{Quick Link} Shadow Striping Fix

[cfs111]

In your skyrimprefs.ini located in Documents\My Games\Skyrim folder open it with Notepad. Scroll down to line fShadowBiasScale= and set it to 1 so it looks like fShadowBiasScale=1 . Once this change is made click on File > Save As, at the bottom of the window that pops up change Save As Type to All Files (*.*), then click on Save. Go in game and check, if this does not fix it then change the number to 1.5. After you get it fixed go back into the ini and adjust the number until you find the lowest possible that works, this will insure you get the best performance to looks possible.

For those that wonder, or just want to tweak their shadows for either best performance or best looks Velorien posted this information on what the shadow settings do.

Some clarification of what these codes do; (Source; I'm a game-developer with background as a light-smith for films. I've tested each of these codes individually since this game came out - in order to really know what each code actually does.)

[Display]
bDeferredShadows=1 toggles deferred rendering of shadows. It is required for bDrawLandShadows and bShadowsOnGrass to work. It is recommended to be enabled. If using ENB, this must be enabled. bDeferredShadows was added with the official 1.6 patch.

iShadowMapResolution=4096 (Size of ENTIRE memory-pool used for shadow-texture distribution on surfaces)

iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=2048 (Size of memory-pool used for secondary shadow LOD-textures on surfaces PAST the "iBlurDeferredShadowMask" range)

iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048 (Size of memory-pool used for primary shadow LOD-textures on surfaces BEFORE the "iBlurDeferredShadowMask" range)

fShadowBiasScale=0.6000 (The ANGLE the Shadowmaps are aligned to surfaces. Anything from 0.3 - 0.6 is recommended since0.6 seems to remove ALL shadow-striping from the exterior world.)

iShadowMaskQuarter=3 (How many Quarters of an object are being visually aligned to the players viewpoint. 3 = 75% standard, 4 is FULL. No need for more because 4 = 100% coverage)

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=10 (The amount of blurring added to shadow-edges. 0=Sharpest with ZERO blurring, making shadows very choppy. 5 is standard. I recommend a value of 10 so that shad-ows seen up-close are still 'soft' around the edges.)

fShadowDistance=3500.0000 (Distance of shadow-maps displayed to the player, highly recommended values are; 2000=Low, 3000=Medium, 4000=MAX, but no higher since you lose quality the further away shadows are drawn, and most of the landscape of Skyrim was designed with hills and other sur-faces to 'mask' these shadow-transitions.)

fInteriorShadowDistance=8000.0000 (This value determines the distance to player that lights are dis-played to DRAW shadows, if this value is below 8000, then players will see lights flashing on & off in dungeons and other interiors. Changing this value to smaller numbers does NOT improve shadow-quality, this is strictly a light-casting draw-distance factor.)

iShadowFilter=3 (Recommended value of 3, since 4 causes 'Crash To Desktop' on some machines)

fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000 (This is the number that changes the quality of a shadows appear-ance up-close, the smaller the number, the better the resolution. Tested extensively to be best at 200, since 100 is too short a range and doesn't start drawing for the players point-of-view until 200.)

iShadowMode=3 (Recommended value of 3, since 4 is buggy in some areas, particularly around water-falls which will be either too-bright or too dark)

bTreesReceiveShadows=1 (Self-Explanatory)

bDrawLandShadows=1 (Self-Explanatory)

bDrawShadows=1 (Self-Explanatory)

bShadowMaskZPrepass=1 (This prepass ensures the active blending of shadows onto textured surfaces and is used to record the value of 'iShadowMaskQuarter'' to the game-engine. It is not required, but DOES add realism if you have the machine to handle it.)

I hope this helps. For more SHADOW info, check out nexus-user Defosh's channel on this site.

This is the default settings for these;
[Display]
iShadowMapResolution=512
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=512
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=512
fShadowBiasScale=0.5000
iShadowMaskQuarter=3
iShadowSplitCount=2
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fShadowDistance=10000.0000
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
iShadowFilter=3
fShadowLODStartFade=500.0000
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bDrawShadows=1
bShadowMaskZPrepass=1

Edit Log:

12/28/2015 Added bDeferredShadows info per a request from Trehek

[Ilja]

Thank you. I will add this to my list.

[cfs111]

No problem. If anyone notices anything I left out or got wrong, just let me know.

[Trehek]

AFAIK you should include bDeferredShadows=1, for reasons explained here:
http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:SkyrimPrefs_INI/Display#bDeferredShadows

[cfs111]

Originally posted by Trehek:

AFAIK you should include bDeferredShadows=1, for reasons explained here:
http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:SkyrimPrefs_INI/Display#bDeferredShadows

Thank you, added!!

[cfs111]

What are these set to in your skyrimprefs.ini?

iBlurDeferredShadowMask
iShadowMaskQuarter

[Trehek]

iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
iShadowMaskQuarter=4

[76561198173110147]

I cannot find my fshadow bias scale on my ini

[76561198173110147]

I’m using Skyrim SE

[cfs111]

SSE does not appear to have this setting. Try adding at the end of the display section with a setting of 0.600 and see if that helps.

[adams_apple]

If you use an ENB, shadow striping becomes a non issue. Even on the lowest settings they look better than vanilla shadows.

[Blackburn]

thx mate. you realy help me. I spend 3hours trying to fix glitchy pixe/blending shadowsl

[Hangatyr]

This settings do nothing. I still see a terrible striped shadows on the rocks and mountains.

[st0815]

fShadowBiasScale= Doesn't exist in my skyrimprefs.ini. I use oldrim

I only have the strips on body and face textures..

[smr1957]

Originally posted by st0815:

fShadowBiasScale= Doesn't exist in my skyrimprefs.ini. I use oldrim

I only have the strips on body and face textures..

These settings are for Oldrim. If a particualr setting is not present (as in the one you cited), then just copy and paste it in manually in the appropriate location and then save the changes. Though, as I mentioned in your thread, these did not help much for extreme striping caused by interior lighting

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by smr1957:

Originally posted by st0815:

fShadowBiasScale= Doesn't exist in my skyrimprefs.ini. I use oldrim

I only have the strips on body and face textures..

These settings are for Oldrim. If a particualr setting is not present (as in the one you cited), then just copy and paste it in manually in the appropriate location and then save the changes

I take it that the list in charles OP is a literal copy of what is in the file??
Just asking because otherwise it would be impossible for a newby to know where to post it....
(I never had shadow striping when I played oldrim, so I never had to fix it)