Tried it, and it actually works, which is honestly a sad thing to say about this game.
There's literally zero excuse for leaving bugs unfixed for years. Especially bugs affecting such basic things as graphics.
Under normal circumstances I'd prefer the best possible graphics, but this cursed flickering really started to fray my nerves.
Turning off directional shadows makes the game look better nearly everywhere (except on planetary surfaces maybe, where rocks seem to glow in the dark).
Tried it, and it actually works, which is honestly a sad thing to say about this game.
There's literally zero excuse for leaving bugs unfixed for years. Especially bugs affecting such basic things as graphics.
The only thing I am hoping, beyond all hope, is that the reason this particular bug is STILL here after about 2 years now, is that they are actually working behind the scenes on a comprehensive reworking of the entire lighting engine - maybe something that can handle more than one star which would also fix the dark side of whole planets/moons turning off and on in certain situations as well as the more jittery surface/port issues... and maybe also bring back some star (and surface volcanic jets) colour effects we used to have in Horizons, etc.
I don't think he was saying that no one would prefer bugged shadows over no shadows--given how subjective such preferences are--but that it's inexcusable for Frontier to have allowed such blatant issues into the game, repeatedly, or to allow them to linger so long.
Not sure there is really an idiot-proof procedure or a good guide, beyond what's already been linked. EDO is simultaneously simpler and more difficult than Legacy because the VSMs offer fewer tuning parameters and because it's bugs make it difficult to tell what problems are due to changes to the shadow tables and what is an underlying fault with the game.
About the only advice I can give is to find a location with a near static sun position, or that is otherwise repeatable, for testing.
As for your image, I'm not sure what you're trying to do. Trying to limit shadows distance is probably never going to look good, but tuning the "Fade" variable might make the transition from shadowed to shadowed less jarring. If you're trying to fix Frontier's bug by adjusting the shadow tables, "NearClipBias" is probably the place to start...though I haven't had any meaningful success.
Ah, the image is just with ingame "high" setting. I found it doubly insulting that the shadow decided that time to disappear in two planes, instead of just one, and at such a short distance too!
I think I can worry about transitions after figuring out how to keep the shadows from disappearing altogether - I think my image demonstrates how that's far more noticeable
The darker shadow that is being cutoff is the directional shadow. The other shadows are spot shadows.
The problem here with the directional shadows here may well go beyond issues with the shadow mechanisms themselves. Ship geometry doesn't appear to be correctly occluding the sunlight.
The darker shadow that is being cutoff is the directional shadow. The other shadows are spot shadows.
The problem here with the directional shadows here may well go beyond issues with the shadow mechanisms themselves. Ship geometry doesn't appear to be correctly occluding the sunlight.
Uff. The more I start paying attention to the broken distance vortices thing, the more I get tempted to just settle with disabling it all. It's really bad when it's happening on every station, coming and going.
edit: Quick update - I can confirm that just editing the file and changing the setting, or menu relogging, is insufficient to apply changes made to GraphicsConfiguration.xml; I had to fully close and relaunch the game.
UPDATE (March 16th, 2024): Current iteration is v26. However, v22 has sharper close shadows on foot, at the cost of some more artifacts at very shallow illumination angles.
To reiterate, this is a modification of "GraphicsConfiguration.xml" proper, not the override. "GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml" cannot add missing lines, it can only modify them, which makes it unsuitable for increasing the frustum counts that are critical to these modifications. This should also improve compatability with other tools and mods that rely on the override. Additionally, I have replaced the LOW preset for BOTH spot and (removed spot shadows from the file as these can be handled by the override, and the buggy smoke shader on ultra was corrected a while back) directional shadows. I have done this to make quick comparisons with the Ultra quality preset possible in game.
Installation is simple:
Rename your current GraphicsConfiguration.xml file, located in the Odyssey product directory. This is the directory that contains EliteDangerous64.exe.
Download the file attached to the indicated post and place in the directory above.
Start the game, set directional shadow quality to LOW. Set spot shadow quality as desired (probably ultra).
Uninstallation is also easy:
- Delete my GraphicsConfiguration.xml and rename your backup to the original name.
OR
- Verify the game files with the launcher.
Most of the stuff below this line is depreciated, but I'm retaining it for reference.
----------------------------------------------------
UPDATE (February 3rd, 2021): Switched back to replacing the LOW quality preset. Check my more recent posts in this thread for more up to date information.
UPDATE (August 7th, 2021): Going to put a changelog at the bottom of this post. I'm leaving the old files attached for posterity/reference. Unless there are specific issues, use the most recent GraphicsConfiguration.xml.EDOv_.txt attachment (and be sure to rename it correctly).
The other day I noticed than a recent update (something after 4.0.0.200) split the spot shadow configuration from the main shadow tables in the game's GraphicsConfiguration.xml. This change allowed me to identify, and largely did the work of isolating, variables that were preventing my custom Horizons shadow tables from working correctly.
So, I dumped my most recent profiles (from December 2019) into the newest build. A couple of quick examples, first on foot during the suit tutorial, and one while flying over the surface of a planet with the sun at a low angle (best viewed in 4k or 1440p, no matter the size of your display, because that's where YouTube uses VP9):
Note the relative smoothness of transitions in the first video and distance to which detail is retained as well as the relative lack of flickering in the second video. Going to need some Odyssey specific tuning I think, but even unchanged, they are a significant improvement from the Ultra quality shadows currently in the game.
