Graohics issues with shadows - I think

[MF]

I'm overall pretty happy with the graphics, but this one has me absolutely stumped. I'm standing looking out over a lake and towards the far side there are what look like a thousand prickly black............ dots (?) atop the water. I think the game is perhaps trying to render shadows for the forest behind the far shore. What is truly annoying is that if there is something in my way, say a branch or narrow tree trunk in front of me, you can see this 'clear' field around it as the game avoids trying to render so close to it.

Is it shadows as I believe, or something farked otherwise with the graphics ? I perhaps never noticed this before because I've never stood in this spot before with the Sun positioned like it is.

[Nitemares]

A picture or screen shot would help.... hard to understand what is happening with a description....

But it could be just as you say... Shadows are something all games struggle with, especially dynamic shadows (those that change with a light source)....

but ask your self this:
is this really a rabbit hole you want to go down for a shadow??

If it is... well, welcome to the wonderful world of ENBs, reshaders, and graphic binaries....

WE have hundreds of ENBs available that do everything from turning everything pink, to making it look like a 50s style filmed movie, to something more "realistic"

For reshaders we have everything again! From making that purple colour POP!!! to adding some much needed greyscale to the black and white colours of the world...


And don't forget the binaries to run all those wonderful colours!!! Keep up to date on those or everything just crashes down around your ears...

[MF]

Originally posted by Nitemares:

A picture or screen shot would help.... hard to understand what is happening with a description....

But it could be just as you say... Shadows are something all games struggle with, especially dynamic shadows (those that change with a light source)....

but ask your self this:
is this really a rabbit hole you want to go down for a shadow??

If it is... well, welcome to the wonderful world of ENBs, reshaders, and graphic binaries....

WE have hundreds of ENBs available that do everything from turning everything pink, to making it look like a 50s style filmed movie, to something more "realistic"

For reshaders we have everything again! From making that purple colour POP!!! to adding some much needed greyscale to the black and white colours of the world...


And don't forget the binaries to run all those wonderful colours!!! Keep up to date on those or everything just crashes down around your ears...

It is the first time I tried an ENB - not saying that it IS the NEB but I did not notice this crap on my first playthru.

Fresh install #3 coming right up.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Nitemares]

Don't have to go THAT extreme :D

Just remove the enb. Or replace it....

START a new game... and you're golden.


Remember the mods get baked into the save file... BUT if you don't use that save file, there is no issue :D

[MF]

Originally posted by Nitemares:

Don't have to go THAT extreme :D

Just remove the enb. Or replace it....

START a new game... and you're golden.


Remember the mods get baked into the save file... BUT if you don't use that save file, there is no issue :D

Starting from scratch. I wasn't that far in - only level 3. I'll figure out which peckerwood it was. I'm going to play with BETHINI as well.

[Nitemares]

Originally posted by Nitemares:

Don't have to go THAT extreme :D

Just remove the enb. Or replace it....

START a new game... and you're golden.


Remember the mods get baked into the save file... BUT if you don't use that save file, there is no issue :D

This is part of the reason I play so many characters... mod testing and debugging.

Once you change your load order or mods, the save game is now suspect, so you start a NEW save game... and test... then make some changes... start a new game and test... more changes... new game...

And on and on you go until you have a stable setup, with the mods you want in the right order.... And once everything is good, THEN I play a real game for immersion an fun.

But until that point? I might start a new game 50 to 200 times getting things working.

[MF]

Originally posted by Nitemares:

But until that point? I might start a new game 50 to 200 times getting things working.

AAAAAAAAAGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nitemares]

Originally posted by MF:

Originally posted by Nitemares:

But until that point? I might start a new game 50 to 200 times getting things working.

AAAAAAAAAGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to modding :D

But at the end, you have a game made for you, by you/

[MF]

Crap I wonder if it was the ENB ? I could've changed that easily enough.

[Nitemares]

Originally posted by MF:

Crap I wonder if it was the ENB ? I could've changed that easily enough.

Possible. ENBs change visuals by design... and shadows would be one thing they effect.

[MF]

Originally posted by Nitemares:

Originally posted by MF:

Crap I wonder if it was the ENB ? I could've changed that easily enough.

Possible. ENBs change visuals by design... and shadows would be one thing they effect.

I've pretty much re-installed every mod that affects landscape and weather etc, but I can't replicate the issue. One thing that I did forget to do last time however, was to go into the 'ini' file for the enb and allocate more memory than the stock value of 4096. I typed in 36000 this time !!! I can't get the problem to repeat. Was it running low on memory ? I didn't detect any stuttering.

I have a bunch of other graphics mods yet to install, but they're for stuff like creatures, glassware, random things like phones etc. I can't see how they'd have caused the issue.

Hmmm.......... one thing that just occurred to me. Immediately beforehand I was playing with a mod called 'WET - Water Enhancement Textures' as I wasn't crazy about how it seemed to be acting on this puddle I came across. I disabled it and then re-enabled it. Do ya think that might have been it ? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with a mod in the middle of a playthru ? Fuuuuuu............. that's rather scary..

