which does not make sun movements smoother (at least at default timescale) fSunUpdateThreshold=1.0 will make sun transition about every 1 second and raising the value of fSunShadowUpdateTime=8.0 does not make it any better
Some people suggest settings that suppose to make "real time shadows":
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.0 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.0
For me, these shadows updating like every half a second and without any transition So i went with these settings:
fSunShadowUpdateTime=2 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.01
Same as autor's settings, but fSunShadowUpdateTime set to 2 to make it a little bit smoother
in the beginning, a short PSA about timescale: set timescale to 20 – 20 seconds pass in game for every second in real time (default setting). set timescale to 1 – 1 second passes in game for every second in real time.
The sun (?shadow physics?)* gets moved every 40 seconds as a base stat with the default timescale of 20. This means, if you change the timescale to 1, the sun will move every 2 seconds.
I play with a timescale of 6, the sun gets moved every 12 seconds, so 100 / 40 * 12 = 30%... so my values for a super smooth shadow need to be: fSunShadowUpdateTime=12.0 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.30
I have the feeling the game bugs out sometimes and the sun shadows are acting, as if they don't use my custom values. I don't know if that is a known issue or something, so be aware that some game starts may look weird, while others are just fine with the values that you calculated. A restart should fix that with no problems! Edit: I think that is because I have GCM and NACX installed, both have timescale values, when I change both of them to timescale 6, I don't get the inconsistent shadows.
Hope this will help somebody that stumbles upon it. :)
*sorry I don't know exactly what happens here engine wise, I'll just call it sun movement for easy understanding purposes.
For those still using this mod or these settings, I have a suggestion. His .ini command lines:
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.9 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.01
Sound a little too task heavy. From my understanding of these two lines, it sounds like the UpdateThreshold is the amount of time between the game positioning the sun, and UpdateTime, the time it takes to move it there. Someone elsewhere informed us that these were switched around, but I'm thinking they have it backwards. So if I'm right, your system is updating the sun's position every 0.01 seconds, which is way too fast and could be overusing system resources.
These two lines don't seem to be tied to any other commands or parameters in the game engine, from what I can tell, so what I use is:
fSunShadowUpdateTime=8.0 fSunUpdateThreshold=1.0
If I'm right, every second, the game calculates a new position of the sun and takes 8 seconds to glide to the new spot. So ideally, you could use any variation you want, like having them the same value, 8.0 and 8.0 or whatever and you should be fine. My game now has imperceptible sun and shadow movements.
One quick note, since the update last year, my command lines look like this:
And are located in Fallout4.ini under [Display] about a quarter of the way down the page. If these lines are in another .ini file, make sure they're the same. As always, just be safe and backup your files to another folder, drive or whatever. I deleted the Fallout4Custom.ini file after being a bonehead and changing something I thought was innocuous without backing up, hoping the game would repopulate it, but so far it's practically empty.
I'm not sure how correct this is, but I know that for a timescale of 8, any of the settings you recommended don't look good. They might work for the default timescale setting however.
I came across this post on the Skyrim Wiki forum by admin DoubleYou. This sounds like the best explanation.
Smooth sun-shadow transitions
fSunShadowUpdateTime sets the speed of sun-shadow transitions in seconds. It is recommended to be adjusted to minimize the transitions.
fSunUpdateThreshold sets the time between sun-shadow transitions. A value of 0.05 is equal to 1 second, so a value of 1 equals 20 seconds. Increasing this also increases the distance the shadows will move during the transition. It is recommended to be adjusted to minimize the transitions.
Default Sun Shadows fSunShadowUpdateTime=1 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.5
So the "mod" poster was right. It was also recommended on the Steam FO4 discussion by TKCPrime to insert this line:
fShadowBiasScale=0.6
Some are using these settings. Not sure what to make of this, but here they are.
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.0 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.0
For those changing timescale in console, fSunUpdateThreshold might be tied to the day time settings, and the default timescale I believe is 10, meaning 10 times faster than real time. So a day lasts 2.4 hours.
I tend to use in console set timescale to 8 - or 7 - for a fairly long day, since it was suggested that setting timescale too low can cause issues with world refreshes, quests and script timing. A couple mentioned possible issues with a timescale of 5.
What would you reccomend for these .ini settings with a timescale of 8? I also use that timescale because it's well balanced but would love less jarring shadow transitions. The regular timescale is 20
I might need to tweak these ratios a bit because they seem to be just a bit off from their described times, but this might be due to using custom timescales like 8. From the way it's described, an fSunUpdateThreshold of 1 is 20 seconds between "sun jumps." So a proper ratio with these parameters with a theoretically flawless transition would be
fSunShadowUpdateTime=20.0 fSunUpdateThreshold=1
I'll make another reply if I can do better than my 4.0 and 0.1 values.
