So Bethesda, I try so hard to enjoy this game I really do, but why are there so many seemingly pointless issues? Why is there z-fighting on distant terrain and why are the shadows SO AWFUL. Really, I'd love to know. No other game has shadows this terrible, and no other game has z-fighting this noticeable. In 1.6, if there will be one, I would hope with all my heart that you guys do something about the awful shadows, eg. the lines around objects, terrible resolution tied to the distance, horrid performance, lines through the shadows, lines and stripes because of the shadow-bias, 2 shadows per scene... if you guys knew they would be this problematic, why wouldn't you just go the Oblivion route and bake all the lighting and add in SOME shadows that aren't terribly broken and noticeable? Also, the sun system shadows are terrible with their ant races when they update every so often, which is another problem, why not just have it update real time? Oh yeah, the shadows are so low resolution it looks even worse... oh well, I'm sure no one will even read this anyways. I sound incredibly cynical and mean, but I love Skyrim, I really do. And I love Bethesda, you guys rock. Just... your engine is awful with shadows and z-fighting.

/rant
Love, a discerned consumer

I think you can make the sun shadow update be instant by adding/changing this in your Skyrim.ini file:

[Display]


fSunShadowUpdateTime=0
fSunUpdateThreshold=2.0

These are tweaks that I found in the S.T.E.P. guide on the nexus.
Never tried them myself as I try to keep .ini tweaking to a minimum and the shadow update doesn't really bother me so much.

Back-up your .inis before changing.

EDIT: Also, check this post from the STEP forums that goes into the issue of z-fighting and more http://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=154 (mods, I hope it's OK to link to the STEP forums...)