If you would like to turn off the blocky shadows in this game, while also increasing performance by a ton, here is a ini tweak you can do:

Set in the ini:
iShadowMapResolution=0

This will get rid of all shadows, without getting rid of the lighting.

These 2 actually do LIGHTING & Shadows:
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000

So, if you would like to turn off lighting and shadows set:
iShadowMapResolution=0
fInteriorShadowDistance=0
fShadowDistance=0

I hope this helps some of you that would like to get rid of the ugly/blocky shadows that appear in the game, while giving a decent performance boost

thanks for the information

turning off shadows would be the last thing i do, it take away alot of Immersive feel, but, if your really hampered by it it may indeed improve Performance

For me, the shadows in Skyrim actually break immersion because they're so bad It's horrible to see a block of shadow flicker all over an NPC's body. It looks a lot better with them off imo

Wouldnt this be detrimental to "stealth based characters"?

If you want shadows and performance fixed see here...
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1261759-best-option-to-fix-shadows/

I wouldn't think so. I don't think shadows play much of a roll in stealth in this game. I think it's more Line-of-Sight / Sound / Darkness. Removing shadows doesn't remove dark areas, just shadows that objects cast

Shadows are improperly programmed in this game. Take a few minutes and let your voice be heard...
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1261759-best-option-to-fix-shadows/