GPU Shadows are in Test now.

You should be able to turn them on in your options menu under Display->Shadows.

Note the accompanying GPU shadow options under this menu.

Hope you enjoy trying them out.

Please post all your feedback onto this thread.

Thanks!

PS. There are some bug fixes and options changes going into Test soon as well.

Yay!

I have an 8800 GTS (driver version: 181.71 Windows 7 drivers WDDM 1.1) and the biggest oddity I found was when I turned on GPU shadows everything became darker (could still see, just slightly darker), and there were no shadows.  When I switched it back to CPU shadows I still didn't have any shadows appear. 

After exiting and re-entering the game I had shadows even under the GPU setting - so it seems like perhaps a bug more in the changing of the setting from CPU to GPU, than in the actual GPU shadows.  A hiccup you run into only on the first time?

Actually found something WAY odder than that - going to try to upload it somewhere so I can show a photo.  The easiest way to describe it is like a 'smearing' effect.  Not so much blurry, but smeared as if the gameworld were ink and it just got wet.

I'm observing the same thing.

Not surprising, even with GPU shadows, they're still a major performance hog.

Seliri@Nagafen wrote in Positive Ninja Mods to Test:

- Collections don't give adventurer XP when turned in with quest XP disabled

- Shadows are enabling some form of GPU support

Why do my announcements always precede administrator ones? Psh. Egos demand le vain bragging. ;'[ Hehe.

For me, shadows worked perfectly and my framerate was very smooth with everything maximized on test. I've a 4870 HD and a Core 2 Duo Wolfdale E8400 2.4 GHZ with 8 gigabytes of DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) RAM, running at a 1680x1050 resolution. Though my framerate was only around 20-35 (eek, heh), I do run EQ2 in windowed mode with multiple processes at once, but my CPU and RAM is never at 100% usage. On live, I usually only get 15-35 FPS. x_x

I've been waiting for gpu-shadows for a long time, so this really made my day!

The first thing that jumped out at me was that shadows stick, and don't care if you actually see the object casting them, which gives a very nice impression. They are not as sharp and precise as the CPU shadows, but close enough that I don't really care. Another bonus is that trees now cast detailed shadows, and zones like Darklight have received ambient shadows.

After testing a bit, I did notice something odd, though. Rather than being faster than CPU-shadows, they are slower. Switching back and forth between GPU and CPU, I consistently found GPU to be a few frames slower than CPU. Also, far from all objects cast shadows in GPU mode, and there is no self-shadowing. After a bit more testing I found that zones with far more CPU shadows than GPU ones did receive a framerate bonus with GPU (as expected).

GPU shadows still need a lot of work, but for a first implementation it's very well done.

/ Tested on Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3,1GHz, Geforce 8800GTS 640mb, 4gb RAM @ 1680x1050

It would appear that nothing has changed from the last update that contained these shadows, they are still obviously very buggy and exactly the same. No performance hit or big performance hit dependant on settings, none of the shadow map sliders appear to work and the implementation on my 8800GTS is unuseable from an image quality point of view.  Characters and items have a ghost image floating above them which appears in the shadows, shadows are cut off about an inch and a half above the bottom of the render viewport, image follows:

I experimented with GPU shadows vs CPU shadows in Lavastorm, where I logged out last.

With everything shadow-related that I was able to adjust turned to max, I got 15 - 20 FPS with CPU shadows on, as well as an odd "rubber band" effect when turning (not present normally, even when FPS drop that low). 

With GPU shadows enabled instead, I was running a smooth 45 - 60 FPS, even when multiple characters and mobs were within view.

Based on the above, I'd say GPU shadows are a success.

That said, things could be improved, too:

o Not all objects cast shadows.  I doubt you have to manually enable shadows on a per-object basis, so I'm assuming we are dealing with a case of unnecessary optimization.  Please allow those of us with decent hardware to enable as many performance-draining options as we like.

o Not all environment light sources actually act as light sources when it comes to shadows.  This sometimes causes particularly odd situations, such as when i was standing near the Lavastorm mariner bell and my character was casting a shadow towards the fiery brazier there.

o The quality of the shadows isn't particularly high.  Specifically, the edges of shadows appear to be low-rez textures.  While I understand something like that might improve performance, and thus is warranted with lower-quality settings, why am I seeing it when I'm running with max-quality shadows?

Pertinent system specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-940 3GHz
RAM: 6 GB (tri-channel DDR3)
Video: Radeon 4870 X2
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate
UI: ProfitUI
EQ2 Settings: Full-screen mode, all options at max.

I had been looking forward to this addition for awhile.  I knew exactly where I was going to test it too!

If anyone has ever run around at max settings most of the time, eventually you would get near Mistmoore Castle in Loping Plains.  With Environmental Shadows turned on, the steps up to the castle are insane!  I'm talking 1-2fps.

I logged into test, and loaded up the GPU shadows.  At first, it looked like the shadows werent' there.  Then I noticed that they were, but they were much fainter.  I maxxed out the settings for GPU shadows (Sharp, etc.) and noticed that the shadows didn't land in the same place as the CPU shadows did.

Also, when standing next to a torch in EFP, with CPU shadows, i'd see multiple shadows myself, from the environmental light source, and the torch, but with gpu shadows on, i did not see a shadow from that torch.  The shadow, if there, is very faint.

When running around a bit more, I found other 'torch like objects' like flowers in lesser faydark that did provide a shadow.

Anyways, so I went to the Mistmoore Castle steps, and I was running anywhere from 40-55 fps running up the steps with environmental GPU shadows on.  That's an enormous improvement.

Also, running around with these newer fuzzier shadows actually started to look nicer to me than the straight edged CPU ones.  The Sinking Sands dock area with the shadows from the NPCs and tents looked much better to me imo.

So I'd say I like the shadow option change.

Now can anyone tell me why I don't see a sky when logged into Test!?  thanks!

only thing is i cannot adjust any of the slider options under world map shadows etc. not sure if that part is not in or you have to have CPU shadows enabled but cannot adjust any of it.

If you guys wanna post the specifications of your rigs, I'm sure it'd be appreciated, as understanding the disparity between an array of ranges for player stability sure has its variables (parallelization, I think, maybe being most relative [i.e. Do we all ACTUALLY maximize everything, what resolution caps each particular sample?]).

I'd also like to note that none of the shadow maps sliders worked for me, either.

I apologize for the sliders not working.  This is expected.  Those sliders are for me alone, sorry. 
They're locked in so you can't create invalid shadows.  They should disappear in a later update.

Some updates that are already coming:

    1.) Darker shadows

    2.) A few bug fixes (eg. Sky bug, Iksar race, etc.)

    3.) Softer Shadows (less pixelated)

    4.) Higher quality shadow setting and faster low quality setting

    5.) Updated shadow settings to Low, Medium, High quality.  Control factor is going away.
         Self shadowing will appear in medium and high quality settings.

    6.) Switch to CPU shadows when indoors option (currently GPU shadows only cast from sunlight)

Note: GPU shadows are expected to run faster when more populated areas or areas with more architecture are in view. 
Since trees and plants are now casting dynamic higher-quality shadows you may find lower frame rates in dense forests.

And the two fairly nasty bugs I pointed out?

I'll look into it, but there is a fix coming for possible floating shadows.  Hopefully it will fix the issue you're seeing.

I thank you for the outstanding work you have done with this, its something many of us have wanted for a long time.