Spice up the graphics with: reShade, SweetFX & MasterEffect.h

[Adam Beckett]

https://youtu.be/rScreWmLDtM

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518684503

https://youtu.be/9KBmzJfbsUQ

Ever since I first layed hands on Boris' ENB Series home-baked D3D9.dll's - and later on SweetFX came around - I am a firm believer in Post-Processing visual effects. Our modern graphic cards may still get to sweat when they have to do brute-force 3x3 SSAA or equal tasks, like rendering in 4K and preferably in >60FPS, but otherwise, there is plenty of power to do additional number crunching.

I like to look at nice things. Among video game players, we get called a dirty name, I won't repeat.

Railworks ... sorry, Dovetail's "Train Simulator" games are a two-headed snake, in that regard.

On one side, the base code is old - really old (look at those static water maps). The improvements in the last iterrations helped a lot on the rendering side of things. Yet there is only so much you can do with these 2D texture maps for trees, or the un-bump-mapped gravel on the ground, etc, etc.

https://youtu.be/p6EHkarBloQ

On the other side, there are moments of - may I say - beauty to be found!* When you get a pre-baked sunset to look at, starring at that evening sky, those non-volumetric clouds passing majestically and slowly by, while you are passing a red signal, or a train - with lights on - passes you, and you see some surprising shader effects by that lightsource, that flashed by you(r train), getting some passes too... rain drops, smearing the screen, etc...

https://youtu.be/pp9uTyDGh9k

In short - graphics are important, in my opinion.

One way, I like to play Train Simulator, is using Nvidia's 3D driver. Train Simulator works really well with stereoscopic 3D. You should try it out! (My old screenshots on the earlier forum pages are now gone forever. But for 3D you need either glasses or a 3D monitor anyway).

It has a great depth effect, making the trains look like the train models you all seem to still keep around (or even play with?!).

https://youtu.be/eT3gvfMj3Ts

Another way is to use the aforementioned post-processing graphic effects.

Now, I know, what some of you are thinking. "This looks ugly. Why should I use that?!"

The beauty of these home-baked shaders and libraries is ... you can adjust them to your liking! It takes only a little bit of editing and you can make the game look all kinds of ways.
From slightly enhancing existing graphic effects (Depth of Field, Ambient Occlusion?), to all sorts of crazy things (like Chromatic Aberration, old CRT monitor look and scanlines included!)

Here's a list:

SMAA Anti Aliasing
Sharpening
SSAO
RMAO
HBAO
SSGI
Complex Depth of Field
Bloom
Lens Flares
Anamorphic Flare
Godrays
Lensdirt
Color Lookup Table
Cartoon Shader
Levels Shader
Technicolor Simulation
Cineon DPX
Monochrome
Tonemap
Vibrance - intelligent saturation
Contrast Curves
Sepia
Skyrim Tonemapping
Mood Coloring
Cross Processing
Filmic Tonemapping
Reinhard Tonemapping
Colormod shader
Spherical Tonemapping (Watch Dogs)
Haarm Peter Duiker's Tonemapping
Filmic Curve Tonemapping
Watch Dogs Tonemapping
Sin City Shader
Color Hue FX (prod80)
Film Grain
Chromatic Abberation
Explosion Shader
Heat Haze
Vignette


https://youtu.be/BAC0qTE4fQI

You can "live-edit" for example the "MasterEffect.h" file (written in plain English) activate effects by simply turning a 0 into a 1 and change values of all the available effects to your liking.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=655571303

Some games and game engines won't work with certain adjustments. Some games - like TS - profit from different effects at different daytimes or maps. It is all up to you. But there is no "one-size-fits-all" setting. You could make one, for yourself though.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=654322552

Train Sim fans have a long history of tinkering with files - this, compared with what you do in the TS Editor, is really easy.


https://youtu.be/XYLtXonWetA

I was lazy, making these screenshots. I didn't show off more than one setting. The one I am using right now. If you googlebing you can find pictures and even videos of different use scenarios for different video games, if you are curious.


Where to get it:

http://reshade.me/

[Update] Version 3.1.2 was released on March 6th 2018

[Markus Kruber]

Looks great, why don't they give us those graphic options ingame?

