Just did. Thx.
Issue with extreme shadow flickering and shadow contrast on planet surfaces post patch 6, is it just me?
- Thread starter Rheeney
- Start date
I have same issue since update 18, and it's driving me insane (AMD Ryzen 7 5700G, Win 11, RTX 3060). Do you have any tips on how to mitigate?
Unsure if this is causally related, but I returned today after 2-year hiatus to discover I've been bitten by the VR shadow flickering bug that sounds mightily similar to this, though I don't seem to have the same issue in pancake mode. FWIW, one of the comments in that VR bug report suggested turning shadow detail down from Ultra to High, which seems to have solved the flickering for me for now. Probably won't work for everyone, or even anyone other than me, but might be worth a go to see if it makes a difference whilst we wait on a fix.
SHADOW FLICKERING SOLVED!
ebbrell posted this "yeah, i have upped the texture size in the config file before now to get rid of this. it doesn't help when your screen res is high than the value etc. i switch mine to 3840 due to playing in 4k.
hopefully fdev adust the values to be more in line with people playing above 1080p now days"
Using this information, I fiddled about in the graphics config and changed the texture resolution and seemingly managed to eliminate the shadow flickering.
Heres what I did in case anyone else wants to try it.
(my screen res is 1920 x 1080)
1. Go to: C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME_HERE\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics
2. Open GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml (open with notepad or something similar)
3. Put this into it (replace whatevers in there unless your using other settings in that file, omit the dashes ------ etc):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<GraphicsConfig>
<GalaxyBackground>
<Low>
<LocalisationName>$QUALITY_LOW;</LocalisationName>
<TextureSize>1080</TextureSize>
</Low>
</GalaxyBackground>
<Planets> <Low> <LocalisationName>$QUALITY_LOW;</LocalisationName> <TextureSize>1080</TextureSize> </Low> </Planets>
<SurfaceRocks> <Low> <LocalisationName>$QUALITY_LOW;</LocalisationName> <TinySurfaceRockCount>600</TinySurfaceRockCount> </Low> </SurfaceRocks>
</GraphicsConfig>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Change all mentions of Low/LOW to the graphics preset you want to use, unless you want to use the low preset. (keep lettercase the same)
So for ultra quality, it would look like this:
$QUALITY_ULTRA;
</Ultra>
etc
5. Save the file and load up elite, swap to the graphics preset you typed in the file and then check if the shadows are fixed.
6. Done. Play and enjoy.
So to summarize, setting the textures size to 1080, the same as my screen res of 1080p solved it for me.
The only downsides i've found with this are the reduced textures (the difference isn't even noticable for me) and as soon as you customise the graphics options in-game away from the preset you defined in the config the flickering returns upon reboot. Which pretty much means your stuck with playing only on preset graphics. At least until someone else can post a better version of the settings in the config which allows for changing the other settings whilst keeping the no flickering. It's beyond me the settings are too complicated. But personally, playing with a preset is an acceptable tradeoff for no flickering.
Of course this will proberbly only work if your playing at 1080p screen res. You'll need to change the texture size if your playing at a different screen res. Try putting the texture size as whatever you have your screen res at. So for example if your playing at 1024 x 768, try putting the texture size at 768. (The last/smaller number of your screen resolution.)
Thanks ebbrell for sharing this and I hope this guide helps some others with this issue.
ebbrell posted this "yeah, i have upped the texture size in the config file before now to get rid of this. it doesn't help when your screen res is high than the value etc. i switch mine to 3840 due to playing in 4k.
hopefully fdev adust the values to be more in line with people playing above 1080p now days"
Using this information, I fiddled about in the graphics config and changed the texture resolution and seemingly managed to eliminate the shadow flickering.
Heres what I did in case anyone else wants to try it.
(my screen res is 1920 x 1080)
1. Go to: C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME_HERE\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics
2. Open GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml (open with notepad or something similar)
3. Put this into it (replace whatevers in there unless your using other settings in that file, omit the dashes ------ etc):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<GraphicsConfig>
<GalaxyBackground>
<Low>
<LocalisationName>$QUALITY_LOW;</LocalisationName>
<TextureSize>1080</TextureSize>
</Low>
</GalaxyBackground>
<Planets> <Low> <LocalisationName>$QUALITY_LOW;</LocalisationName> <TextureSize>1080</TextureSize> </Low> </Planets>
<SurfaceRocks> <Low> <LocalisationName>$QUALITY_LOW;</LocalisationName> <TinySurfaceRockCount>600</TinySurfaceRockCount> </Low> </SurfaceRocks>
</GraphicsConfig>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Change all mentions of Low/LOW to the graphics preset you want to use, unless you want to use the low preset. (keep lettercase the same)
So for ultra quality, it would look like this:
$QUALITY_ULTRA;
</Ultra>
etc
5. Save the file and load up elite, swap to the graphics preset you typed in the file and then check if the shadows are fixed.
6. Done. Play and enjoy.
So to summarize, setting the textures size to 1080, the same as my screen res of 1080p solved it for me.
The only downsides i've found with this are the reduced textures (the difference isn't even noticable for me) and as soon as you customise the graphics options in-game away from the preset you defined in the config the flickering returns upon reboot. Which pretty much means your stuck with playing only on preset graphics. At least until someone else can post a better version of the settings in the config which allows for changing the other settings whilst keeping the no flickering. It's beyond me the settings are too complicated. But personally, playing with a preset is an acceptable tradeoff for no flickering.
Of course this will proberbly only work if your playing at 1080p screen res. You'll need to change the texture size if your playing at a different screen res. Try putting the texture size as whatever you have your screen res at. So for example if your playing at 1024 x 768, try putting the texture size at 768. (The last/smaller number of your screen resolution.)
Thanks ebbrell for sharing this and I hope this guide helps some others with this issue.
Last edited:
