Become a Shadow pro with these tips & tricks

  • 6 January 2021
  • 3 replies
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Become a Shadow pro with these tips & tricks
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Ever wanted to know what our more experienced Shadowers do to get that sweet, buttery gaming experience? 

Look no further! Below are some of the top tips and tricks we gathered from our various community experts.

So buckle up, strap in, and off we go!

1. Always backup your data
Save your data on an external hard drive or a cloud storage provider. In any case, make sure that any important data you have on your Shadow is backed up on a secondary platform.

2. Shut down your Shadow after use
This prevents you from experiencing any start-up issues in the future. You can think of it like running your computer 24/7. Computers need a break too!

3. Plug and play USB devices
USB mice and keyboards just need to be plugged in so you can start using them. Same with Xbox controllers! If you’re having trouble using another USB device, check out our Help Article!

4. Lock your cursor
if you’re playing an FPS game (for Mac, use Input monitoring). Use the mouse lock shortcut Win+Alt+M  for Windows or Cmd+Alt+M on Mac. Check out the other must-know shortcuts too. 

5. Use our speedtest to determine what bandwidth to use
We recommend using a bandwidth 10-15 Mbps lower than your current download speed for the best experience so you aren’t throttling or maxing out your connection. You can also enable “Adapt max bit rate to network conditions” in your Shadow settings so that your Shadow automatically adjusts your connection!  

6. Don’t set a refresh rate higher than 60 Hz if you plan on using a resolution higher than 1080p
This can lead to start-up issues in the future which you want to prevent. We also do not recommend setting a refresh rate or resolution higher than your local device can support.

7. Keep your Shadow up to date
At a certain point, unless kept updated, Nvidia drivers will become outdated leading to both graphic and audio issues. Enable “Keep my Shadow's graphics drivers updated” on your Shadow launcher to prevent these issues from occurring. You can also use Nvidia’s website to keep your drivers up to date or download Quadro Experience. Same for Windows updates!

8. Use an Ethernet connection when you can
Since you’d be hard-wired in, you’d have a better experience than if you were using Wi-Fi or a mobile connection.  

9. Seeing packet loss?
Try restarting your router or trying a different connection!

10. Don’t forget to have fun while you play!
Otherwise, what’s the point?

Know everything on this list? Well then, you’re a smart cookie! 🍪

Have some tips of your own? Share them down below in the comments section. 👇

Happy Shadowing!


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3 replies

Thanks for the tips.

I have got another for MAC users. I was struggling with often ping spikes. This really impacted performance!

I found that even with location settings off, some apps force a WIFI scan, which makes the ping to the router drop from 2ms to 200ms!

Here is how to find the culprit app (found this in another forum):

  1. enable wifi logging (option + click wifi in Mac OS bar + enable wifi logging)
  2. open 2 terminal windows side by side
  3. window 1 execute “tail -f /var/log/wifi.log”
  4. window 2 execute “ping 8.8.8.8”
  5. When the WIFI scan happens window 1 writes lots of stuff. Do a CRTL+C on it to inspect it. It should say which app triggered the scan. 

In my case I found that that an app from children's toys (Vtech) was doing it every 15s!!

MEGA sync app also does that but not so often.

@Luc from Shadow , I think this is something that can be added to some general FAQ. 

It took me a great deal to find this!

 

Hope this helps others!

 

PS: so far this has shown to be a great service!

 

I have additional tips for Linux users (Arch/Manjaro)

 

Make sure to install these dependencies from your repository to avoid errors:

libva-utils

libva-vdpau-driver

curl

sndio

 

If you’re still having trouble with the official appimage, you could try the AUR package:

shadow-tech

Fo older machines running older versions of linux distros, the Shadowcker app definitely helps. It seems to clean up a few issues.


https://gitlab.com/aar642/shadowcker