1. If you cannot use your keyboard, disable Origin in-game.
2. If you're having trouble getting it to open, try renaming dxgi.dll to d3d11.dll.
3. This new bloom by prod80 is very heavy, so disable it if you're really having issues with performance. I think that is the main culprit.
4. And lastly, please look through the comments before posting a question. A lot of them are repeated throughout. I am no longer going to answer questions that are answered here or on the front page. After all the effort I put into this, I think I can expect a little on the user side.
2/12/20: Prod's shaders eventually meant that my shots were no longer representative of these presets, so I have revamped the page again. Hopefully I will not need to do that again anytime soon. It was a major tour de force, took quite a few days to get all the shots. I still need more of the Hinterlands, and I need a darker skinned character in the New Bleak preset as I had not decided to make that when I took the shots of Mother Giselle. Also should do Forbidden Oasis and the one-off areas that you go to for quests. I have included Halamshiral, also. There are now two versions of every preset except War Torn, one with prod's tint remover and one without. The tint remover sometimes alters blacks and whites a bit, and also it made my Realistic, Fantasy, Cinematic, and anything based on it too green. Though honestly now even without it those all look too green to me, so it might finally be time to alter those. Anyway I'm in the process of working on a new one, not sure when I'll have it done, but these updates are more than enough for now. I'm very happy with the presets at this point. Prod's shaders have totally revitalized them.
Edit: I'm so glad this helped!!!! I went through this again today (Jan. 2025, as of writing) for version 6.3.3 and made a few edits. (Can't promise that I'll be able to keep updating it, as I'm not exactly atechnology expert) but hopefully it should last a little longer now, for anyone who needs the help. @LoramirOfGondor in the comments had some great extra suggestions too, if you need them.
-------------HOW TO GET RESHADE RUNNING----------
Okay y'all, after many, many hours, I've finally figured this out. I'm writing this step by step that tells you pretty much every button to click. Hopefully that means it's beginner friendly (as I hadn't used Reshade before this). This is probably going to be the longest Nexus comment of all time, but that also means we aren't gonna get lost.
(If you struggle with written tutorials, I've linked a Youtube video at the bottom -- not mine, but one that was massively helpful for me in figuring all this out)
Download Erika's DAI Reshade Presets (this mod) Make sure you have the "All-in-one folder" downloaded and somewhere easy to access. For me, that's my desktop.
Download Reshade Go to Reshade.me Click the one that says "Download ReShade (current version) with full add-on support" (my current version is 6.1.1 6.3.3)
Reshade Setup Run the setup file you downloaded from the website. It should be called something like Reshade_Setup Click through the pop up menu about single player support. Click on "Dragon Age Inquisition" (or, if it isn't showing up, hit Browse, then click your game folder, then the .exe file. If you don't know where that is, check the next bit of orange text) Once you've selected Dragon Age: Inquisition as your game, click Next
API Selection **important note** For those of you who are confused by the face that there is no "Direct 3D" option, I figured out after some digging that DirectX 10/11/12 is pretty much the same thing. (So, NOT DirectX 9) Select Microsoft DirectX 10/11/12 as your API
"Select effects to install" window Click "Uncheck all". Then hit Next. (Don't worry, we're going to come back to this later!) On the "Select add-ons" page, just click Skip. Then click Finish.
sadly, we aren't actuallyyy finished, but we are getting closer to the finish line IMPORTANT: Do not delete the setup file just yet. We are going to run it again in a moment.
Next step: go to your game folder There are now some new files hanging out in our game folder. Head over there, because we've got some work to do.
Extra help note For anyone who's just getting started modding: here's where Steam often puts game folders— C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Userdata. Here's an article with even more help on finding your game folder if it's not there. Also. (Random aside to the rare mean commenter here -- remember. We were all new to this at some point. Nobody's getting lost here if I can help it. Put on your humanity or be a rain cloud elsewhereeeee.) Ahem. Just had to get that bit off my chest. On with the tutorial!
