Tech Focus - Can Reshade Make Your PC Games Look Better?

[@porshoterxx]

I choked on my drink when I saw my effect getting casually advertised. Also, props for spelling my name correctly on first try xD

[@Dictator93]

It is a great effect! Send me a message on twitter mate :D Best, Alex

[@porshoterxx]

I don't use twitter though.

[@maximilianwinkler]

I know this question comes a bit late but can I use than MSAA or any AA option in GTA IV?

[@joesophkhairul8474]

@@maximilianwinkler reshade don't provide msaa yet. Msaa usually better optimizer by the game developer, what reshade aa do though is only smaa and fxaa

[@maximilianwinkler]

@@joesophkhairul8474 ah okay thanks

[@SianaGearz]

Ahah, debanding looks like it does nothing via KZbin compression :D

[@Dictator93]

Even raw HQ H264 does debanding a disservice :D -Alex

[@Dictator93]

Looking at the HEVC source right now, yeah :/ Only the raw export AVI retains the structure and dither pattern properly. Which is interesting, as the grain in the RE4 part of the video is rather OK. Perhaps because it does not change as often per second and the grain size is so large in comparison. -Alex

[@xicofir3737]

KZbin doesn't support 10 bit color depth yet. Even if you have a 8 bit or even 6 bit + FCR, it's noticible. The banding is almost completely gone.

[@HoveringAboveMyself]

@Toby Tobey KZbin does not only can use VP9, that's the only next-gen codec they support, videos are either VP9 or H264, most users choose the latter because full hardware acceleration is of VP9 is not widespread, only Intel 7th gen onwards, AMD's Raven Ridge APUs and Nvidia GTX 10 series can do it. I think support in phones is similar, ~late 2016 onwards and only flagships. So, yeah, VP9 might be better but without hardware acceleration or a desktop CPU, it will be dropping frames left and right.

[@wile123456]

Yea but trust me if you ahve a bad 6-bit color monitor (dithered to 8-bit) it works wonders but can be heavy to run

[@phrozac]

PRO TIP. Once you're settled on the shaders you know you'll be using, delete all the ones you aren't using from the reshade-shaders folder. It'll speed up ReShade's initial start up and make the process of fine-tuning your settings go much faster. Also, be sure to turn Performance Mode on once you're finished with your preset.

[@CeeJayDK]

This video and your comment was made when Reshade was still version 3.4 In 2019 Reshade 4.x loads and compiles shaders WAY faster so deleting ones you don't use make only a very slight difference, that IMO is no longer worth it. But turning on performance mode once you are done tweaking is still important. This might also explain why this video say the injected FXAA and SMAA was slightly slower - performance mode might not have been turned on.

[@OutlawedPoet]

What does performance mode do? seems like it just makes the shaders look worse to improve performance. First one is a great tip tho

[@aonodensetsu]

@@OutlawedPoet performance mode locks the ability to edit on the fly in exchange for rendering faster, you can still toggle it anytime though if you need to edit something

[@re_negado]

Going to assume the _load enabled effects only_ didn't exist three years ago.

[@phrozac]

@@re_negado Correct

[@ahmz1404]

Yea, used reshade for MGSV and made the nights actually night, so night vision was a must. It was really immersive and fun.

[@cynical8330]

ahmz1404 that sounds sick

[@bennahum9642]

Actually., in a real life desert, without the light pollution of the city, you can see pretty well to the moonlight. I was surprised as well.

[@nowonmetube]

ahmz1404 plus, you can use anti aliasing because the game doesn't seem to have one >_> (I used DSR with my 960 to go higher than 1080p on my 1080p screen... Really unnecessary to do that with some good anti-aliasing!)

[@SianaGearz]

You could say... the difference it made was day and night!

[@Bloodhurl67]

Ben Nahum Oh true!

[@KindOldRaven]

Lmao, KZbin completely un-does that de-banding shader. It looked exactly 0% better in this video. I know it works in-game and no it's not my monitor (true 8bit VA panel), but that was funny as hell.

