Running Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines with ENB + SweetFX without cutscene glitches

This guide shows how to run Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines with both ENB and SweetFX enabled without weird cut-scenes glitches (blackouts, black textureless models, missing heads etc.). It includes a pre-configured preset that you can put in your game folder and start playing without any configuration, as well as step-by-step instructions.

Bloodlines with ENB and SweetFX is simply awesome

Below you can find some screenshots from the game with both ENB and SweetFX active:



Unfortunately there is one problem with ENB - the cutscenes are glitched. Below you will find a solution to this problem.

Cutscene glitches while using ENB

ENB does miracles with Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines visuals, but some (if not all) users get strange bugs in cutscenes when using it. It usually looks as if suddenly someone decided to turn off the lights - scenes get very dark, objects and characters turn into black, textureless models, sometimes their heads disappear as well.

Below are some examples of those glitches:


This was a dealbreaker for me so I decided to find a way to repair it without dropping those nice ENB effects and filters that I got used to. The issue is quite popular, but has not been solved before AFAIK. After a lot of trial and error I managed to solve it and it turned out that the solution is very, very easy. You have to delete the "effects.txt" file from your main Bloodlines folder. That's all - ENB is still there, the glitches aren't.

Below you can find a detailed guide on how to make both ENB and SweetFX (another awesome graphics improvement tool) work with the game at once without those ugly glitches.

Running the game with both ENB and SweetFX active and no glitches

The easy way:

(for those who already have the game configured to run on modern computers)

1. Download THIS ARCHIVE[www.dropbox.com] and extract it to your main Bloodlines folder (<your steam folder>/steamapps/common/Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines/). It contains all necessary SweetFX and ENB files, and presets, nothing else is needed.

2. Run the game and enjoy SweetFX and ENB at once without any glitches

The ENB preset and ENB color palette included in this archive have been created/tweaked by ixigia and then by me. The SweetFX preset has been tweaked by me.

The hard way:

Everything has to be done in the following order.

1. Download the game from Steam (or install your retail disc version)

2. Download Wesp's Unofficial Patch 9.1 (LINK[patches.planetvampire.com]). This is the easiest way to get the game running on modern computers, with FullHD resolution and so on.

3. Install Wesp's Unofficial Patch 9.1. If you want, you can check the "install extra shaders" checkbox - this will install both ENB and SweetFX in "Extras" folder of the game, so you won't need to download them separately.

4. Download SweetFX (LINK[www.guru3d.com]), configure it to your liking and copy it to main Bloodlines folder (<your steam folder>/steamapps/common/Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines/). You can also use your favourite SweetFX preset or the one that comes with Wesp's 9.1 Unofficial Patch.

5. Change "d3d9.dll" filename to "sweetfxd3d9.dll" - VERY IMPORTANT!

6. Download ENB 0.076s for Bloodlines (LINK[enbdev.com]) and place all the files in main Bloodlines folder (the same that you put SweetFX files in). You can also use your the ENB that comes with Wesp's 9.1 Unofficial Patch. Configure it to your liking (I recommend to disable DoF and SSAO, as both look weird in Bloodlines).

7. Edit "enbseries.ini" with notepad and change the PROXY section of the file so that it looks as follows:

EnableProxyLibrary=1
InitProxyFunctions=1
ProxyLibrary=sweetfxd3d9.dll

VERY IMPORTANT! This allows you to use SweetFX and ENB at once. SweetFX is very good for forcing antialiasing and sharpening textures, ENB enables bloom, custom color palettes and some nice shaders.

8. At this point you can play the game with both SweetFX and ENB active at the same time, but you will probably see glitches in cutscenes. To prevent it from happening simply delete the "effect.txt" file from your main Bloodlines folder. That's it - SweetFX and ENB are still working, but you get no blackouts, textureless models and missing heads.

[DeathIncarnate]

this post was last updated in 2014 if u decide to use this and it doesn't work its your fault and not the uploader

[Arctosa]

Absolutely broke my entire game, thanks.

[InnerDarkside]

How will I know that the ENB and Sweetfx stuff is there on launch? There doesn't seem to be anything in options or the menu to indicate that it exists currently?

[cloudrunner]

ENB honestly sucks on my computer even after this extracting the archive (barely noticed the change if at all). Is there a way to reduce the effects to minimal as possible with keeping it turned on? the lights are too bright and everything just looks blurry.

[Kadmon]

So the weird logo goes away eventually, but why is it there to begin with?

[♥♥♥♥]

did the "easy" method and it destroyed my game.

[solamon77]

Okay, I got it working, but what the fuck is up with that stupid logo? Who the fuck would ever want to use this with that eyesore taking up an 1/8th of the screen?

[solamon77]

What am I doing wrong? I extract the archive in the right folder, but nothing happens.

[Green Goblin]

Great guide but the logo this adds in the top left corner of the screen makes it unplayable

[Jaysic]

I loved everything about this, except lights / reflections / streets seemed too bright. If I turned off the ENB OR Reshade it would go away. I was ready to just disable the ENB after trying some other suggestions in this thread, but ended up disabling SSMA Anti-aliasing in SweetFX settings.Seems to of done the trick.

// Set to 1 for ON or 0 for OFF
#define USE_SMAA_ANTIALIASING 0 //[0 or 1] SMAA Anti-aliasing : Smoothens jagged lines using the SMAA technique.