[ReShade 3.0.7] Splendid Galaxy ReShade

[Zeridian]

Feedback is completely welcome, as I made it mostly for myself, but if there are any improvements you think could be made, I'll listen.
Though I won't guarantee anything of course

Included effects
FXAA
MXAO + IL
HDR
Bloom
LUT/Lightroom
Light Adaptation
Ambient Light
Clarity
Vignette
Filmgrain - optional, default off

Album
Download

Installation
1) Download ReShade 3.0.7 from www.reshade.me
2) Install ReShade by selecting swgemu.exe and selecting DirectX 9
3) When asked to download shaders, select no
4) Extract contents of archive into your root SWGEmu installation, overwrite when asked*

*Must overwrite d3d9.dll, the included one is an unlocked ReShade that does not check network traffic, that way ReShade will not disable the depth buffer.
Not overwriting will lead to certain effects not working.

Performance
Tested on R9 390x, I7-6700K @ 4.5ghz, 16gb DDR4 on Windows 10
Managed two instances of the game at 60fps, so take that as you will

Notes
-- Turn off the in-game/built-in bloom, it's obsolete and terrible. It also hurts the specular rendering in the game.
-- Scroll-Lock toggles ReShade on/off
-- Pause-Break toggles the Filmgrain effect on/off (default off)
-- Shift-F2 brings up the overlay. You can disable individual effects here.
Selecting "Configuration Mode" in the settings menu will allow customizing the shaders, but will slow down their initialization...


Known Issues
- Some environments may seem a bit too dark/too bright at certain times of the day, depending on the planet. Looking for feedback.
- MXAO will be disabled when the datapad/inventory is open, or 3D items are in the toolbar. The reason for this is that the game empties the depth buffer when these objects are being displayed. Nothing can be done about this.
- It's pretty rare, but the Depth Buffer might get screw-y and flood part of the screen with artifacts when MXAO is turned on. It clears usually after 30-60 seconds, and doesn't happen often enough that I consider it a severe issue. This might depend on AMD/NVidia drivers. Encountered on AMD.
- MXAO will draw over the interface. Nothing can be done about this. Recommend adjusting HUD transparency.
- MXAO has a tendency to sample a lot more around character feet, no idea why. Reduced the effect as much as possible without making the AO negligible.

 

[Himalayas]

"- MXAO will be disabled when the datapad/inventory is open, or 3D items are in the toolbar. The reason for this is that the game empties the depth buffer when these objects are being displayed. Nothing can be done about this."


Looks awesome!

just a questions for the layman, does this mean it will not make the text and UI all blurry? I've never cared for these reshades because of that.

 

[Zeridian]

"- MXAO will be disabled when the datapad/inventory is open, or 3D items are in the toolbar. The reason for this is that the game empties the depth buffer when these objects are being displayed. Nothing can be done about this."


Looks awesome!

just a questions for the layman, does this mean it will not make the text and UI all blurry? I've never cared for these reshades because of that.

Thanks!

It shouldn't be blurry, in fact, text is a little sharper (was almost too sharp, due to FXAA till it was adjusted).
What that statement means, is that the Ambient Occlusion (corner shadowing among other things) will be disabled whenever those menus are open or if you have an item in your active toolbar. And this comes from a limitation in the game engine and ReShade. It happens in many other games too, due to how depth buffers are usually implemented.

 

[rbaskin2009]

I'm getting this issue where my shadowing effect will turn on and off. They'll also occasionally stick.

 

[Zeridian]

I'm getting this issue where my shadowing effect will turn on and off. They'll also occasionally stick.

Yep, unfortunately this is due to SWG's depth buffer. Not much to be done about it. It seems to happen more if your framerate dips a lot.

 

[Anach]

I'm interested in how you did this, because I had some issues getting certain Reshade effects working due to the Reshade cheat prevention . I couldn't get AO to work correctly, as I found out on the Reshade forums that part of their online cheat detection will disable things like AO, so I had to use an edited dll.

Essentially you will see AO flickering on and off randomly, nothing to do with the 3d object depth buffer issue, but an actual flicker. Other effects will do it too,  just AO is more noticeable.

 

[Zeridian]

I'm interested in how you did this, because I had some issues getting certain Reshade effects working due to the Reshade cheat prevention . I couldn't get AO to work correctly, as I found out on the Reshade forums that part of their online cheat detection will disable things like AO, so I had to use an edited dll.

