SkyrimPrefs.ini bDrawLandShadows

[Quitch]

ENB users ONLY! Enabling these without an ENB will decrease performance with no visual impact and possibly introduce excessive shadow striping.

 

bDrawLandShadows=1

bFloatPointRenderTarget=1

While I agree that bFloatPointRenderTarget should be 0 for anyone not using an ENB, I believe bDrawLandShadows provides a superior experience with a minimal frame rate hit regardless of whether you're using an ENB or not. I've included HardOCP benchmarks of the setting on and off, also their screenshots and screenshots posted by another forum user.

 

HardOCP benchmarking and screenshots

 

bDrawLandShadows=0

bDrawLandShadows=1

 

I believe the guide should include bDrawLandShadows=1 as a default setting for the baseline profile.

[TechAngel85]

I agree with what you are saying and that it provides a good experience over not having it enabled. However, setting it to enabled could cause more shadow stripping and that is why it's been recommended to be set as 0/disabled. This would need to be thoroughly tested with screenshots to see if it causes more shadow stripping anywhere in the game.

[Freyrgjurd]

Maybe it has different results with different shadowmap resolutions ?

 

Since with lower shadowmaps (P:2048 / S:1024) you natively have a lot of shadow problems, becaus of the 8k distance default at Ultra.

[z929669]

Agree with OP. This is not ENB specific, and it will be recommended for users in out INI ancillary guide for 2.2.8