Guild Wars 2

UPDATE:
Today’s ( 10/2 ) patch has fixed this issue for me. Some people have replied to the thread today so I am unsure if the fix is working for everyone.

Also, if you don’t have a character slot to spare, per a reply below, the Chantry of Secrets is an excellent place to check for shadows. There is rotating machinery inside that casts moving shadows.

Please take a moment to check and leave feedback if possible.

Problem:
Shadows are no longer being rendered properly indoors. Specifically the ‘medium’, ‘high’, and ‘ultra’ settings have little to no effect.

Prior to yesterday, the shadow were being rendered like they are shown in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyjLTisoVvY
1:08 – 1:11 for the correct lighting on the table and from the fireplace.

Notice the glow on the table and the shadows being cast by the chairs, npcs, and the player.

Now the scene is lit very dully and there appears to be no dynamic shadows. Medium, High, and Ultra look almost the same as None. The Low setting places a small blob shadow under the player and NPCs.

Procedure:
A) Start the game
B) Create a new human character of any gender/profession.
C) Move the character to the Inn.
D) Upon entering the Inn, walk over the fireplace.
E) Using the options, set Shadows: to Ultra in the graphics settings.
F) Notice the dull lighting and no dynamic shadows.
G) Repeat with Medium and High
H) Move the character to the mission table area as shown in the linked video.
I) Repeat E-G.

Commentary:
I noticed this because I would use the inn daily to experiment with how newly created characters would look in different lighting/shadow conditions.

I have tried toggling all of the graphics options to see if there would be any effect on the lighting and there was none.

I am on ATI hardware and I have confirmed this problem with another player on NVIDIA hardware.

From what I can see/recall, the lighting/shadows outdoors have not been affected. I’m not totally sure though.

Anyone else experiencing this? I really enjoyed the immersion and ‘feel’ that the old indoor lighting provided. Question/Comments? I would appreciate more verification of this bug as it might be system specific.

—

I have attached 2 sets of pictures. The 1st picture in the set is None, the 2nd is Low, and 3rd is at Ultra. Likewise for the 2nd set. Notice the None and Ultra look very similar (the same almost?). The low setting does put a little black blob shadow under the player and NPCs.

I get pretty much the same. While I can’t test the location in the ’prologue’ instance as all my character slots are full, the same problem also exhibits in the ’real’ version of the place.

Nor lamps, nor the fireplace seem to act as light sources, so lighting isn’t right and there are no shadows being cast. Excluding the "low" option which doesn’t try to produce true shadow, just the expected static blob.

This with NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti, which rules out a local problem, considering ATI hardware gets the same results.

Thank you for your reply. My informal survey of new characters is yielding the same result. They are all seeing the same thing. Shadow fine outdoors, but not working indoors. Hopefully we can get this reverted.

I noticed this too, particularly within the Order of Whispers base. Where dynamic shadows were previously being cast by the turning gears of the printing presses, they no longer do.

This sucks, ArenaNet. Please fix it!

Thanks for the reply. I just checked the Chantry and the starter area. Shadows are back! It seems like they brightened up the general lighting of the areas though.

Thank you ArenaNet for the fix.

Same here also no real differance still better on low ,hope they get it fixed soon i really want to experience the game the way it was meant to be even though it is beutiful the way it is .

I’m wondering if the people who have replied today have checked the shadows after today’s mini-patch. I’ll update the OP with a tentative fix until I get some confirmation.

I’m getting the same problem. I’m running the game on windows 7. Some of my specs are:
-i7 quad core 3.4ghz
-12gm ram
-AMD Radeon HD 6970M
I don’t know if this is relevant but I’m running the game in 2560×1440.

I may check out the mac version of the game to see if that will fix it.