Essentially you will see AO flickering on and off randomly, nothing to do with the 3d object depth buffer issue, but an actual flicker. Other effects will do it too,  just AO is more noticeable.

The "cheat prevention" that reshade uses is a network check. I included a newly compiled version of reshade that disables this check so that it doesn't disable the depth buffer in the game when reshade detects network activity.

To your second statement, sorry, but you're wrong. The cause of the flicker IS the depth buffer, because of SWG's old EQ rendering engine that we are currently stuck with. Most effects in reshade don't need to use the depth buffer, but a few things like AO require it. Same goes for godrays and a few others. When they get corrupt information, or don't get information from the depth buffer, you will see the effect disable until the buffer clears or starts resending.

 

[Valkyra]

"- MXAO will be disabled when the datapad/inventory is open, or 3D items are in the toolbar. The reason for this is that the game empties the depth buffer when these objects are being displayed. Nothing can be done about this."


Looks awesome!

just a questions for the layman, does this mean it will not make the text and UI all blurry? I've never cared for these reshades because of that.

Thanks!

It shouldn't be blurry, in fact, text is a little sharper (was almost too sharp, due to FXAA till it was adjusted).
What that statement means, is that the Ambient Occlusion (corner shadowing among other things) will be disabled whenever those menus are open or if you have an item in your active toolbar. And this comes from a limitation in the game engine and ReShade. It happens in many other games too, due to how depth buffers are usually implemented.

I've tried Anach's version of this, not sure how different it is but I was getting some odd looking bloom effects from UI text elements due to my palette color scheme, hencewhy I don't use it.

I like your album of SS's, though, but they all have the UI hidden so it would be nice to see 'normal' game scenarios where you're not just staring at the scenery with it disabled.

 

[Zeridian]

"- MXAO will be disabled when the datapad/inventory is open, or 3D items are in the toolbar. The reason for this is that the game empties the depth buffer when these objects are being displayed. Nothing can be done about this."


Looks awesome!

just a questions for the layman, does this mean it will not make the text and UI all blurry? I've never cared for these reshades because of that.

Thanks!

It shouldn't be blurry, in fact, text is a little sharper (was almost too sharp, due to FXAA till it was adjusted).
What that statement means, is that the Ambient Occlusion (corner shadowing among other things) will be disabled whenever those menus are open or if you have an item in your active toolbar. And this comes from a limitation in the game engine and ReShade. It happens in many other games too, due to how depth buffers are usually implemented.

I've tried Anach's version of this, not sure how different it is but I was getting some odd looking bloom effects from UI text elements due to my palette color scheme, hencewhy I don't use it.

I like your album of SS's, though, but they all have the UI hidden so it would be nice to see 'normal' game scenarios where you're not just staring at the scenery with it disabled.

Depends on the brightness of some of the color palettes, but mine isn't as bad on the UI. I've got an update with the bloom adjusted down a bit, should be even better. I'll get some screenshots with HUD tonight.

 

[Anach]

I'm interested in how you did this, because I had some issues getting certain Reshade effects working due to the Reshade cheat prevention . I couldn't get AO to work correctly, as I found out on the Reshade forums that part of their online cheat detection will disable things like AO, so I had to use an edited dll.

Essentially you will see AO flickering on and off randomly, nothing to do with the 3d object depth buffer issue, but an actual flicker. Other effects will do it too,  just AO is more noticeable.

The "cheat prevention" that reshade uses is a network check. I included a newly compiled version of reshade that disables this check so that it doesn't disable the depth buffer in the game when reshade detects network activity.

To your second statement, sorry, but you're wrong. The cause of the flicker IS the depth buffer, because of SWG's old EQ rendering engine that we are currently stuck with. Most effects in reshade don't need to use the depth buffer, but a few things like AO require it. Same goes for godrays and a few others. When they get corrupt information, or don't get information from the depth buffer, you will see the effect disable until the buffer clears or starts resending.

This is just repeating what I was told by Marty Mcfly when I asked about the rapid flicker of the MXAO and other settings. However, maybe he didn't understand what I meant, because he was mostly focused on telling me about the cheat prevention at that stage.

 

[xhodan]

Experiencing intense frame dropping. It was running fine for a week and all the sudden that changed. No clue what to do. I disabled the mod and that fixed it.

Open to any suggestions.

 

[Himalayas]

Do you have a backup of your SWG directory without the reshade? Probably the easiest fix!