Is This The Most Important Setting in DCS? I think it is!

It appears that when rain and clouds are added to a mission, that mission will appear much darker if the General Shadows setting is set to on. This can make it extremely difficult to spot ground targets or enemy aircraft using the ground to hide.
Note: Complex multiplayer missions, the map, the module and your graphics settings all affect the frames per second.

[dougroberts]

With the General Shadows setting set to on, it's more realistic

[igorkratka]

The environment is nicer with general shadows On. What is the point of adding rain into a mission if that means visibility not decreased? What is the point of adding clouds if they don`t project shadows? We could just go back to DCS 1.7 from 4 years ago and not to bother with all those amazing atmospheric effects. Preferring aesthetics of the game over competitive gaming, at least now I know how to keep shadows on. Thank you!

[EFUwazurike]

If we can't turn off shadows irl, I don't turn them off in the sim. Immersion is king for me, especially in VR

[krzysztofgawe]

Winning is not everything. My game must be pretty. I play with shadows anyway, knowing all this.

[wrench]

In future, I recommend you use a track file for side by side comparison videos.
They respect the graphics settings.

[mikerowave]

Dumbing down graphics to have better spotting is a very old thing in online games

[dat_sauce_tho]

I personally would rather it look better and more realistic than having an ugly easy mode

[janithawikramasinghe]

+get a fps boost, very good video by the way!

[alheeley]

I see theres no shots of the cockpit here, which looks way worse with sharows off. It kills the immersion IMO. Use of reShade can allow better colour balance and contrast as well as a bit of sharpening with no FPS hit to make ground targets a little clearer.

[pavelgrussmann]

Simulators are not meant to be played competetively. It is quite against the nature of the whole simulation idea. Besides, if you fight in a fair fight (a condition for competitiveness), you've already screwed up your preparation as that should (in ideal situation) never happen.

Instead of this, I would recommend better reconnaisance, coordination with spotting elements (can be ground units, spotting aircraft) and studying the map, location and it's terrain reference points.

If that is too much, then there is Arcade settings and you can have labels ON.

[klaw]

I sure see a lot of attempted gate-keeping in this community.

"Learn this way, do it that way, or go play Ace Combat. If you don't like your settings my way, you should be playing War Thunder instead."

Do any of you really want players giving War Thunder their money instead of DCS?

The drop in aesthetic quality if you turn shadows off may be a valid point, but otherwise, if this is something you want, go for it. Play around with any of the settings ED offers in DCS to accommodate a multitude of players. And please, stick around. Buy some modules. Have Fun. Not all DCS players are like the wanna-be gate-keepers.

Oh, and, if all it took to beat me in PVP was the other player turning shadows off, -I- would need to get better.

[VRSimWizard]

Are you advocating FOR no shadows because it makes it easier to see adversary assets on the ground? If so, maybe you should stick to something like Ace Combat, or War Thunder. An authentic sim experience might not be for you.

[fortinero]

So ED should enforce that option in ON... what's the point to use a simulator, even in competitive, if you try to exploit things like that? I would always say instead, "if your hardware can afford full shadows, leave it option always ON", and especially in competitive, many options should be able to enforce it, and if your hardware can't afford it, well, sorry for that, but get a better one.

[biffrapper]

This can be abused by ultra tryhard players. Enigma should force this setting to be the same for all players, period, so nobody has a distinct advantage because they are abusing settings.

[ScissorSeven-]

This is the Difference between a Real Pilot and DCS gamers.

[shagrat]

If you want to be able to better spot targets, you may also set the details and visibility sliders for forest, scenery and chimney smoke to minimum, maybe reduce the terrain texture quality That will look even less realistic and more like an old 90ies Simulation, but it will make the targets stand out more. 😉
I would also deactivate depth of field if you want to increase fps.

[Mareczechboy]

Whoever plays DCS with shadows off just to see enemies better should uninstall and unalive himself

[brodykloster]

Common bud, show the cockpit with shadows off 😅

[scotthulsey]

I just know when your in a dog fight in real life over terrain you might lose sight .So I play with that possibility.

[gtmgb]

so the shadows in DCS in not really that good, if u cant see the targets...