(Mod Version 2.0 is Currently DX12 Compatible Only)
Check Out the New Video Showcasing Version 2.0
V2.0 Update Details
Shader Injection. Mod works entirely beneath the game's user interface now (as well as beneath most all mods which add UI elements).
UI Safe Zones No Longer Needed. As the mod now operates beneath the UI, safe zones setup requirement is no longer necessary.
Enhanced Effectiveness. V2.0 is a major improvement over V1.0. Now eliminates almost all horizontal screen space artifacts.
Improved Image Quality. Now includes two effects. A single sharpen effect in order to effectively compensate for the minor blur incurred by upscaling the image, in addition to the single DisplayMod effect used to upscale the image. The METEOR NVsharpen effect was chosen for it's combination of high performance with no visible artifacts, and because it's image quality closely matches the pre-upscaled image quality. The result, is that while upscaling the image does slightly impact image quality, the minor sharpening effect fully corrects for that, resulting in a final image that is just very slightly sharper than the vanilla image.
AutoHotkey Scripts (for both AutoHotkey V1.1+ and AutoHotkey V2+). Either of these hotkey scripts can be used to automatically disable this mod's effects when opening the full size map, and automatically re-enable this mod's effects when closing the full size map. See additional AHK info added to description page.
Updated Description. Be sure to review updated installation instructions on the description page.
DX12 Exclusive (sorry, I wish I had a Vulkan solution). Version 2.0 is only compatible with DX12. I wish I could make it work in Vulkan, but the REST addon for ReShade, which allows me to inject ReShade effects beneath the game's UI, is not working with RDR2's Vulkan implementation at this time. The REST addon does offer experimental Vulkan support, but it's just not functional with RDR2 yet. Any graphics programmers feel like digging into the REST addon's source code, to help get this working for Vulkan?
DLSS/FSR incompatible. Sorry, I didn't realize before, because I play RDR2 without enabling DLSS/FSR. V2 will not work with DLSS/FSR enabled. Use the game's Resolution Scale setting instead of DLSS/FSR. Resolution Scale set at .75x or .8x looks better and has similar performance to DLSS balanced.
Version 1.0 of this mod remains available on the downloads page and that version can be used with Vulkan.
Mod Version 2.0 Controller Support Not Relevant for Mod Version 1.0
It has come to my attention that I completely forgot about controller users. Currently the AutoHotkey scripts included with version 2.0 of the mod will only activate when opening the map with the default "m" key on the keyboard.
In version 2.0, opening the map without disabling effects (either disabling effects manually, with the reshade toggle effects hotkey, or automatically with one of the AutoHotkey scripts), will cause the map to be invisible, and closing the map with effects enabled will cause effects to recompile... which can occasionally cause the game to crash. Basically, it's pretty bad. Which is why I included the AutoHotkey scripts as an automated workaround for this issue.
Update: If you're using a controller, just use the Keyboard M key to open/close the full size map. Another option might be using something like ReWASD to remap something on the controller to the keyboard M key. I was able to get an app on my phone to show a button that would send the M key on my PC, so something like that could be an option too.
Haven't played RDR2 in a while, so this probably won't get updated any time soon, but I may come back to it at some point. Have fun!
Just delete the ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini file.
Must choose Vulkan during ReShade install (if you install ReShade for Vulkan, ReShade will work even when running the game in DX12, but the inverse is not true).
Not sure, I had one other person who may have run into something like that. They said disabling resizable bar fixed it. Personally I wouldn't recommend disabling that system wide via bios settings though. So if you're on an nVidia card you might try using latest version of nVidia Profile Inspector, which has some options related to resizable bar, I think it allows disabling resizable bar for individual game profiles. If you're on AMD or Intel GPU, then I really don't know if there is any similar options. Let us know if you figure anything out!
I actually do believe that what I have done here could be implemented in a much better manner by someone with the right skills as an actual game mod. Way over my head though.
first of all thank you. Those screen edges with their flickering shadows have been driving me crazy for a while now. This is my first ever mod I installed for any game, so this might seem like a dumb question:
The upscaling works, but now my hud in the left bottom corner is cut off. Adjusting "Hud Safezone" in the Display Settings does cut into the loss a bit, but I still am not able to see the full hud, the heath bar icon is completely cut off.
