I'm not sure if this is just how the game draws shadows, but instead of it being like, solid dark shapes it seems like the shadows are made up of hundreds or thousands of tiny small dots. Is that how it's supposed to be?

I've tried all the settings that could be related to this that I could think of - shadows to ultra, disabling vignette and SSAO and making sure anti-aliasing is enabled, but nothing changes this.

It wouldn't be so bad except that the shadows constantly move, like if a tree branches are swaying, the shadow on the ground moves, but the problem is that when they move they kind of "flicker" which isn't very visible but still gives me a headache when I notice it.

No, I think what you describe is how the shadows were designed to be in TW2.

The shadows looked like this for me as well; I never found a way to change them. I guess it's how they're supposed to look.

What you're describing sounds like dithering. Something the developer needed to use with the gaming hardware of the time in order to hit their performance target. So yes, it is on purpose.

What you can try out is make a backup, then edit a file called User.ini located in your (Documents)\Witcher 2\Config folder.

Look for the parameters,
MaxCubeShadowSize and MaxSpotShadowSize. Be sure they're both set to 2048 so

MaxCubeShadowCount=3
MaxCubeShadowSize=2048
MaxSpotShadowCount=3
MaxSpotShadowSize=2048

It may make the dithering less pronounced.

If you don't have the GPU hardware for it, then rather than the above, look for the parameter "AllowSharpen=1" Change that to "AllowSharpen=0" and see if you like the results. If you have antialiasing turned on AllowSharpen re-sharpens the image which, as a side effect, makes the shadow dots more pronounced.

Cheers

I was having an issue with shading on characters faces, either that or transparent textures, perhaps both? Basically Geralts face was covered in lots of dots. Setting "AllowSharpen=0" helped greatly but the problem is still there. I have adjusted the other settings as stated above but the problem can still be seen, especially on characters with bald/shaved heads.

Are there any other settings that can make this appearance less pronounced?