Once you've found your game folder, we need to create a new folder within it. Make sure you're creating it just within the main folder called "Dragon Age Inquisition" — we don't want to be messing with any of the game's inner folders. Name this new folder "reshade_presets".
Next, we're going to open that "All in one" folder from Erika's presets. I put that on my desktop. I highly recommend you have two explorer tabs open, that way you can look at the game folder and the "all in one" folder at the same time. Once the folder's open, select all the presets. A preset is anything that ends in ".ini". Do NOT copy the "reshade-shaders" folder yet! Just copy the presets. Move the presets to our new folder, "reshade_presets" Now, take a look at the game folder. Notice how there's a folder called "reshade-shaders"? That's just like the one we have in Erika's folder! Open up the game folder version, then open up Erika's version. Open Erika's "Shaders" folder, then copy everything in there into the game folder "Shaders" folder. If a window pops up asking if you want to replace files, just click "Skip these files" Do this again with Erika's "Textures" folder.
WE'RE SO CLOSE YOU GUYS
Run the setup file again Running the Reshade_setup file again will help it update all the new information we just put in. Once the file is running, repeat those beginning steps. Click through the singleplayer pop-up, select Dragon Age: Inquisition, then DirectX 10/11/12 Then, click Update Reshade and its effects This time, hit Browse Click your game folder. Then click "reshade-presets" Select one of the presets, it doesn't matter which, we can change it later Hit Next Hit Next again Click Finish
It's time to run the game, y'all
Launch Inquisition. You should see a script running at the top of the screen while the game boots. This could take a while to load, but eventually it will say to hit the Home button to start Reshade's dialogue box.
Optional, personal preference: I have never been able to get the Home button to work when using Reshade. I have no idea why. To fix this, I changed the key overlay. This fix is back in the game folder. Go to the Reshade.ini file (the configuration file) and open it in Notepad. Find the [INPUT] category. Underneath it is a spot where it says "KeyOverlay=36,0,0,0" I chose the Up Arrow as my new Home key, so I changed the 36 to 38. (If you want to use a different key, I used this table to figure out the corresponding number.) By changing my Key Overlay to 38, I can now open Reshade in the game by hitting the Up Arrow.
We made it!! Once Reshade's dialogue box is open, it will take you through a little tutorial. Reshade has a ton of settings, but thankfully we won't really need them. At the top, under the "home, add-ons, settings" tabs, you should see the name of whatever preset you selected. For me, it's Bleak. To change the preset, click the arrow buttons located to the left of the preset name. (This is linked to our "reshade-presets" folder! So whatever presets you have in there, it should link to our "reshade-shaders" folder, and it should all load into the game automatically.)
thus ends the longest Nexus comment of all time
As promised, here's the Youtube video that saved me! It's for the Sims, but same basics apply: How to Install Reshade
checked this after a few months to see all these sweet comments!! To everyone who's commented, ahh I am so glad it helped thank u for the lovee (also thank u erika for making our games so pretty)
-ReShade (6.3.1) didn't create the reshade-shaders folder in the game directory if I chose Skip on the step where you pick which effects to install. If I went ahead with "Standard effects" checked it did. If not though, you can just copy Erika's whole "reshade-shaders" folder to the game directory and it works fine.
-Some combination of Frosty/FrostyFix/DatapathFix has caused there to be two .exe files in my game directory, one called DragonAgeInquisition.exe and one called DragonAgeInquisition.orig.exe. They both showed up in the ReShade setup game choice list (the DragonAgeInquisition.exe one had "DatapathFix" as the title). I thought DragonAgeInquisition.exe would be the one to pick as I assumed that's the one that's actually launched by Frosty/Steam/EA/whatever, but in fact ReShade wouldn't work at all until I chose DragonAgeInquisition.orig.exe during setup.