[@Dictator93]

I also got a laugh after watching it post upload hahahaha

[@DiegoAlanTorres96]

Been using Reshade for over a year now thanks to this. Really encouraged me to play more games.

[@ClockworkAlex]

Using ReShade for every game on my PC. Sometimes it doesn't look like same game after some filters

[@monocore]

Lmao at the debanding bit. It really doesn't work with compressed video. -

[@pleasedontwatchthese9593]

Sergio Lugo got to get ppl to sign up on the patrion somehow

[@udobybreak6393]

DEUS EX MENU THEME WRYYYYYYYYY

[@Dictator93]

Because it is darn good music, that is why (and I had recently been thinking a lot about it).- haha -Alex

[@udobybreak6393]

Oh yes indeed!

[@totty2524]

Just noticed that it kinda sounds like the oldschool xmen theme.

[@killer1one1]

That Deus Ex theme at the beginning made me shed a tear

[@SteelSkin667]

Pro tip : MSI Afterburner will tell you the graphics API it detects next to its frame-rate counter.

[@Kairosdex]

DigitalFoundry should do a video on all the different types of software that can be added to improve gaming experiences. It would make a really interesting video I think.

[@arcanethink]

I had used a reshade on MGSV and it legit made my game look a thousand times better. It felt amazing!

[@snchez2106]

ArcaneThinker which one did you use? To test it myself.

[@christopherscott934]

Uragan5 There's actually numerous ReShade/ENB for MGS V on the Nexus but can't remember the names of them.

[@thunderphil657]

If you get the time I would like to know what you used as well

[@arcanethink]

Phillip Olsen I have linked the better one in my comment above.

[@devonmarr9872]

There have been a number of new features, changes, and simplified installation. Yall should do an update video. Glamarye fast effects are worth a mention as well.

[@MegaDeox]

>Wolfenstein with external post processing "looks okay" >Me while playing this game last month on PS4: "Wow this looks amazing!" My standards are obviously set lower than yours.

[@09spidy]

Excellent work on the Jensen Dance.

[@NowaczekYT]

His pronunciation of Wolfenstein is gold. :)

[@tobitobey5522]

Excellent review. I feel confident in trying Reshade after watching this

[@Dictator93]

Awesome to hear tobi! -Alex

[@MunkeyChips]

Please, more PC videos like this. I love it!

[@Xx_m1k3_0X1onG_xX]

where's DF retro at????

[@danielplaystation84]

cyber burner, looovvve df retro.

[@EvilLucario]

cyber burner John said on Twitter it should be available by next month I heard? Can't check atm.

[@Xx_m1k3_0X1onG_xX]

Evil Lucario I can’t wait it’s my favourite series on this platform

[@SEMARPE]

John getting canned soon

[@Xx_m1k3_0X1onG_xX]

Veith Servius u must be joking. Where'd you find out about that?

[@xGeoThumbs]

Love how in depth the video is.

[@wile123456]

Here is some tips for ya all: Make sure to look at the individual settings for each effect, as the deafult settings often are not that good Not all games support depthbuffer access!!! This means you can't use effects that depend on it, including: DOF, ambient Occlusion, Fog and so on You can adjust depth of field strength, for first person game its a great idea to disable near blur, so only far away objects blur when looking at things up close Use the "infinite focus" option to make it so after a certain distance, no far blur appears There are many dof shaders, with different quality levels, settings and performance hit, Magic DOF is the cheapest, so use that if you don't have a powerful GPU You can adjust DOF to either focus on the center (FPS etc) or at your mouse cursor (great for strategy games etc) If you don't like DOF there is a shader called "Depthhaze" which only slightly blurs distant terrain, and has an opstion to add fog as well, this is similar to newer open world games. The bloom shader alex showed in the video is the worst IMO and the better one is called "MagicBloom" this gives a subtle bloom effect to light objects, and is like an ENB for skyrim for example A more heavy version is "Ambient Light" which gives the illusion of Global illumination as well optionable as Lens effects such dirt and light bleed MXAO can be tuned to different quality levels so you can lower the detail to save performance. There is a neat greenscreen shader, that allows you to record/screenshot stuff in game and then crop it in an editing program

[@asturides]

Alex, I had difficulty hearing your voice on other videos, but in this one is way better and clearer, keep it up!

