Weird broken shadows

[Bruno]

Hello, ive recently wanted to replay Portal 2 because why not? But then I noticed that all of my shadows from all of the dynamic lights don't seem to render making the games lighting look very flat and too bright in some areas. I tried verifying the games cache, I tried fiidling around with the lighting options and even updated my drivers but nothing changed, and this is the firs time im seeing this happen.

Here are some screenshots on how its ment to look like and how it looks for me

How its ment to look like: https://imgur.com/a/M3EOSXE
How it looks: https://imgur.com/a/QijIcR6

Any help will be much appreciated

[MrGermandeutsch]

Well I tried getting the 18.2.1 Version, but that didn't affected anything :v
Is it really the AMD Driver? Or did I installed something wrong?
May I receive a step-by-step Explanation?

[g13ba]

Originally posted by g13ba:

Apparently it's caused by more recent amd gpu drivers.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/620/discussions/0/1318835718948155231/?ctp=2#c1693843461191355182

Tested some more driver versions:
19.5.2 shadows work
19.8.1 shadows don't work
Edit: 19.6.1 seems to be the latest driver with working shadows

To avoid unnecessary dowloading of older drivers check your C:\AMD folder first.
In the setup choose "custom install", then "dowloaded", then "new install" (note that these may be called differently, I just translated them as I'm on non English Windows 7)

Edit: (February 19, 2021) ---
If the dynamic lights don't work, make sure that you have "texture filtering quality" set to "high" for Portal 2 in AMD driver settings


Another solution:

Originally posted by MrGermandeutsch:

Originally posted by oof:

do you know what the fix is?

It fixes the projected_texture issue, and slightly improves the Portal 2 Experience, or so I've been told.

It's d3d9.dll and should be put into ...\Programms\Steam\steamapps\common\Portal 2\bin. Here's a Link to it (which only lasts a week) https://we.tl/t-BmreNc1b7W

If you feel like you don't trust the link or the file, you don't need to download it.
I'm just offering/sharing a helpful solution to a problem from someone.

Originally posted by Entity:

same file, but on meganz account [ mega.nz +
/file/BeIh0ayT#EPKECsUDMCEovaI8lPbOacwK3vIB1RgkMVrv7WfHnbA ]
same file, but on zippyshare: www27.zippyshare.com/v/RyaGxKLe/file.html

If you check that d3d9.dll file's properties, it looks like it's from here
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases

Steam Overlay will not work with this.


Solution in Update February 18, 2021:
Add -vulkan to game launch options - In Steam Library, right-click Portal 2-> Properties-> General

It seems that Valve used the above library in the update, as it adds dxvk_d3d9.dll file.
Also same as with the previous solution the Steam Overlay will not work.
Edit: Steam Overlay was fixed with later update.
---

[Sinister80s]

This is happening to me aswell, although im not sure how to rollback my drivers. In device manager i cant click on the button that says rollback drivers.

[g13ba]

You need to download it from https://www.techpowerup.com/download/amd-radeon-graphics-drivers/ or from amd website, though I haven't found previous drivers page yet.

[SisterMonica]

maybe it is you have weak pc idk

[MrGermandeutsch]

Originally posted by hopolokoly123:

maybe it is you have weak pc idk

no

[Sinister80s]

Originally posted by g13ba:

You need to download it from https://www.techpowerup.com/download/amd-radeon-graphics-drivers/ or from amd website, though I haven't found previous drivers page yet.

do i need to delete my old drivers manually?

[g13ba]

Originally posted by SinisterPiggy:

Originally posted by g13ba:

You need to download it from https://www.techpowerup.com/download/amd-radeon-graphics-drivers/ or from amd website, though I haven't found previous drivers page yet.

do i need to delete my old drivers manually?

I guees not if you're using the default driver. Anyways in the the setup program choose the "new install" option if available, it will remove old driver before installing new one.
From my previous post:

Originally posted by g13ba:

...
In the setup choose "custom install", then "dowloaded", then "new install" (note that these may be called differently, I just translated them as I'm on non English Windows 7)

[Bruno]

Originally posted by g13ba:

Tested some more driver versions:
19.5.2 shadows work
19.8.1 shadows don't work
Edit: 19.6.1 seems to be the latest driver with working shadows

To avoid unnecessary dowloading of older drivers check your C:\AMD folder first.
In the setup choose "custom install", then "dowloaded", then "new install" (note that these may be called differently, I just translated them as I'm on non English Windows 7)

It works! Thank you. I wish I could somehow repay you for your help, but thats a problem for another day. Than you again g12ba and thanks to everyone else that tried to help too. Happy holidays to everyone and Bye!

[Sinister80s]

anyone know if this has been fixed in any new drivers?

[MrGermandeutsch]

I'm using AMD and every single version of it has the broken dynamic lights.

[Sinister80s]

i went back to the most recent driver to see if this issue has been fixed yet. it has not. so if you want to play the game properly you need to stay on the older drivers still...

[MrGermandeutsch]

still broken for me, even on the older drivers :(

[Sinister80s]

tested on the newest driver, its still broken.

[MrGermandeutsch]

I heard that the Developers from Portal 2: Abyss have a fix for this issue.