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About this mod
ReShade preset for Helldivers 2 inspired by PS1 demakes and retro pixel art.
- Permissions and credits
Helldivers Zero is my attempt to use ReShade to demake the games visuals to roughly the early to mid 90's. It takes inspiration from PS1 demake projects and pixel art from the 4th to 5th generation of consoles. Demakes are usually made from scratch but are rarely playable, so using ReShade I wanted to see how retro I could make the visuals feel without recreating entire assets. Low poly models, low res textures with baked-in AO, and bitcrushed sound effects would be awesome additions, but are far beyond what I can do.
Is this a performance mod? Kinda! The recommended resolution for this preset is 480p, which minimizes GPU load. The look also relies on performance mods by Hybred that disable shadows and volumetric fog (linked at the bottom). See details below for which effects impact performance the most.
Instructions
- Install latest ReShade with Addon Support
- During install select "Standard Effects" only
- Extract contents of .zip to "reshade-shaders" folder, overwrite if necessary
- In-game, select desired preset .ini from the drop-down menu. (See effect order at bottom of this page for reference)
- Under Settings tab, set Effects toggle key (I use ~)
- Under Add-ons tab, go to Generic Depth, select the checkbox for the depth buffer with the highest number of draw calls (typically at the top of the list). Setting the right depth buffer will ensure effects like the depth fog behave properly. Toggle on DisplayDepth.fx to help with selection. (See depth buffer screenshot below)
- Install performance mods by Hybred linked below
- Use your GPU's control panel to create the custom resolution 854x480 (for 16:9 displays)
- Select 854x480 as your display resolution, or select it in-game in fullscreen mode. Borderless Window mode doesn't seem compatible from what I can tell
The preset was originally tuned for personal use at 1152x480 in HDR. I tweaked them to 854x480 (~16:9) and SDR for this release. Higher resolutions are possible but not recommended as it will change the look of some effects. But if you want to try, disable BilateralCS.fx, SmartDeNoise.fx, and SurfaceBlur.fx as these tank performance and are really only needed at low resolution. Then adjust VirtualResolution.fx so the pixelation width is 1/4 your render width and pixelation height is 1/2 of your render height. Do the same for PowerVR2.fx. This double-wide pixel aspect ratio is personal preference, it can be whatever. retroshader.fx's dither spread may also need adjusting based on resolution. Lower than 480p makes the UI unreadable.
In-Game Settings
- Vertical FOV set to 45
- Motion Blur Off
- Bloom Off
- Depth of Field Off
- Particle Quality: Medium
- Space Quality: High
- Everything else set to Lowest
Other Notes
- VirtualResolution.fx can take decimal values but the UI will round to nearest integer
- Hotkeys "-" & "+" are bound to toggle the depth fog & pixelation, change if needed
- Depth Fog uses Screen blending making nights brighter than intended.
- Depth Fog renders on top of the game's particle effects. Using the "ReshadeEffectShaderToggler" addon in DX11 mode may be a work around, but it's a route that's very involved. I personally like the look of the fog silhouetting the game's geometry.
- The "concussion" status effect seems to interact with the shaders in an extreme way.
- AreaDiscard.fx, bound to "/", can mask out the effect to see the game UI. Margins can be adjusted in the settings
- Unsharp.fx is modified to remove noise generation
Recommended Mods
Disable Post-Processing or Fog by Hybred
Ultimate Performance by Hybred
Unofficial Photomode by Skignorf (for toggling HUD)
Effect Order
Other effect installs may duplicate or re-order effects. Make backups if needed, delete everything in the "reshade-shaders" folder, and re-extract from the HD0 .zip to get a fresh start.
How the order of effects should look:
Depth Buffer
