lol why am I trying to make the shadows look better if bethesda couldn't do it I probably cant ....

that said nothing helped I tried many different things if u up the bias and resolution the shadows look great but flicker like crazy.
I give up....

...urn the shadows off and wait for mods.

Is there a way to run off shadows entirely? Using...

bDrawShadows=1 to bDrawShadows=0

...didn't work.

Still waiting for an answer to this myself.

Did not fix the flickering for me. Ultra settings, shadows on medium with GTX460 SLI.

Ini:

[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=12
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=3600
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=2
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=1e+007
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=1e+007
iScreenShotIndex=11
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460"
bFXAAEnabled=1
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.15
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=0
iShadowFilter=1
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1

Thanks OP, the flickering is gone!

Seems to have fixed my flickering problem. Thank you so much.
Thanks to every one helping out with fixes. It's nice to have an awesome community for support.

Baffles me is if I press the "Ultra" button, I shouldn't have to do anything to make the game look better. Annoying.

Good find, I made the changes you suggested and the shadows look tons better. Thanks a bunch for this!

I have been been able to remove the shadows using the following lines in the .ini

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=2500.0000

If you change both of these to zero so that they show

fInteriorShadowDistance=0.0000
fShadowDistance=0.0000

This seems to disable the shadows, at least for me anyway

I dont know about these changes. These settings really changed the lighting in the dungeon of the Helgan. (During the escape sequence.) Everything was very dark compared to the first time I went through there. Also, my hands and battle axe have this weird blue outline around them. I put back the backup INI before these changes and the place was bright again.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/Ulc4m.jpg[/img]

These settings make indoor areas very dark, and cause firepits/forges to not give off like. They also reduce the radius of light visible from torches, as seen in the above screenshot.

Will try that tomorrow, thanks for the hint.

I've been trying to work out exactly what everyone means by "flickering", because I suspect what my game is doing is different from that. Just to be sure, could someone check this quick YouTube link and tell me if this is what theirs is doing please?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oQxq-XC60A

Thanks.

I don't think so buddy. The flickering on your video looked like a dark horizontal line that flickered across the whole screen. In my case and I suspect others, the flickers take place on the shadows themselves. So if your character casts a shadow on the ground, that shadow itself would wave back and forth in a blocky/jaggedy/wavy/flickering kind of way. Yours seems like something else.

fixed the jagged edges for me!! TY SIR! oh did u notice a drop in performance?

Same I'd like to take shadows right out, but skyrimpref in my documents with drawshadows=0 doesn't work.,

It does turn off the shadows, but also turns off HDR effects and light attenuation. Everything looks "grayish". I think I'll wait for a official fix by Nvidia or Bethesda.

I think I found out the reason behind the shadow flickering. It is caused by shadows updating to match the position of the sun. It happens every few seconds and one of triggers is player movement so what we see as flickering is some sort of transition that doesn't happen in realtime but rather once every few seconds.
Shadow engine is carried over from Oblivion its just that they stripped it down from objects and structures before Oblivion has been released. There is a official demo video on youtube that shows player start in the dungeon with full shadows like what we see now in Skyrim.
Whole shadow engine is outdated, overoptimised to compensate and is probably handled by CPU only, therefore so much effect on quality and FPS.

I've been looking at these changes to my skyrimprefs.ini but I'm a little stuck. There are options listed which I don't seem to have. For example, I do not have a line for iShadowMapResolution or one for sD3DDevice. Anyone have any ideas why these are missing?

EDIT: Actually, forget that. I was looking in the skyrimprefs.ini in the steam application folder rather than the C:\Users\User\Documents\My Games\Skyrim folder.

I still have the flashes, my ini now looks like this.

[General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0
[Imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2
[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=5
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=8
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=8
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1024
iSize W=1280
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=25
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=100
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=0
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=1
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1
[Grass]
b30GrassVS=0
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000
[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=1
bSaveOnTravel=1
bSaveOnWait=1
bSaveOnRest=1
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000
[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=2
[Interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=0
bGeneralSubtitles=0
bShowCompass=1
[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0140
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750
[SaveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000
[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=0
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=0
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=0
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=0
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612
[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000
[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0
[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000
[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20
[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60
[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=2
[BlurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1
[BlurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=512
iWaterReflectWidth=512
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1

No [censored] sherlock!

Ok I tracked down what made my shadows look like crap most of the time: fShadowDistance= was too high. I had it 8000.000 and now changed it to 2500.000 and the shadows look now GREAT, at least the tree shadows.

My settings:

fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
fInteriorShadowDistance=2500.0000
fShadowDistance=2500.0000
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iShadowMapResolution=4096
iShadowFilter=4
fShadowLODStartFade=500.0000
iShadowMode=4
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bDrawShadows=1
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0

I recommend trying these if you have big problems! Backup your ini first just in case.

Tried these. Look good so far!

No noticeable difference for me, unfortunately. Ultra shadows still fairly pixelated. Mine was only at 4000 before so wasn't a huge change.

So... anyone have come up with good .ini settings that makes shadows less blocky and that also removes potential flicker every 7-15 seconds?

It's embarrassing that Bethesda can't make good shadows in 2011. Shadows were done well and fully dynamic by games several years ago, games that also had huge open worlds.
Bethesda should fire and hire better programmers for this.