Is there any way I can adjust this, so the hud will be completely visible? In the videos you posted with the fix applied the hud is completely visible, I just can't seem to make it work for myself.
Version 1 should work with only ui safezones set to lowest setting. Version 2 uses the REST ReShade addon to operate beneath the UI, so you shouldn't need to worry about safezones with V2, and it can get away with scaling the scene further and almost completely eliminating the artifacts. If you followed all instructions on the description page, and Version 2 isn't working, then it is possible that a game update messed up how the REST addon targets the in-game shaders.
I haven't played RDR2 in a while now, so for the time being, I can only suggest trying Version 1 of the mod. Given that it should work regardless of any game updates. V1 doesn't scale the image up as far as V2 does, so there will still be some minor screen space artifacting visible on screen edges, but it 90% fixes the issue, and generally makes the artifacts much less obtrusive.
I may come back to RDR2 at some point in the future, at which point, if a game update broke V2, I may be able to fix it. This is a pretty simple workaround too though, and getting the REST addon working for the UI was mostly just trial and error. The only coding involved in this mod is the AHK scripts, which can't really be broken by game updates. What I'm getting at, is that no one should wait for me to get around to fixing this. Anyone sufficiently motivated can, given a little effort, fix it for themselves.
In any case, V1 is pretty bullet proof fallback, that should always work. If there is any issue with V1, just delete the ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini file, and of course be sure to set the UI safezone.
does this fix pixelated trees when using dlss/fsr ? i swear this game look like s#*! when using upscaler and does this work without having to install auto hotkey
V1 could work without AHK. It think it can work with DLSS enabled, but it won't help with DLSS image quality. V2 requires AHK, and it will not work with DLSS or FSR at all (I need to update description).
This mod only addresses artifacts around screen borders caused by screen space shadows and screen space reflections.
I would recommend just disabling DLSS. FSR/DLSS in this game, are not worthwhile tradeoffs. They both cause graphical issues. If you disable DLSS/FSR in the settings, then towards the bottom there is "Resolution Scale" (it's greyed out if you have DLSS/FSR enabled) which uses Rockstar's own upscaler. Set it at .75x or .8x and it will look much better than DLSS/FSR imho, and the performance is similar to DLSS balanced.
Because when you open the full map, it won't work with the reshade effects active. It will be transparent and it will force reload the effects when closing the map - which is ugly, and often causes a crash. This is due to targeting one of the games shaders in order to apply the effect beneath the UI. Maybe that shader is disabled when the map is open, causing reshade to reload effects when it gets renabled.
The ReshadeShaderEffectToggler does not work flawlessly for DX12 yet. Nothing I can really do about that.
The AHK scripts intercept the m key when the game is running. Then when you press m for map, Ahk intercepts it and sends m but also toggles effects using the reshade toggle effects switches to a different ReShade preset with effects disabled, using one of the preset hotkeys that you where asked to setup in the install instructions. This allows the map to work, and not crash the game when closed, by toggling off the reshade effects when the map is opened and toggling them on after the map is closed.
I'm well aware this is not an ideal solution. Ideally someone could do this by modifying the game directly... however, until someone figures out how to do that... this was working quite well for me when I was playing RDR2.
Edit: Corrected a minor detail. The AHK script uses preset hotkeys, not the toggle all effects hotkey, achieving basically the same result by switching to a preset that has effects disabled, when opening the map, and switching back to the effects enabled preset after closing the map. This way was able to work more predictably is all.
Newer version of DLSS definitely do improve quality, however they do not fix "all" of the issues. In any case, V2 of this mod will not work with DLSS/FSR, no matter the DLL version. V1 can work with DLSS/FSR, as long as the ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini file is deleted.
