In the WoW: Forever beta, testers found a bug where the new lighting turns off at any shadow quality except "Minimum", and put together a set of console commands that go beyond the menu settings: from SSAO selection to dynamic scaling.

Beta testers of World of Warcraft: Forever keep digging into the updated graphics: some found a bug with the lighting that keeps the picture from matching the BlizzCon slides, others put together a set of console commands that go beyond the menu — letting you push fog toward the horizon, switch SSAO, and add sharpness.

What's wrong with the lighting

Player MilkyTeaFTW pointed out: at any shadow quality except "Minimum", the new lighting added in Forever is simply disabled. So even at max settings, the zones don't look like they did at the presentation. The fix is simple — set shadow quality to "Minimum", and the updated lighting starts working. This is a known beta bug, not a game feature.

What Weathertop94 offers

User Weathertop94 from /r/wowforever put together a list of console variables worth trying on top of standard settings. All commands are entered via /console in chat; before experimenting, he recommends making a backup of Config.wtf from the /World of Warcraft/_classic_beta_/WTF/ folder, and it makes sense to bundle the commands into a macro so you can flip between presets with one button.

The main items from his list:

• SSAO: /console ssaotype 0 or 1 switches between ASSAO (0, stronger effect) and CACAO (1, softer). You can also tweak the angle, detail strength, and blur passes — these apply to both methods.
• Fog and horizon: /console horizonstart 4000 pushes fog farther from the camera. This lets you drop the menu's view distance without a milky haze up close.
• Shadow cascades: /console shadowNumCascades 4 removes overbright spots in distant fog on Ultra quality; on Minimum and Medium it has no effect.
• Dynamic scaling: /console DynamicRenderScale 1 adjusts resolution to your chosen FPS; right next to it sits the limiter DynamicRenderScaleMin — it sets how low the render can dip. Note that one tester reported a crash with this option.
• Sharpness: /console ResampleAlwaysSharpen 1 enables adaptive sharpness (CAS) even without FSR. Strength is controlled by the regular sharpness slider in the menu.
• World density: /console groundEffectDensity (from 16 to 256, default 48 at object density = 10) controls the density of grass and small objects; /console weatherdensity 3 — the intensity of weather effects.

What to know before starting

Weathertop94 also warns: some of the values get overwritten by the game itself — when you change the relevant graphics settings in the menu, or when you enter a raid with raid graphics enabled. So hand-typed numbers only live until your first tweak in the settings.

In practice

• If the game doesn't look like the BlizzCon slides — switch shadow quality to "Minimum", and the new lighting will start working right away.
• Want to try fine-tuning — bundle the commands you need into a macro and keep presets at hand.
• Before making changes, save a copy of Config.wtf — that's /World of Warcraft/_classic_beta_/WTF/ in your game folder.
• Don't like the milky haze up close — try /console horizonstart 4000 and lower view distance in the menu.
• Plan to hold a stable FPS — look at DynamicRenderScale 1, but be ready for a crash with this option (one tester reported it).