Self-shadow blur options?

[Evgeni_Popov]

You can improve things with useBlurCloseExponentialShadowMap by lowering the blur kernel:

Babylon.js Playground

Regarding ESM, see my answer here:

Shadow being cast from object behind receiver

Welcome aboard! This is a known limitation of ESM, the occluders must be located in front of the receiver for the technic to work. See last paragraph of A conceptually simple(r) way to derive exponential shadow maps + sample code | Pixels, Too Many...

This technic only works well when occluders are in front of receivers, but the torus is self shadowing and is both an occluder and a receiver…

You can still tweak the parameters:

Babylon.js Playground