Just discovered what SweetFX can do for this game...

[Nalydyenlo]

I just put some 'SweetFX' on this game and I'm lovin' it. What an improvement, much brighter colors and sharper textures. It has gone from a dull, brownish, monochromatic looking game to a crisp and brightly colored one, more like Far Cry 1 in appearance. When I look back to the way it was before I applied the fix, I say to myself, 'What were the devs thinking? Were they trying to make a game from the perspective of a colour-blind person or what?' It almost seems like SweetFX was made for this game.

SweetFX 1.5 is the latest version and for anyone interested, here's my 'SweetFX_settings.txt' configuration file for Far Cry 2:

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                      Choose effects                         /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

// Set to 1 for ON or 0 for OFF
#define USE_SMAA_ANTIALIASING  0            // [0 or 1] SMAA Anti-aliasing : Smoothens jagged lines.
#define USE_LUMASHARPEN        1            // [0 or 1] LumaSharpen : Also sharpens the antialiased edges which makes them less smooth - I'm working on fixing that.
#define USE_BLOOM              1            // [0 or 1] Bloom : Makes bright lights bleed their light into their surroundings (relatively high performance cost)
#define USE_HDR                0            // [0 or 1] HDR : Not actual HDR - It just tries to mimic an HDR look (relatively high performance cost)
#define USE_TECHNICOLOR        0            // [0 or 1] TECHNICOLOR : Attempts to mimic the look of an old movie using the Technicolor three-strip color process (Techicolor Process 4)
#define USE_DPX                1            // [0 or 1] Cineon DPX : Should make the image look like it's been converted to DXP Cineon - basically it's another movie-like look similar to technicolor.
#define USE_LIFTGAMMAGAIN      0            // [0 or 1] Lift Gamma Gain : Adjust brightness and color of shadows, midtones and highlights (avoids clipping)
#define USE_TONEMAP            0            // [0 or 1] Tonemap : Adjust gamma, exposure, saturation, bleach and defog. (may cause clipping)
#define USE_VIBRANCE           1            // [0 or 1] Vibrance : Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.
#define USE_CURVES             0            // [0 or 1] Curves : Contrast adjustments using S-curves.
#define USE_SEPIA              0            // [0 or 1] Sepia : Sepia tones the image.
#define USE_VIGNETTE           0            // [0 or 1] Vignette : Darkens the edges of the image to make it look more like it was shot with a camera lens. May cause banding artifacts.
#define USE_DITHER             0            // [0 or 1] Dither : Applies dithering to simulate more colors than your monitor can display. This lessens banding artifacts (mostly caused by Vignette)
#define USE_SPLITSCREEN        0            // [0 or 1] Splitscreen : Enables the before-and-after splitscreen comparison mode.


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                  SMAA Anti-aliasing settings                /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define SMAA_THRESHOLD         0.12         // [0.05 to 0.20] Edge detection threshold
#define SMAA_MAX_SEARCH_STEPS  16           // [0 to 98] Determines the radius SMAA will search for aliased edges
#define SMAA_MAX_SEARCH_STEPS_DIAG 6            // [0 to 16] Determines the radius SMAA will search for diagonal aliased edges
#define SMAA_CORNER_ROUNDING   0            // [0 to 100] Determines the percent of antialiasing to apply to corners.

// -- Advanced SMAA settings --
#define COLOR_EDGE_DETECTION   1            // [0 or 1] 1 Enables color edge detection (slower but slightly more acurate) - 0 uses luma edge detection (faster)
#define SMAA_DIRECTX9_LINEAR_BLEND 0            // [0 or 1] Using DX9 HARDWARE? (software version doesn't matter) if so this needs to be 1 - If not, leave it at 0.


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                       LumaSharpen settings                  /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
// -- Sharpening --
#define sharp_strength         3.00         // [0.10 to 3.00] Strength of the sharpening
#define sharp_clamp            0.050        // [0.000 to 1.000] Limits maximum amount of sharpening a pixel recieves - Default is 0.035

// -- Advanced sharpening settings --
#define pattern                2            // [1|2|3|4] Choose a sample pattern. 1 = Fast, 2 = Normal, 3 = Wider, 4 = Pyramid shaped.
#define offset_bias            1.0          // [0.0 to 6.0] Offset bias adjusts the radius of the sampling pattern.
                         // I designed the pattern for offset_bias 1.0, but feel free to experiment.
                           
// -- Debug sharpening settings --
#define show_sharpen           0            // [0 or 1] Visualize the strength of the sharpen (multiplied by 4 to see it better)


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                       Bloom settings                        /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define BloomThreshold         20.25        // [0.00 to 50.00] Threshold for what is a bright light (that causes bloom) and what isn't.
#define BloomPower             1.446        // [0.0000 to 8.0000] Strength of the bloom
#define BloomWidth             0.0142       // [0.0000 to 1.0000] Width of the bloom


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                        HDR settings                         /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define HDRPower               1.30         // [0.0 to 8.0] Strangely lowering this makes the image brighter
#define radius2                0.87         // [0.0 to 8.0] Raising this seems to make the effect stronger and also brighter


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                      TECHNICOLOR settings                   /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define TechniAmount           0.11         // [0.0 to 1.0] 
#define TechniPower            2.8          // [0.0 to 8.0] 
#define redNegativeAmount      0.88         // [0.0 to 1.0] 
#define greenNegativeAmount    0.88         // [0.0 to 1.0] 
#define blueNegativeAmount     0.88         // [0.0 to 1.0] 


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                      Cineon DPX settings                    /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Red                    15.0          // [1.0 to 15.0] 
#define Green                  9.0          // [1.0 to 15.0] 
#define Blue                   6.0          // [1.0 to 15.0] 

#define ColorGamma             1.0          // [0.1 to 2.5] Adjusts the colorfulness of the effect in a manner similar to Vibrance. 1.0 is neutral.
#define DPXSaturation          1.0          // [0.0 to 8.0] Adjust saturation of the effect. 1.0 is neutral.

