Improved shadow tracing

Witcher 3 4.04 patch note:

The patch notes mention improved hair lighting - I briefly tested this and found that this mod is still useful for reducing hair problems when using RT shadows (as well as for improving quality).

Changes in modImprovedRayTracedShadows_v3.4:

 Reduced RTSTConfigInstancingDistance to 40 to completely correct all frame jumps (stutters) that could occur when rotating near trees (Thanks CapoM235i).

Changes in modImprovedRayTracedShadows_v3.3:

Reduced RTSTConfigInstancingDistance from 90 to 80 to fix frame time jumps in a couple of places (thanks to CapoM235i).

Changes in modImprovedRayTracedShadows_v3.2:

Smaller object shadows have been reduced even more - the distance of resurfacing is now half that of vanilla. This gives excellent quality, but works a little slower than v3.1. The maximum distance of shadows is reduced to 600 meters.

Changes in modImprovedRayTracedShadows_v3.1:

New config Speedtree, compatible with patch 4.03 - Now shadows move up to 35 m instead of 20 m. This provides a good balance of quality and performance. The larger range required for good quality before patch 4.03 is no longer needed.

Fixed some minor shadow jumps that could still occur in 4.03.

Changes in modImprovedRayTracedShadows_v3.0:

Removed Speedtree settings. In Witcher 3 4.03, the CDPR fixed glitches with jumping tree shadows.

Basically fixed problems with Geralt's hair (which are still not fixed in patch 4.03).

New default setting for smaller objects to decrease pop-up compared to vanilla. 

Known Errors:

Ray tracing in Witcher 3 does not work well with the Hairworks graphics option - if the shadow from Geralt's head is wrong, disable Hairworks or use this mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7217.

Hair is not always perfect, but much more often, especially at dawn and dusk, they are correct than without fashion.

Shadows from very small objects, such as cups, can still be noticeable. I think the heuristic of Witcher 3, which determines what to add to ray tracing, underestimates small objects with a cubic shape of the bounding field.

At some angles, the grass's shade may disappear at the edge of the screen. This is because the ray path is traced only in the screen space, not in the world space.

These errors are present in Witcher 3 and can only be reduced, but not corrected by the mode.

Dependencies: None

Compatibility:

Verified with Witcher 3 4.03 and 4.04.

Not compatible with FasterRTifNoRTShadows.ini from "Faster RT if No RT Shadows" fashion. However, you can use it with FasterRTUltraPerformanceGlobalIllumination.ini from this fashion.

Install:

Extract the ImprovedRayTracedShadowsHigh.ini file from the zip and place it in the \bin\config\platform\pc folder in the Witcher 3 software installation directory.

Customize:

In the Graphics menu:

Set Ray Traced Shadows to ON.

Set the shadow quality to LOW.

Disconnect/Delete:

Remove ini, switch to higher shadow quality and disable RT shadows. Note: mod has a certain performance even if RT shadows are disabled, so do not leave ini file there.