW_NUM_CASCADES_ULTRA=12
GROUND_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=2048
CLOUD_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=512
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_LOW=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_MID=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_HIGH=0.850000
SHADOW_LOG_PARTITION_ULTRA=0.850000
EFFECTS_QUALITY=2
EFFECTS_DISTANCE=2
TEXTURE_QUALITY=3
IMAGE_QUALITY=0
See_Self=1
Text_Scroll=1
 
With these settings I still have jagged edges, and shown in the screenshots in the links.
 
This first link is sitting on the tarmac at KMRY. While the screenshot is not bad, what is missing from the JPG is all the "crawling" for the shadows, particularly around the avionics.
 
This is an exterior shot, same scenariou. Nice crisp shadow.
 
This is in flight. As you can see, my frame rate is taking a hit from the overcast conditions (I think I will disable the DX11 option for REX weather - kills the graphics card and my frame rate).
 
Finally, we have a good frame rate (I told OPUS to load clear day), and my GTX 780 is rolling along about 75-percent busy with 1.6 GB memory load. You can really see the "8-bit" feeling in this shot.
 
P3D V2.4 is my Christmas gift to myself, and it truly is a remarkable improvement over FSX and V1.4, but these pesky shadows really stand out as the sole detriment!
 
Thanks for the help, guys!

John Howell

Prepar3D V5, Windows 10 Pro, I7-9700K @ 4.6Ghz, EVGA GTX1080, 32GB Corsair Dominator 3200GHz, SanDisk Ultimate Pro 480GB SSD (OS), 2x Samsung 1TB 970 EVO M.2 (P3D), Corsair H80i V2 AIO Cooler, Fulcrum One Yoke, Samsung 34" 3440x1440 curved monitor, Honeycomb Bravo throttle quadrant, Thrustmaster TPR rudder pedals, Thrustmaster T1600M stick 

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