Xirtharri@Antonia Bayle wrote:

I think the shadows are supposed to be blurry. You never see shadows like CPU shadows, either in RL (only in space) or in other games - Soft shadowing as been a standard for year. They aren't flickering with me either...

2 major problems with shadows for me. First, there's horrible mouselag when they're on (IE: You move your mouse to turn your view, but the view keeps turning *after* you stop moving the mouse). Second, the FPS plummets by 30-40% when switching from fullscreen to windowed mode - Although i think this has more to do with my GPU than the game.

A minor problem is how the shadows fade out not that far from the player - It doesn't really look all that good.

I think if you set complex shaders slider to max, the shadows fading in an ugly manor will go away...

Some interesting shadow data on a 2.44Ghz CPU:

Nvidia 7900 GS                CPU: ~50 FPS           GPU: ~17 FPS

ATI x1800                         CPU: ~20 FPS           GPU: ~50 FPS

Nvidia 8800 640MB          CPU: ~50 FPS           GPU: ~50 FPS

I'm curious what happened with the GPU shadows performance on the Nvidia 7900 series.
Few months back before GPU shadows were removed from test I tried them out on my 7900GTX (512mb).
My FPS didn't have any impact (negative or positive) so I was excited that I would finally be able to run shadows without any FPS loss.
Now I turn on GPU shadows and my FPS drops significantly. /sad panda

NrthnStar5 wrote:

I also experience that when moving, the shadows are flicker alot. I took some screenshots while gliding down to try to capture this, but it doesn't look very good at all while playing. When standing still, the shadows look great.

Here is a direct link to 4 photos I took. You can see how blurry the edges are from the jittery/flickering of the shadows while falling.

http://img530.imageshack.us/gal.php...g=eq2000000.jpg

I know the flickering is there.  I am looking into ways of reducing this.  There are a lot of tradeoffs to work with as
well.  For example flickering can virtually disappear with some adjustments but with the loss of how far shadows start
to fade out.  There's currently a known technique that works to reduce this as well, but integrating it into the system is
another long story.

Xirtharri@Antonia Bayle wrote:

I think the shadows are supposed to be blurry. You never see shadows like CPU shadows, either in RL (only in space) or in other games - Soft shadowing as been a standard for year. They aren't flickering with me either...

2 major problems with shadows for me. First, there's horrible mouselag when they're on (IE: You move your mouse to turn your view, but the view keeps turning *after* you stop moving the mouse). Second, the FPS plummets by 30-40% when switching from fullscreen to windowed mode - Although i think this has more to do with my GPU than the game.

A minor problem is how the shadows fade out not that far from the player - It doesn't really look all that good.

Are you in dual display mode, rendering to 2 monitors at once?  I am currently looking into this issue.

Oh yes, adjust your complex shader distance to max under the performance tab in the options menu.  I recommend
this for anyone turning on GPU Shadows.

Arrowheart wrote:

Some interesting shadow data on a 2.44Ghz CPU:

Nvidia 7900 GS                CPU: ~50 FPS           GPU: ~17 FPS

ATI x1800                         CPU: ~20 FPS           GPU: ~50 FPS

Nvidia 8800 640MB          CPU: ~50 FPS           GPU: ~50 FPS

I'm curious what happened with the GPU shadows performance on the Nvidia 7900 series.
Few months back before GPU shadows were removed from test I tried them out on my 7900GTX (512mb).
My FPS didn't have any impact (negative or positive) so I was excited that I would finally be able to run shadows without any FPS loss.
Now I turn on GPU shadows and my FPS drops significantly. /sad panda

Yes, I know they're not as fast.  I've been working with a lot of opinions around the office and places and as a
result the lowest quality setting was bumped up and blurring was added in to reduce the staircase aliasing effect. 
I'd love to add more sliders for players to "play" with so you can adjust the shadows as "you" see fit, but I'm
currently slammed with tasks, though tasks I'm sure most people will be happy to see finished soon.

Imago-Quem wrote:

Arrowheart wrote:

Some interesting shadow data on a 2.44Ghz CPU:

Nvidia 7900 GS                CPU: ~50 FPS           GPU: ~17 FPS

ATI x1800                         CPU: ~20 FPS           GPU: ~50 FPS

Nvidia 8800 640MB          CPU: ~50 FPS           GPU: ~50 FPS

I'm curious what happened with the GPU shadows performance on the Nvidia 7900 series.
Few months back before GPU shadows were removed from test I tried them out on my 7900GTX (512mb).
My FPS didn't have any impact (negative or positive) so I was excited that I would finally be able to run shadows without any FPS loss.
Now I turn on GPU shadows and my FPS drops significantly. /sad panda

Yes, I know they're not as fast.  I've been working with a lot of opinions around the office and places and as a
result the lowest quality setting was bumped up and blurring was added in to reduce the staircase aliasing effect. 
I'd love to add more sliders for players to "play" with so you can adjust the shadows as "you" see fit, but I'm
currently slammed with tasks, though tasks I'm sure most people will be happy to see finished soon.

