I just got a new computer system and I can set everything to extreme/max with all options on and the game runs very smooth. One thing I noticed though is that my other (older) system with a different graphics card, I was able to lower the ambient light down so low, that the world was very dark at night or indoors unless there was a light source. I literally could not see the ground with it set at 0 but the lighting from light sources was very bright and shadows looked very dark. It looked great but it was just too weak to give me the frame rate I wanted. With my newer graphics card the game is much brighter even with ambient light set to 0. Night doesn't look dark at all and indoors doesn't look dark either. (I am referring to a place like the arcane building in Freeport with the floating candles and torches on the wall. Why is it that I could turn ambient light all the way off on my old system but can't on my newer. My old graphics card was a GEforce GT 620 and my new one is GEforce GTX 770. I really wanted to see the world as dark and creepy like the 620 provided but with a great frame rate that the 770 gives. EDIT: I figured it out. If I adjust the contrast higher, everything that is not directly lit by a torch or light source gets darker while the things that are lit get brighter. Then I can further increase the difference with that gamma. Another thing that is bothersome is that if I am standing still and I move the camera around, some things in the distance (like tower tops) either get drawn or don't get drawn depending which way I am facing the camera. That affects the shadows on the surface. I wish there was a way to make the program calculate shadows on objects further out than what is actually drawn. That way even if the computer doesn't have to draw the object the shadow of it will still be there. Of course, I hardly have a clue of what I am talking about. I'm sure if it was an easy fix they would do it real quick.
So I noticed the same thing with lights. If they are behind you or at some angle that the program doesn't think they should be included in the scene then they won't be a part of the scene and suddenly the light will pop off. Well, I'm not a graphics programmer at all but what ever part of the program that figures out which things should be included in the scene needs to be recalibrated when the shadows and lighting options are on. Before the program decides not to include something in the scene a function in the program needs to either check or predict whether that item throws light on the player's view or a shadow in the player's view.
Well, I can't offer any advice (last time I played with the settings, all I managed was to get it to consistently crash at the log in screen ) , but this thread HERE might be helpful to you. It explains many of the settings, and you might find something helpful.
This might be overly simplistic for determining which objects behind the player should be in the scene. If a light has an intensity of x then it will affect terrain at a distance of y. If the distance between the player and the light is smaller than y then the light should be in the scene even if it is behind him. Then, everything between the player's view and the light needs to be in the scene. It doesn't have to be exact because the program just needs to know what will probably cast a shadow. L=light source, o=objects, arc=distance light will travel, p=player, 1 and 2 = edges of players view I don't know how you do this math but basically calculate a line between p and 1 and then p and 2. Calculate the arc between 3 and 4 for the light's radius. Now draw a line from L, through o, until it hits either the arc or the line along the edges of the player's field of view. If the line hits the arc go ahead and remove that object from the scene. If it hits the player's field of view then include it in the scene so the graphics card can render its shadow. Now, this is 2 dimensional but it would probably work even though many objects still included wouldn't cast a shadow that the player can see. Because this doesn't take into account the height of the light or object. It could be more complicated math if it was done 3 dimensionally. This would result in longer predictions about whether an object would cast a shadow but would result in fewer objects in the scene (behind the player) so the graphics card would have to render less. Anyways, I'm just bored and wish the shadows and light wouldn't pop on and off.