[@GreenSwede]

Reshade Debanding Shader does not make a difference on my screen in this video. Is this a KZbin limitation?

[@martinkosecky4943]

No. The deband shader is supposed to remove color banding, which is not really present in the video

[@GreenSwede]

I still see the color banding, which is the issue.

[@martinkosecky4943]

Then it is probably caused by youtube's compression

[@confuseatronica]

me too- something on my pc is causing mad banding in all youtube vids and most but not all video playback, for 3 weeks now. I still havent found what caused it- hardware software os driver browser... theres so many things attached that affect video rendering and so many different states :( Tried all the OBVIOUS things, now its down to disabling things one at a time...

[@MunkeyChips]

KZbin compression and the original files of the source material are making it difficult to see the change. I would recommend trying the debanding filter out yourself and comparing screenshots. :)

[@JoPsyph]

Swapping dlss sharpening with CAS is amazing!

[@stobe187]

I use Reshade on Pro Evo Soccer 2018. Took down the saturation a bit, added film grain and tweaked the exposure a tad to get that slightly low-contrast TV broadcast look and I have to say that PES looks fucking amazing now. Highly recommended.

[@spencemossman4027]

love the deus dx music playing in the back round!

[@MunkeyChips]

I'd like to see a comparison between the ENB, Reshade and Sweet FX tool sets: What features do each posses/share; which is better for what purpose; which is more expensive on resources and why; those kind of things.

[@ShruteshKumar]

Sweet FX is obsolete now (it was the predecessor to reshade), ENB only works with specific games it has been built for and is way more powerful than Reshade for those particular games because it is completely customized for that game. ENB will often support complex stuff in the games it works with.

[@RadioactiveLobster]

You couldn't make the video 2 seconds longer?

[@Fendera1]

1337 :)

[@JPPWB]

I get it... I don't get it.

[@buzzworddujour]

t.boomer

[@Kabodanki]

LEET

[@TimeoutMegagameplays]

Ok, this one was a woosh for me

[@mrratchet]

It's great to see some PC focused content outside of the standard CPU/GPU performance tests etc. DF Retro and Tech Focus have been great. I'd love to see what other unique series such as these that you all can bring to the table, they are a breath of fresh air outside of the main performance checks of games.

[@Khaostheory1980]

Gg DF on hiring this guy. He's excellent.

[@Nick930]

Only time a sweetfx or reshader mod is worth a damn is far cry 2. That game looks horrible without sweetfx

[@stephen257]

This game was the reason I was looking into reshade

[@worm6820]

Haaaard disagree, reshade is almost always awesome, only time it isn’t awesome is when it doesn’t work right tbh.

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

I exist.

[@dominikcygan2664]

@@worm6820 unless someone doesn't know what "realistic" is and uses shit ton of bloom and ssr

[@sillyfella2009]

It can be great with anythhing if used correctly. It doesnt always need to be realistic

[@Carlos-wl5fn]

I just started using reshade but I like to add Bloom, Fake HDR, tonemapping and SMAA. Nice vid!

[@DerKrazyKrautGaming]

I've been using ReShade for Sharpening + SMAA years now. The DOF setting is also getting better.

[@TheRacePig]

Reshade's lumasharpen is really crucial for FFXV, since the TAA is very aggressive yet there's no sharpening added at all to offset the blur. It helps immensely.

[@xXCrazyGamer21xX]

I've used Reshade on all my games for a few years now, there's only a few that wont work every now and then, but it's been known for older versions to work for a specific game though, I love it, even when you think a game look amazing, something as simple as injecting Reshade can make it look even better, I went through and chose my favorite settings, and i always end up with the same 5 settings, Clarity, Colorfulness, FakeHDR, HighPassSharpen, LumaSharpen, they help to clear up a lot of blur in certain games, and overall just make it make so much more clear and colorful. But with the settings i've chose to use it can take about a 10-20 FPS hit to performance though, and i play on 2k Ultrawide, with a GTX 1070.

