Well I found and did this, in a thread that got locked as solved: I'm pretty sure I solved this. Click start > Run Type in %appdata% Select Roaming > The Creative Assembly > Rome 2 > Scripts Open the file preferences.scripts.txt Look for the following line gfx_enable_directx11 true; # gfx_enable_directx11 , Enable DirectX 11 rendering # and change it to the following gfx_enable_directx11 false; # gfx_enable_directx11 , Enable DirectX 11 rendering # Click file and save Run Rome 2 with shadows working correctly. There you have it, you've now told Rome 2 not to force the use of dx11 even if your card doesn't support it. >.> ......and that has pretty much solved the 'everything looking black' issue and shadows now display properly. However, all the textures are still low res, even after trying your solution.