Thanks for this. Looking at the shadow made by the planter box in your first photo, it looks unrealistically sharp. The vanilla transition is softer and more realistic. Where this mod seems better is in adding shadows that are missing by rocks and plants. Is there any way to soften the edges of shadows like the vanilla shadows?
Not sure what's up with the above links, but dragging the comparison left and right and all over the place, they look like the exact same. No differences.
VirtualChrisM if you want to make the shadows softer you can adjust that too. I meant to mention that as an optional tweak in the description but I was in a rush to get this out after spending hours testing.
What you want to do is go to your game directory and open the .ini file that corresponds to the contact shadow setting you use (if you use ultra contact shadows, open the ultra.ini).
With that open, look for 'iBlurRadius=2' under the [ContactShadows] section near the bottom of the text.
If you raise that value, it will increase the blurriness. I would go up in steps of 0.5.
Now, if you want the changes to be reflected in-game, you may need to set your in-game contact shadow setting to something other than what you have it set to normally, then go back in-game. After, go back to your settings and set it back to what it was and it should now be more blurry in-game.
Personally, I prefer it sharp but hopefully this will satisfy your needs. I'll update the description and maybe i'll add several optional files of my own ultra.ini at various blur settings. Feel free to add your own screenshots if you like how it looks. If you do, I would advise you annotate what you changed so others know.
I'm going to leave this up, but I realize one of the parameters I used in the original version was messing with the results of iBlurRadius.
I've decided to upload another version, based on original that's a bit softer by default AND will adjust better if you choose to mess with iBlurRadius. I recommend not setting iBlurRadius higher than 3.5, because it begins to offset the entire effect if you go too high.
^ Here. It's what I credited in my post. Just so you know, alot of these values don't do anything and i'm sure I've fallen for some that are placebo. Took alot of time to figure out what each one does, how they interact with each other and what values even do anything.
Curious, what version did you pick and did you feel like there were too many options?
Thanks for the website, I can customize the visual effects I want now !!! lol
I appreciate the time and effort you spent trying and fine-tuning these values to get the best possible image quality. For modders like me who pursue better image quality, your sharing is very meaningful.
I use the original version it is great, and I will try the Alternative version too. there was a mod that made all things in fallout 4 cast shadow correctly, and I found something in Starfield just dont cast shadow such as the cap and Cowboy hat, I will figure out if it could be solved with the ini list in the website you share.
During my testing/tuning, I noticed medium contact shadows are a bit more temporally stable (basically, they aren't as grainy and flickery), but they work very differently in general so they require their own settings. I had a medium version in the works that was looking really good but I wasn't happy with it because the fade in as you moved closer to distant objects was really bad. Much worse than the other versions in that regard.
This makes contact shadows look so much better, and I've honestly not noticed any major pop in. Using the original file, it's nice having complete gun shadows, and foliage looks "deeper" with the added shadows as well.
Running on ultra shadows with a 3080, 1440p and DLSS at 67% resolution, I'm honestly surprised that there's no real performance impact. Great job!
Is there anyway to lessen the darkness of the shadows? I like their coverage, but sometimes when I stand underneath the wing of my ship, I would find these darkened area that are like literal blackholes where light don't travel to :) It's a bit weird because I take two or three steps outside of that threshold and light start to reach my character again. It's like standing in complete darkness except the surrounding area is bright.
ive noticed the shadows in this game are completley fucked in some places, like 100% void black for no reason like corners and shelves
ive got through most shadow/contact shadow/AO file on this site and still have not found anything that gets ride of these pure black/dark weird ass corners
my monitor is perfectly calibrated and the gamma setting is 2.4 by default which is higher than any other game on the market but they still exist, Im suprised why nobody is talking about it
I'm mostly interested in fixing the jittery shadows (even on Ultra) shown in some NPC hairs-faces. Does this mod help to solve-alleviate this?
Rest of the game shadows look alright, although I would also like to increase the rendering distance as I still see a bit of pop-in with shadows on Ultra.
as you can see in the video, the lighting/shading is completely normal when a dialogue is triggered, but exit dialogue then it becomes super weird and dark again.
I tried adjusting the in-game settings and many ini tweaks in nexusmod but it doesn't really help. Does anyone know what parameters should be added to ini to prevent this weird phenomenon?
thanks your kind reply, so is there a way to tweak the overall shadow strength? it's too dark and hard to see things. also I have tried putting fGamma into the StarfieldCustom.ini but it doesn't do anything.