If anyone who was otherwise running Ultra shadows wants to try these tables, I've attached an updated GraphicsConfiguration.xml (remove the .txt extension and anything after .xml) that should be used to replace the one in the game's main directory (same folder as Odyssey's EliteDangerous64.exe). Selecting Ultra quality in game should use my shadow modifications after doing so. There is no risk to this as verifying the game files will replace the modified file with an original, though you can, of course, just rename or backup the original.
These changes are one of the few GraphicsConfiguration modifications that cannot be placed in the override file as they add frustums that weren't in the original, rather than simply modifying already present values.
I also recommend setting <LODDistanceScale>1.999999</LODDistanceScale> in the "%LocalAppData%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics\Custom.4.0.fxcfg" file. This appears to be depreciated in Odyssey.
There is mild performance hit to these changes. If you weren't using Ultra shadows because they were too costly, performance wise, these won't help you.
Initial version:
- Mostly a copypasta from my old Horizons profiles here.
v2:
- Reinserted cascade cross-fade clamps into Profile_PlanetApproach to mitigate terrain shadow issue noted here.
v3:
Removed redundant spot shadow entries from primary profile lists.
Enabled full resolution EVSM cascades.
Adjusted Profile_PlanetSurface cascades to improve close-range shadow quality and reduce pixelation at the cost of maximum cascade distance (it's still 5km, which is still further than stock 'Ultra') and slightly increased shadow softness.
I tried using this file and i thought it worked at first but it seems to just make the flickering less noticable due to using low quality shadows. Its still doing it but in a more blurry and low detail way. Im not sure this file even does anything at all, i think it was just changing the shadows to low that did that.
Oh well, guess ill just have to play with flickering until frontier sort it out if ever.
Hello all.
Might be my first post, been ages since I've been engaged with ED.
I found this thread after trying to hunt a fix for flickering shadows I was seeing through the window of a Planet Settlement of the rest of the buildings and such.
It is like a strobe almost.
I've yet to try any of the files as I wanted to double check which is the current one as I'd seen a v27 while reading through the thread and 1 instance of a offered OverRide file, was v27 a "WIP" file or a release? would sticking with v26 or v22 be better? is there an accompanying OverRide at current? I did see something on a wiki page related to elite and graphic mod/tweaks I saw from a reddit post, but I can't tell how old it is and if it's viable still or not.
Not sure if this is needed but here are my specs.
CPU: 5080x3D
GPU: RX 7900 XTX 24GB
RAM: 64GB 3600Mhz, CL16.
Monitor: 4 ways set up (2 ultra wides both 2560 x 1080, one 1080p, one 1680 by 1050). Game runs only on Primary monitor, 2560 x 1080 IPS 200Hz. but I run the game in a window at 2310 x 990 or at least that is what it showed up as when I launched the game earlier tonight.
In game settings seems to have everything more or less maxed out. which is odd, last I played I'm pretty sure I was on a GTX 1070 back around Feb of 2020.
I found this thread after trying to hunt a fix for flickering shadows I was seeing through the window of a Planet Settlement of the rest of the buildings and such.
It is like a strobe almost.
I've yet to try any of the files as I wanted to double check which is the current one as I'd seen a v27 while reading through the thread and 1 instance of a offered OverRide file, was v27 a "WIP" file or a release? would sticking with v26 or v22 be better?
is there an accompanying OverRide at current? I did see something on a wiki page related to elite and graphic mod/tweaks I saw from a reddit post, but I can't tell how old it is and if it's viable still or not.
The override files/code I've posted are just examples. The underlying shadow tables aren't presented as an override because the override file can only modify 'GraphicsConfiguration.xml', it cannot add lines to it and my adjustments rely on extra frustums/cascades.
In game settings seems to have everything more or less maxed out. which is odd, last I played I'm pretty sure I was on a GTX 1070 back around Feb of 2020.
A GTX 1070 is perfectly capable of handling the pre-Odyssey game at 2560*1080 with maximum in game settings. Odyssey is much slower and is borderline on VRAM on 8GiB cards. These shadow profiles will exacerbate that.
Thank you for the reply @Morbad
I did gather that this might not be a "fix" while reading through the threat, some mitigation would be nice if possible; if not then I may have to look into disabling the shadows as you mention, the degree of flicker was extremely jaring. It's unfortunate that it isn't an easy fix on their end.. likely concerned about breaking something enterally.
The override files/code I've posted are just examples. The underlying shadow tables aren't presented as an override because the override file can only modify 'GraphicsConfiguration.xml', it cannot add lines to it and my adjustments rely on extra frustums/cascades.
A GTX 1070 is perfectly capable of handling the pre-Odyssey game at 2560*1080 with maximum in game settings. Odyssey is much slower and is borderline on VRAM on 8GiB cards. These shadow profiles will exacerbate that.
@Morbad , thanks for doing these again, they really make a difference!
Apart from shadows, do you modify any other settings in the override file anymore? I remember back in a day we could change the resolution of Milky Way or planetary textures etc.
Apart from shadows, do you modify any other settings in the override file anymore? I remember back in a day we could change the resolution of Milky Way or planetary textures etc.
In general, almost any setting that can be found in the main GraphicsConfiguration.xml can be modified via GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml.
I do jack up texture resolutions, spot shadow resolution, and manipulate the galaxy background detail, as well as tune tone mapping to make 3rd party HDR injectors more usable, when I use them. There is an example of what I've been using that is current enough in post #277.
In general, almost any setting that can be found in the main GraphicsConfiguration.xml can be modified via GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml.
I do jack up texture resolutions, spot shadow resolution, and manipulate the galaxy background detail, as well as tune tone mapping to make 3rd party HDR injectors more usable, when I use them. There is an example of what I've been using that is current enough in post #277.
