Hello people,

I would like to ask a serious question if you guys consider turning off shadows to be cheating? I heard a guy the other day calling me a cheater because I had shadows off. I've had them off for quite some time now and it has helped me a lot during games to spot people or to see in places that I wouldn't usually see. I know that the visuals look 69x better with shadows on but I value the gameplay more than visuals.

Should I turn them on?

Leave your opinions below, thanks!

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well, while I dont consider it cheating because the option is there, it is an aid and is an unfair advantage.

 

I would like to see some sort of penalty when shadows are off, that changes the character model to a fluro helmet / kit, or just have their uniform adjusted so they stand out more.

 

Though I do sympathise with you in terms of being able to see enemy etc. I find I have a hard time seeing people that are within 50m let alone +150.

I find the game gets quite hazy and blurry when moving around. Even with effects, blur etc turned off/down. But I still use shadows lol

IMHO ... the option for turning shadows off is not cheating as it is "part of the game mechanic", atm i believe (correct me if wrong) this option is a temp measure whilst the game is in its current un-optimized state. Me.. I am a purist and prefer to play the game as intended with all the 'pretties ' on, this for me adds to the visceral experience. I remember playing in a lan BF2 and seeing a few people with their client looking like a cross between minecraft and an early version of CSGO with the graphics dumbed way down. I personally didnt see them as cheaters, but ... Ill be honest... I lost respect for their gameplay ability. From what i have gleaned from the community the ability to remove shadows by turning them off wont be permanent so im not overly concerned about it. Finally: Although not a stat whore, I still can stand my own against those that have the shadows off.

I wouldn't consider it cheating at all.. i've got so many kills from seeing someone's shadow before they peak around a corner i'd call it a disadvantage if anything..

Nope.... Hopefully soon that settings taken away and the shadows are always on. Settings should be like Res and Quality of shadows. Not turning them fully off. My Rant. I have a GTX980.... Personally don't see any difference with shadows on or off. It's all in the Head!

It's not cheating if theres an option for it. But I mean really, I find it the easy way out. Play the game as intended, dont be a prick.

 

But thats just my opinion, and opinions are like arseholes ect... (but, off topic, OP seems pretty keen to peirce it? :o )

I'm not a fan of turning shadows off in any game. I like my games pretty and shown to their full potential.

Frowned upon, but not cheating... yet.

 

I keep shadows on for immersion, there are a few known players who have shadows off and frequently get high KDRs in the community. Some who have low end machines though, so it is somewhat justified if they feel it improves their fps... However if you have a good PC and turn shadows off to gain an "advantage" then BigD would not condone this behavior. I would consider it an advantage playing Operation First Light for ecample, where there are a lot of tree shadows etc. , and a disadvantage playing Sumari, as shadows can often giveaway your position, especailly in CQB

my settings are all on low because my computer can't handle anything higher...even worse since the latest patch. time to get a new computer and play with the shadows on

I turn my shadows off for the advantage, as well as the performance increase. It's primarily for the advantage, though.

Until the game itself is optmised across the board, these sort of bypass actions will always be considered an unfair advantage by most. View distance is another one, and with it come shadows, blurs, post processing, depth of field, and others. The more "JJ Abrams" effects we have on, the prettier it is, but it takes away clearness which gets you killed.

Shadows use GPU not CPU, so if you have a high CPU load, then turning them down might not yield better frames. I always ran shadows on high in BF4 because the increased quality of the shadow meant I could see someone lurking more often than them being drowned in grey or blotchy light rays.

As Squad optismises you can reassess and see how it looks, I guess.

Honestly, if you turn off shadows to purely gain an advantage...sounds like there is a bit of this going around too:

 

http://i.imgur.com/FO7FX6S.png

Honestly, if you turn off shadows to purely gain an advantage...sounds like there is a bit of this going around too:

 

There will always be people the feel the need to have some sort of assistance, be it shadows off or a piece of tape on their monitor with an x on it. At the end of the day the 'Shadows Off' option is temporary, be interesting to see how the field of "shadowless" players fair after the devs disable that option I know it wont make any difference for me . If you have learnt to play the game with no shadows on atm, you definately will struggle when you no longer have the option. Why not learn to play with shadows on, and run with a gameplay skillset that wont be effected by the option being removed? (laziness, ease of play, "I can see heaps more now") < great excuses, but in the end it will bite those players in the ass when they can no longer turn shadows off. This is why they should prepare for the future and 'learn to play the game how it should be played'.

I turn my shadows off for the advantage, as well as the performance increase. It's primarily for the advantage, though.

 

Just shows your not a skilled player.

Honestly, if you turn off shadows to purely gain an advantage...sounds like there is a bit of this going around too:

 

http://i.imgur.com/FO7FX6S.png

 

hey that's my hand

I always find myself going between the two, on maps like fools road my frames die a little inside other than that it's normally on. As for whether or not I'd call it cheating it's just a straight up yes from me, there is the exception of hardware but other than that there isn't really any reason to have it off if you're looking for balanced competitive gameplay.

It makes no sense with PC gaming to talk about advantages and skillz in a game unless everybody has exactly the same hardware and internet connection.............

If it's an option in menu I don't see a problem. In BF4 I knew of guys that would play low setting and low resolution, game looked like shit but they had an upper hand, same as tweaking options in this game, it can't be cheating.

 

Edit: If it was locked on and not an option to change and you somehow changed it then it would be cheating, thats not really for us to decide, thats for the devs to lock shadows on later on down the track.

It makes no sense with PC gaming to talk about advantages and skillz in a game unless everybody has exactly the same hardware and internet connection.............

 

So you believe that you cannot interpret skill gaps between players online, because the data is not clean?

Edited April 11, 201610 yr by EuphoricBliss

It's an option in game so it's not exactly cheating. However I find it petty to play without shadows and I like my game to look good, so I turn them on. RoyAwesome just announced a tournament ruleset where admins can restrict settings to a certain interval, so this should fix disadvantages between players if admins choose to use it.

It's an option in game so it's not exactly cheating. However I find it petty to play without shadows and I like my game to look good, so I turn them on. RoyAwesome just announced a tournament ruleset where admins can restrict settings to a certain interval, so this should fix disadvantages between players if admins choose to use it.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Will be investigating this new feature.

Thanks for the heads up. Will be investigating this new feature.

 

Just made a thread/poll about it, and here's the link to Roy's post on the Squad forum about the new feature.

Hang on... those that call it cheating need to understand and understand well that having 'hardware hax' is just as much cheating in that regard.

 

Multiple monitors, mice with multiple buttons, keyboards with lcd displays and extra keys are all advantages... then (which is how it is) you have people with lots more money which grants much more powerful PC's.

 

Some will always have unfair advantages over others... turning off shadows or using 3 monitors is within an expectable range of advantage (mostly because nothing can be done about it).

 

Cheating is modifying/editing/removing/adding parts of or all of the game code (scripts or outright removal of foliage files etc ), using glitches the dev never intended to be to your unfair advantage.