-the 'home' button worked fine for me, but for comparison purposes and stuff, it's handy to go under Settings in the ReShade menu once you're in the game and set a keybinding for 'toggle effects' so you can instantly toggle between the preset and the vanilla game.
1. Install Reshade, choose dx 10,11,12 - uncheck all and press next when asked which effects you want to install. 2. Copy your preset .ini and the reshade-shaders files into the games root folder 3. Load game, hit home and choose your preset ini from the drop down.
Hands down the best and most concise tutorial I've ever read. Helped me so much and worked perfectly. I'm fairly new to modding games and a lot of the tips and tutorials online tend to be missing information that I am apparently expected to "just know already". Thanks a bunch!
For those anyone who was frustrated with the bare af "installation instructions", here's how to install it.
1. Download the ReShade program and click on the Inquisition .exe.
2. Just uncheck all and proceed. Those .fx files are preconfigured settings but we're using this one's anyway.
3. Put the contents of preset on the root folder of your Inquistion folder.
4. Launch game and load a save. The ReShade have been installed succesfully if you see a hotbar above telling you. Press 'Home' key 'cause that's the default keybind for ReShade.
5. Now, here's the tricky part most people don't know about. After pressing Home, you'll see a panel. You'll see between the Arrow signs and + sign is a tab. Click that. That's where your preset is, for mine it was Cinematic with CinematicForTintRemover (I was frustrated how to install this at first. Turns out you install both presets and it gives an option [prod80 RemoveTint or somthing] for it to work.)
6. You could try clicking the .fx files or using different presets there for combinations you like.
Any idea what would be causing a CTD before the game even opens? I have no overlays of any kind and no recording software and I did everything as you said.
*Nvm got that figured out however now it seems the reshades aren't doing anything. Even when i Change one in game it doesn't seem to do anything
Thank you for explanation! Do you know by any chance why after selecting my preset .ini file in step 5 and then closing and reopening the ReShade options again the original ReShade.ini is in this panel instead of the custom preset .ini file? Even after the ReShade had somehow saved the preset I chose in that panel there were no changes in game.
This is still correct to this day, however if when you select your preset, the game crashes instantly, you need to change the "dxgi.dll"'s name to "d3d11.dll" - Without Quotations obviously.
i could just be a dummy, but i followed these instructions and everything works fine for the most part but selecting the presets don't change anything? i tried realistic and cinematic and i don't see a difference. is there something i missed?
Ok so, after reading the comments I’m still a bit confused about the installation. This is the current order I followed: Install latest Reshade -> select the first two options in the installer AND Prod’s shaders -> install your presets from the all-in-one file, but don’t install the shaders that come with it. Is that correct? Should I select Prod’s shaders in the installer or use the ones included with your file?
That's because there are 4 different "instructions" here, all saying to do different things - OP did not post ANY installation instructions, so everyone is just kind of fumbling around trying to figure it out.
Impossible to use w/ current installation instructions. I downloaded ReShade, immediately asks me what API DAI uses. I click the link to go look for it and it says "Direct 3D." None of the options available to me are Direct 3D. Now what? Just pick any? None of this is explained anywhere.
There are many more screens that require configuration with no explanation. OP says to put "their file" - what file? The folder? which folder? etc.
People should really spend some time to put understandable instructions on a lot of these mods. I can't imagine putting so much time and effort into something and then just skip any explanation of how to use it.
Is there a recommended version of reshade to use with this preset? I've been trying to use the current version of reshade 5.8.0 and the game CTDs the second I select one of these profiles. I tried reverting back to reshade 4.5.4 but it didn't seem to load the profile at all.
Just beautiful! Outstanding...! I used some more mods to enhance graphics a bit and added your fantasy preset... This doesnt look like 9 years old game anymore. Thank you very much. Endorsed. :)
789 comments
1. If you cannot use your keyboard, disable Origin in-game.
2. If you're having trouble getting it to open, try renaming dxgi.dll to d3d11.dll.
3. This new bloom by prod80 is very heavy, so disable it if you're really having issues with performance. I think that is the main culprit.
