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Just thought I should share this, if not already known by some.
I really hate those "side shadows" that medium shaders seem to force, and much prefer the good old blobs under the units. At the same time, lets face it, low shaders are just bad compared to medium and above.
I came across this old thread that actually fixes this issue and allows for "blob shadows" along with medium shaders.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=967793
Taken from the above:
So ive found a way to disable shadows completly, like World of warcraft shadows drops the fps like crazy. Disabling shadows will give you a 15-20fps gain. IM now running on medium settings, shadow disabled, with a smooth 60fps.
Heres what you got to do:
Go to your folder
C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\Documents\StarCraft II Beta
Find your variables.txt file, open it, now hit ctrl + f and type in the word shadow
set these settings
GraphicsOptionShadowQuality=0
lightmapcastshadows=0
shadows=0
softshadows=0
watershadow=0
Now fire up SC2. dont worry if the settings says shadows is running at medium, it isnt, its off, and now you have gain up to 20fps. You will never notice shadows anyways, now use those free fps to higher some other details.
I know its for mac users but its basically the same.
The variable.txt for me was in: documents and settings/user/my documents/starcraft 2
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so, if i open the variables txt. i have to copy
GraphicsOptionShadowQuality=0
lightmapcastshadows=0
shadows=0
softshadows=0
watershadow=0
to them? because i don't have them, or do i just have to add "shadow"?
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oh man. I can't wait to give this a shot, I would totally disable shadows If it meant I could play on medium.
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this is posted in tech support, but still its a good thing to have with ppl that have trouble with fps problems
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On May 04 2011 01:39 AGIANTSMURF wrote:
oh man. I can't wait to give this a shot, I would totally disable shadows If it meant I could play on medium.
True dat! Might try this out.
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It keeps resetting my "GraphicsOptionShadowQuality=" back to 1.
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On May 04 2011 01:34 Denda Reloaded wrote:
so, if i open the variables txt. i have to copy
GraphicsOptionShadowQuality=0
lightmapcastshadows=0
shadows=0
softshadows=0
watershadow=0
to them? because i don't have them, or do i just have to add "shadow"?
No, the way I did it:
Open SC2 as normal and put medium shaders.
Exit SC2
Open the variables.txt and find the above values. Set them to 0. Save the txt file.
Voila!
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nice! will try this on my weak netbook to try and run sc2 above 5 fps! 
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Wow, thanks so much.. it works!
I actually tried this a while back (or something very similar, I recall modifying Variables.txt) but I don't recall it working (and by that I mean, it didn't change the shadows to low when shaders were medium)
Current results:
(depending on the amount of "stuff" happening i.e. army sizes, etc)
I used to get about 45-60 fps on Low Shaders
and about 20-40 fps with Medium Shaders (but it wasn't quite as "smooth" as it is on low)
Now I get about 30-50 on medium and it's smoother!
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I took some screen shots displaying the differences...
Incase images dont display properly...
+ Show Spoiler +
Note how my crappy laptop has terrible FPS regardless of shadows or no shadows.... however i must admit that it makes a difference....
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yup lol i can confirm this. been doing this forever. i hate low shaders so i use medium. but medium shader lags with shadows. so i turn it off and i get....like 60+ more fps. really. I hit 120 at the start.
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To those who are saying the setting resets in the file:
Starcraft II may reset settings that you change upon startup. To bypass this, once you've made your changes and saved the file, right click it > Properties and make it read-only.
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I checked my stuff and it already had them at 0. However I am running on low graphics settings so that might have something to do with it. Not sure.
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How can you guys stand playing without the shadow blobs under the units??
When I try playing without the shadow blobs, I feel like the units are impossible to click or something...
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When I set GraphicsOptionShadowQuality=0 which got changed to =1, I got the blob shadows back. 
Hope this helps for those who wanted the blob shadows.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/a/5H7LW)
