Serrated shadows

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florence
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Serrated shadows

Post by florence »

Hi, I apologize to you if this question seems strange, for this section of the Forum, but I noticed that the problem with the Comanche is stronger than other aircraft including those by default, on my P3D v4 I do not understand how to correct the problem as in the picture ... shadows in the shape of a saw blade ... I did a lot of tests with Antialias 4x, 8x, I tried to eliminate FXAA, nothing improves the problem, can someone help me?

Thanks David

florence
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by florence »

sorry I can not attach photos

bullfox
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by bullfox »

What video card are you using?
Ryzen 7 5800X3D liquid cooled, OC to 4.5 ghz, Radeon XFX 6900XT Black edition, 2 tb M2 drive, 32 gb ddr4 ram, Asus Hero Crosshair VIII mother board, and some other stuff I forget exactly what.

florence
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by florence »

bullfox wrote:What video card are you using?
Thanks for the answer, I use an NVidia GTX 970 Strix

bullfox
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by bullfox »

I am using a 970 also in DC 10 with Steve's scenery fixer and antialias set at 32x. Shadows look great with only a minimal sawtooth edgeif you look closely.
Ryzen 7 5800X3D liquid cooled, OC to 4.5 ghz, Radeon XFX 6900XT Black edition, 2 tb M2 drive, 32 gb ddr4 ram, Asus Hero Crosshair VIII mother board, and some other stuff I forget exactly what.

Molly - A2A
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by Molly - A2A »

Hi florence,

The only setting in P3D v4 that controls how "jagged" the shadows are (it's actually the resolution of the shadows that makes them seem more or less jagged) is the "shadow quality" setting in the graphics options in P3D v4. If they're already on high or ultra setting, it's just something you have to live with I'm afraid, because real time shadows have to be somewhat limited so as not to drag down your frame rate too far. In any case though, it's not something that should change from aircraft to aircraft as it's all down to the sim itself.

bullfox
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by bullfox »

Sorry I overlooked that you were in P3D. Something I have been wondering since I am considering moving to P3D, is there an Nvidia Inspector profile for P3D, and would that solve your problem?
Ryzen 7 5800X3D liquid cooled, OC to 4.5 ghz, Radeon XFX 6900XT Black edition, 2 tb M2 drive, 32 gb ddr4 ram, Asus Hero Crosshair VIII mother board, and some other stuff I forget exactly what.

florence
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by florence »

molleh wrote:Hi florence,

The only setting in P3D v4 that controls how "jagged" the shadows are (it's actually the resolution of the shadows that makes them seem more or less jagged) is the "shadow quality" setting in the graphics options in P3D v4. If they're already on high or ultra setting, it's just something you have to live with I'm afraid, because real time shadows have to be somewhat limited so as not to drag down your frame rate too far. In any case though, it's not something that should change from aircraft to aircraft as it's all down to the sim itself.
Hi molleh, I'll keep the "shadow quality" cursor on Ultra, I think what you say is very true, I'll have to live with that problem, even if I still want to test, change the Video Card drivers ....

David

florence
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by florence »

bullfox wrote:Sorry I overlooked that you were in P3D. Something I have been wondering since I am considering moving to P3D, is there an Nvidia Inspector profile for P3D, and would that solve your problem?
no problem bullfox , you're right, I had not evaluated ..... I try it now!

thanks David

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Nick - A2A
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by Nick - A2A »

Hi all,

I agree that the 'saw tooth' effect seen with shadows in P3D can be rather distracting at times, particularly when the sun is low to the horizon. As far as I'm aware, the Comanche isn't any different in this regard, but the cockpit geometry and texture colours of an individual aircraft can make the effect more pronounced. For example, the shadow serrations are more noticeable against a light background.

I'm afraid that changing the "shadow quality" setting in P3D doesn't seem to make any difference to this effect as it adjusts the number of shadow maps, not the size of the shadow texture. However, it is possible to reduce the size of the shadow serrations by changing the "OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE" value in the Prepar3D.cfg. By default, this is set to a value of 2048, but you can try increasing it to 4096 or even 8192 depending on graphics hardware.

Here's a quick screenshot comparison using the A2A 182...

Image
OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=2048 (default)

Image
OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=4096

Image
OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=8192

As with any such *.cfg edit, make sure you revert back to the default setting if the performance cost is too great.

Hope this is helpful. :)
Nick

florence
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by florence »

Nick M wrote:Hi all,

I agree that the 'saw tooth' effect seen with shadows in P3D can be rather distracting at times, particularly when the sun is low to the horizon. As far as I'm aware, the Comanche isn't any different in this regard, but the cockpit geometry and texture colours of an individual aircraft can make the effect more pronounced. For example, the shadow serrations are more noticeable against a light background.

I'm afraid that changing the "shadow quality" setting in P3D doesn't seem to make any difference to this effect as it adjusts the number of shadow maps, not the size of the shadow texture. However, it is possible to reduce the size of the shadow serrations by changing the "OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE" value in the Prepar3D.cfg. By default, this is set to a value of 2048, but you can try increasing it to 4096 or even 8192 depending on graphics hardware.

Here's a quick screenshot comparison using the A2A 182...

Image
OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=2048 (default)

Hi Nick, you are really really Number 1 !! problem solved ! my value was set by default to 512, I put it at 2048, now it's perfect !! today is a great day for me ...

THANK YOU ! THANK YOU ! Happy New Year to all !

David


Image
OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=4096

Image
OPAQUE_SHADOW_TEXTURE_SIZE=8192

As with any such *.cfg edit, make sure you revert back to the default setting if the performance cost is too great.

Hope this is helpful. :)
Nick

Hi Nick, you are really really Number 1 !! problem solved ! my value was set by default to 512, I put it at 2048, now it's perfect !! today is a great day for me ...

THANK YOU ! THANK YOU ! Happy New Year to all !

David

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Nick - A2A
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by Nick - A2A »

No problem David! :D Yeah, with that setting at 512, your shadows must have been really jagged. I thought its value was always 2048 by default, but perhaps it's influenced by other settings in the P3D UI. Anyway, happy to hear the problem is resolved and Happy New Year to you too! :mrgreen:

Nick

Molly - A2A
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by Molly - A2A »

Awesome tweak Nick, thanks for posting that. Makes a big difference!

florence
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Posts: 133
Joined: 07 Jul 2015, 13:00

Re: Serrated shadows

Post by florence »

Nick M wrote:No problem David! :D Yeah, with that setting at 512, your shadows must have been really jagged. I thought its value was always 2048 by default, but perhaps it's influenced by other settings in the P3D UI. Anyway, happy to hear the problem is resolved and Happy New Year to you too! :mrgreen:

Nick
every time I had problems with my Comanche in this Forum I always found courtesy and proffessionality '
congratulations to all of you this is that it is a true personalized service !!

David

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Nick - A2A
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Re: Serrated shadows

Post by Nick - A2A »

You're welcome molleh and thanks for the kind words David.

Incidentally, I think these 'crisper' shadows can look a little bit odd in the external view sometimes. Because P3D (not unreasonably) models the Sun as a single point of light (i.e. without any angular diameter as with the real thing), shadows don't become more diffuse with increased distance from the object casting them. The 'fuzziness' at least gave a slight illusion of this, but the saw tooth artefacts are really distracting!

Nick

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