[FIXED] Outdoor shadows jumping across screen @ ultra high settings [ Edited ]

[WolvesCreek]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.60.54.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? ALL
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Simply put all settings to ultra high, its been well reported for 4 years off and on. turning them down fixes the issue but then your playing the game in medium settings, shadows should work no matter what setting and should work BETTER at ultra high. Not worse, I get around 80-120fps at ultra high.
What happens when the bug occurs? The shadows don't move across the screen from outdoor objects, such as trees and buildings. The literally JUMP every few seconds like they are being moved manually.
What do you expect to see? Anytime you can see outdoor shadows, best during daytime and sunny days.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? No

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I know this was reported a LONG time ago, but after nearly 3 to 4 years this bug still persists. 

The bug effects shadows from outdoor objects, where they don't move naturally across the screen but jump from spot to spot every few seconds. Like somebody was manually moving the shadows by picking them up and dropping them back down a few spaces apart.

This bug only effects settings as ultra high and while there is a work around well reported, it literally requires you to change the graphics to medium settings.  I have ZERO desire to play this game at medium settings and have it look like crap just to get better shadow effects.    I can otherwise play it just fine at 4k RESOLUTION and get about 60-80fps in ultra settings.  At 2K I get 120fps. 

So the work around to make your game LOOK worse to get better shadows makes absolutely no sense, ultra high settings should make everything look better including shadows.  Not worse.  Currently setting graphics at ultra breaks shadows from moving properly.

Please fix this graphical issue, from all reports it effects all graphic cards and brands at ultra high settings.

Edit By Crinrict: Adjusted Tag

[crinrict · Accepted solution]

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• Outdoor shadows now move smoothly without jumping on the screen on ultra graphics settings and at different Live Mode speeds.

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Fixed in Patch 1.109.185/1.98
Please create a new thread if you're still experiencing this issues 

[crinrict]

@WolvesCreek Thanks for the new thread.

Posting the link to the old one for reference: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Shadow-Movement-Bug/td-p/5015915/

[pureedboot]

I can confirm that this is still an ongoing issue. I first noticed it around four years ago, and have reported on it several times here over the years. Unsure as to why it hasn't been addressed yet.

[Alistu]

I have this and although I have unfortunately gotten used to it, it still annoys the heck out of me.

I swear at one point in time one of the QA team said they were aware of the issue and tracking it yet nothing ever came of it. Surely, shouldn't it just be a case of copying over whatever code they have for medium shadow settings to the ultra settings? I know that's probably dumbing it down way more that it actually is but if they already have a working version in the game for one quality setting then they should at least be able to check the differences between the two and see what needs altering.

[pureedboot]

Yes, SimGuruNick responded on a previous thread back in June 2017 confirming that they were "tracking" the issue. Almost three years later and it still hasn't been addressed.

[Alistu]

@pureedboot They probably don't consider it high enough priority so I guess it keeps getting pushed to the back of the queue.

[ShepardTH]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.61.15.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Just play through.
What happens when the bug occurs? Shadow jumps every few second.
What do you expect to see? shadow jumps...
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. Since 2017

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It's 2020 and it still happening. The shadow jumps every few second. I have now changed into RTX 2080 and it still occurs.

[crinrict]

@ShepardTH Merged your post with current thread on this.

Please click me too on the first post.

[girliesamm]

Hi everyone. Don't know if anyone else is still having this issue, but I was finally able to fix it in my game and thought I should share. I took the solution from the other thread which was to go into the GraphicsRules file and change the NumberCascadesLevel for the very high setting from 3 to 1. In game the shadows were moving very smoothly, but the quality of the shadows was very poor. So I used the game options to change back my lighting setting to very high (changing the file switched it to medium in game) and I restarted my game. To my surprise the shadows still moved smoothly at very high quality. I checked the GraphicsRule file and the NumberCascadesLevel was still 1. Hopefully this works for someone else.

[Alistu]

@girliesamm Didn't work for me I'm afriad. Switching the NumberCascadesLevels to 1 did fix the shadow movement but it never switched my lighting quality to Medium in the settings. It stayed at Very High so closing and restarting the game didn't do anything meaning I was left with nice shadows with a really low draw distance.