Ugly shadows

[revi]

I have terrible thatch looking shadows from all objects. Is there a setting i can change to smooth these out to look realistic?

[Feuerfalke]

I have terrible thatch looking shadows from all objects. Is there a setting i can change to smooth these out to look realistic?

Do you know that this game is 10 years old? :confused:

This is not Crysis or CoD4.

[revi]

ok...so this is normal??

[Feuerfalke]

ok...so this is normal??

Well, it depends. There are basically 2 sorts of shadows, depending on your graphics settings. They both draw a much simplified model on the floor, but one is filled with a translucent dark color, like you would expect, the other looks like a small chessboard to resemble a gray color from the distance. But both look very hard and very much simplified.

What sort of shadows do you have? Can you post a picture?

[revi]

I tried to upload picture but had no luck. However the shadow looks like a mesh, made of horizontal and vertical lines.

[Lo0n]

Do you know that this game is 10 years old? :confused:

This is not Crysis or CoD4.
not exactly helpful there...

the shadows have a stipple effect, i presume? so they appear dotty/pixelated instead of a solid yet transparent black? probably needs a change in your conf.ini file.

go here for info on what bits of the conf.ini do what -
http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base&cat=7

specifically this page in that guide - http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base&op=show&kid=27

change the "shadows=x" value and have a tinker til it gets better. if no discernable improvement then you may be better posting this at the ubi community help board with a screenie and your conf.ini/dxdiag to get some assistance. good bunch in there, very knowledgable.

edit i think changing the value to read "shadows=2" should fix it for you revi

[Feuerfalke]

I tried to upload picture but had no luck. However the shadow looks like a mesh, made of horizontal and vertical lines.

Yeah, that is what I feared.

LoOn already posted how to get them from the fill-pattern to a semi-transparent shadow. If that doesn't solve the problem, you can upload a picture for free to www.Photobucket.com, for example.

Nevertheless as I responded to your initial post, the shadows will still be too hard and based on the low poly-model, may this comment be helpful or not.

[proton45]

Maybe you got your answer already, but more information is always good.


"Polygon Stipple - This is a way of emulating or faking translucent shadows when the stencil buffer is turned off. It does this by creating a "dotted" effect that looks translucent (not unlike the stubble of incoming facial hair). Turn this off for a small performance boost. If stencil buffer and polygon stipple are both turned off, you'll get completely black shadows which isn't much of a drawback."


Does that describe the problem your having? I took the paragraph from the page below, and it helps explain the basic graphics settings...

Find out more about IL2 settings on this page of the "mission 4 today".

http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base&op=show&kid=390

[Feuerfalke]

Maybe you got your answer already, but more information is always good.


"Polygon Stipple - This is a way of emulating or faking translucent shadows when the stencil buffer is turned off. It does this by creating a "dotted" effect that looks translucent (not unlike the stubble of incoming facial hair). Turn this off for a small performance boost. If stencil buffer and polygon stipple are both turned off, you'll get completely black shadows which isn't much of a drawback."


Does that describe the problem your having? I took the paragraph from the page below, and it helps explain the basic graphics settings...

Find out more about IL2 settings on this page of the "mission 4 today".

http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base&op=show&kid=390


Correct, Proton. That is how you can change the settings without changing data in the ini-files.

[revi]

Alright, thanks for your all your help guys. My problem is fixed, I have changed the setting ARBext1 to ARBext3. Shadows now look good.
Appreciate your help.