Hello,

I was hoping for some help tweaking my INI. I'm assuming some familiarity with the ini settings and tweaking.

The only way shadows are bearable for me indoors are with a shadow map resolution of 4096, ultra level and reduced draw distance. Otherwise I can't have a conversation with anyone near flickering lights without feeling like a screwdriver is being driven through my eyeballs while the inventor of shadow maps laughs evilly in the background.

The problem is that having the settings that high really hurt my FPS in wooded areas. I can only assume that mapping and then filtering all the tree branches are what is killing it, I'm fine everywhere else. What could I do to improve this situation? It seems like this setting -

iShadowMapResolution=4096
iShadowMode=4
iShadowFilter=4

defines all shadow map resolutions. Has anyone determined an effect by changing

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=2048
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048

which seem to do nothing? My initial hope was that I could have a lower resolution shadow map outdoors as opposed to indoors. I've already dropped the shadow distance to 2500 to improve quality, but I've noticed in performance tests that the distance dosn't really affect FPS, only what resolution shadow map your computer is being forced to create and use. I'm quite sure the issue is with shadows because I have reduced the resolution to 512 just for kicks and there is a big performance jump. I can also be looking into a forest and getting about 28-30 FPS and tilt my view up just enough to get the shadows out of my view and I'll jump up to my limited 40FPS. I would even consider disable shadows cast by trees all together if that were an option.

So... anyone have thoughts on how I could improve these forest frame rates without ruining interior shadows?

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096

iShadowMapResolution=4096
iShadowMode=3
iShadowFilter=3

are the settings I use. My interior shadows look like

http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/3118/2011111700011.jpg
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/6793/2011111700028.jpg

What are your specs mate? If you have a fairly good rig try the configs found in this thread:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1283836-how-to-achieve-those-1995-graphics/

Yeah, those are good looking interior shadows, I find even on lower settings static and larger shadows are not a problem. My real issue is the flickering shadows as well as shadows cast across NPC faces and bodies dancing like a dropping army of space invaders. This specifically requires the highest settings that aren't really needed elsewhere and I wish there was a way to address the issues separately.

You mentioned

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=4096
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096

but do you believe that is actually affecting your shadow quality? I would encourage you to try changing those to 512 just for kicks and seeing if the shadows look any different - I have not been able to determine a difference if one exists, it seems to be all iShadowMapResolution=

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1284771-ini-settings-for-low-end-pcs/
My advice: leave the resolutions put and put shadow to mode 1 and filter to 0 or 2 (has to be a 2 multiple). Shadows are MUCH cheaper to render there.
If you've seen my machine, you'll see I'm borderline on minimum req with my rig, yet I play on Ultra except for shadows and no AA.