Skyrim's shadow system (striping, models look ugly)

[sandor]

Due to Skyrim's shadow system, the models don't look very nice if you use the low shadow settings.

The left screenshots show the low setting, the right screenshots the highest (ultra).

  I 512.jpg (Size: 375.25 KB / Downloads: 6)
  I 4096.jpg (Size: 415.22 KB / Downloads: 5)

  II 512.jpg (Size: 347.52 KB / Downloads: 6)
  II 4096.jpg (Size: 283.94 KB / Downloads: 5)

The shadows are controlled by the "iShadowMapResolution" in the SkyrimPrefs.ini [Display].

iShadowMapResolution=512 (low) and iShadowMapResolution=4096 (ultra).
Obviously "bDrawShadows=1" is set to 1 in order to enable the shadows.

Further I used:
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=3072 (also in Skyrim.ini [Display])
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=3072

The standard Skyrim.ini uses iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048, if I lower these to 2048 it looks even worse with 512.


:Arrow: I advise to use 1024 or 2048 for the iShadowMapResolution also if you use the low settings.
Keep in mind that if you use the launcher to correct your settings (options), the SkyRimPrefs.ini will be updated as well, so recheck the values.

Minimum:
[Display]
bDrawShadows=1
iShadowMapResolution=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048 (also in Skyrim.ini [Display])
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=2048

The higher the value, the higher the impact on your FPS.