Importance of Shadows
 

The biggest drag on my rig in CoD is SHADOWS. They not only drop my FPS by about 10-15 on average, but they also cause FPS hicks where they will drop by 20-30 for a half second or so. I have my video settings at the highest except SASO is off and grass (a real waste of processor power) is off. In many cases I think shadows are a waste of processor power. I don’t think they add much to the ground scenery and don’t miss them at all there. I don’t think shadows on other airplanes make much difference either. Where I think shadows are really important is in the cockpit. The constantly changing shadows add a great deal of realism to combat situations. Real pilots had to deal with it whenever the sun was out. So, if there is one thing that I think should be optimized it is in-cockpit shadows.

well i have to play without them for performance reasons as well...they drop my average fps from 60 down to 20...
but in my view they add a lot to the landscape.particular at dusk and dawn the landscape looks much more lifelike with shadows enabled.the cockpits too look way more real with them.besides shadows can in certain situations save your life!for example when an enemy approaches on your six and you dont notice him, but suddenly can see his shadow on the ground by coicidence...happened to me a few times when i was playing with shadows enabled.

S!

Shadows, SSAO, Grass and Forest equal to the biggest problems with performance of CoD. With them you get stuttering, freezes and dips in FPS. Last night tried online and it was nice until I got close to another plane and there was shadows + smoke + trees = FPS went to low single digits at times :( Without them a solid 60FPS..

If you turn off the shadows you might as well be playing il2 46 IMO.

S!

Well, rather no shadows and a solid performance than hair ripping stuttering and low FPS with them on ;) Well, the sound bug was not there though even I had trees at Low :D

What this sim need is new graphics engine :grin:

Agree. No minimum quality reqs with women but won't play clod without shadows.

Ah yes, I agree to the point about aircraft shadows on the ground. They are present in IL-2 Classic and I have used them to detect the position of enemy aircraft.

It's all about your hardware.
I've got everything on and on high, even original textures and I average better than 50fps.

And your hardware specs are.......