4. And lastly, please look through the comments before posting a question. A lot of them are repeated throughout. I am no longer going to answer questions that are answered here or on the front page. After all the effort I put into this, I think I can expect a little on the user side.
-------------HOW TO GET RESHADE RUNNING----------
Okay y'all, after many, many hours, I've finally figured this out. I'm writing this step by step that tells you pretty much every button to click. Hopefully that means it's beginner friendly (as I hadn't used Reshade before this). This is probably going to be the longest Nexus comment of all time, but that also means we aren't gonna get lost.
(If you struggle with written tutorials, I've linked a Youtube video at the bottom -- not mine, but one that was massively helpful for me in figuring all this out)
Download Erika's DAI Reshade Presets (this mod)
Make sure you have the "All-in-one folder" downloaded and somewhere easy to access. For me, that's my desktop.
Download Reshade
Go to Reshade.me
Click the one that says "Download ReShade (current version) with full add-on support" (my current version is
6.1.16.3.3)Reshade Setup
Run the setup file you downloaded from the website. It should be called something like Reshade_Setup
Click through the pop up menu about single player support.
Click on "Dragon Age Inquisition" (or, if it isn't showing up, hit Browse, then click your game folder, then the .exe file. If you don't know where that is, check the next bit of orange text)
Once you've selected Dragon Age: Inquisition as your game, click Next
API Selection
**important note** For those of you who are confused by the face that there is no "Direct 3D" option, I figured out after some digging that DirectX 10/11/12 is pretty much the same thing. (So, NOT DirectX 9)
Select Microsoft DirectX 10/11/12 as your API
"Select effects to install" window
Click "Uncheck all". Then hit Next. (Don't worry, we're going to come back to this later!)
On the "Select add-ons" page, just click Skip.
Then click Finish.
sadly, we aren't actuallyyy finished, but we are getting closer to the finish line
IMPORTANT: Do not delete the setup file just yet. We are going to run it again in a moment.
Next step: go to your game folder
There are now some new files hanging out in our game folder. Head over there, because we've got some work to do.
Extra help note
For anyone who's just getting started modding: here's where Steam often puts game folders— C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Userdata. Here's an article with even more help on finding your game folder if it's not there. Also. (Random aside to the rare mean commenter here -- remember. We were all new to this at some point. Nobody's getting lost here if I can help it. Put on your humanity or be a rain cloud elsewhereeeee.) Ahem. Just had to get that bit off my chest. On with the tutorial!
Once you've found your game folder, we need to create a new folder within it. Make sure you're creating it just within the main folder called "Dragon Age Inquisition" — we don't want to be messing with any of the game's inner folders. Name this new folder "reshade_presets".
Next, we're going to open that "All in one" folder from Erika's presets. I put that on my desktop. I highly recommend you have two explorer tabs open, that way you can look at the game folder and the "all in one" folder at the same time.
Once the folder's open, select all the presets. A preset is anything that ends in ".ini". Do NOT copy the "reshade-shaders" folder yet! Just copy the presets.
Move the presets to our new folder, "reshade_presets"
Now, take a look at the game folder. Notice how there's a folder called "reshade-shaders"? That's just like the one we have in Erika's folder! Open up the game folder version, then open up Erika's version. Open Erika's "Shaders" folder, then copy everything in there into the game folder "Shaders" folder. If a window pops up asking if you want to replace files, just click "Skip these files"
Do this again with Erika's "Textures" folder.
WE'RE SO CLOSE YOU GUYS
Run the setup file again
Running the Reshade_setup file again will help it update all the new information we just put in.
Once the file is running, repeat those beginning steps. Click through the singleplayer pop-up, select Dragon Age: Inquisition, then DirectX 10/11/12
Then, click Update Reshade and its effects
This time, hit Browse
Click your game folder. Then click "reshade-presets"
Select one of the presets, it doesn't matter which, we can change it later
Hit Next
Hit Next again
Click Finish
It's time to run the game, y'all
Launch Inquisition.
