Please, think about the people with low end rigs, let us completely turn off shadows

[BrotherCool]

Try this superlow settings xml
https://www.mediafire.com/?434rc8fyx2acn49

edit: this makes changes to foliage visibility, shadows, grass and texture quality

 

[MomoSinX]

Try this superlow settings xml
https://www.mediafire.com/?434rc8fyx2acn49

edit: this makes changes to foliage visibility, shadows, grass and texture quality

Sadly, no impact or it's just so minimal I can't feel it.

 

[carsomnyr]

Yup as i said before i tried all possible tweaks sadly there are locked lowest values which you cant modify gonna need help from Devs to turn shadows off. But thanks for trying to help mate.

 

[BrotherCool]

Yup as i said before i tried all possible tweaks sadly there are locked lowest values which you cant modify gonna need help from Devs to turn shadows off. But thanks for trying to help mate.

That's simply not my experience, did you make sure to refresh the values by first setting them to medium and then to low?

With this xml file you will barely have any foliage and there should be no grass and barely any shadows, like the image on the previous page.

 

[MomoSinX]

Bump 7.

 

[MomoSinX]

Bump 8.

 

[Smurfin]

I think the game needs 2gb vram, if that's the case, no setting can help since it's hardware related.

 

[jonwd7]

Bump 8.

Have you even tried once to investigate the issue yourself? It took me 5 minutes of looking in the INIs. Also, did you consider that the shadows are so low cost that turning them off doesn't justify the horrific look the game has with no shadows? (I'll include pics below)

CascadeShadowFadeTreshold=1.0f
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=1
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=1
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=1
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=1
CascadeShadowmapSize=1024
CascadeShadowQuality=0
MaxCascadeCount=4
MaxCubeShadowSize=512
MaxSpotShadowSize=512
MaxTerrainShadowAtlasCount=3

change to

CascadeShadowFadeTreshold=1.0f
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=0
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=0
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=0
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=0
CascadeShadowmapSize=128
CascadeShadowQuality=0
MaxCascadeCount=0
MaxCubeShadowSize=128
MaxSpotShadowSize=128
MaxTerrainShadowAtlasCount=0

and stick these in your user.settings under [Rendering] ... making sure to replace any of the values already there.

Off (58FPS)

Low (52FPS)

Ultra+ (48FPS)

(Ultra+ meaning I actually have some shadow settings tweaked higher than the Ultra preset)

So, between Low and Off that's a 6FPS difference (at 1440p mind you). Not even remotely worth it considering how bad the game looks without shadows.

Furthermore between Off and Ultra+ is only 10FPS difference, so you could say that shadows cost next to nothing.

----

If you want, you can post your user.settings, and I can suggest certain things like turning grass off entirely, further reducing some other values below the Low preset, etc.

You also might want to look into removing one of the DLLs which handles cloth physics and destruction (I think), but I don't know much about it. I just know that removing it comes with significant FPS gains.

 

[MomoSinX]

I don't care if the game looks uglier without shadows if I can play it you know. My max resolution is only 720p anyway, so I'd get more than 6 fps with shadows completely off. I didn't play a single minute becaue I can't achieve playable rates at all except in windowed 1024 at the moment and even that is unplayable because the cursor keeps leaving the window and I just can't perma lock it so I am forced into 1366 where I lose the hardly earned precious extra frames.

I think I am going to do a clean install because I tinkered with everything and the changes just does not seem to take effect at all. (several custom inis + the game tweaking tool must have werecked and I derped in xml files too xD).

Not implementing the option to turn shadows completely off by default because it barely gives any fps is a ridicolous argument since most of the game options BARELY do anything even on the lowest settings yet we have all those. It's worth it when every 1 fps adds up that's why the more options the better. This is the worst scaling game I encountered this year so far.

No matter how ugly it gets, some people would still play it. I am not alone. It's easy to boast when you can run it on ultra.

Anyway, not giving up. Thanks for your help. I will try looking up that particular dll. I don't really care about cloth physics so it can go if it helps.

