Shadows a bit jumpy?

[Vacillator]

After getting my hands on FI yesterday, a quick try put me in 'Catch a Tiger'. 

With low sun, the shadows are rather long, and as I move around, or raise and lower, they seem to disappear, reappear, flicker, have jagged edges?  Shadows should depend on sun versus object, not where they're observed from?

I'm guessing it's related to the settings which I have as synch off / better model / better texture / antialias on / tree detail high / shaders on.  Tried synch on and it's possibly slightly less jaggy.

GPU is a GTX 1060 (in a laptop) so not exactly cutting edge these days, but not too shoddy either.

Any thoughts please?  It's not the end of the world but doesn't look right...

Edited October 22, 2020 by Vacilllator

[Schrullenhaft]

In my experience this is common to CM2 series games. I'm not specifically aware of any setting that minimizes the effect (I don't know if shadows get subjected to the anti-aliasing processes in the video drivers). To my understanding it is a limitation of the shadowing system in CM2. Nicer appearing shadows would have a more significant impact on framerates.

[Vacillator]

2 minutes ago, Schrullenhaft said:

To my understanding it is a limitation of the shadowing system in CM2.

If it is what it is I can live with it.  I have just lost to the Tiger anyway, LOL.

[sttp]

I've played CMx2 titles with 3 or 4 different video cards installed, and shadows have been "shimmery" like that with each one. Shadows look pretty much the same on all the Combat Mission 2 AAR videos I've seen as well, so I'm pretty sure the issue is with the game engine itself, not your video card or any graphics setting.

I guess most people have just gotten used to the fuzzy and distracting shadows? I have not, personally, and always play with shadows off. It's a shame, really, and is just one more reason the CM Engine 3 can't arrive soon enough, IMO.

Edited October 23, 2020 by sttp

[Vacillator]

9 minutes ago, sttp said:

I've played CMx2 titles with 3 or 4 different video cards installed, and shadows have been "shimmery" like that with each one. Shadows look pretty much the same on all the Combat Mission 2 AAR videos I've seen as well, so I'm pretty sure the issue is with the game engine itself, not your video card or any graphics setting.

I guess most people have just gotten used to the fuzzy and distracting shadows? I have not, personally, and always play with shadows off. It's a shame, really, and is just one more reason that CM Engine 3 cannot arrive soon enough, IMO.

Thanks for the reassurance, I'll just have to get used to it or turn shadows off.  The game is too good to do anything else .

Didn't really notice it until I arrived in Sicily...

[benpark]

If you have an Nvidia card, I would suggest testing a few of the settings in their application. I have a number of anti-aliasing settings ticked that seem to help at least smooth the shadows out. The obvious ones are all worth adding (except for FXAA, which impacts the text). The rest of the available settings have varying impacts on performance, and should really be tested out on an individual-setting basis, but the expanded anti-aliasing settings do help (in my case, and a few others here that use them).

[Vacillator]

1 hour ago, benpark said:

If you have an Nvidia card, I would suggest testing a few of the settings in their application. I have a number of anti-aliasing settings ticked that seem to help at least smooth the shadows out. The obvious ones are all worth adding (except for FXAA, which impacts the text). The rest of the available settings have varying impacts on performance, and should really be tested out on an individual-setting basis, but the expanded anti-aliasing settings do help (in my case, and a few others here that use them).

Thanks @benpark will have a look and see if anything improves the moving/disappearing shadows.  As for performance I would say the only things I can detect once things load up are 'draw distance' and now shadow behaviour.  I can live with both but would like to improve them.

[Bulletpoint]

The settings won't really fix the problem.. it's something about the drivers themselves.

When I started playing, I had an AMD based laptop. The shadows would have a strange "comb like" appearance for lack of a better term.

Later, I switched to Nvidia, and the shadows stopped being comb like, but now they shimmer and flicker on and off as I move the camera. I've noticed the same problem on many videos on youtube, so it's not just my computer.

[Vacillator]

24 minutes ago, Bulletpoint said:

When I started playing, I had an AMD based laptop. The shadows would have a strange "comb like" appearance

Later, I switched to Nvidia, and the shadows stopped being comb like, but now they shimmer and flicker on and off as I move the camera

Thanks @Bulletpoint.  I have Nvidia (latest drivers but sadly not the latest card, it's only a GTX1060) and I get a bit of both of those issues depending on where the sun is in the sky relative to trees etc. and moving the camera.  I'm trying to ignore it as much as I can.

[Bulletpoint]

On 11/27/2020 at 10:45 AM, Vacilllator said:

Thanks @Bulletpoint.  I have Nvidia (latest drivers but sadly not the latest card, it's only a GTX1060) and I get a bit of both of those issues depending on where the sun is in the sky relative to trees etc. and moving the camera.  I'm trying to ignore it as much as I can.

It's one of the reasons I never bought more of the CM games.. I only have CMBN and CMFB. I tend to stay in CMFB because I can then toggle of the shadows and it seems more natural, since it's in the wintertime anyway, overcast and not very strong shadows.

[Lethaface]

Yeah it depends a bit on the map settings though. Low sun seems worst. Lately I've been using reshade for some of the titles, it does seem to help quite a bit at times but doesn't completely fix it or whatever.