You should see a script running at the top of the screen while the game boots. This could take a while to load, but eventually it will say to hit the Home button to start Reshade's dialogue box.
Optional, personal preference: I have never been able to get the Home button to work when using Reshade. I have no idea why. To fix this, I changed the key overlay.
This fix is back in the game folder. Go to the Reshade.ini file (the configuration file) and open it in Notepad. Find the [INPUT] category. Underneath it is a spot where it says "KeyOverlay=36,0,0,0"
I chose the Up Arrow as my new Home key, so I changed the 36 to 38. (If you want to use a different key, I used this table to figure out the corresponding number.)
By changing my Key Overlay to 38, I can now open Reshade in the game by hitting the Up Arrow.
We made it!!
Once Reshade's dialogue box is open, it will take you through a little tutorial. Reshade has a ton of settings, but thankfully we won't really need them.
At the top, under the "home, add-ons, settings" tabs, you should see the name of whatever preset you selected. For me, it's Bleak. To change the preset, click the arrow buttons located to the left of the preset name. (This is linked to our "reshade-presets" folder! So whatever presets you have in there, it should link to our "reshade-shaders" folder, and it should all load into the game automatically.)
thus ends the longest Nexus comment of all time
As promised, here's the Youtube video that saved me! It's for the Sims, but same basics apply: How to Install Reshade
-ReShade (6.3.1) didn't create the reshade-shaders folder in the game directory if I chose Skip on the step where you pick which effects to install. If I went ahead with "Standard effects" checked it did. If not though, you can just copy Erika's whole "reshade-shaders" folder to the game directory and it works fine.
-Some combination of Frosty/FrostyFix/DatapathFix has caused there to be two .exe files in my game directory, one called DragonAgeInquisition.exe and one called DragonAgeInquisition.orig.exe. They both showed up in the ReShade setup game choice list (the DragonAgeInquisition.exe one had "DatapathFix" as the title). I thought DragonAgeInquisition.exe would be the one to pick as I assumed that's the one that's actually launched by Frosty/Steam/EA/whatever, but in fact ReShade wouldn't work at all until I chose DragonAgeInquisition.orig.exe during setup.
-the 'home' button worked fine for me, but for comparison purposes and stuff, it's handy to go under Settings in the ReShade menu once you're in the game and set a keybinding for 'toggle effects' so you can instantly toggle between the preset and the vanilla game.
1. Install Reshade, choose dx 10,11,12 - uncheck all and press next when asked which effects you want to install.
2. Copy your preset .ini and the reshade-shaders files into the games root folder
3. Load game, hit home and choose your preset ini from the drop down.
And that is it.
1. Download the ReShade program and click on the Inquisition .exe.
2. Just uncheck all and proceed. Those .fx files are preconfigured settings but we're using this one's anyway.
3. Put the contents of preset on the root folder of your Inquistion folder.
4. Launch game and load a save. The ReShade have been installed succesfully if you see a hotbar above telling you. Press 'Home' key 'cause that's the default keybind for ReShade.
5. Now, here's the tricky part most people don't know about. After pressing Home, you'll see a panel. You'll see between the Arrow signs and + sign is a tab. Click that. That's where your preset is, for mine it was Cinematic with CinematicForTintRemover (I was frustrated how to install this at first. Turns out you install both presets and it gives an option [prod80 RemoveTint or somthing] for it to work.)
6. You could try clicking the .fx files or using different presets there for combinations you like.
*Nvm got that figured out however now it seems the reshades aren't doing anything. Even when i Change one in game it doesn't seem to do anything
There are many more screens that require configuration with no explanation.
OP says to put "their file" - what file? The folder? which folder? etc.
People should really spend some time to put understandable instructions on a lot of these mods. I can't imagine putting so much time and effort into something and then just skip any explanation of how to use it.