[Skyrim] Yet another shadow problem thread

fixing bugs
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[Skyrim] Yet another shadow problem thread

Greetings to everyone!
I've been wandering around through this forum for a few days now, trying to figure out what's wrong or what's working/not working, but couldn't find anything that would solve my problem.
Quick overview of what I've done: Disable everything I have when it comes to mods, also disabled the FXAA injector I'm using, which also didn't work.

Specs are as following:
OS: Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K @ 3.40GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR3
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 (Socket 1155)
GFX Card: AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
HDDs: 125GB SSD (OS only), 2x 1TB Western Digital WDC WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0 (one for the games and programs, one for misc. data like gfx, vids, etc..)

SkyrimEnhancedShadersFX - Vanilla Plus - No SSAO - for ENBseries v0.102 << what I'm using (with ENB 0.0106 beta). Also tried pure ENB, which didn't work out either.
So, my problem basically is that the shadows are way to frickin dark. I've tried turning adaption on/off, playing around with the ambient lightning and exposure settings, also turning off the sky effects completely. Everything off together didn't also work out.
I'll show you what my game looks like in different states. By the way, this is the enbpallette I'm using. http://i.imgur.com/IiBrJ.png Also tried turning it off, which didn't make a difference for the shadows. (Just a low quality upload, it's called Michael Bay.)
Skyrim with nothing: http://i.imgur.com/03NJr.jpg
Skyrim with FXAA inj.: http://i.imgur.com/ikRKY.jpg
Skyrim with ENB: http://i.imgur.com/t0CyH.jpg
Skyrim with ENB + FXAA inj.: http://i.imgur.com/HIjFO.jpg

Maybe you guys know a way how to solve it.
What also would help are settings with the shadow settings disabled. I use ENB for the awesome DOF and the color overlay.

Oh yes, you probably could make use of the setting files, lol.
effect.txt http://ompldr.org/vZjcwNg
enbbloom.fx http://ompldr.org/vZjcwOA
enbeffect.fx http://ompldr.org/vZjcwOQ
enbeffectprepass.fx http://ompldr.org/vZjcwYQ
enbinjector.ini http://ompldr.org/vZjcwYg
enbseries.ini http://ompldr.org/vZjcxZA

I think that's pretty much it. If you need any further info just tell me and I'll try to provide it.

Edit 1: One more thing that bothers me is the darkness (pretty much also shadow it seems) casted in the distance, for example on trees or stones. It's also way too dark, guess it's the same source of problem. Though these shadows sometimes flicker, sometimes not. It's not even angle dependant it seems. Seems more random than anything else. Sometimes it flickers on/off on just one stone or on the whole scene.
Everything working nicely, except for the huge darkness, which you already know about: http://i.imgur.com/u0efe.jpg
Not working, seen on the leaves and stones: http://i.imgur.com/FUCXK.jpg
Edit 2: Seems like it's related to the sun. The shadow gets darker the more the sun is shining. So it might be something with the contrast maybe?
Edit 3: I get the feeling that this is a bug. I went afk for a few minutes, leaving Skyrim opened and when I got back it turned around the character as usual but for some reason the shadows looked normal.
I think it might be adhesive with what I said in edit 1, since it seems to flicker on/off also.

Adding a few more screens.
Shadow normal: http://i.imgur.com/lVike.jpg
Shadow too dark: http://i.imgur.com/Se8a1.jpg
Here you can clearly see where it gets buggy: http://i.imgur.com/7xTtO.jpg (If you look out for something like a border on the floor.)
Just one more example of how dark the shadow is: http://i.imgur.com/qNSkR.jpg

Skyrim.ini http://ompldr.org/vZjdrdA
SkyrimPrefs.ini http://ompldr.org/vZjdrdQ
Last edited by Jellicent on 23 Aug 2012, 13:36, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: [Skyrim] Yet another shadow problem thread

As noone replies, i'll try. Have you tried to increase these parameters in enbseries.ini ?:
AmbientLightingIntensityDay
AmbientLightingIntensityNight
Also EnableSkyLighting=false in newest version will be a solution, because effect designed only for customized weather.
And i don't remember what is in 0.106 version and if it have some bug or not, perhaps nobody here could say anything, except to use latest versions (don't remember, 0.112 was optimized).
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Re: [Skyrim] Yet another shadow problem thread

Yeah, I've tried these already.
I've even tried them again to make sure once more, but sadly they just don't make a difference, somehow.
But thanks for the answer~!

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Re: [Skyrim] Yet another shadow problem thread

@Jellicent
Link to your skyrimprefs.ini and skyrim.ini on pastebin or some other website. Maybe it's a game configuration problem.
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Re: [Skyrim] Yet another shadow problem thread

Alright, here you go.
Skyrim.ini http://ompldr.org/vZjdrdA
SkyrimPrefs.ini http://ompldr.org/vZjdrdQ

Edit: Since I had a backup of the original .ini files I restored them and tried how it would look like. Well, still the same.
Either it's some lighting or shadow problem of some enb setting it seems..
It also doesn't go away when I deactivate the usage of enbpallette.bmp.
Now I just raised the gamma to 0.65 so I can atleast see something in the shadows, though it's not really an alternative, since the game becomes brighter overall.

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Re: [Skyrim] Yet another shadow problem thread

@Jellicent
I'd say the only problem in your .ini files is the gamma level. You should set it to 1 and tweak ENB accordingly, especially if you are using .117 which has its own gamma and brightness controls. If you find that lots of user presets are either to dark or too bright, set game gamma to 1 and adjust your monitor settings. The other thing that might be causing some issue is your fogcolormultiplier settings. If you have them set almost to zero, the darkness of shadows will be hyper-exaggerated over long distances.
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Re: [Skyrim] Yet another shadow problem thread

Alright, thanks for the answer. I'll try setting it to 1 and see if it helps.
Since I'm using 0.0106 it's going to be a little different I guess.
And my monitor settings are fine, it was the first thing I tried, lol. I'll also have a look at the fog setting, though the shadow is also pitch dark when I'm standing inside of it, so it's not about the distance.
I'll fill you in if it helped or not.

Alright, tried everything you said and it didn't make anything better. The shadows are still pitch dark, the overall picture just gets darker or brighter. Toggled adaption on/off, too, to see if it had any influence to those, but nope. Seems like I'm going to check out a newer version of ENB then. And if that's not gonna work I'm just gonna leave it be.
By the way, I already checked my drivers, played with the settings and so on.. Nothing there either.
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