As previously explained: the ReshadeShaderEffectToggler (REST) addon for ReShade is not working correctly for RDR2's Vulkan implementation. That is pretty much out of my hands. It is already pretty amazing that it even works at all with DX12, given that the REST addon has not been extensively tested with DX12/Vulkan, and only offers experimental untested support, being primarily meant to be used with DX11.
V1 of the mod does not depend on the REST addon and provides the same effect to the max extent possible without pushing UI elements off screen. To use V1 with Vulkan, just delete the ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini file.
V2 is able to push the fix effect further by not being limited by the UI, only because it uses the REST addon to operate beneath the game's UI.
The effect used is pretty transparent. Meaning, just by examining the ReShade preset and related AHK scripts, you could easily reverse engineer exactly how I made this work, and setup the same thing from scratch (using ReShade and the REST addon). You are welcome to take what I have done here and improve upon it as you see fit, and release your own version.
The REST addon is open source as well, so if you were determined enough, you could potentially fix it so that it would work with RDR2's Vulkan implementation. The REST codebase is way over my head though, and given that I was perfectly happy playing in DX12 back when I was playing RDR2, and this mod was made primarily for my own personal use, this is about as far as I was gonna take this mod without help from others, which no one has offered.
Do note that almost every mod that claims to require Vulkan will actually work fine with DX12. There is a small handful of file replacement mods that actually crash DX12, but even those mods can be very easily converted to the streaming files method which will fix them so they do not crash DX12. When I was playing RDR2, with this mod running, I also had about 100 other mods installed, including many that supposedly required Vulkan... I only had to convert two of them from the file replacement method to the streaming file method to make them compatible with DX12.
How to convert file replacement mods to streaming file mods:
Spoiler:
Show
It's just a matter of moving files into a "stream" subdirectory, and editing the "instal.xml" file to add one line for the "stream" subdir and delete all the file replacement lines.
Here is a post I left on the 8K Milky Way and Stars mod, which was one of the mods that would cause the game to hang when running DX12. Here I was answering someone who asked me how I fixed the mod to work in DX12 by converting it to use streaming files instead of file replacement.
The easy way, would be to drop skydome.ytd from this mod, into lml\stream (and otherwise just don't install this mod at all aside from that one step), I think...
That's not how I did it though. I edited the instal.xml file in this mod to load the skydome.ytd file from this mods own subdirectory as a streaming file. It's a little more complex but I thinks it's better than just dropping things in lml\stream. To learn how, look at this mod's comment page, water physics overhaul, and the stickied post at the top explains exactly how to setup the directory structure and instal.xml file for streaming files in an lml mod. It's a little more involved than the easy way mentioned above, but it's still really easy.
Hi, I found a way to fix this, not with the reflections but with shadows.
You have to search fot the System file located in the RDR2 File in DOCUMENTS, then, search for the setting named; DirectionalScreenShadowQuality, wich is set by default in 1.000000. Once you find it, change the value to 0.000000 and that should do it.
This helped a lot, I hope it works for you as well
Doesn't that just remove screen space shadows? It seems like I tried that config tweak at some point before making this mod... and it didn't actually fully address the issue, and it sacrificed shadow effects that I preferred not giving up.
Plus, the reflections getting obviously cut off was more noticeable and distracting to me than the shadows anyway. If it works for you though!
Do tell... If you can describe how, or point me to a reference regarding that, I could look into that and see if I couldn't improve on it and/or incorporate it to potentially improve how this mod works.
Is there a way to retain the original camera distance from the player in a new update? I usually like to have my camera on the furthest away option, and this mod makes the camera just slightly too close for my liking. Very interesting concept for a mod, btw. I've been wanting something like this for a long time, and I think yours is the only one like it.
I imagine you could probably modify the camera distance through ini files or with another mod. This mod does not touch the camera or FOV so it shouldn't conflict with anything that does.
Thank you for the Amazing mod, but i do have a problem. Everything works fine and wonderful until when i restarted my pc and try to play the game again. Before i enter the menu it crash with ERR_GFX_STATE. The only workaround is to uninstall reshade and reinstall it again. but this too means i will have to reinstall it everytime i restarted my pc. Any solution to this? oh i am using 1.0 since i am using vulkan.
