fixed Strange behaviour of shadows on 2.8

[some1]

1 minute ago, Flappie said:

I don't see FLAT shadows superimposed over aircraft anymore.

FLAT shadows were never superimposed over aircraft, that was an issue when objects shadows were set to OFF. Please re-read the first post. 

8 minutes ago, Flappie said:

Are we OK that the only remainin issue is that FLAT shadows are being "replaced" by DEFAULT shadows? (one setting, two names)

In the current DCS version both options look the same up close, but when set to FLAT, the shadows disappear at closer distance. So it's not just a mismatch in names in the menu, something is broken in the implementation. 

[HeavyGun1450]

Shame that flat terrain shadows still arent fixed but at least we can turn them off completely to get back the fps we lost.

[maks]

Same over here….last week 2.7 , busy scenery at nellis, flat shadows , steady 60fps in every direction i was looking…..today 2.8 , flat again……jumping from 60 to 55 and no stable any longer causing stuttering…only due to shadows as indeed by turning them off back to stable 60fps…..

 

maks

[durp]

I have set Shadows to flat and Terrain Object Shadows to Off. I did not had any aircraft shadows on the ground. with 2.7 the aircraft shadow was visible, but at least for me, I get don't get it anymore.
With Shadows to Flat I can at least see the sky based shadows, including that quirk when it's clear sky and the whole area is in shade.

 

[XCNuse]

Tagging a thread I popped up earlier today for the sake of it. It doesn't seem like today's hotfix entirely fixed the shadows.

 

It's almost as if the names of things are cross-wired? That's the best way I can describe it.

 

 

[HeavyGun1450]

Looks like ED has neglected to fix flat terrain shadows again this update.

Edited November 17, 2022 by HeavyGun1450

[some1]

Yep. They changed something, because now flat shadows do not disappear at close proximity. But the flat shadows still look close to "default" option and they suck similar amount of performance (a lot). Nowhere near what we had in 2.7. 

[durp]

This is after todays update, see no changes from before

Shadows: Flat only (I read in another post this is still not working, will try to test it if I can find a spot where the sun is not occluded by non existing clouds)
Secondary Shadows: Off
Terrain Object  Shadows: Off

[durp]

ready on the ramp

 

Shadows: Flat only
Secondary Shadows: Off
Terrain Object  Shadows: Off

 

No Aircraft Shadows drawn, same as after hotfix 1 release. 

 

[some1]

21 minutes ago, durp said:

Terrain Object  Shadows: Off

 

No Aircraft Shadows drawn, same as after hotfix 1 release. 

You need to set terrain object shadows to something other than Off to see shadows under aircraft. 

[durp]

are you sure? 

in 2.7 I did had that setting off
 

["flatTerrainShadows"] = 2

assuming 0 : default, 1: flat and 2: off

 

also went through my backups of the configuration folder. 
in March it was set to '2'

and thats a VR screenshot also from March. (apache)

 

it was helping a lot with rotary when close at the ground, since 2.8 that is no longer the case and terrain-object-shadows appears to have remained the same (configuration wise)

the other screenshot with the hornet is with terrain object shadows to flat

nullsmoothed shadows, clearly not flat and ways too taxing for me

DCS2.8 with todays update:
Terrain Object  Shadows: Flat

2.7 Screenshot from March:
Terrain Object  Shadows: Off
Shadows: Flat only

Edited November 17, 2022 by durp
added image labels to avoid confusion

[durp]

I just went through even more old configuration backups
for all of them it was:

 

["flatTerrainShadows"] = 2,
["shadowTree"] = false,
["shadows"] = 1,

 

and I am certain the aircraft shadow was drawn, but terrain objects (buildings) did not had shadows. 

This was more a sanity check for me, but there is clearly something broken with the shadows in 2.8

neither I can find any reference to that shadowTree setting in the UI

DCS 2.7 (aircraft shadows visible, buildings/trees shadow not rendered, see post above about the aircraft shadow)
Shadows: Flat only
Terrain Object  Shadows: Off

Edited November 17, 2022 by durp
added image description

[fagulha]

4 hours ago, some1 said:

Yep. They changed something, because now flat shadows do not disappear at close proximity. But the flat shadows still look close to "default" option and they suck similar amount of performance (a lot). Nowhere near what we had in 2.7. 

I think ED is working in a new way to implement shadows and probably that´s why the Flat Shadows aren´t fixed yet. Bummer.

[durp]

Small update on the screenshots with the gigantic shadows from non existent clouds:

 
After some 'communication' took place (unfortunately not here) someone mentioned it does appear that this is only happening on one server (AO) and even more specific only on one mission file.
It will be looked into the mission file to see if the source of that can be pinned to that. What remains is the flat-shadows issue, as this was from the quick-start mission and not related to a particular mission/server.

Edited November 18, 2022 by durp

[Loukuins]

On 11/18/2022 at 7:57 AM, durp said:

Small update on the screenshots with the gigantic shadows from non existent clouds:

 
After some 'communication' took place (unfortunately not here) someone mentioned it does appear that this is only happening on one server (AO) and even more specific only on one mission file.
It will be looked into the mission file to see if the source of that can be pinned to that. What remains is the flat-shadows issue, as this was from the quick-start mission and not related to a particular mission/server.

 

Sadly this is not right, I get this on multiple servers since 2.8 !

[Kevin509]

Any update to shadows and performance with today's open beta patch? I didn't see anything about it in the changelog

[Flappie]

Devs are working on a solution but it's not ready yet.

[fagulha]

45 minutes ago, Flappie said:

Devs are working on a solution but it's not ready yet.

It´s possible that i have better performance with shadows set to high? as VR user i use always set to Flat both shadows  but tried few weeks ago set them to high and i use it since then because i get better results. 

[some1]

It's possible in certain scenarios: flat shadows put more load on CPU, high shadows put more load on GPU. 

[fagulha]

10 minutes ago, some1 said:

It's possible in certain scenarios: flat shadows put more load on CPU, high shadows put more load on GPU. 

That´s what i thought but i wasn´t sure if it was the case.

Thank you.