[@devonmarr9872]

Adjusting: -Levels -AA -Sharpening -DOF -Ambient occlusion (mxao) -Saturation levels With these changes games can look fantastic and perfects a lot of games that wars close to perfection

[@SianaGearz]

It's amazing that it has UI tweaking now. I should try it again on Driver: San Francisco, the PC version shipped without the colour filter and such and doesn't look at all like it should.

[@alef321]

Psychonauts with filmic bloom ,and HBAO via Nvidia inspector ( at HIGH QUALITY) is mindblowing good.

[@ViperJoe]

Tech Focus has become my favorite series on KZbin. Keep it up, Alex! I find ReShade almost essential as the vast majority of games released nowadays look extremely washed out with no way to fix it using the arbitrary in-game brightness/gamma sliders or have weird piss filters, for some reason (I'm looking at you, Dark Souls 3). It's also a great way to spice up the look of old games as you said. It often gets a bad rap because a lot of the presets shared online are made by people who pretty much abuse the sharpening and contrast filters, thinking they can make games more "photorealistic!!1!" and "cinematic!1!!1" that way. When used in moderation, though, ReShade is a godsend.

[@Deffine]

Per object motionblur and depth of field effect is really nice.

[@ApxuBbI]

I mostly use Reshade for sharpen effect, and some SMAA if there is no anti-aliasing built in. *After I tried it (when it was called sweetfx), now I just put it everywhere when I can.

[@aonodensetsu]

sweetfx is its own thing

[@d2ultima]

"What if you want max settings at 4k 30fps? Or what if you want 120fps on very low settings?" Bruh, I want 120fps maxed settings, what are you talking about?

[@leegsy]

Not everyone can afford a PC that will run the latest games on maximum settings at 120 frames per second, certainly not with how much GPUs and RAM is currently.

[@SteelSkin667]

Some games will force you to choose, even with a 1080 Ti.

[@d2ultima]

I know, I just meant that 4K 30 maxed and 120fps min are so polarizing (and not really what someone should balance a system for). Plus, it was funny.

[@d2ultima]

I know, it was more a joke. Besides, it's quite silly still that a 1080Ti can even chug at 1080p in some titles.

[@mrpositronia]

Hey, bro, you could always wait another 10 years for PCs to be able to run today's games at your desired frame rates.

[@CasepbX]

I've been using Sweetfx or Reshade for years now. Pretty much ever since Diablo 3 was too colorful for my tastes. I just tweaked sweetfx to make it darker. Turning up the saturation on games like Bayonetta really give it new life as well, makes it pop like it never could normally.

[@themriron2391]

Another Deus Ex fan! Always nice to see fans of the series, it's a personal favourite of mine. Great video - I use ReShade for replaying a lot of my games, from Halo to OutRun 2006 to even just messing with newer games like Payday 2.

[@DetectivePoofPoof]

*REINSTALLS DEUS EX*

[@Dictator93]

My job is done. -Alex

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

Noobs.

[@Robspassion]

Alex you rock. You single handedly made me love motion blur if used correctly and now this. I always found reshade clunky to use and have totally fogotten about it. Man thank you. Please keep on your awesome work! Much appreciated!

[@devonmarr9872]

Please make an updated video on this. - Many new features - Easier to use for newcomers - Many sharpening options

[@xenomorphlover]

To be honest, I can't imagine playing games without reshade anymore, especially older games look almost modern when you play with the shaders.....

[@PintsofGuinness]

yo i really dont recommend installing every singer shader in that list. uncheck all and select only the ones you want for the game youre installing into. when you have 60+ shaders installed it can take forever to launch a game and it becomes tedious scrolling through them all while configuring.

[@Dictator93]

I agree! Especially for those who know exactly what they are doing! :D But I also kind of wanted to nudge people into downloading them all... so they can try them all out :D Then with time and knowledge they could figure out, yeah it loads quicker with less and the ones i need. Even then, with the default 60, I was only seeing load time increased by about 7-9 seconds on a Ryzen 1700x with SSD. It was ok! Thanks for the comment. Big fan the stout btw. Alex

[@ShruteshKumar]

Yeah lol... the pain after every ALT+TAB!

