Soft Shadows - Computationally expensive?

[DistortAMG]

Good afternoon,

Just looking at the soft shadow option in VS NG, when activated it drops my sim FPS by about 75%. I seem to recall it did this in VSF also.
I have tested this on my old rig that sports a Nvidia GTX 1660 Super 6GB graphics card and on my new system using an Nvidia RTX 3070 8GB graphics card. I seem to recall it doing the same thing way way back when I was running VSF on the then mid range but now ancient Nvidia GTX 460 1GB.

Is there any reason why this implementation of soft shadows is so seemingly expensive (computationally). Seeing as this is VS NG, what are the chances of getting a more up to date, modern and most importantly, computationally cheaper implementation of soft shadows added.

I know this is a tall ask and I know Ilan is only one person, but seeing as shadows are fundamental to the overall image presentation I would love to see a soft shadow implementation that does not absolutely kill the FPS. I am pretty sure the version being used now is over a decade old and it really shows, especially when it massively kills FPS. It is a shame, because it is such a nice feature, yet can rarely be used.

[Sailorjohn]

I'm not seeing a "soft shadow" option in VS NG, nor in VSF. I've checked ingame settings, logfile, and Nvidea options. While I noted the discussion about FPS impact, I wanted to try it...as I frequently observe FPS over 100 ingame using highest quality settings. Where is that option found?

[DistortAMG]

You can find the setting in game.

From the top bar in VSF, go to options, then click on 'Graphics'. This will bring up the graphics window.

From the 3 tabs at the very bottom of the window select the one called 'Graphics'.

Then under performance on the top left of the screen, find the tick option for soft shadows.

See screenshot here:


I run the game usually on the extremely high resolution of, which is 3840x2160. (4k). I see a huge drop in FPS performance. It is still playable for me with soft shadows turned on. But the drop is massive, this suggests to me that people with lesser hardware (the vast majority of people) will not be able to use this feature. I can only use it because I am fortunate enough to have an enthusiast level graphics card in my PC. Even with that, it is barely runnable.

It would be a nice feature for everyone to use.

[Sailorjohn]

Thanks, DistortAMG.
But in the example you show, the option ticked is "Show shadows", not "Soft shadows" as discussed. I always have "Show shadows" selected as well as highest quality graphics and dynamic shadows in both VSNG and VSF. Are you seeing a specific option for "Soft", or did you mean the "Show shadow" option, which I always use?

[VesselCap]

Hello Sailors. I have not seen either option for "soft shadow" on Virtual Sailor NG, but I see that from some time ago the shadows are visually optimized, now are a little more softer, but the high consumption is a serious problem on large vessels that have activated the "bump map" through effects.cfg file, and also I think that works so bad with more complex vessels with high amount of polygons, even though this last issue is more an optimization problem on designers side, not from Ilan.

Currently I can't navigate without shadows, for me are an essential thing for a better immersion and experience that help me to live again my navigational watches on the bridge. I hope that Ilan continue working on these things, shadows and natural light to bring a more realistic experience. For now I spend more time with optimized vessels to enjoy all VS NG graphics capabilities.

Best regards

Fran

[Sailorjohn]

Ahoy, Fran.

I agree wholeheartedly that those shadows are an essential part of 'immersion'. It's a major part of what makes VS_NG (and VSF) the go-to choice for many of us old seadogs.

[DistortAMG]

Sorry, it is 'show' shadow option. Not soft shadows. Either way, the problem is still the same, very very computationally expensive.

I guess one of the issues is nothing can be pre baked or pre computed due to users being able to add their own models into the sim - that said, it would be lovely to have a more modern or cheaper alternative that is less taxing on even some of the highest end hardware.

That is a good point raised though, this could also be the fault of the content creators with badly optimised models.

[RobNeath]

One thing to keep in mind even though Virtual Sailor NG is a new game it is still made using DirectX 9 not the newest DX11 or even DX12. I questioned Ilan on this and he said if he was to use the newer engine he would have to redo everything.

This is the main reason why VSNG isn't that great when it comes to performances unless you have a really high end Computer (I find 32GB Ram does help) as the hardware is limited by the DirectX 9 engine.

Unfortunatley I don't think this is something that will be changed, not for these games at least.