Okay so I tested a little bit. I will post my findings in this thread and as it's own post so people can find it easier.
in the beginning, a short PSA about timescale: set timescale to 20 – 20 seconds pass in game for every second in real time (default setting). set timescale to 1 – 1 second passes in game for every second in real time.
The sun (?shadow physics?)* gets moved every 40 seconds as a base stat with the default timescale of 20. This means, if you change the timescale to 1, the sun will move every 2 seconds.
I play with a timescale of 6, the sun gets moved every 12 seconds, so 100 / 40 * 12 = 30%... so my values for a super smooth shadow need to be: fSunShadowUpdateTime=12.0 fSunUpdateThreshold=0.30
I have the feeling the game bugs out sometimes and the sun shadows are acting, as if they don't use my custom values. I don't know if that is a known issue or something, so be aware that some game starts may look weird, while others are just fine with the values that you calculated. A restart should fix that with no problems! Edit: I think that is because I have GCM and NACX installed, both have timescale values, when I change both of them to timescale 6, I don't get the inconsistent shadows.
Hope this will help somebody that stumbles upon it. :)
*sorry I don't know exactly what happens here engine wise, I'll just call it sun movement for easy understanding purposes.
After installing hundreds of mods to make this game more immersive and balanced, this was few of the remaining problems left... wonder why Bethesda didn't bother to fix this themselves?
I am using the cheat menu mod to set the day night cycle to 1 irl min is 10 ingame min. I was wondering if there was something i should do for this or would i just install the mod normally?
How would I adjust these values for a timescale of 10? I haven't tried yet but I am assuming this won't look right unless I use your recommended timescale value.
Sorry about the delay, you don't have to match them up for this to work. Just play around with the values in your ini files until you come up with something you are happy with.
Should be working? Those are the values I am currently using in SSE. Suggest you copy/paste from above to count out mis-typing or spelling errors. Make sure you only have ONE [Display] section.
yeah, still not working. is this in the documents folder (documents/mygames/...), or the main folder? no idea why this is happening. did it with a clean install and everything.
doesn't work in skyrim.ini either. thing is, i changed other settings in that file and they worked fine, as in oldrim. are you sure that these still work for SSE? could you possibly set yours to something wild to confirm it's working for you?
Try removing your .ini files so the game creates new ones when you next load the game then create a new SkyrimCustom.ini with the shadow settings. My shadows are so smooth in game I had to double check by removing my custom .ini file - and it was terrible. I really hope you get this fixed!
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Edit: played through the entire game and dlcs 3 times with timescale 6 all the way with no problems.
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\
fSunShadowUpdateTime=8.0
fSunUpdateThreshold=1.0
which does not make sun movements smoother (at least at default timescale)
fSunUpdateThreshold=1.0 will make sun transition about every 1 second and raising the value of fSunShadowUpdateTime=8.0 does not make it any better
Some people suggest settings that suppose to make "real time shadows":
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.0
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.0
For me, these shadows updating like every half a second and without any transition
So i went with these settings:
fSunShadowUpdateTime=2
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.01
Same as autor's settings, but fSunShadowUpdateTime set to 2 to make it a little bit smoother
in the beginning, a short PSA about timescale:
set timescale to 20 – 20 seconds pass in game for every second in real time (default setting).
set timescale to 1 – 1 second passes in game for every second in real time.
The sun (?shadow physics?)* gets moved every 40 seconds as a base stat with the default timescale of 20.
This means, if you change the timescale to 1, the sun will move every 2 seconds.
I play with a timescale of 6, the sun gets moved every 12 seconds, so 100 / 40 * 12 = 30%... so my values for a super smooth shadow need to be:
fSunShadowUpdateTime=12.0
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.30
I have the feeling the game bugs out sometimes and the sun shadows are acting, as if they don't use my custom values. I don't know if that is a known issue or something, so be aware that some game starts may look weird, while others are just fine with the values that you calculated. A restart should fix that with no problems!
Edit: I think that is because I have GCM and NACX installed, both have timescale values, when I change both of them to timescale 6, I don't get the inconsistent shadows.
Hope this will help somebody that stumbles upon it. :)
*sorry I don't know exactly what happens here engine wise, I'll just call it sun movement for easy understanding purposes.
P.S. I change all my configuration values with Fallout 4 Configuration Tool - By Bilago at Fallout 4 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com).
You can find the values for sun shadows under "Performance".