[paweuek]

I love it! I can't play any more without it!

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879910917/31EED70914F5365421D5A68DC561BFC1D1D4A330/

No effect
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879910733/484D570B33B14FD72410B37C5220B8727355FBDE/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879860035/C7E8991565E94893AC79EC42E288520A5E889535/

No effect
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879910520/D79395F9BD650EBBDC0662E336B46D12DA3B7B06/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879859807/4B275B5D3087C686FC0217B50504C6E8E24B6938/

No effect
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879910305/8ED24678F21BC1D0B8D90F460554C8A31C28BD53/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879910109/AAA30AE027543BFE6699F5820A814E28CDC08E52/

No effect
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879909895/084AF6F0C0B3AC3CFB60244B0D14A1E3F253A00E/

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879909624/B284684B98E9CBCF5A5E026DCFEBB74CD885F96A/

No effect
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/420314861879909383/449B673A6CD88C6A7A9D169EEDB67454B0DEBC34/

[Adam Beckett]

... yet another update. I hope, I am not annoying too many regular forum users.

This one shows specifically the use of a lensflare effect, showing (off) a post-processing effect that is NOT in the vanilla game. There are several different lensflare techniques and implementations to choose from, in the ReShade/MasterEffect tools.

https://youtu.be/INHbsmHlSv4

(3 min. no ads. no sound. recording software doesn't like 7.1 sound.)

[Stexred]

why would you annoy anyone with this ?
i myself might never use it
but it sure is an interesting read and look at :)

[Mavadelo]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Stexred:

why would you annoy anyone with this ?
i myself might never use it
but it sure is an interesting read and look at :)

Agree, can't imagine how anyone could find this annoying. I rather see 20 topics like this then one more OMGWTFLOLOLOLOLOL $%000 worth of DLC

[Adam Beckett]

You, Gentlemen, are too kind.

I just don't like to 'bump' my own thread into people's eyes. Feels dirty. But I try to stay on topic and think of it as a service to the 2-3 people, who might find this via Google/Steam search and think of it as interesting.

[paweuek]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Adam Beckett:

... yet another update. I hope, I am not annoying too many regular forum users.

This one shows specifically the use of a lensflare effect, showing (off) a post-processing effect that is NOT in the vanilla game. There are several different lensflare techniques and implementations to choose from, in the ReShade/MasterEffect tools.

https://youtu.be/INHbsmHlSv4

(3 min. no ads. no sound. recording software doesn't like 7.1 sound.)

This one looks especially great:) God work!

[Cygnifico]

Can you see the signal lights with all those filters?

[Sgt. Max Cockburn]

You can fiddle around with the settings to your liking, unless you go overboard there shouldn't be a problem in that respect.

[nexium]

Wow. You must have a shed load of time on your hands to read threads as far back as over 2 and half years ago. And bump them too......

[Axe]

This individual has gone around and specifically brought old threads to life and has been doing for a couple of weeks now. A few hours ago he apologised in a thread for doing so and cleary didn't mean it whatsoever.

Proof: http://steamcommunity.com/app/24010/discussions/3/143388250765458088/#c1697169163416649655

I can't imagine what pleasure he can get but these types always seem to find some reason in their own tiny mind..

Maybe this one just thinks it's funny and wants to live up to his username and perhaps TS is just his latest target as I cannot for the life of me wonder why he carries on doing so...

[dgre1950]

and if he dont get rid of that b loody avatar

[Sgt. Max Cockburn]

He don't.

He be using search but forgetting to look at the date. If u ain't be answering questions and stuff, why even bother with him? This individual don't think your opinion be very important.

[Axe]

Don't you worry about answering questions mate. Most of us don't bother answering those from 3 years ago...

Carry on like that and you'll be wondering why there is no one left here who wants to answer your questions.

Than you'll see who cares...

[Sgt. Max Cockburn]

That'll teach me.

The other day I was doing a Google search on something TS related, which led me to an internetforum where some guy was asking a question, the answer to which would have been relevant to me. But people were just getting angry at him for not doing a Google search instead. I thought that was funny.

May a smile be your umbrella Axe.