Removing the "all black" in shadow effect with an old GPU (GeForce 260)

[Steph]

I have an old GPU (GeForce 260), and the first time I played I was shocked by the ugliness of the units.
Although I have almost everything at Ultra (and I don't see that much lag, strange), the units were relatively OK when looking from an angle where they are lit by the sun.




But if you turn around and look at the unit from the other side, with the sun behind them, they become black



I tried changing all the options, and the remain that way. I finally found a solution to have them acceptable (although far from the quality some are showing in their screenshots).



You need to edit the "preferences.script.txt" file

Locate this line

gfx_enable_directx11 true; # gfx_enable_directx11 <bool>, Enable DirectX 11 rendering #

and change it to false;

Apparently, GeForce 260 cannot properly use Directx11 rendering, but you can't change this option in game, you need to do it in the préférences.

While you are at it, I suggest setting the shadows completly to Off since they don't work well with this old GPU and brings vritually nothing to the game.

Other solution : buy a new GPU... I plan to do that in January, after my birthday.

But in the meantime, I'll play with lesser graphics, but at least where I can see my units!





and change to "fals"

[Steph]

Two more screens. These are taken using DirectX 11 set to true, Shader Model 4, and Shadow set to "low".

You can notice the units are better than when setting Directx11 do false (look at the variation on the shield).




However, if you turn around to see the unit from the other side...




The become black.

IMO, a relatively simple solution for CA would be to a make a patch where the "Low" setting for Shadow will effectively COMPLETLY remove the shadow if they can't make it work properly

[Chris1982]

Yes. I wonder why there is no "shadows off" option like in Shogun 2. Would help people with older GPU.

[Steph]

Actually, the script files says "0 = off" in the comment

but it's not really off, it seems to just below.

I don't really care if I have to remove the Shadow since I have an old GPU, but I care if I can't remove it, unless removing everything else, and ends up with graphics worse than Medieval...

[Crymson]

Yep, this really needs to be fixed. My GeForce card is old, but it exceeds the minimum specifications by a substantial amount. I nevertheless have substantial framelag and this black paint issue.