Ignore the Sun shadow value descriptions though, since they seem to be kind of misplaced.
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.9
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.01
Sound a little too task heavy. From my understanding of these two lines, it sounds like the UpdateThreshold is the amount of time between the game positioning the sun, and UpdateTime, the time it takes to move it there. Someone elsewhere informed us that these were switched around, but I'm thinking they have it backwards. So if I'm right, your system is updating the sun's position every 0.01 seconds, which is way too fast and could be overusing system resources.
These two lines don't seem to be tied to any other commands or parameters in the game engine, from what I can tell, so what I use is:
fSunShadowUpdateTime=8.0
fSunUpdateThreshold=1.0
If I'm right, every second, the game calculates a new position of the sun and takes 8 seconds to glide to the new spot. So ideally, you could use any variation you want, like having them the same value, 8.0 and 8.0 or whatever and you should be fine. My game now has imperceptible sun and shadow movements.
One quick note, since the update last year, my command lines look like this:
fSunUpdateThreshold:Display=1.0f
fSunShadowUpdateTime=8.0
And are located in Fallout4.ini under [Display] about a quarter of the way down the page. If these lines are in another .ini file, make sure they're the same. As always, just be safe and backup your files to another folder, drive or whatever. I deleted the Fallout4Custom.ini file after being a bonehead and changing something I thought was innocuous without backing up, hoping the game would repopulate it, but so far it's practically empty.
I hope someone finds this useful.
So, these changes give the same result and are less less tasking?
Does this affect performance?
So the "mod" poster was right. It was also recommended on the Steam FO4 discussion by TKCPrime to insert this line:
fShadowBiasScale=0.6
Some are using these settings. Not sure what to make of this, but here they are.
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.0
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.0
For those changing timescale in console, fSunUpdateThreshold might be tied to the day time settings, and the default timescale I believe is 10, meaning 10 times faster than real time. So a day lasts 2.4 hours.
I tend to use in console set timescale to 8 - or 7 - for a fairly long day, since it was suggested that setting timescale too low can cause issues with world refreshes, quests and script timing. A couple mentioned possible issues with a timescale of 5.
fSunShadowUpdateTime=4.0
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.1
I might need to tweak these ratios a bit because they seem to be just a bit off from their described times, but this might be due to using custom timescales like 8. From the way it's described, an fSunUpdateThreshold of 1 is 20 seconds between "sun jumps." So a proper ratio with these parameters with a theoretically flawless transition would be
fSunShadowUpdateTime=20.0
fSunUpdateThreshold=1
I'll make another reply if I can do better than my 4.0 and 0.1 values.
I use
fSunShadowUpdateTime=1 to recalculate shadow position each sec
fSunUpdateThreshold=3 to have shadow jump step to 60s
I prefer to have very large transition after a time instead of a permanent moving shadow
in the beginning, a short PSA about timescale:
set timescale to 20 – 20 seconds pass in game for every second in real time (default setting).
set timescale to 1 – 1 second passes in game for every second in real time.
The sun (?shadow physics?)* gets moved every 40 seconds as a base stat with the default timescale of 20.
This means, if you change the timescale to 1, the sun will move every 2 seconds.
I play with a timescale of 6, the sun gets moved every 12 seconds, so 100 / 40 * 12 = 30%... so my values for a super smooth shadow need to be:
fSunShadowUpdateTime=12.0
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.30
I have the feeling the game bugs out sometimes and the sun shadows are acting, as if they don't use my custom values. I don't know if that is a known issue or something, so be aware that some game starts may look weird, while others are just fine with the values that you calculated. A restart should fix that with no problems!
Edit: I think that is because I have GCM and NACX installed, both have timescale values, when I change both of them to timescale 6, I don't get the inconsistent shadows.
Hope this will help somebody that stumbles upon it. :)
*sorry I don't know exactly what happens here engine wise, I'll just call it sun movement for easy understanding purposes.
NOTE
This did not work until I also changed these settings in Fallout4custom.ini
The authors settings work great with a timescale of 10
[Display]
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.5
fSunUpdateThreshold=0.25
Should be working? Those are the values I am currently using in SSE. Suggest you copy/paste from above to count out mis-typing or spelling errors. Make sure you only have ONE [Display] section.
You could try putting in Skyrim.ini
If you are using Mod Organizer you may have to use the .ini in your profiles folder instead.
doesn't work in skyrim.ini either. thing is, i changed other settings in that file and they worked fine, as in oldrim. are you sure that these still work for SSE? could you possibly set yours to something wild to confirm it's working for you?
Edit: Try making your .ini files read-only.