Remove film grain + superior sharpening

How to disable film grain AND improve the visuals through superior sharpening solutions.

Guide Introduction

This guide will be showcasing how you can:

• Disable film grain through the config file
  
  
• Use either sharpening filters instead of the in-game one
  
  A. FidelityFX CAS
  
  B. Nvidia Legacy Sharpen

Doing so will provide a clearer and truer visual fidelity experience.

Showcase (Film grain)

• Before and After slider[imgsli.com]

Even with film grain (display_noise_enabled) OFF
The game still exhibits a tiny layer of noise, although hardly noticeable.
Nevertheless huge improvement.

Showcase (Sharpening)

• Before and After slider[imgsli.com]

In-game sharpen
Dark outlines and halos around all edges.
Whether by art style or not, it's excessive to say the least.








FidelityFX CAS
Lightweight and sharpens gracefully.
Usually produces the best results with the least performance hit compared to other sharpening methods.







Nvidia legacy sharpen ?
Pretty much the same quality as FidelityFX CAS.
Just a tiny bit less refined and a tiny bit more taxing on performance.

-- Film Grain Removal --

• Head over to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Fatshark\Vermintide 2
  
  
  
  
• Locate and open user_settings.config through a text editor like Notepad or Notepad++
  
  
  
  
• Create a backup before proceeding, shouldn't be necessary
  
  
  
  
• Inside the config, press CTRL + F and search for display_noise_enabled
  
  
  
  
• Simply change it from display_noise_enabled = true to display_noise_enabled = false
  
  
• Save the text file and close it.

This will result in the film grain being more or less reduced by 80%
As mentioned above, there is a tiny layer that lingers and i have found no way of disabling it.

Sharpening A "FidelityFX CAS"

For AMD gpus:

You can natively enable FidelityFX CAS in your control panel
(It's called differently driver side as 'Radeon Image Sharpening' but it's the same)





For Nvidia / Intel gpus:

Since AMD open sources their technology, we can also use FidelityFX CAS through Reshade

• Download Reshade through the official website[reshade.me]
  
• Run the Reshade setup tool
  
• Locate and select your appropriate Vermintide 2 .exe
  
  For DX11 users:
  Steam\steamapps\common\
  Warhammer Vermintide 2\binaries\vermintide2.exe
  
  For DX12 users:
  Steam\steamapps\common\
  Warhammer Vermintide 2\binaries_dx12\vermintide2_dx12.exe
  
  
• Proceed through the setup and make sure this repo is selected:
  
  
  
• Make sure CAS.fx is selected
  
  
  
• Finish and close the setup, that's it.
  
  Once in-game, don't forget to disable the in-game sharpen.
  
  
  
  Then press HOME key and enable FidelityFX CAS:
  
  
  
  
  
  Sharpness value here (contrast adaptation) by default is set too low for this game
  I recommend bumping it up to 50% (0.500) or 80% (0.800)
  
  This mileage varies depending on several aspects such as AA, Display, resolution, preference, etc
  
  
  
• Uninstalling is easy, just run the setup again, select the .exe again and choose uninstall.

Sharpening B "Nvidia Legacy Sharpen"

So, you don't have an AMD GPU to use FidelityFX CAS natively, and...

You don't want to inject a post processing tool due to *insert reason here* ?

Here's your middle ground:


Nvidia Legacy Sharpen


Some time ago, far thinking people over at Nvidia decided that the NV control panel sharpening (which has been there for years) needed to be suddenly inexplicably hidden and replaced with.. Did you guess right ? A downscaling algorithm.

Here's how to get it back:

1. Head over to this repo, made by the FR33THY (check him out, you should.)
   FR33THYFR33THY / Nvidia-Legacy-Sharpen [github.com]
   
   
2. Once there, click on the shiny big "CODE" logo
   
   
   
   
   
   Then "Download ZIP"
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once downloaded, just extract the folder inside to anywhere, preferably desktop.
   Then just locate and open the .reg file "Nvidia Legacy Sharpen"
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Once you executed the .reg file you're basically done.
   Now open your NV control panel, legacy sharpen will be there waiting.
   
   
   
   Go to Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings >
   Simply locate your appropriate Vermintide 2 .exe location
   
   For DX11 users:
   Steam\steamapps\common\
   Warhammer Vermintide 2\binaries\vermintide2.exe
   
   For DX12 users:
   Steam\steamapps\common\
   Warhammer Vermintide 2\binaries_dx12\vermintide2_dx12.exe
   
   Now in Image Sharpening, the default setting of 50% is a solid starting choice for blurry TAA games such as Vermintide 2. Otherwise, in non TAA scenarios, you shouldn't be needing to use more than 20-30%.
   
   Of course mileages will vary depending on how big your display is, your resolution, and if there's any downscaling at play, personal taste, etc..
   
   
5. Reverting back in any case is incredibly easy, just execute the "revert" .reg file.

Trivia, disclaimer and closing thoughts

These methods are safe and will not get you banned, but read the disclaimer below.

Disclaimer about Reshade, it's currently allowed in Vermintide 2:

• This does not mean Reshade is safe everywhere else, here's a list[www.pcgamingwiki.com]
  
  
• Currently allowed does not mean indefinitely, murphy's law, there can come a day where the anti-cheat is updated to disallow it, and it may be done so without any warning.

Nvidia legacy sharpen and DX12 games:

• The legacy sharpen in rare odd cases can clash with the already piled up dx12 shader cache of the applied game. This can cause very obvious artifacts. I haven't experienced any, ever, but it's been reported. Either way should it happen, it's simply fixed by deleting / restarting the dx12 game's shader cache buildup.

- - -

Hopefully one day Fatshark adds a superior sharpening algorithm (like the one in Darktide) instead of the current cartoonish one, preferably with adjustable intensity.

And an option to fully disable all layers of film grain and noise while they are at it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Dongliz]

Thank you! Without sharpening the game really feels blurry, but with it it's waay too sharp, I already got fatigued within one match. With this mod it's way more balanced and comfortable.

[RZARECTOR]

thanks for the guide lad
did this affect performance for you ?

[toxic.ninja]

yes your version is a tiny bit nicer to look at

[Scruxx]

I dont see any differences in the pictures ^^

[Loner Revenant]

Fair enough, i've added a backup step.

[Xasthur]

On the 2nd try everything was fine. But still it's better to be warned.

[Loner Revenant]

No idea how you managed that outcome. That's just perplexing as to why it would happen considering that i'v tweaked the config file countless times before on several game installs without ever any issues.

[Xasthur]

I should warn people that after I set "display_noise_enabled" to "false", my game launcher automatically restored user_settings.config to default.

Be sure to make a copy of the configuration file before doing anything. (But even if you don't, you can probably still restore it via "Shadow Copy" of your system disc)

Otherwise, you may lose all your settings.