Skyrim uses shadows to beat the living hell out of me

Hello GURUPeople,

yesterday i purchased an EVGA GTX 680 to please my brutal need for a good daily dose of fluent, stutter-free, smooth Skyrim. Well, that at least was the plan.

After i swapped from my former GTX 480 AMP! to the new GTX 680 i started to get those shimmering shadows in Skyrim, but only where trees and other plants cast them on the ground. I spent an intense amount of time researching and tweaking but found no working solution. This problem has not occurred with the GTX 480.

Of course, before i launched Skyrim with the new card, i removed both my old INI files and had Skyrim's launcher detect my hardware and create new INIs. I tried all the fixes, but the problem is they all seem to be about either blocky shadows - or shadows that flicker due to the sun movement (and the game engine updating the shadows according to that). My issue however seemed to be rather different, as i get the flicker at all distances from the shadow, and it seems to only happen with shadows that move (like when a tree moves in the wind and the according shadow is cast on the ground. Same for plants and other things.

It does not matter whether i put my shadows on high or low resolution, it makes no difference whether i change the shadow distance or LOD fade settings, even the shadow bios scale, and it also makes no difference whatsoever if i blur the shadows out using the blur deferred shadow mask setting. The flickering/shimmering remains.

I also tried various settings through the NVidia Inspector tool. For instance, i tried using a negative LOD bias, as well as a positive one, i tried to clamp the negative one, tried to allow it, used all different kinds of AA in and without being in combination with AF.

I basically ran out of options and things to try. And i am getting depressed

Perhaps i should return the card and get my $ back, but then again i would just like it to work.

Am i missing something here? Can somebody give me a hint?

Thank You!

Mainboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R rev. 2.0
CPU: Intel Quad Core i7-920 4x2,67 Ghz (overclocked to 4.0 Ghz stable)
RAM: 6 GB DDR3 Kit PC3-1600 Mhz, CL8
Graphics: NVIDIA / EVGA GTX 680
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit DVD
Screen: SAMSUNG 2233 RZ TFT @ 120 Hz

 

Doesn't seem to by a Skyrim or INI issue.

What Drivers are you using? Also it might be wise to uninstall the Drivers and reinstall them.

 

I am using the latest drivers, 301.42. Before swapping cards i uninstalled them completely using the NVidia Installer/Uninstaller. Should i follow any specific procedures when uninstalling and reinstalling them?

 

You should try 304.79 (Beta).

 

Alright. I have now uninstalled the old driver, rebooted into safe mode, used Driver Sweeper to remove all potential remnants of other/older drivers, rebooted normally, installed the new 304.48 driver (BETA). (I have not found a 304.79 BETA)

Full of hope i launched Skyrim, but the issue has not changed.

I recorded a few very short videos demonstrating the issue i speak of, so perhaps if some people could take a look at these, maybe it rings a bell or two.

http://youtu.be/oLTQU0YxIak
http://youtu.be/s7wQrc1Zthw
http://youtu.be/Fl_SfJpqL6M
http://youtu.be/9lzhg714sFY

Thank You!

 

Dude I honestly looked close at those videos and I can't see anything. Can you describe what to look for?

 

They 304.79 beta drivers should be up on the guru3d download page and its stickied under the nvidia drivers section on the forums too.

To be honest, I can't really see any flickering on the shadows from your videos, but maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing?

 

Holy!! I did not even watch the vids after taking and converting them. Sorry - shame on me.

Actually you're right!! The shimmer is not there. I was about to punch myself, then i compared the YouTube video to the one i uploaded.

Please believe me when i say: the shimmering issue IS there in the video file, but its not in what YouTube converted my file to. Perhaps it was treated as interlacing?

Anyway, that's pretty bad if i can't even show it to anyone. I'm uploading the original MP4 files now and will post download links once this is done.

Ps.: I'm getting .79 now, thank you, will install and test it!

 

Maybe you are talking the shadow striping?
Here is a quick google image of the problem
https://images.nonexiste.net/popular/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Why-are-my-shadows-so-horrible-in-Breezehome.jpeg
It's an extreme case, but there you go...
It's most easily noticeable in Breezehome, around the fire.

There are a few fixes out there, like this one
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=7481

Probably the best (and easiest to apply) is ENB's lastest version (doesn't totally get rid of it, but does a good job)
http://enbdev.com/mod_tesskyrim_v0114.htm

 

I think i can safely say that i have ruled out that my issue is the shadow striping bug. This one i have seen and can induce when fiddling with the bias scale value.