No idea, that is pretty strange. The only thing I can think of is if you have some other overlay running. Like RTSS (Riva Tuner Statistics Server). I did experience something similar after installing Afterburner which includes RTSS. I disabled RTSS' overlay and that fixed the problem. I did eventually get the RTSS overlay working too though. Maybe I had to keep RTSS overlay off by default when starting the game, and only enable it with a hotkey, after the game was running.
Does the same thing happen if you switch to DX12? Remember that if you install ReShade for Vulkan, it should work just fine with DX12 also, but if you install ReShade for DX10/11/12 it will not work with Vulkan at all.
Personally, I'd just recommend DX12, and V2 of this mod... though V2 also doesn't work with DLSS/FSR (both of which make the game worse imo anyway though). This game's "Resolution Scale" setting works better than DLSS/FSR anyway.
43 comments
V2.0 Update Details
Not Relevant for Mod Version 1.0
It has come to my attention that I completely forgot about controller users. Currently the AutoHotkey scripts included with version 2.0 of the mod will only activate when opening the map with the default "m" key on the keyboard.
In version 2.0, opening the map without disabling effects (either disabling effects manually, with the reshade toggle effects hotkey, or automatically with one of the AutoHotkey scripts), will cause the map to be invisible, and closing the map with effects enabled will cause effects to recompile... which can occasionally cause the game to crash. Basically, it's pretty bad. Which is why I included the AutoHotkey scripts as an automated workaround for this issue.
Update: If you're using a controller, just use the Keyboard M key to open/close the full size map. Another option might be using something like ReWASD to remap something on the controller to the keyboard M key. I was able to get an app on my phone to show a button that would send the M key on my PC, so something like that could be an option too.
Haven't played RDR2 in a while, so this probably won't get updated any time soon, but I may come back to it at some point. Have fun!
Version 1.0 should work fine with vulkan... except for the fix for the Walk Speed Control and Auto-Walk mod.
Just delete the ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini file.
Must choose Vulkan during ReShade install (if you install ReShade for Vulkan, ReShade will work even when running the game in DX12, but the inverse is not true).
Version 2.0 will not work with Vulkan.
first of all thank you. Those screen edges with their flickering shadows have been driving me crazy for a while now. This is
my first ever mod I installed for any game, so this might seem like a
dumb question:
The upscaling works, but now my hud in the left bottom corner is cut off. Adjusting "Hud Safezone" in the Display Settings does cut into the loss a bit, but I still am not able to see the full hud, the heath bar icon is completely cut off.
Is there any way I can adjust this, so the hud will be completely visible? In the videos you posted with the fix applied the hud is completely visible, I just can't seem to make it work for myself.
Thanks again and best regards
Martin
I haven't played RDR2 in a while now, so for the time being, I can only suggest trying Version 1 of the mod. Given that it should work regardless of any game updates. V1 doesn't scale the image up as far as V2 does, so there will still be some minor screen space artifacting visible on screen edges, but it 90% fixes the issue, and generally makes the artifacts much less obtrusive.
I may come back to RDR2 at some point in the future, at which point, if a game update broke V2, I may be able to fix it. This is a pretty simple workaround too though, and getting the REST addon working for the UI was mostly just trial and error. The only coding involved in this mod is the AHK scripts, which can't really be broken by game updates. What I'm getting at, is that no one should wait for me to get around to fixing this. Anyone sufficiently motivated can, given a little effort, fix it for themselves.
In any case, V1 is pretty bullet proof fallback, that should always work. If there is any issue with V1, just delete the ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini file, and of course be sure to set the UI safezone.
V2 requires AHK, and it will not work with DLSS or FSR at all (I need to update description).
This mod only addresses artifacts around screen borders caused by screen space shadows and screen space reflections.
