Shadows low resolution and/or getting caught on weird geometry

[CidHeiral]

Date of issue: 7/16/2024
Time of issue: Reporting at 7:24 PM PST but it happens always.
Frequency: All the time
World name: Hyperion
Character name@Home World name: Cid Heiral @ Hyperion
Retainer name: N/A
NPC name: N/A
Monster name: N/A
Class/Level: N/A
Party or solo: All
In-game time: N/A
Area and coordinates: All
Housing: N/A
Steps:
1. Enter any area with lighting.
2. Move into a position where the light is casting shadows across your character's face and body.
3. Observe shadows that appear very strange. They look like they're either not the proper resolution or they're getting caught on geometry they shouldn't be.

I created a gif of this behavior. You can see the issue most distinctly on the forehead area, but also below the nose and bottom lip at certain angles. This happens in the upper chest as well. In fact, I've seen this happen pretty much everywhere at one time or another.



Additionally, sometimes the shadow doesn't cover the entire area under the hair despite that area of hair covering the entire side of her head, as you can see on the left side. That far left area of light should be shadow as well since it's underneath her hair. There's nowhere for the light to come from.



I've also seen instances of very harsh, horizontal cascading shadows on other players a few times, like across their whole body, but I don't have any screenshots of that.

Thanks!

Platform: Windows/Mac/Steam

PC Specs (If reporting graphical errors, full PC Specs are required.)
-=-=-=-=- System Information -=-=-=-=-
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SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DRIVER_VERSION 31.00.0101.5186
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DRIVER_DATE 1/17/2024 17:00:00
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DRIVER_LANGUAGE English

SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_PIXEL_SHADER
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_VERTEX_TEXTURE
SYSTEM_SOUND Headphones (2- Shure MV7)
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SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_DATE 4/11/2024 17:00:00
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Browser Information
- Name and version of the browser currently in-use: Chrome 126.0.6478.127
- Microsoft Edge Version: N/A

[CidHeiral]

Here's another example. In this one you can clearly see the extremely low quality cascading shadows across the face and elsewhere. Additionally, the player character arms are fairly angular and it appears the shadows aren't sure how to deal with that. You can see them getting caught on the polygonal edges running down the length of the arms and freaking out.

[JacobNewblood]

So Happy I am not the only one who noticed this.

Truly I feel the lightning update went too much in one direction and now shadows inadvertently are trying to hard to shadow

[Rueby]

This is also happening to me, I noticed it on collegiate skirt item. The shadow is constantly flickering under certain lighting conditions (near Radz at Han aetheryte).
I wish making a gif was easier I really want to record and show it, but taking a vid and uploading it with my horrible upload speed takes forever.

[CidHeiral]

This is also happening to me, I noticed it on collegiate skirt item. The shadow is constantly flickering under certain lighting conditions (near Radz at Han aetheryte).
I wish making a gif was easier I really want to record and show it, but taking a vid and uploading it with my horrible upload speed takes forever.

I used this to make mine. It is very easy to use.

[Tarath]

Other jittering low res shadows can be encountered in different areas as well.



Unnamed npc near materia vendor in Solution 9.
Pixelated shadow on hair, low res shadow on the arms that matches CidHeiral's original post.


The Lavender beds, inside a medium house.


The Lavender beds, house entrance.

These shadows were likely not present until Dawntrail launch as seen with these screenshots taken outside a Lavender Beds house entrance.

Endwalker:


Dawntrail:

Both characters have jittering shadows on their cheeks. Additionally the shadow cast on the chest of the Xaela Au Ra appears to be stronger and lower res compared to the Endwalker screenshot.

[thanatoasty_]

On the topic of shadows, I've noticed that shadows cast from dynamic light sources (so, not the main shadow cascade from the sun/moon) become extremely low quality during daytime, and much higher quality at night time. I have video footage of these shadows changing in quality at the exact moment of the time of day transition, 6pm and 6am.

https://streamable.com/a30nj5 Day to Night transition. Note the shadows from the campfire go from awful to good.

https://streamable.com/z8fcvt Night to Day transition. Note the opposite effect.

The ugly horizontal shadow striping/acne observed in some of the above images is almost surely during day time. At least, that's when the effect is most noticeable in my case. It is EXTREMELY apparent in Solution 9 since that area has many dynamic shadow casters. Although, I don't think ALL dynamic lights are affected by this.

I've tested this in many other circumstances and noted the effect in many places. I believe this might have something to do with the issues you're all seeing. But I'd like for other people to test this themselves if possible. Of course, it's a bit of a pain to actually test considering the tiny window of opportunity.