SweetFX Shader Suite - Graphics Tweaker

[MashMash]

This was on the old forums and is quite a handy mod - makes the graphics pop nicely.

It also has a GUI now so no more manually tweaking the settings via txt files.

SweetFX (Current ver. 1.5.1)

SweetFX Configurator

What is it?
So in case you're new to SweetFX Shader Suite (or just SweetFX), it's a mod built on the InjectSMAA shader injector, that allows you to apply a suite of post processing shader effects to your games.

You may have tried another shader injection mod before, like InjectFXAA, InjectSMAA or FXAAtool. SweetFX improves upon all of these.

You can add SMAA anti-aliasing , sharpening and tweak the color, gamma , exposure and more.
It's meant to allow you to improve the look of your games and change the look and mood of it to your liking.
If you use SMAA antialiasing instead of MSAA or an even more expensive antialaliasing technique you can also make the game run faster (than with MSAA)

Effects included:

* SMAA Anti-aliasing : Anti-aliases the image using the SMAA technique - see http://www.iryoku.com/smaa/
* LumaSharpen : Sharpens the image, making details easier to see
* Bloom : Makes strong lights bleed their light into their surroundings
* HDR : Mimics an HDR tonemapped look
* Technicolor : Makes the image look like it was processed using a three-strip Technicolor process - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor
* Cineon DPX : Makes the image look like it was converted from film to Cineon DPX. Can be used to create a "sunny" look.
* Lift Gamma Gain : Adjust brightness and color of shadows, midtones and highlights (avoids clipping)
* Tonemap : Adjust gamma, exposure, saturation, bleach and defog. (may cause clipping)
* Vibrance : Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.
* Curves : Contrast adjustments using S-curves.
* Sepia : Sepia tones the image - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepia_tone#Sepia_toning
* Vignette : Darkens the edges of the image to make it look more like it was shot with a camera lens. - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignetting )
* Dither : Applies dithering to simulate more colors than your monitor can display. This lessens banding artifacts - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditheri...age_processing )
* Splitscreen : Enables the before-and-after splitscreen comparison mode.

It works with all 32bit DirectX 9 , 10 and 11 games (and many applications).

It works with all graphics cards as long as they support at least shader model 3.

It does NOT work with 64bit game executables - use the 32bit version of your game if it gives you a choice between 32 and 64bit.

It should work on Windows 2000 and newer, both 32bit and 64bit. So far tested working on WinXP , Vista and Win7. Windows 8 is untested - please report your findings (So far it seems to function if users edit their folder permissions first)

It may work on Linux using Wine - please report your findings.

It does not work well with most programs that overlay an image onto the game. It has a workaround for the Steam overlay so that will work, and you can make overlays based on Rivatuner OSD work as well with a compability setting in those overlays , but other overlays may prevent SweetFX from making changes to the image or outright crash the game - turn those off.

NOTE: Some of my guildies have had the game crash with this installed, but many others run it fine. I think maybe it conflicts with other programs, and someone mentioned not having windows .NET updates can cause issues.

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Version 1.5.1

• LumaSharpen in 1.5 still had some experimental code activated when it should not have. Fixed that.
• Changed some code and settings to workaround a bug in SweetFX Configurator. The configurator should now work fine with SweetFX 1.5.1
• The Custom shader now have some more interesting example code that inverts the luma of the image, and it now has an example setting.

[Misiuggah]

Here's a sample of what can it do:

BEFORE:
http://imageshack.us/a/img690/7363/m...picture002.jpg (max settings)

AFTER:
http://imageshack.us/a/img23/3443/screenshot24656.jpg (only some basic options on, check out how much more sharp is the character armour and how more sexy are the colours)

[Szass]

I like my game a little darker. I ended up turning my in game gamma down to 1 and turned on the tonemap raising its gamma to 1.15 which darkens the higher you go. Ended up with this overlooking Sanctum.

http://i.imgur.com/dFFIf6a.jpg

[Invino]

SweetFX is a must have for AoC really. ** just don't use it in TSW **

..

Some screens I posted few days ago with SweetFX and Ati 7950 gfx.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bnonpuv9t0...oC%20guild.bmp
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dxapimnepg...%20closeup.bmp
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k7s9sojiy4...oC%20Erlik.bmp

[blutti]

This is very good for aoc. On default settings it removes the blurriness from the image that you would get with the game's own aa. Also many other graphical levers to toy with. Simple and makes the game look so much better than it has looked after the new aa was introduced to the game at engine upgrade way back.

[strangerism]

I tried few days ago first time but client keep crashing when it's on. I am running dx10 settings all max.

Not sure if I have to disable some of the settings in order to have this one running.

[Misiuggah]

I tried few days ago first time but client keep crashing when it's on. I am running dx10 settings all max.

Not sure if I have to disable some of the settings in order to have this one running.

You can try disabling AA in the game. I'm running with no AA in the game, but I didn't notice any difference. The only problems I had was with overlay (both TS and Mumble) - I had to switch them off.

Also you can try running the game without the configurator. Just add the game in SweetFX, choose gfx options and save them. Then just run the game normally (original shortcut, Steam etc.).

[Rookni]

Could you post your setting Misi? Looks good

[yuisoku]

AoC with SweetFX video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8puCIKvx65o

There is also my settings included in description

[Misiuggah]

Could you post your setting Misi? Looks good

I stole it from darknessjw - I've only changed HDR to 1.2-1.3 to make it less dark. Get the config from his video.

It looks good because of the place and time in which I've made the shot