This turned out to be user error, compounded by new behavior and menu terminology in VBE2, as well as a not particulalry helpful help file.
The VBE opens in Gouraud view, which does not display shadows, so F3 has no effect. Switching to Headlight, which does support shadows, won't show them until you toggle F3, which didn't work before so I failed to try it in Headlight mode.
David Collins
Win10 64bit Intel i7 6700 3.40 Ghz, 32 Gb RAM, GeForce RTX 3070
AC 27.0 (4001 INT FULL)