I like that your actually posting answers here.  Its rare to see SoE employees take the time to communicate with their playerbase (EQ1 is HORRIBLE about it, EQ2 is better, Vangaurd is the best).

What option is controlling the distance at which GPU Shadows Are Drawn?

Because this is what happens to me on Test right now.  If I set Quality to balanced mode and turn on GPU shadows and set the shadows option to max I still get Shadow Fade In, sometimes sudden pop-up even on large objects in the Overland Zones when I approach them.  However, if i set my option to Extreme Quality, GPU shadows render as far as I can see.  Now, I still get awesome fps in Extreme Quality but if I want a truely silky smooth fps in a Balanced or Very High, I cant get the shadows to appear that far in the distance.  So is there another option slider somewhere?  Its not rendering distance because I maxed all those out as well.

Wonderful job on the shadows on test. These shadows are amazing. I literally doubled my FPS switching from CPU shadows to GPU shadows and the game looks amazing with GPU Shadows.

I haven't read the entire thread but, whoever is working on this should be put on the particle effect to the GPU next!

xpraetorianx wrote:

What option is controlling the distance at which GPU Shadows Are Drawn?

 

Because this is what happens to me on Test right now.  If I set Quality to balanced mode and turn on GPU shadows and set the shadows option to max I still get Shadow Fade In, sometimes sudden pop-up even on large objects in the Overland Zones when I approach them.  However, if i set my option to Extreme Quality, GPU shadows render as far as I can see.  Now, I still get awesome fps in Extreme Quality but if I want a truely silky smooth fps in a Balanced or Very High, I cant get the shadows to appear that far in the distance.  So is there another option slider somewhere?  Its not rendering distance because I maxed all those out as well.

Adjust "Complex Shader Distance" under the "Performance" tab in the "Options" menu.  That's it, I'm going to
duplicate this option under the shadows tab.

Sadly I am having the performance issues some other folks are having... and its not my computer...

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.090302-1506)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gateway
       System Model: FX4710-UB003A
               BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad  CPU   Q9300  @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
             Memory: 6142MB RAM

Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce 9800 GT
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0614&SUBSYS_C9773842&REV_A2
   Display Memory: 2544 MB
 Dedicated Memory: 497 MB
    Shared Memory: 2046 MB
     Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (59Hz)

Yet in my custom settings (set to pretty high quality, but not max on everything) when I am on the Queens island on test server with shadows off I am getting around 50 FPS... with CPU shadows on max I get between 30 and 50 FPS, but do have occational drops to like 4FPS... with GPU shadows on max I sit between 14 and 20 FPS...

There is NO way I should be getting such low performace out of this computer.  Its not going to stop me from playing EQ2, but it will stop me from enjoying all the new work on the shadows =(

GPU shadows for me are amazing.  Vista 64, GTX 260.

I'm averaging almost 55 fps with gpu shadows on where with cpu shadows I get drops down into the teens in zones like QH.

Plus, to me, GPU shadows look tons better.

I was playing around on test and noticed that the shimmering effect seems relevant to distance. While flying through Antonica I noticed flickering within the trees also seemed dependant on distance, because it would stop once I got so far away from it. I also can't help but notice an "invisible" line so to speak relatively close to my character that seems to bring the shadows into higher resolution. I would like to see this be less noticable and also farther from the character. I do have my complex shader distance maxed.

Overall they are a huge improvement, but I would definitly like to see some polish to these to make them really shine.

NrthnStar5 wrote:

I was playing around on test and noticed that the shimmering effect seems relevant to distance. While flying through Antonica I noticed flickering within the trees also seemed dependant on distance, because it would stop once I got so far away from it. I also can't help but notice an "invisible" line so to speak relatively close to my character that seems to bring the shadows into higher resolution. I would like to see this be less noticable and also farther from the character. I do have my complex shader distance maxed.

Overall they are a huge improvement, but I would definitly like to see some polish to these to make them really shine.

The flickering is due to current hardware and engine limitations.  Precision is lost with distance in any 3D computer
game which causes things like Z fighting (a flickering effect on screen in distant scenes).  There are techniques to
reduce this for some features.

The hard line seems to be Nvidia specific, as well as outlining.  I am currently working on a solution to these issues.

Thanks Imago-Quem,

Just as an FYI, I am running with an ATI 4870.

NrthnStar5 wrote:

Thanks Imago-Quem,

Just as an FYI, I am running with an ATI 4870.

Good to know.  Thanks.  I haven't seen the line on an ATI card yet, so I'll have to look into this card specifically as well.