hi guys.

i wish to make my shadows draw for farther away but reduce the resolution of the shadows on the ground.

i have a relatively slow CPU (it's a Q6600 at 2.4ghz) and as far as i know the shadows use the CPU more than the GPU which might explain my lower FPS in outdoor areas with shadows on ultra and the nice gain when i put shadows on medium (in the launcher settings).

now i want to play with ENB for a bit but i must lower the shadows since ENB already lowers FPS quit a bit, but since ENB smoothens the shadows so nicely i figured i dont mind the blocky shadows of MEDIUM settings but i do really wish shadows to render farther away than how they do on MEDIUM.

im sure i can tweak this in the INI since i've done this a year ago, but cant remember how.

any advice?

Im pretty sure this setting determines the quality of the shadows;

iShadowMapResolution=4096 &--#60;=== this one will have the biggest impact on FPS

this setting should determine how far away from you the game attempts to draw shadows when outside;

fShadowDistance=6000.0000

this setting determies how far away from you lights/shadows are drawn indoors;

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000

Now these settings are from my ini, very high quality and im not sure what the default settings are, i do know you should probably start by cutting the shadowmapresolution to 1/2

lemme know if this helps!

The way shadows work in Skyrim is, the further away you draw them, the lower the resolution appears as the same resolution gets stretched over an increasing distance.

The highest detail shadows in Skyrim requires the lowest shadow distance with the highest resolution.

Best thing to do is to set the shadows to low and ultra in the launcher, and copy the ini each time. Then you can compare them and see what gets changed.

^This

thanks for the help, guys.
i think i can take it from here

This has some screenshots and info accompanying each change.
http://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#15