[Nitemares]

Not if all you did was disable and re-enable... The save wouldn't know the difference.

IF you juggled you load order, or added a mod, or made ANY OTHER changes... then all bets are off. fallout 4 save files are very finicky... They have to store a lot of information, and they have to do it quickly.. Every thing you place in the game world needs to be saved.. references to mod for those items... and so on... THEN add in the typical quest, player items and what not a save in another game records and you start to get the idea.
You play around with the where the save file expects to find that info too much..Corruption happens... Too much corruption and you CTD or forever load...


***

Now, I don't have a reference to go off of... but is it possible the shadow you saw was at the edge of your LOD? Because as you get closer and closer to the LOD value, the game adds or remove texture detail to stop your system from melting down. IF this shadow was close to that value to could be a "floating" render, or a "partial" render... or even a low quality render by chance??

Because that would be normal behaviour... Throw in some mods.. and normal can look freaky every now and then....

Just something to consider before you get out the pitch forks for your witch hunt of the graphical shadow glitch :P

[MF]

Originally posted by Nitemares:

Now, I don't have a reference to go off of... but is it possible the shadow you saw was at the edge of your LOD? Because as you get closer and closer to the LOD value, the game adds or remove texture detail to stop your system from melting down. IF this shadow was close to that value to could be a "floating" render, or a "partial" render... or even a low quality render by chance??

Because that would be normal behaviour... Throw in some mods.. and normal can look freaky every now and then....

Just something to consider before you get out the pitch forks for your witch hunt of the graphical shadow glitch :P

Yes it was consistently at the other (far) side of a body of water - two lakes, identical problems. I'm supposing it was the game attempting a shadow, as all I could see were a thousand tiny little black bits sprinkled over the water surface. ANd like I said, if another object superimposed itself owing to my position, the effect would stop near that nearer object.

If is is a distance thing, then allocating so much more memory might've done the trick ? As I said, I can't replicate the problem now.

Getting tired of clearing out that cave under Red Rocket.....................

[Nitemares]

Originally posted by MF:

Originally posted by Nitemares:

Now, I don't have a reference to go off of... but is it possible the shadow you saw was at the edge of your LOD? Because as you get closer and closer to the LOD value, the game adds or remove texture detail to stop your system from melting down. IF this shadow was close to that value to could be a "floating" render, or a "partial" render... or even a low quality render by chance??

Because that would be normal behaviour... Throw in some mods.. and normal can look freaky every now and then....

Just something to consider before you get out the pitch forks for your witch hunt of the graphical shadow glitch :P

Yes it was consistently at the other (far) side of a body of water - two lakes, identical problems. I'm supposing it was the game attempting a shadow, as all I could see were a thousand tiny little black bits sprinkled over the water surface. ANd like I said, if another object superimposed itself owing to my position, the effect would stop near that nearer object.

If is is a distance thing, then allocating so much more memory might've done the trick ? As I said, I can't replicate the problem now.

Getting tired of clearing out that cave under Red Rocket.....................

.
..
.....

was the water choppy? )weather effect at extreme end of settings plus some mods) and was the sun behind you perchance???



And if so... going out on a limb to say you don't live next to large bodies of water :D




Cause....

That would be actually really good graphical detail, and attention to realism!
When water gets choppy, and the light is juuust right (either rising or falling, but MUST be behind you!) the water crests act as a prism and reflect the light DOWN in to the body of water, which when viewed across the plane, leaves "black" twinkles.... They go away as the sun adjusts, and you then get what are known as "mini caps" - where the water is just starting to crest white, but not a full white cap wave....

Just thought of it as I am looking an the inlet out my window...

[MF]

Originally posted by Nitemares:

Originally posted by MF:

Yes it was consistently at the other (far) side of a body of water - two lakes, identical problems. I'm supposing it was the game attempting a shadow, as all I could see were a thousand tiny little black bits sprinkled over the water surface. ANd like I said, if another object superimposed itself owing to my position, the effect would stop near that nearer object.

If is is a distance thing, then allocating so much more memory might've done the trick ? As I said, I can't replicate the problem now.

Getting tired of clearing out that cave under Red Rocket.....................

.
..
.....

was the water choppy? )weather effect at extreme end of settings plus some mods) and was the sun behind you perchance???



And if so... going out on a limb to say you don't live next to large bodies of water :D




Cause....

That would be actually really good graphical detail, and attention to realism!
When water gets choppy, and the light is juuust right (either rising or falling, but MUST be behind you!) the water crests act as a prism and reflect the light DOWN in to the body of water, which when viewed across the plane, leaves "black" twinkles.... They go away as the sun adjusts, and you then get what are known as "mini caps" - where the water is just starting to crest white, but not a full white cap wave....

Just thought of it as I am looking an the inlet out my window...

I live on the ocean, as it turns out. Never seen anything like this in my life. It was a calm day (I can control the weather with a mod). I pushed time forward to see if the Sun's position had anything at all to do with it but nope. Nah my money is on insufficient memory allocated to the enb. I'm carrying on and still adding minor mods as I progress. Fingers crossed.