#define RedC                   0.60         // [0.6 to 0.2] 
#define GreenC                 0.45         // [0.6 to 0.2] 
#define BlueC                  0.35         // [0.6 to 0.2] 

#define Blend                  0.1          // [0.0 to 0.1] How strong the effect should be.


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                      Lift Gamma Gain settings               /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define RGB_Lift               float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000) // [0.000 to 2.000] Adjust shadows for Red, Green and Blue
#define RGB_Gamma              float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000) // [0.000 to 2.000] Adjust midtones for Red, Green and Blue
#define RGB_Gain               float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000) // [0.000 to 2.000] Adjust highlights for Red, Green and Blue


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                        Tonemap settings                     /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Gamma                  1.0         // [0.00 to 2.00] Adjust midtones

#define Exposure               0.00        // [-1.00 to 1.00] Adjust exposure

#define Saturation             0.00         // [-1.00 to 1.00] Adjust saturation

#define Bleach                 0.00         // [0.00 to 1.00] Brightens the shadows and fades the colors

#define Defog                  0.00         // [0.00 to 1.00] How much of the color tint to remove
#define FogColor               float3(0.00, 0.00, 0.25) // [0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00] What color to remove - default is blue


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                       Vibrance settings                     /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Vibrance               1.0          // [-1.0 to 1.0] Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                        Curves settings                      /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Curves_contrast        0.30         // [-1.0 to 1.0] The amount of contrast you want

// -- Advanced curve settings --
#define Curves_formula         7            // [1|2|3|4|5|6|7] The constrast s-curve you want to use. 


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                         Sepia settings                      /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define ColorTone              float3(1.40, 1.10, 0.90) // [0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00] What color to tint the image
#define GreyPower              0.11         // [0.0 to 1.0] How much desaturate the image before tinting it
#define SepiaPower             0.58         // [0.0 to 1.0] How much to tint the image



   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                       Vignette settings                     /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define VignetteRadius         1.00         // [-1.00 to 3.00] lower values = stronger radial effect from center
#define VignetteAmount         -1.00        // [-2.00 to 1.00] Strength of black. -2.00 = Max Black, 1.00 = Max White.
#define VignetteSlope          8            // [1 to 16] How far away from the center the change should start to really grow strong (odd numbers cause a larger fps drop than even numbers)
#define VignetteCenter         float2(0.500, 0.500) // [0.00 to 1.00] Center of effect.


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                        Dither settings                      /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
//No settings yet, beyond switching it on or off in the top section.

//Note that the checkerboard pattern used by Dither, makes an image harder to compress.
//This can make your screenshots and video recordings take up more space.


   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
  /                     Splitscreen settings                    /
  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define splitscreen_mode       3            // [1|2|3|4|5] 1 = Vertical 50/50 split, 2 = Vertical 25/50/25 split, 3 = Vertical 50/50 angled split, 4 = Horizontal 50/50 split, 5 = Horizontal 25/50/25 split

[Redback]

Interesting, I've had a few people lately trying to sell the virtues of FC2 to me as I have the exact same feelings as you re textures and colours etc. (unlike FC & FC3 which are great). I personally feel this detracts from the game which offers much more. For this reason I don't want to persist with it in its present state and this may be the answer? Is SweetFX a downloadable patch or are these adjusted developer settings created by youself?

[Nalydyenlo]

SweetFX is a graphical enhancement utilty/shader suite that works on most dx9 and dx10/11 games. You can get it here:

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/sweetfx-shader-suite-download.html

It has several tweakable enhancemants, but I'd recommend just downloading the custom presets which are available for a lot of games from here:

http://sfx.thelazy.net/games/

In the OP is my preset for Far Cry 2. IMO, it really makes the world of difference to this game.

EDIT: SweetFX works best in Windows 7. I'm using Win 8.1 (64-bit) and I get an error message when lauching the game with it due to win 8.1 being dx11.2. However, if I just click OK on the error message, the game launches anyway with sweetFX working properly.

EDIT 2: A solution to the above problem in Win 8.1 is to get hold of one particular DLL file from a 64-bit Win 7 installation if you can, and put it into your game's bin folder along with the sweetFX files. This is the win7 file: <drive>:\Windows\SysWOW64\d3d11.dll. You don't need it, but it does make the error message go away! Luckily I have a dual boot with win 7 & 8.1, so the file was easily at hand.

[Redback]

All good and thanks for the reply, I run Win8.1 (64-bit) also so good advice and much appreciated.

[Raging Hamster]

Never new of this program until your post. I will give a try on some of my games. Looks like it should be fun to tinker with!

[Nalydyenlo]

Originally posted by Raging Hamster:

Never new of this program until your post. I will give a try on some of my games. Looks like it should be fun to tinker with!

It is, but even if tweaking isn't your thing, you can get ready made presets for many games from one of the links above. Games like this are crying out for it!