[@zealox8086]

Yeah stupid shaders for screenshots like ASCII are disgusting and add load time.

[@leonthesleepy]

Hi Alex! Just one suggestion, could you upload your videos in 4k too?

[@Rolodzeo]

That safety Adam dance :D

[@HiltTilt]

So glad you made a video on this. Been doing this few 2 years and I'm made i didnt sooner. Alot of people just dont know about this.

[@arcticridge]

I've never believed in reshaders, but if anyone can convince me, it's DF

[@senseihEnRY16]

i don't even have a gaming PC but i really like Alex's pc tech videos!

[@UltraSonic73]

I could listen to you saying "Wolfenstein" for hours...

[@amir1991xsda]

Alex beside Richard are the best in DF

[@derp3305]

I'm aware of the tools available for modding games, that is why I love PC gaming there's always something new to learn and occupy your time with great focus.

[@undeny]

My go to filters: Clarity, Magic Bloom, Fake HDR, Debanding, SMAA and Vibrance.

[@Cipher76]

Excellent and informative video. Thanks Alex/Digital Foundry.

[@spejarn]

I mostly find re-shade useful for last gen games and older, slapping effects on top of modern games where they designers knew what they were doing usually only makes it worse. One feature i wish it had would be removing tone-mapping from games that doesn't give you the option, just so i could create my own set of post-process effects from a blank canvas, but i doubt that would be possible through post-processing. With that said, a proper monitor calibration would probably yield a more pronounced difference for most gamers out there.

[@spejarn]

I want to remove it so i can apply my own, one that isn't tinted to the point that it loses detail, the Dirt games comes to mind with their piss yellow tint, maybe tonemapping is the wrong term (colormapping?) as it seems to mean different things in different applications, i'm obviously not referring to HDR to SD mapping on those old games.

[@beetheimmortal]

Wow, absolutely love the PC content Alex. And for you to be german aswell, it makes me so happy hearing some german sentences!

[@elitewar2714]

Great music choices in this vid :D

[@lampenpam]

You got me at ambient occlusion. I think I'm gonna have a shot with that when Black Mesa's last chapter releases this year

[@gh0sthouse]

Wow really cool too see this from a big outlet. Reshade is amazing and so overlooked!

[@Yoshimatsu414]

Definitely about to start using this!

[@TheFP_]

I know it's only for supported games but I love Nvidia Freestyles "Details" setting. The sharpening and clarity sliders are the best.

[@shu172]

20 years in PC gaming and I've just learn something new!

[@BaresarkSlayne]

I just used the most recent release only yesterday. I have used it off and on for years, but that latest version is amazing with that in game interface. Thanks for the vid. Since I have subscribed I have learned a lot about a lot of things that have made me rejigger what I thought about a bunch of things.

[@whycontainit]

God, Deus Ex has a brilliant soundtrack! Interesting video as always.

[@solidsnack2757]

finally, Alex has something to share

[@ForeverMasterless]

I've used reshade to play a few games mirrored horizontally. It's very unsettling and cool to play a game you know really well that way.

[@greggreg2458]

I always use reshade. It's amazing, o can make nights in games looks like real nights, color saturation, bloom, sharpening.

[@grahamt19781]

I use lumasharpen on every single game. Taa + reshade lumasharpen solves all your AA needs.

[@dethskullcrusher]

This is PC Master Race only, console gamers shall not pass beyond this point. :D

[@ItsCith]

I have been using ReShade ever since it started. I have also been using SweetFX, Boulotaur's version with Gaussian effects, and of course ENB. Post process are fantastic. While it can create a custom mood for your favourite games, it can also "fix" things like the mentioned colour banding or extreme saturation. I've been coding and porting shaders for a few years and I wish these tools would one day be available on consoles. Cheers back! :)

[@kenzog]

Marty McFly's MXAO shader (now part of his qUINT shader library) vastly improves AO in both GTA V and COD Infinite Warfare. Also with the CEMU emulator also to enhance Wii-U titles. Many modern games still have poor AO implementations, both in terms of AO accuracy and performance hit. In most cases MXAO is superior to the developer's AO, although rarely there are some minor artefacts. My rule is if the AO looks poor, switch it off in-game and add MXAO via reshade, it's truly Reshade's most powerful addition.

