Unusual shadow patterns in video games
Unusual shadow patterns in video games
Recently I purchased a new PC equipped with a 5600x graphics card and an RTX 4060. I used to enjoy playing Cyberpunk and FIFA, without any issues. Now I’m encountering strange shadow graphics glitches in Cyberpunk first. After posting on the Cyberpunk Reddit community, I learned it’s a normal behavior of the game engine. However, after about 45 hours of play, I started noticing these issues. Here’s the video I’m referring to: https://packaged-media.redd.it/j744qq58e...9f00d6c342
While walking or driving, I see odd shadows appearing and seem to follow me. They only show up at certain distances. Initially, I thought it was just a glitch in the game engine. But after playing FIFA as well, the stadium appears uniformly pale, and only when I get close to the pitch does it render normally. The players display white outlines around them.
I’ve already reinstalled drivers, used DDU, performed a clean reinstall, but nothing has improved. I tried running the game in safe mode and used OCCT to test my hardware—no errors were found. CPU, RAM, and GPU seem fine. The problem continues. Anyone have any suggestions? I’ve tried several driver updates, but nothing works. Is this a driver issue, or is it related to my GPU? It’s been around two months, and temperatures are normal. Power supply is also sufficient. The issue persists despite everything.
I'm sorry, I missed the end of the link. Here are some videos from others who face similar issues with shadows and weird lighting. One looks like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OAVeqt4Pkl0
I'm feeling tempted to explain how the games function these days, but it looks like a common issue many players face. I found plenty of discussions about sudden shadow pop-ins and LOD problems, though actual fixes or causes are sparse. I'm hoping someone else will add their thoughts. Would be helpful if a player with a similar setup—AMD CPU and a 4xxx GPU—could review their games later. I won't be testing on Windows, so my findings might not apply directly. Also, have you adjusted the game settings? Technologies like DLSS and ray tracing could affect shadow clarity and draw distance, which might cause unexpected issues.
I get your concerns, but I haven’t experienced this before. If I had started from the beginning, I’d probably just give up and accept that games behave this way. However, I noticed these issues after about 45 hours playing Cyberpunk. The problems become obvious while driving—rendering appears around 5 meters away and stops. It’s not like a classic lag that improves gradually; instead, it shifts abruptly from poor to acceptable quality. Adjusting graphics settings or shadows doesn’t resolve it, though increasing them slightly helps only with lighting effects. Even ray tracing shadows don’t fix the problem, but ray tracing lighting does reduce some pop-ups. Still, issues keep appearing on buildings and roads regardless of distance. I’ve checked other forums, but no one seems to have found a solution. Some say it’s due to bad electricity, others claim it’s unrelated. Personally, I’m using the same power and outlet as before, with no extra issues. Someone suggested changing the game or CPU, but others say that doesn’t work even after a full system reset. This is frustrating because I can’t enjoy games when unexpected objects appear close to me, even at maximum LOD settings. The phenomenon of things popping up far away is unusual, but this one feels more intense.