Blurry Effects & Flickering Shadows

[what?]

Blurry Effects

When I turn on (or set above Low) the effects in the Graphics settings, my character is very blurry with blue/red colored lines outlining the body, I can see this on the hands, face, or any skin that shows, when I turn it off (or set Low) this is gone and looks much better, though the characters skin looks a little off, especially the nails, but with it off I can see my characters scalp through the hair which is not very pleasing.

Not sure if this is really a bug, maybe just more of an unpleasing issue, but the setting is bugging me out, I either have thinning hair or blurry rainbow skin.

Flickering Shadows

Regardless of shadow settings, shadow resolution, and shadow precision, among others, shadows keep flickering, shaking, moving, etc. This doesn't happen on all shadows, building shadows (if set to High) appears fine, as well as a few other large shadows, but a lot of shadows for trees, grass, my character, electric poles, and more all act abnormal, these are more noticeable as you see these on your travels everywhere. I don't have any issues in other games including Unreal Engine games. Again, I've tried various graphics settings but this keeps happening, finding it hard to get my eyes to adjust.

[Deathwhisper]

Hello :),

Can you tell us the coordinates where this is happening? Or does it happen everywhere you are? A screenshot or several screenshots or a video of what's happening would be most helpful.

[what?]

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

Hello :),

Can you tell us the coordinates where this is happening? Or does it happen everywhere you are? A screenshot or several screenshots or a video of what's happening would be most helpful.

Hi, I have been trying to fix it and get a good video since screenshots don't help with the shadow issue, this is the best I can come up with and it is still hard to see (video expires in two days) so I've tried to describe it a little too:

Tree and bush shadows flickering and acting fuzzy:
https://cdn.steamusercontent.com/ugc/11927200050680493/A97A06129A163A43FD4F7588316BB85A2B386A32/

Grass shadows flickering:
https://cdn.steamusercontent.com/ugc/11927200050692044/02C0A8F53954537406ABB4E84284ADB7AC2CCB20/

Character shadow moving/wobbling around (kept getting Steam recording errors so was cut short):
https://cdn.steamusercontent.com/ugc/11927200050694037/0B169F3CEBB8EC0674FA0DAFB3EA1C55A4196040/

Shadows under the roof gutter and window/door shelters flickering:
https://cdn.steamusercontent.com/ugc/11927200050695607/C315EBC7AB138E66A036006DE210E0312E210043/

Again it is very hard to see in the video's and often when I get too close it stops or the shadows disappear or whatever.

Tried changing between various different settings but still nothing, the video clips have all shadow settings on High, Ultra-Low all have the same issue, other games (including other Unreal Engine games) are fine, only having trouble here.

The only difference from all the settings seems to happen when I turn off Anti-aliasing, where I would normally see shadows acting abnormally I still see a lot of flickering and fuzzy effects, never had this issue until recently, not even sure if it is the shadows exactly as even bushes and grass is fuzzy, it's really sickening after a while.

Setting my resolution quality to 200 from 100 sort of hides it a little, but not really looking to play at 20 FPS.

Deleting all files and reinstalling the game didn't fix it, neither did verifying file integrity.

[Deathwhisper]

It's really hard to tell. Are you using DLSS or FSR?

[what?]

No, neither. Here is another video with `sg.AntiAliasingQuality` set to "0" (expires in two days):
https://cdn.steamusercontent.com/ugc/11927200050926270/E6511C16B9B0747B0961F175855A37CA602CFEB0/

[Deathwhisper]

Can you share your system specifications with us?

[what?]

Deleted all files again, uninstalled the game, applied the latest hotfix, confirmed no changes or issues with my system as well as other games, and still am being treated to some ugly shadows and flickering of grass and bushes:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3448303105

Never had this issue until recently, and recently the game received an update so I'm not sure what has happened.

[what?]

Here's the shadows set to Ultra (or Epic):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3448307012

[what?]

Spent the last hour and half doing everything on my end, even going back to previous states and downgrading certain parts etc. but no difference whatsoever in this one game, here is a screenshot with anti-aliasing off, everything is flickering, shaking, moving, grainy, and just so horrible to look at, if this is some change for the new upcoming foliage improvements I want no part in it:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3448343510

[what?]

Apparently this is how the shadows look, had a friend share their shadows and it's the same, I checked the screenshots here on Steam and they look the same too, never realized they were this ugly before, probably talking to myself here but is there no way of improving them?

[Deathwhisper]

Originally posted by what?:

Apparently this is how the shadows look, had a friend share their shadows and it's the same, I checked the screenshots here on Steam and they look the same too, never realized they were this ugly before, probably talking to myself here but is there no way of improving them?

Off the top of my head, I don't know how to improve it other than with shadow quality. I also use DLSS on my GPU, and I actually get a pretty good picture.

The problem with shadows is that they consume a lot of performance, which puts a lot of demands on the GPU, especially in such a large game world, since trees, bushes, and everything else also cast shadows. Weaker GPUs that aren't within the minimum requirements range, for example, would have more significant problems with this.

[what?]

I have tried changing each shadow setting but still get the same flickering results, even when I almost remove shadows. And for some reason regardless of settings the shadows for grass always stays the same and do not get better or worse, and as mentioned before it's not all shadows that look bad as the bigger main shadows do look good.

I like having shadows quite high to give them a sharper look, not even sure if the issue is with shadows exactly, but regardless of setting some of these shadows just stay fuzzy and flickering.

I've found similar posts online going back over the past 7 years with SCUM, so it doesn't seem like it's a new thing, perhaps because it's still using old shadows for some things in the game it's easier to notice or something, guess I'll have to deal with it unless they update the graphics here.

[CrankyOldMan]

CrankyOldMan has SCUM Mar 6 @ 9:51am

Long ago it was recommended to me to turn off two settings from a fellow Admin that also runs a computer shop!

Also players that I have had that reported some weird graphics I recommended to disable the same 2 settings which seems to have helped limit or actually worked.

Distant Field Shadows
Distant Field Ambient Occulusion

If you have not as of yet try turning off those settings and see if they make a difference and if not then they can always be turned on again.
Last edited by CrankyOldMan; Mar 6 @ 9:53am

[what?]

Thanks for the reply Cranky, they were among the first settings I tried disabling as I suspected it was one of them, but weirdly they made no difference to the issue.

The main bigger shadows are fine it's just the smaller or more distant shadows that look off (bushes, tree, polls, roof gutters, shelters, etc.). I have noticed in screenshots and videos of the same fuzzy shadows, so I'm assuming it's just outdated graphics or something. Guess I just haven't noticed before.

At the moment I've added some effects in reshade to blur it out and lighten the weird shadows so they are less visible, maybe when they change the folliage it'll be less noticeable or even gone, or if they bring back depth of field effects perhaps that'd help hide the distant flickering.

[what?]

Here's another video of how horrid shadow textures look (expires in two days):

https://cdn.steamusercontent.com/ugc/11928558536486762/890B7253D406987296FA0C0BEB6A04A15D82DC15/

Description: Video shows barbed wire shadows literally moving from one direction to the other continuously with fuzzy flickering shadows in the background.

Took a boat to this area, not trying to be hateful or rude, but genuinely the fuzzy reflections alone when moving across the water almost made me sick, for 8/9 months I've played up until the recent update I have not seen anything like this. I've tried playing with the FSR setting at Quality but the blurred motion makes me uneasy.

[Krannog]

Hello OP! We are aware of the issues with shadows and are working on them. Thank you for notifying us :)