where's the shadow?

[Garthog]

I am not getting a shadow until less than 5 meters AGL on Kerbin and the Mun (only locations so far) - it is very difficult to determine how high I am above the Mun without a shadow - am I missing an option under "settings"?

[Delay]

This depends on the "quality" selected in the settings. Increase that and you should be able to see the shadow further.

[Snark]

It's worth noting that even when you can see the shadow, it can still be problematic to judge distance, depending on the angle of the sun and the darkness of the terrain you're over.

What I like to do for all my vacuum landers is to put on a couple of downward-pointing spotlights, angled outwards a bit (say, 30 degrees from vertical, or thereabouts).  I turn on the lights when I'm landing, even in broad daylight.  The two big spots of light that it casts make it very easy not just to see how high above the ground I am, but also whether the ground is sloping (and in which direction).

Carries the extra bonus of also being able to do a night-time landing, if I have to (though I still prefer daytime, even with the spotlights).   

[Curveball Anders]

1 hour ago, Snark said:

What I like to do for all my vacuum landers is to put on a couple of downward-pointing spotlights, angled outwards a bit (say, 30 degrees from vertical, or thereabouts).  I turn on the lights when I'm landing, even in broad daylight.  The two big spots of light that it casts make it very easy not just to see how high above the ground I am, but also whether the ground is sloping (and in which direction).

That's what they used in the Dambusters raid to get the correct altitude above the water.

(Except they angled the spots inwards, so the spots merged at a preset altitude. No radar precision AGL instruments in WWII).

[Garthog]

Thanks for the ideas! I'll check the quality and experiment with some lights.