[@sidepresang5771]

Great video as always, Alex!

[@lorenzovertemati4104]

there is an option that allows the "smaa" to not ruin the lettering ! you have to enable "display depth" on a compatible game and then put "depth" in the "smaa" options of the reshade, useful in games with smaa or fxaa as unique antialiasing ah and the "taa" is a good options

[@Tasso-d2]

Loving the pc focused content, keep up the good work DF. Ignore all the infuriated console peasants regretting buying a plastic toy to play games on.

[@Ryusennin]

ReShade is a great tool, but most if not all presets available on the Net are abysmal. Not everyone is a computer artist, and you're better off creating your own settings.

[@9ALiTY]

Insane that I just discovered this I've been on PC since 2013. I knew Dolfin and emulators had it but any PC games Crazy

[@magead]

I really like the colourfulness effect with games like far cry 2 or half life 2

[@fragarena9910]

WoW , never heard of this. Definitely intrigued.

[@trentonh.m.1487]

I love motion blur it looks so great

[@CaveyMoth]

Fantastic video! I love Reshade... I use it for Red Faction: Guerrilla, meself. Oh, man, every time I see the RE4 intro, all I can think about is Deepercutt's Resident Evil 4 YTP...

[@vesselinkrastev]

I should've known about this when I started playing The Witcher 2.

[@thiagovidal6137]

I first used Reshade with Skyrim but more recently I’ve been using with FarCry 2 and holy shit! Is the remastered we will never get. It looks photorealistic with all the shades I could mess around with. It really gives a second wind to a 10 years old game.

[@A_Player]

Where can I get that motion blur shader? I can't find it anywhere.

[@AdrianMuslim]

Have you found it?

[@aonodensetsu]

literally the install menu

[@simzzoker123]

RE4 with that 28gb fan HD upgrade w/ reshades looks great

[@F2FTech]

Used it for Fallout 4 to get rid of blur. Anyway, great vid. Very informative 👍

[@vashiss]

Many thanks for this vidéo ! I have always used reshade completly blind about how it works and often get crappy results... I'm going to test new stuff now 😘

[@ahsantetreffert1087]

Finally a video about Reshade.👍 Good content as always. Keep it up😁

[@MarceloTezza]

Great video content, and alex is doing much better in the presentention front,

[@postscriptum8142]

HD texture mods on old games are great.

[@DOYLETWAT]

I’m buying a high end pc next instead of a console

[@SonGoku-ep4wj]

Napoleon Wilson same here

[@Rithysak101]

To pirate games XD

[@megamanx1291]

Napoleon Wilson a midrange pc is enough and still plays everything at ultra 1080p @60+fps and 4k 30 at Low to medium

[@mightyhadi6132]

I am buying Console after having high end PC. Because i want to play exclusives

[@prod.kidmizu]

Son Goku I haven't finished building my PC because I don't want to spend a lot on a GPU

[@ryukjoga]

I managed to create a great custom preset for The Witcher 3. I might upload it to the Nexus Mods for the fans out there who still play the game. It's made specifically for gameplay immersion, but it also looks beautiful for screenshots.

[@P0W3RH0U53]

really cool video, very original compared to the normal new game graphics analysis, I like seeing your guys opinion and creative ideas

[@thenaberius6081]

playing wolfenstein in black&white + red was great experience.

[@barret-xiii]

nice overview of Reshade. It'd also be cool to see an overview and analysis of ENB injectors. Sure, its applications are limited to a handful of titles (particularly bethesda titles) but it'd be interesting to get your take on how they apply effects, compared to Reshade, as well as things like resource overhead between the two injectors