Missing shadows

[Jarva]

Hi. My Skyrim isn't showing shadows properly so could somebody help me? The game looks like this:
http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k519/SirJarva/ScreenShot3_zpse30416aa.png

and the ini file says:

[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=5
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=2500.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=8
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=3600.0000
fGamma=1.0000
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=500.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=1000.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=0
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFull Screen=0
iSize H=900
iSize W=1600
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=3072.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=4096.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=3
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=10
bFloatPointRenderTarget=0

So am I dumb or just missing something essential? My graphic card is ATI Raden HD 3850 if that helps.


Cheers,
Jari

[3130]

It`s your gfx card get a 1 gig one any make will do a good job, if your OS is a 32 bit get 4 gig ram if it`s 64 bit get 8 gig ram.......is it a laptop or desktop?

[Phytoseiulus Persimilis]

If you pasted the complete [display] section, you are missing some lines.
Here is what you may find after the .ini portion you posted (with my configuration):

sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580"
bFXAAEnabled=1
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.15
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
iShadowFilter=4
bTransparencyMultisampling=1
bDrawShadows=1
bShadowsOnGrass=1
bDeferredShadows=1
bActorSelfShadowing=0
bUseSunbeams=1
bSimpleLighting=0
bEquippedTorchesCastShadows=0
[Grass]

Look at bDrawShadows=1.

[Jarva]

Huh, I haven't even thought about ram. I always thought ram size only affects loading speeds and such. But that's good to know. Ah, and it's desktop (about 3-4 years old).

pjmtlg, indeed. Those lines are actually missing as I checked the ini file again. I suppose there shouldn't be another ini file? As I'm just having the one called "SkyrimPrefs".

[Phytoseiulus Persimilis]

Where do you get the .ini file ? If it's the one in Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Skyrim
It's not the good one, you don't have to touch this.

Your skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini is in your personal folder in "documents\mygames\skyrim".

[Jarva]

It was the one in the Steam folder. I was so used to think that there was just one ini file like in Oblivion so I didn't check out other places. But that bDrawShadows is set to 1, so seems like that's not the problem.

[Phytoseiulus Persimilis]

Ok, now that you have the right ini file, you can check this site for ini tweaks, make a backup of the 2 files before.

http://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#1

Look at general shadows config and the .ini tweaks part 2.

[Jarva]

Problem solved! It wasn't the ini settings. My ATI driver was just screwing around and I just had to download d3d9.dll to fix the graphics. Which revealed that I was missing more than just shadows: smoke, some flame and water effects, mist, cobwebs and many more.

Now I'm so hypnotised because the game looks so completely different (even though the shadows look slightly ugly). And thanks, that link was quite useful. Going to give it better look at some point.

[Shad]

Thank you for telling me how you fixed it Sir Jarva, just helped me fix my Skyrim and give it a good boost my FPS. Took me hours to find a fix and finally found it, huzzah!