Please enable "Ultra" shadows in game settings. It looks beautiful, works wonderful especially in VR. I see no performance impact.

[Rapierarch]

Dear ED,

Can you please enable in game graphics settings, "ultra" setting for the shadows.

It works wonderful and it is not a secret that DCS uses immense VRAM so there is no reason to be shy about applying 8K cascade shadow maps.

They look awesome in VR. I have been using them since I had my hands on 4090. But anytime I change in game a graphics setting shadows revert back to off. And I had to restart DCS with correct options lua again.

Please do it. It does not even need coding. Just add it to the existing pull down menu. 

Thanks!.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Rapierarch

[GKOver]

Could you please tell me how this setting can be activated?

In the graphics.lua I can only see

shadows = 1;

Are there any other user who als prefer this setting.

Edited April 14, 2023 by GKOver

[GKOver]

Is there nobody able to answer my question?
:-(

[Rapierarch]

58 minutes ago, GKOver said:

Is there nobody able to answer my question?

Sorry I missed it. 

It is not graphics lua. You need to go to the saved games  folder. Under config folder there is options.lua.

All in game graphics settings are listed there. Set shadows 5 there (in game high is 4) which will enable ultra shadows.

But As I said the moment that you open settings menu in DCS (control setup or graphics setup , VR tab or special options) it will immediately overwrite this setting and you will revert to no shadows and without repeating this step you can never turn on ultra shadows again.

[5ephir0th]

This, just tried and please, include the Ultra option, looks superb on cockpit!

[MadKreator]

Tried this as well. Setting to 5 is very nice!

[Hammer3246]

Much better!!

[Bazz_Mulder]

Endorsing

[obious]

ED, please take note and allow the Ultra setting @BIGNEWY

[Kerbo 416]

Would you happen to have comparison shots between Ultra and High?

[mimamema]

Maybe we could ask @SkateZilla to be able to enforce this option in the DCS Updater app?

[Rapierarch]

3 hours ago, Kerbo 416 said:

Would you happen to have comparison shots between Ultra and High?

Just try it yourself. You need a comparison video not comparison shots. It removes all nerveus interim low res dynamic shadows and flat shadows are pushed further back. You won't see much in screenshot. Especially in VR when you see all details it is day and night. It looks like completely another game in VR.

27 minutes ago, mimamema said:

Maybe we could ask @SkateZilla to be able to enforce this option in the DCS Updater app?

It does not matter how you enforce it. The moment that in game you open settings menu ultra shadows immediately disabled. You can edit shadows lua and set high shadows with the same settings of ultra shadows but this breaks the IC pass. 

[SkateZilla]

53 minutes ago, mimamema said:

Maybe we could ask @SkateZilla to be able to enforce this option in the DCS Updater app?

was already done internally.. forgot to re-enable before first public release

The option was there to set, but I cannot keep DCS from reverting it when accessing the options menu.

26 minutes ago, Rapierarch said:

Just try it yourself. You need a comparison video not comparison shots. It removes all nerveus interim low res dynamic shadows and flat shadows are pushed further back. You won't see much in screenshot. Especially in VR when you see all details it is day and night. It looks like completely another game in VR.

It does not matter how you enforce it. The moment that in game you open settings menu ultra shadows immediately disabled. You can edit shadows lua and set high shadows with the same settings of ultra shadows but this breaks the IC pass. 

with my app, you wouldn't need to go into the options menu to change graphics settings.

Edited July 2, 2023 by SkateZilla

[mimamema]

4 hours ago, Rapierarch said:

It does not matter how you enforce it. The moment that in game you open settings menu ultra shadows immediately disabled. You can edit shadows lua and set high shadows with the same settings of ultra shadows but this breaks the IC pass. 

Yes, but as @SkateZillasays, you wouldn´t need to edit the file every time you go into the options menu. 

3 hours ago, SkateZilla said:

The option was there to set, but I cannot keep DCS from reverting it when accessing the options menu.

 

Yes, I guessed so, but it´s better than editing the file whenever you go into the options menu for other reasons. It´s just a temporal solution before they activate it officially (hopefully soon) like your upscaling (DLSS) greyed-out menu .

[Rapierarch]

6 hours ago, mimamema said:

Yes, but as @SkateZillasays, you wouldn´t need to edit the file every time you go into the options menu

Yes it is not a big deal to change one value from 4 to 5 in a file. I don't need an app only to do that. The problem remains the same as @SkateZilla also says. After you launch the game. Any moment that you open the settings menu even to change the special options of a module or or even to navigate to controls setup it immediately overwrites your shadows setting and it is really annoying. If you need to restartt DCS each time with skatezilla or you shut it down change the options.lua and relaunch again. 

[BIGNEWY]

I will ask the team but can make no promises. 

thanks

[draconus]

On 4/26/2023 at 7:37 PM, Rapierarch said:

Set shadows 5 there (in game high is 4) which will enable ultra shadows.

Last time I tried, my DCS couldn't launch with shadows=5 setting, had to revert.

[Miro]

What option "["shadowTree"] = false or true," doing?

Edited July 3, 2023 by Miro

[Rapierarch]

8 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

I will ask the team but can make no promises. 

thanks

Thank you!

[SkateZilla]

On 7/3/2023 at 7:19 AM, Miro said:

What option "["shadowTree"] = false or true," doing?

 

it does nothing, it's an old value.

[Hammer3246]

On 7/3/2023 at 1:37 AM, BIGNEWY said:

I will ask the team but can make no promises. 

thanks

 Bump

[FupDuck]

On 7/3/2023 at 6:37 AM, draconus said:

Last time I tried, my DCS couldn't launch with shadows=5 setting, had to revert.

Same here, I don't know if they disabled this, but now when I set shadows to 5, in game it just turns them off. Worked for a while, but not anymore.

[Rapierarch]

On 8/8/2023 at 12:14 AM, FupDuck said:

I don't know if they disabled this, but now when I set shadows to 5, in game it just turns them off. Worked for a while, but not anymore.

Will try it as soon as I can. 

[obious]

Bump. Why disable it if it’s causing no harm?

[Hammer3246]

On 8/7/2023 at 4:14 PM, FupDuck said:

Same here, I don't know if they disabled this, but now when I set shadows to 5, in game it just turns them off. Worked for a while, but not anymore.

I'm not having this issue.