Jagged shadows in the game

I noticed this about a week to ten days ago. Sidewalks or other flat areas have started generating really wild jagged shadows at night. Deleting the items are the only way to get rid of them. Adding or moving lights around doesn't help.

I've also noticed shadow lines coming up through the bottom floor of basements that shouldn't be there, even when there are no additional levels underneath. 

DigitalDust​ ScottB9​  Please post a dxdiag so I can see what hardware and drivers you have installed.  Click Windows key-R, enter dxdiag in the run box, wait for the scan to finish, click "Save all information," and save the file to your desktop.  From there, you can attach it to a reply using the paper clip (Attachment) icon included with the other formatting buttons.

You can also try disabling Edge Smoothing in-game and using your graphics control software to apply anti-aliasing.  If you don't know how to do this, I can describe it, but I need to know what GPU you have.

ScottB9​  Are you saying that some objects cast these shadows no matter what?  Or does replacing the items, or placing them elsewhere, fix the issue?

Thank you

DigitalDust​  Okay, you should be able to turn on anti-aliasing in the Nvidia Control Panel or Nvidia App, whichever you're using.  In the CP, you'd choose Manage 3D Settings > Program settings, select ts4_x64, and then use settings like these:

Antialiasing - FXAA: On
Antialiasing - Gamma correction: On
Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting
Antialiasing - Setting: [anything 2x or more is fine]

It's okay to play with the settings; just make sure you're doing so with the game closed so it loads with these settings in place.

I don't have the Nvidia App installed, but anti-aliasing should be available there too.

I made another suggestion a while back to a player who reported the same thing, and while they didn't reply to my last post, they did mark it as the solution:

Jagged shadows in the game | EA Forums - 11826142

Thank you, I did and they seem to have improved however it looks very stairstep still. Just jagged. I feel like this wasn't an issue before where you didn't have to change settings around. I just recently reset my pc and redownloaded sims too so its a fresh install.

DigitalDust​  Are all items affected in all contexts, or is there some distinction, or some context in which at least some items look fine?  More data would be helpful here, especially a couple of screenshots, which I could compare to my own game.

Here's an example. I notice its really terrible in San Myshino. Im a stickler about my things so with this shadow issue its hindering me from playing lol. I even reset my pc to factory cause of this and even fresh install its doing it but I dont see many people talking about it.

DigitalDust​  Would you be willing to experiment with lighting mods?  If the shadows are worse in one world than in another, that suggests that it's not (entirely) the game overall, and lighting is one feature that differs from one world to another.

I'm not suggesting you should need to use a lighting mod going forward, although if you're happy with the results, you can.  It's about gathering information.

For what it's worth, I do think most players either ignore this or figure the game is being weird again.  I see occasional posts about it, but not enough to say it's a significant source of frustration.  On the other hand, a lot of players who care about screenshots use lighting mods and other HQ edits, so they might be sidestepping this issue without knowing it.

Since you have a high-resolution monitor and use the same resolution in-game, I'd also like to know whether you see the same issues at lower resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440) in either fullscreen or windowed mode.  It's possible Sims 4 doesn't handle your resolution as well as it should.