I found this handy guide that helped me fix my shadows- you have to edit some datarefs within XP to do so but it's not too hard.

https://forum.thresholdx.net/topic/187-a-decent-guide-to-crisp-shadows/

If you do not want to create a script as the link describes, there is a dataref editor plugin that you can install which allows you to edit datarefs from within XP.

The ones I find myself tweaking the most are:

• sim/private/controls/shadow/csm_split_interior
• sim/private/controls/shadow/csm_split_exterior

and

• sim/private/controls/shadow/cockpit_near_adjust
• sim/private/controls/shadow/cockpit_near_proxy

The first two are persistent- once you change the setting it will hold. csm_split_exterior is the one you want to adjust for your exterior shadows. Valid input is 1 through 4, with higher numbers increasing the resolution. I believe csm_split_interior is how the shadows on the exterior are viewed from the within the cockpit, but don't quote me on that.

The second two are not persistent, and you will have to edit these every time you start XP unless you create a script to do so for you. The link I shared will show you how to create that plugin. cockpit_near_adjust is the shadows inside the cockpit in your immediate vicinity, and I find that a value of 2 usually does the trick. In the case of cockpit_near_proxy, a lower value is preferred and I typically set mine between 0.2 and 0.5.

 

edit: the comments regarding dataref persistence only applies if you're using the dataref editor plugin. if you create the script to edit the datarefs for you, they'll always be applied when you start XP.

Edited February 28, 20197 yr by mcphatty

Are you by chance using XVision (Impressive preset) using the FlyWithLua script?  If so, open up 11_30_xV_Impressive.lua in the FlyWithLua\Scripts folder and find the following line:

set("sim/private/controls/fbo/shadow_cam_size" , 2048.0)  --jagged shadows

Disable this line by placing two hyphens in front of it:

-- set("sim/private/controls/fbo/shadow_cam_size" , 2048.0)  --jagged shadows

That line sets shadows at very low resolution.  For all the good it does with shaders, Xvision can also introduce unwanted "features" too.  It took me weeks to determine that the SharpernBlurring post-processing effect was killing all my MSAA anti-aliasing.

Edited March 2, 20197 yr by MadDog

Here is my permanent fix for xplane 11 shadows

No plugins required 

2 min work

Enjoy

https://youtu.be/demjugTwLgA

Edited April 22, 20206 yr by Hayko

On 4/22/2020 at 1:18 PM, Hayko said:

Here is my permanent fix for xplane 11 shadows

No plugins required 

2 min work

Enjoy

https://youtu.be/demjugTwLgA

Thank you for this.  I knew how to do this with a lua script in 11.41 and earlier but couldn't figure it out with 11.50.

On 2/28/2019 at 3:37 PM, mcphatty said:

if you create the script to edit the datarefs for you, they'll always be applied when you start XP.

more effective way is to edit settings.txt (not least because many settings cant be changed by scripts anymore once the sim is loaded) you can apply all dataref changes there and easily compare changes made by new versions.

I used to keep four versions around, default, one for "best looks" one for vr and one for 2d.

As of vulkan/11.50b my "best looks" and vr versions are identical, and only differ from default by two or three lines (fix shadows, fix cloud flicker and reduce some components of the max world objects setting to achieve 60fps in VR)