Shadow behavior.

[idbeholdME 388]

Something that's been bugging me for a long time but never thought to mention it here in case something can be done about it, is that how depending on the viewing angle, the quality of the shadows changes. The more "top-down" the camera is, the clearer and crisper the shadows are. The more you tilt it to be lateral with the ground, the more of a blurry mess the shadows become. Let me explain it in screenshots:

Top-down:

You can clearly and sharply see the outlines of the character and especially, the wings.

Now let's see what happens when I tilt the camera towards the ground:

The shadow becomes a blurry mess for... I have no idea reason. The character hasn't moved an inch, the only thing that changed is the camera angle. Might be something in the vein dynamic shadow LOD swapping where the game reduces the shadow quality based on camera angle to save performance? Due to more stuff having to be rendered because of the camera angle (you can see everything in front of you)?

You can easily test this yourself in motion in the game. Just go somewhere where shadows are fully visible and tilt the camera up and down. You will eventually find the exact angle, at which shadows deform or become clear again. It affects every single shadow, be it characters, environment etc.

Is there any way this effect could be prevented? So the shadows would look like in the first screenshot, no matter the camera position or angle? It only happens with shadows created by the sun. Doesn't happen at night or in caves near torches, light sources etc.

Edited August 6, 2022 by idbeholdME