 

[Barukk]

Hey,Dude, I'm playing on a laptop, so I'll try to help you with I learned so far.If your GPU is an nVidia, switch your physx processor to CPU instead of GPU,also, what I learned recently, it's the foliage that takes a lot on your gpu, so try downloading the hunter tools posted before, and set the distance foliage to 1 on it.Disabling the SSAO (Ambient Occlusion) in the game options helps, too.

 

[MomoSinX]

Hey,Dude, I'm playing on a laptop, so I'll try to help you with I learned so far.If your GPU is an nVidia, switch your physx processor to CPU instead of GPU,also, what I learned recently, it's the foliage that takes a lot on your gpu, so try downloading the hunter tools posted before, and set the distance foliage to 1 on it.Disabling the SSAO (Ambient Occlusion) in the game options helps, too.

Thanks, will try these too. Setting physx to CPU is something I haven't tried yet.

 

[DevonCM]

Why would you even want to play a game like this on such shitty settings and low resolution? Why even bother?

Also, you should upgrade your GPU, unless you have some kind of weird laptop that doesn't let you swap parts. Still though, not worth playing on a tiny low res screen. Just keep the game in your backlog until you build a decent desktop and get an actual monitor.

 

[MomoSinX]

Why would you even want to play a game like this on such shitty settings and low resolution? Why even bother?

Also, you should upgrade your GPU, unless you have some kind of weird laptop that doesn't let you swap parts. Still though, not worth playing on a tiny low res screen. Just keep the game in your backlog until you build a decent desktop and get an actual monitor.

Yes, I am playing on a laptop where only the GPU can't be upgraded, I upgraded everything else apart from that. It's not really "tiniy low" res, if I can get it playable at 1366 I will be satisfied, it's big enough, seriously. Why would I play it? Because I just love tha game so much I don't really give a damn about how it looks if it's playable, the story would make it worth it.

---------- Updated at 08:37 PM ----------

Just reporting in, with a clean install and the tweak tool I was able to get 15-25 fps in 1366 yay. Now if I could get 5-10 more and have it be consistent somehow that would make me set (and the game does not look bad because I can have sharp textures since my 1gb vram is more than enough in 720p). Setting Physx to CPU didn't seem to do anything I get the same fps with it like if it was on the GPU. Still waiting for Nvidia's Kepler fix, I have a Fermi but the two are similar, might help get an extra 2-3 frames. Also waiting for 1.05 patch.

Stretched 1024 is pretty nice too, more constant 20-25 fps, sometimes 30. Hmmm.

 

[MomoSinX]

Bump 9, in case some developer sees this so I don't have to dig deep into ini files to cripple shadows..a bit and be able to turn them completely off with one click.

 

[MomoSinX]

Bump 10.

 

[MomoSinX]

Bump 11. Still no option to COMPLETELY eradicate every single bit of shadow.

 

[MomoSinX]

Bump 12.

 

[MomoSinX]

Bump 13.

 

[Zoj]

There is a reason why they set minimal system requirements, that is the MINIIMAL you need to run the game at an acceptable rate to play, chain bumping this thread will do nothing to change that.

 

[Asmodean778]

user.settings in your docs/witcher 3 folder

Keep to the section provided. Edit the ones that are already present, and add the ones that are not.

These tweaks will remove all shadows that are possible to completely remove from being rendered. Remember to make your user.settings file read only after.

[Rendering]
MaxCascadeCount=0
MaxTerrainShadowAtlasCount=0
CascadeShadowQuality=0
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=0
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=0
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=0
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=0
CharacterShadowsFallbackDistance=0
TerrainShadowsDegreesLimit=0
CascadeShadowsDegreesLimit=0

[Rendering/SpeedTree]
FoliageShadowDistanceScale=0
FoliageShadowBillboardDistanceScale=0

[Rendering/Shadows]
MeshDistanceCutoffNear=0
MeshDistanceCutoffFar=0