How to make Reshade work with Mafia 3 in 2018

Can't get Reshade 3.2.1 (or later) to work with Mafia 3? Game crashes at launch? Here is an alternative method of getting Reshade to work with Mafia 3.

Introduction

10/06/2019 UPDATE
Hellcat: Sadly, as for now, the website sfx.thelazy.net does not work anymore. You can make Reshade to work even with the most recent version of Mafia III and Reshade, but there is no presets anymore and it is way more complicated to have the best settings, you need to try a lot of things yourself and this is really tedious. At least it's working.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This guide is for those who cannot make Reshade 3.2.1 (or higher) work with Mafia 3 at the time this guide was written (17.04.2018). If the latest version of Reshade works fine for you, ignore this guide.

The specific problem this guide covers is Mafia 3 crashing at the launch splash logo when applying Reshade 3.2.1 on it. If you have a different problem related to Reshade, I suggest trying the solutions posted by Nyclix here[sfx.thelazy.net], or searching around the web.

The Workaround

The solution is to simply use Reshade 3.0.1 - an older version of Reshade. However, due to it no longer being supported, you will run into some installation issues. This guide will show you how to get around these issues.

Instructions:

1. Download Reshade 3.0.1[reshade.me] from the Reshade repository. (Courtesy of Evan20xx from the Reshade forums.)
   
2. Open it.
   
3. Click on "Select Game".
   
4. Navigate to your Mafia 3 game directory and select Mafia3.exe.
   
5. Click on the Direct3D 10+ checkbox.
   
6. A pop-up will appear asking if you want to download a collection of standard effects from github. Select No, as selecting Yes will say "Failed to download archieve."
   
7. Close the program.
   
   At this point, your Reshade 3.0.1 is installed but does not have any shaders/effects. What we will have to do is get them and put them in manually. To do this:
   
   
8. Go to https://github.com/crosire/reshade-shaders.
   
9. Click on "Download this repository".
   
10. Open the reshade-shaders-master.zip file and extract the Shaders folder to somewhere. Preferably into Mafia 3's game folder. Copy the directory path inside of the Shaders folder (the path you copy should end with \Shader. The Shader folder contains .fx files, like 3DFX.fx, AdaptiveFog.fx, etc.)
    
11. Launch Mafia 3.
    
12. Press Shift+F2 to bring up the Reshade menu.
    
13. Go to the Settings tab.
    
14. In the Effect Search Paths section, paste/add the directory path of inside the Shaders folder that you extracted earlier. In the end, it should look something like this:
    
    C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Mafia III\Shaders - Correct
    C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Mafia III\ - Wrong
    
    Remember that the Shaders folder is the folder that contains the .fx files.
    
15. Go to Home tab.
    
16. Create a new preset.
    
17. Click on Reload. (Alternatively, restart the game.)
    
    Now your Reshade 3.0.1 has functioning shaders that you can customize manually after creating a profile in the Home tab, or use custom presets with. I suggest you complete its tutorial before fiddling with the shader settings.

Note: I highly recommend Nyclix's Colour Correction / Blur Removal Reshade preset[sfx.thelazy.net]. To use it, simply follow the instructions written there. Just skip the Reshade installation part, as you have already done that here. If you run into other problems, check out his list of solutions there as well. His preset also comes with an HDR shader, which you'll have to put into the Shaders folder.

If there is a problem with my guide or you need help in a relevant topic, feel free to leave a comment and I will have a look.

Special thanks to:
Rimberse for trying to help.
Rice God for clarification request.

[ELPresidente]

@Hellcat @Xspy70 But you still can use sites such as web.archive.org in order to see last saved copy of the site and even download preset from it.

[Xspy70]

@Hellcat
Thanks! I'll put your comment into the guide

[Hellcat]

Sadly, as for now, the website sfx.thelazy.net does not work anymore. You can make Reshade to work even with the most recent version of Mafia III and Reshade, but there is no presets anymore and it is way more complicated to have the best settings, you need to try a lot of things yourself and this is really tedious. At least it's working.

[Xspy70]

MR.H4CK3RM4N📈📉 Glad to help!

[MR.H4CK3RM4N]

Thanks a lot, the /shaders at the end of the path did the trick :D

[Xspy70]

@Toaster Glad to help!

[Forced To Wipe]

Ahh, good call! Changed my AA settings and lumasharpen and that did the trick. Thank you!

[Xspy70]

@MC Pee Pants I took a look at your profile screenshots for Mafia 3 and I think I know what you mean. I don't think I have such a pixelated/grainy pattern effect everywhere all the time. For me it is mostly visible during cutscenes, especially when the background is blurry. It is also a bit visible for me in the shadows. However, to have the whole pixelated/grainy pattern visible on the entire screen everywhere is not how it is in my game.

I think it might be related to your Lumasharpen setting in Reshade, as well as anti-aliasing. I remember that Lumasharpen manifests this grainy pattern to cause the sharpen effect - but if you put it to a very high setting then the pattern becomes too visible.

Are you sure you're using Nyclix's Lumasharpen values? And did you install any other Reshader preset prior to this? Also, Nyclix's shader folder only contains the HDR.fx file, so that shouldn't be a problem.

[Xspy70]

@MC Pee Pants Can't view the image. Says 404 Not Found for me.

I don't remember a grainy effect, so it might be what you said. May even be an ingame setting maybe. Reupload the image somewhere so I can take a better look.

[Forced To Wipe]

Hi! Fantastic guide. I have a small issue though where my game has a small grainy effect. If you zoom in on the hood of the car, you'll see what I mean. Any idea? Is it because I have a reshade-shaders-master folder and the one from Nyclix's colour correction as well?

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/9157989766