Me encanta :D, no sé si se pueda hacer lo mismo con las linternas en general, no sé porque pero a veces algunos objetos cuando le das con la linterna, proyectan esa luz y con otros objetos no pasa nada.
Big improvement. Used to be when I wore one of the baseball hats or something there's like a section at the top of the forehead that didn't get shadowed for some reason and now it does.
46 comments
I made a comparison slider between Vanilla / Better Shadow Coverage - Original / Better Shadow Coverage - Alternative
https://imgsli.com/MjA2MDQy/0/1
https://imgsli.com/MjA2MDQz/0/1
https://imgsli.com/MjA2MDQ0/0/1
For me, it's a victory for the original version.
if you want to make the shadows softer you can adjust that too. I meant to mention that as an optional tweak in the description but I was in a rush to get this out after spending hours testing.
What you want to do is go to your game directory and open the .ini file that corresponds to the contact shadow setting you use (if you use ultra contact shadows, open the ultra.ini).
If you raise that value, it will increase the blurriness. I would go up in steps of 0.5.
Now, if you want the changes to be reflected in-game, you may need to set your in-game contact shadow setting to something other than what you have it set to normally, then go back in-game. After, go back to your settings and set it back to what it was and it should now be more blurry in-game.
Personally, I prefer it sharp but hopefully this will satisfy your needs. I'll update the description and maybe i'll add several optional files of my own ultra.ini at various blur settings. Feel free to add your own screenshots if you like how it looks. If you do, I would advise you annotate what you changed so others know.
I've decided to upload another version, based on original that's a bit softer by default AND will adjust better if you choose to mess with iBlurRadius. I recommend not setting iBlurRadius higher than 3.5, because it begins to offset the entire effect if you go too high.
^ Here. It's what I credited in my post. Just so you know, alot of these values don't do anything and i'm sure I've fallen for some that are placebo. Took alot of time to figure out what each one does, how they interact with each other and what values even do anything.
Curious, what version did you pick and did you feel like there were too many options?
I appreciate the time and effort you spent trying and fine-tuning these values to get the best possible image quality. For modders like me who pursue better image quality, your sharing is very meaningful.
I use the original version it is great, and I will try the Alternative version too. there was a mod that made all things in fallout 4 cast shadow correctly, and I found something in Starfield just dont cast shadow such as the cap and Cowboy hat, I will figure out if it could be solved with the ini list in the website you share.
Running on ultra shadows with a 3080, 1440p and DLSS at 67% resolution, I'm honestly surprised that there's no real performance impact. Great job!
Yeah the fade in isn't a major issue but it was one of those things I noticed in a few spots and wanted to try and alleviate.
It's a bit weird because I take two or three steps outside of that threshold and light start to reach my character again. It's like standing in complete darkness except the surrounding area is bright.
In StarfieldPrefs.ini look for 'fGamma=' and increase it in increments of .1 or .2
If it isn't there, add it.
ive got through most shadow/contact shadow/AO file on this site and still have not found anything that gets ride of these pure black/dark weird ass corners
my monitor is perfectly calibrated and the gamma setting is 2.4 by default which is higher than any other game on the market but they still exist, Im suprised why nobody is talking about it
they are dark as hell.
increasing gamma doesn't really help as it will also increase the bright part.
Rest of the game shadows look alright, although I would also like to increase the rendering distance as I still see a bit of pop-in with shadows on Ultra.
And the darkness is very unnatural.
https://streamable.com/zzb86x
https://streamable.com/gv91b6
as you can see in the video, the lighting/shading is completely normal when a dialogue is triggered, but exit dialogue then it becomes super weird and dark again.
I tried adjusting the in-game settings and many ini tweaks in nexusmod but it doesn't really help.
Does anyone know what parameters should be added to ini to prevent this weird phenomenon?
I know you can tweak many things from game ini settings
starfield-default-values-for-all-known-valid-ini-settings
but I don't know which part/parameter should I add, please help!
That is how the vanilla game and settings work. There is a light that gets activated in dialogue and lights up peoples faces.
I believe this is the tweak you're looking for. It goes in StarfieldCustom.ini:
bEnableDialogueLight=0
so is there a way to tweak the overall shadow strength? it's too dark and hard to see things.
also I have tried putting fGamma into the StarfieldCustom.ini but it doesn't do anything.
any suggestions?
Another thing you can try is use a different LUT mod.
Again though, nothing to do with my mod.