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Xcom E.U. SweetFX settings.

Just6669

By Just6669
in Enemy Unknown

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Just6669 Apprentice

Just6669

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I'm surprised, no one mentioned this, regarding totally failed DOF effect XCOM forces internally.

It made my eyes hurt, because picture was so unsharp.

While playing I had permanent impression, that I need a new pair of glasses.

 

SweetFX with info is here to download (links are below sample pictures, just before comments):

 

Archive format is 7z which Winrar manages to unpack.

 

Info for unexperienced & lazy : just download SweetFX, unpack to "(...)\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\Binaries\Win32\" and replace "SweetFX_settings.txt" with the one I attached.

 

My settings:

 

  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                      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         0 //[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           0 //[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       1 //[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.

  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                       LumaSharpen settings                  /
 '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
// -- Sharpening --
#define sharp_strength 1.75   // [0.10 to 3.00] Strength of the sharpening
#define sharp_clamp    0.04  // [0.000 to 1.000] Limits maximum amount of sharpening a pixel recieves - Default is 0.035

// -- Advanced sharpening settings --
#define pattern 4        // [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)


  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                       Vibrance settings                     /
 '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Vibrance 0.1 //[-1.0 to 1.0] Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.

  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                        HDR settings                         /
 '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define HDRPower 1.10  //[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

  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                       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


  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                        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. 


  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                  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.


  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                      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   8.0  //[1.0 to 15.0]
#define Green 8.0  //[1.0 to 15.0]
#define Blue  8.0  //[1.0 to 15.0]

#define ColorGamma    2.5  //[0.1 to 2.5] Adjusts the colorfulness of the effect in a manner similar to Vibrance. 1.0 is neutral.
#define DPXSaturation 3.0  //[0.0 to 8.0] Adjust saturation of the effect. 1.0 is neutral.

#define RedC   0.36  //[0.6 to 0.2]
#define GreenC 0.36  //[0.6 to 0.2]
#define BlueC  0.34  //[0.6 to 0.2]

#define Blend 0.2    //[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 0.05    //[-1.00 to 1.00] Adjust exposure
#define Saturation 0.0  //[-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, 1.00) //[0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00] What color to remove - default is blue






  /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 /                         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

 

There is a lot of options to play with, but I only wanted to make picture sharper and crispier.

If it is too sharp for you, reduce

 

#define sharp_strength 1.75   // [0.10 to 3.00] Strength of the sharpening

 

to 1.2 or as you like. I am an oldschool gamer, I like really sharp picture, even if this causes some Pixelation / aliasing.

 

If mod is too GPU heavy for your GFX card, change sharpening pattern

#define pattern 4        // [1|2|3|4] Choose a sample pattern. 1 = Fast, 2 = Normal, 3 = Wider, 4 = Pyramid shaped.

To something less then 4.

 

 

The only other effects I apply is a bit of vibrance

#define Vibrance 0.1 //[-1.0 to 1.0] Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.

and exposure

#define Exposure 0.05    //[-1.00 to 1.00] Adjust exposure

 

Have fun.

Edited by Just6669
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Just6669 Apprentice

Just6669

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I'd like to point out that lumasharpen patterns 2 , 3 and 4 all have identical speed.

Neither mode is inherently better than the other, just different.

 

Pattern 1 on the other hand is faster, but still looks a lot like pattern 2.

 

Thanks, I did not really dig into that, just read somewhere similar tip.

 

BTW, here is my Nvidia Inspector profile.

I use it with SweetFX, on my GTX 680 and get stable 60 fps with about 50% GPU usage.

 

http://img.techpowerup.org/121202/nvidia_20121203_002730.png

 

I have tested several combinations, what I found optimal for my System (I5-2500K @ 4.4 GHz + GTX 680) is forced 2xMSAA with 2xSGSS.

I disable in-game AA, because 2XSGSS seems to work best with 2xMSAA and I did not find a way to choose MSAA level in game config.

 

If your GPU is too weak, run the game with MSI Afterburner, monitor GPU load on OSD, and reduce settings until your GPU load is stable below 99%.

I'd start with

- reducing Ambient occlusion Quality

- reducing / disabling Transparency Supersampling

- enabling optimizations

 

not necessarily in this order, I'm just guessing, did not have to hunt for fps ;)

 

What I learned from trying different shaders injectors in some games, is that reducing pre-rendered frames value was best solution,

when I had unstable or just too low fps. Never read this suggestion anywhere, so it may be just good for my setup.

 

Profile is attached too, ready to load to Nvidia Inspector, together with

(...)\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\Engine\Config\BaseEngine.ini

and

(...)\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Config\XComEngine.ini

 

Remember to set both files to read-only after replacing originals.

 

If you do not want to replace whole ini's, i suggest to compare your files with mine, using for example "Total Commander "Compare by Content" option.

Then you can find what and how did I change and apply only parts which you feel safe to.

Edited by Just6669
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