I would recommend just disabling DLSS. FSR/DLSS in this game, are not worthwhile tradeoffs. They both cause graphical issues. If you disable DLSS/FSR in the settings, then towards the bottom there is "Resolution Scale" (it's greyed out if you have DLSS/FSR enabled) which uses Rockstar's own upscaler. Set it at .75x or .8x and it will look much better than DLSS/FSR imho, and the performance is similar to DLSS balanced.
Because when you open the full map, it won't work with the reshade effects active. It will be transparent and it will force reload the effects when closing the map - which is ugly, and often causes a crash. This is due to targeting one of the games shaders in order to apply the effect beneath the UI. Maybe that shader is disabled when the map is open, causing reshade to reload effects when it gets renabled.
The ReshadeShaderEffectToggler does not work flawlessly for DX12 yet. Nothing I can really do about that.
The AHK scripts intercept the m key when the game is running. Then when you press m for map, Ahk intercepts it and sends m but also
toggles effects using the reshade toggle effectsswitches to a different ReShade preset with effects disabled, using one of the preset hotkeys that you where asked to setup in the install instructions. This allows the map to work, and not crash the game when closed, by toggling off the reshade effects when the map is opened and toggling them on after the map is closed.I'm well aware this is not an ideal solution. Ideally someone could do this by modifying the game directly... however, until someone figures out how to do that... this was working quite well for me when I was playing RDR2.
Edit: Corrected a minor detail. The AHK script uses preset hotkeys, not the toggle all effects hotkey, achieving basically the same result by switching to a preset that has effects disabled, when opening the map, and switching back to the effects enabled preset after closing the map. This way was able to work more predictably is all.
V1 of the mod does not depend on the REST addon and provides the same effect to the max extent possible without pushing UI elements off screen. To use V1 with Vulkan, just delete the ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini file.
V2 is able to push the fix effect further by not being limited by the UI, only because it uses the REST addon to operate beneath the game's UI.
The effect used is pretty transparent. Meaning, just by examining the ReShade preset and related AHK scripts, you could easily reverse engineer exactly how I made this work, and setup the same thing from scratch (using ReShade and the REST addon). You are welcome to take what I have done here and improve upon it as you see fit, and release your own version.
The REST addon is open source as well, so if you were determined enough, you could potentially fix it so that it would work with RDR2's Vulkan implementation. The REST codebase is way over my head though, and given that I was perfectly happy playing in DX12 back when I was playing RDR2, and this mod was made primarily for my own personal use, this is about as far as I was gonna take this mod without help from others, which no one has offered.
Do note that almost every mod that claims to require Vulkan will actually work fine with DX12. There is a small handful of file replacement mods that actually crash DX12, but even those mods can be very easily converted to the streaming files method which will fix them so they do not crash DX12. When I was playing RDR2, with this mod running, I also had about 100 other mods installed, including many that supposedly required Vulkan... I only had to convert two of them from the file replacement method to the streaming file method to make them compatible with DX12.
How to convert file replacement mods to streaming file mods:
It's just a matter of moving files into a "stream" subdirectory, and editing the "instal.xml" file to add one line for the "stream" subdir and delete all the file replacement lines.
Here is a post I left on the 8K Milky Way and Stars mod, which was one of the mods that would cause the game to hang when running DX12. Here I was answering someone who asked me how I fixed the mod to work in DX12 by converting it to use streaming files instead of file replacement.
You have to search fot the System file located in the RDR2 File in DOCUMENTS, then, search for the setting named; DirectionalScreenShadowQuality, wich is set by default in 1.000000. Once you find it, change the value to 0.000000 and that should do it.
This helped a lot, I hope it works for you as well
Plus, the reflections getting obviously cut off was more noticeable and distracting to me than the shadows anyway. If it works for you though!
Does the same thing happen if you switch to DX12? Remember that if you install ReShade for Vulkan, it should work just fine with DX12 also, but if you install ReShade for DX10/11/12 it will not work with Vulkan at all.
Personally, I'd just recommend DX12, and V2 of this mod... though V2 also doesn't work with DLSS/FSR (both of which make the game worse imo anyway though). This game's "Resolution Scale" setting works better than DLSS/FSR anyway.