[Source-1][Intel HD GPU's] There is no "High" option for shadow detail in the advanced options menu.

[spinktvis]

The problem is that there is no "High" option for shadow detail in the advanced options menu in the Source-1. This is with Intel HD GPU's. I understand why this option would be blocked or disabled on older Intel Integrated GPU's (Intel GMA), but i am sure the Intel HD3000 and upwards can handle this. I personally own a laptop with Nvidia Geforce 7600 Go, a laptop with Intel HD3000, and a HTPC with Intel HD4000.

The Intel HD4000 GPU's are definitely faster then the Geforce 7600 Go in Source-1 (haven't been able to test the HD3000, but i can already tell you that it is much faster with for example emulators, or video), while the Geforce does have the option available in the advanced options menu, the Intel HD GPU's do not. With the Geforce 7600 Go for example i had to use a heavily tweaked FPS / Quality cfg to get decent graphics and a playable FPS. With the HD4000 i can max everything out, even use a custom tweaked high quality cfg and i still get almost double the FPS compared to the Geforce, everything is running smooth as butter.

I am sure this is easy to fix by enabling the high option for shadow detail for the Intel HD GPU series once Steam detects the GPU instead of disabling or blocking the option entirely, which is the current behavior. Even a .cfg file with the proper high parameters set is unable to enable the "High" option for shadow detail.

This is under Windows 7 64bit, i haven't tested it under Linux, so i am unable to comment on that. If you need more info, or me to test something let me know.

[SpAMCAN]

Same bug here, though I've been having problems with lots of programs not switching (to the point where I'm sending it back to MSI) so it could be a false positive for this...

EDIT: Note that I'm running on an MSI GE60 0ND with an Intel 4000 and a Nvidia GTX 660M. Adding it to the Nvidia control panel does not work.

[SpAMCAN]

Yep, writing back to confirm that this problem indeed still occurs. Here is my mat_info report from Source Filmmaker. http://i.imgur.com/ecR0jj1.png

Basically it is running on the Nvidia DLL but thinks that it is running on the Intel, thus causing a lockout of many features in SFM and high shadows in older source games

[spinktvis]

The bug i am describing here is with a dedicated Intel HD GPU, so without a second GPU. I have read about your issue as well SpAMCAN but i am not sure if it is the issue in the source 1 engine.

[SpAMCAN]

It is not the same issue - but they could be fixed at the same time. The graphics card detection bug wouldn't matter if Valve didn't essentially hard-code a handicap onto the Intel GPU - because even if it thought it was an Intel GPU it'd act normally. As it is now, being incorrectly detected is causing the handicaps you describe to be applied to a system that shouldn't have them applied.

[TrenchcoatCraig]

There is no "High" option for shadow detail in the advanced graphics menu on Intel dedicated GPU's (Intel ARC/Intel Iris Xe) either

[mirh]

Older source games that weren't updated (like for instance L4D1) are literally hard-coded to fall through if they don't detect a either an nvidia card with shader model 3, or ati cards with sm 2.0b.
So there's not much new to experiment here (except perhaps spoofing the vendor id).

[TrenchcoatCraig]

Spoofing the vendor ID and device ID does allow for High quality shadows in TF2 on Intel Arc, but does not enable all features in SFM.