My problem seems somewhat different and can occur additionally to shadow striping.

I noticed that it looks all more defined (the issue) when i use ENB. It sort of "sharpened" the glimmer/shimmer, but by that it made it worse.

I t seems that i was wrong in my initial report that the issue occurs at all distances. In fact it does seem only to occur with shadows that are further away. The ones very close look normal, but a bit further away they have the issue.

 

Edit: I have tried the .79 driver but to no avail

I have now uploaded a full resolution video to show you how this problem looks like.

Click here to download

Just use free download mode - its only 60 MB.

In this video i set iBlurDeferredShadowMask to 0 to fully sharpen out the shadows which intensifies the effect and thus makes it more visible in the video.

Concentrate on the shadows not in front of the character but further away (the second tree shadow group). While i move the character slightly forward and backward you should see the flicker/glimmer.

Does that help?

 

I think I know which effect/artifact you're talking about.
"Think" because your rapidshare file downloads for me @30kB/s.

It's shimmering caused by what seems over-sharpening of tiny sized particles.
I used to have that in Stalker SoC when in the starting area looking at the ground from the top that ravine,

and I've seen something similar in Witcher 2 with oversharpening.

My Stalker SoC has been fixed since, and Witcher 2... well I'm not fan of too sharp textures anymore.

Skyrim...hmm I cant remember I've ever seen that kind of artifacting.


But are you aware that Anisotropic Filtering does not work through game settings, and it has to be forced through driver control panel?

At least it was like this the last time I checked.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/optimise/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide/#5

EDIT: I just watched your new video.
Looks like this distraction you talk about is caused by movement of overly well defined/too sharp middle/long-distance shadows.

It's Skyrim! If you're gonna ponder on every shadow you won't be playing at all. GL!

 

I must be going blind or something, the only kind of shimmering I see is the aliasing of the shadows..

 

^
Maybe he sees that almost transparent "bilinear" shadow filtering in the distance or some rocks..


@sinnerman

Try it like so,

skyrim.ini (mydoucments/mygames/skyrim)

[Display]
iActorShadowCountInt=6
iActorShadowCountExt=4
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=2
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=6000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=2048 (or use 4096)
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=4096
iShadowMode=4
iShadowFilter=4
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
fShadowBiasScale=0.3500 (or higher 0.70, but you can lose some detail)
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096 (or 2048 for perf., but its jaggier)
bMainZPrepass=0
bTransparencyMultisampling=0

 

Yes he's talking about the shadows.

And he had to sharpen shadows for this... I can't even say "artifacting", it's that small ;

he had to sharpen shadows for this shimmering to become more visible.

 

Thanks for the input. I will try further settings.

I am not entirely sure what bilinear filtering means in this instance.

What i do mean is that shadow rastering issue (don't know what other term for it could come to my head). Just look at the shadows not next to my character, but further ahead (the one in the middle of the screen). While i move, this thing just goes wild.

I would love to, you know, just let it be. But i can't concentrate on the game if i get a constant shimmering/flickering/whatever in my field of view

 

Add the following two lines to skyrim.ini. Alternatively edit the values if they already exist.

fSunShadowUpdateTime=.25
fSunUpdateThreshold=1.5


This will fix the flickering issue. However the shadows will no longer update position as often as before, instead they will move a further distance (based on sun position) but after a longer period. Seems to be the best compromise.


Edit:

Well the fix above is to do with the sun of course and movement of the shadows because of it. According to your OP you tried this already so not sure what else to say really as the only flicker I saw was fixed by above edits. Though another similar shadow flicker issue (apparently when you are moving) is fixed by entering iShadowFilter=4 and iShadowMode=4 into skyrimprefs.ini. I have never needed to use the second fix.

Have never come across any other fixes for what you describe.

 

What helped me to minimize this was SofTH, with rendering at 2880x1620 and then down-scaling to 1920x1080. In case you use this, you may turn off AA and use FXAA only, as this process practically does double AA.
And skyrim gets bit more detailed grass and trees too.

 

Blackzero is right. The 2 lines below are what cause flickering. I myself use these values which eliminate flickering.

fSunShadowUpdateTime=0
fSunUpdateThreshold=2.0