Just a quick update to bring everyone up to speed:
Version 1.3 of W3E has been delayed. I've been collaborating with the creators of ReShade and they are going to be including new features with the next ReShade version (they typically update weekly) based on the idea about one-off effects that I suggested to them. These new features will allow much more control when implementing effects that only trigger upon pressing/holding a key or button, and I'll be able to complete the visual effects for all of the spells in the game.
Possibly, I may even be able to completely change the effects for Witcher Vision as well. I'm thinking perhaps changing it to have complete desaturation except for the red/orange highlighted items and a very high level of contrast... just like the Sin City movies.
As of right now, the default version 1.3 of this mod is fully complete. Shadows have been adjusted to remove pitch black, contrast and saturation have been altered for a better balance, bloom and blur has been dramatically improved, ALL reported bugs have been fully fixed, and the world looks more gorgeous than it ever has. I've also completed the special effects for the Igni and Aard spells, and I'm about halfway finished with Axii.
Since version 1.3 would be changing so much with the addition of ReShade one-off spell effects - something never done before in this game (or with a ReShade preset for ANY game for that matter) - I'm jumping the next release straight to version 2.0 to highlight the major advancements this next version of W3E will be bringing to the visual aspects of The Witcher 3.
With spell-activated visual effects now in the mix, this is starting to become more than just a graphics preset that places a static "overlay" over the game to make it look better - now effects can be triggered by YOU as you play the game. I guess it's just starting to live up to the Evolved part of it's name
Stay tuned for progress updates, and don't worry - it won't be very long before version 2.0 is released - I can continue working on the spell effects while waiting for the ReShade update and get them looking right, I just can't finalize them (like making them last the perfect amount of time and turn on when a key/button is held down, then go off when the key/button is released). Once ReShade updates, I'll have the 2.0 version of W3E posted up for your enjoyment with haste.
In the meantime, keep the suggestions coming! If it wasn't for suggestion from SpeedyParticles, siv162, and snoffel I wouldn't be nearly making as much progress with this preset as I am now. Thanks again guys!
Remember: Very soon I'll be able to attach ANY ReShade effects (even ones not in the framework since I can merge them in like I did with the PPFX) to ANY key press in the game, whether it's a simple press or a hold down. Any cool ideas on how I can further implement this are encouraged and welcome!
Also, thanks to everyone for the support and endorsements!
Keep showing the love and I'll keep pushing the limits
Well, as I said before, since Advanced Motion Blur can be used in a very "selective" fashion, it no longer interferes with the close-range dialogue situations that cause issues with NPCs... So now it can be applied to any "fast motion" action that we can assign a special button to... (or button COMBOS! I really hope button combinations are going to be an option with the ReShade update. Then we can have a "sprinting with SHIFT+W" effect, which if was motion-dependent, would look really kick-ass on the horse as long as we held the two keys... so yeah, SPRINTING and HORSE SPRINTING too.)
Rend: I still think Motion Focus with a bit of adv motion blur and maybe even some minor distortions (subtle ones for sure).
Whirl: Of course adv motion blur... but a lot of it.
Witcher Vision: I really think Witcher Vision being close to vanilla lighting with a few effects (like minor desaturation and maybe crank up the Godrays) is probably the most "all encompassing" ways to go. That way we won't need to shy away from the excessive darkness too far since Geralt's eyes can "pierce the shadows"... though the Sin-City effect might be really cool, I'm just afraid it would invalidate Cat Potions.
Yrden: A burst of Bloom, "Lenzflare" and over exaggerated Godrays, with a minor heatwave effect and possible ONLY THE ZOOM EFFFECT from motion focus, to "jolt" the camera in with the "electric" effects. I figured Yrden should look like you're altering physical laws and bending reality around you whilst casting.
...Potions. hmmm... too bad you can slot "food" there too, other wise we can have some kind of weird looking distortion while you down a potion. I was thinking about that opening "movie" from Witcher 1 when Geralt prepares to kick the Striga's ass and he takes that potion. Slightly distorted color and tint values, similar to Chromatic Aberration but maybe more subtle.
Quen: Similar to Yrden, maybe have the heat haze more dominant and without the Lenzflare. Might still want the "zoom" effect though. Here's my philosophy regarding Quen effects being too distraction for people: There SHOULD be some sort of "cost" for using such an Over Powered sign, that cost being a graphical effect that MIGHT cause you to loose concentration. Only stamina (not that hard to regain) is stopping players from spamming Quen in fights. Now they'll at least "prepare their wits" before casting, and feel the "weight" of being enveloped in a strange kinetic barrier. Some would say it should only cost your stamina, I think is should cost some sanity as well.
Anyway, this is getting really fun. I hope the ReShade framework can keep up with our imaginations! Can't wait to see what all of this looks like in action.
In a modified version of this mod (more generic for people who don't want their control schemes butchered too much), it may be a fun idea to add an effect to the "quick menu" and a more generic shader effect that can fit most or the signs (like some general heat haze, bloom and lensflare or something like that) so that the other version doesn't completely miss out of the fun.
The "quick menu" effect might be tricky. Taking into account that it's in "slow motion," a more "passive" effect might be more appropriate, like heightened bloom/godrays and some color desaturation.
Another thought about Quen in the "better" version: Some film grain, used moderately, creating a "fizzy" effect that accompanies the sudden monochrome and "radiance." May look weird with the heat haze, hopefully one day we'll be able to delay effects so that some play immediately when buttons are pressed and then others begin as the previous ones are ending, creating a "symphony" of shaders that cascade all around as we're casting signs, regardless of whether buttons are pressed or held.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I got rend working perfectly on a Motion Focus toggle and a splash of over saturated red tint (so it looks like a zoomed in blood lust type of thing) and it looks amazing. To get it working I set the effect to time out exactly when a "full rend" was done (held down until stamina depleted. The only problem is that right now it applies to all strong attacks since they use the same key, and doesn't look good with normal strong attacks at all. With the upcoming ReShade revision I should be able to set the effect to only apply when the key is held down, so it will only kick in during a Rend.
Haven't gotten around to testing Whirl yet, but due to it's similar nature I know the same rules will stand; it will apply the effect to all light attacks too, which we definitely don't want.
I think your Yrden concept will look badass, can't wait to see how that looks. My favorite part of that is the idea of bending the laws of physics. When you said that I immediately thought of the fish eye effect rather than motion focus because it really has the strong warping effect. What would make it really cool is to punch in an extended heat haze with a real slow wave that lasts as long as the Yrden itself, so enemies look truly distorted and "slowed" when they are inside of it.
Yeah, I too wish we could delay them but that isn't even in the plans yet as far as I know. I'll suggest the idea to Crosire and Lucifer to see if that is possible. If that can't be done, maybe some effects can be set up to trigger only on key release. So for example with Rend we could have Motion Focus zoom in during the "wind up", then have my red filter kick in when you let go of they key... or even better have Motion Blur kick on along with the red so you see the sword trails on the down swing.
Damn, thinking about that makes me really wish we had a "bullet time" effect to play around with and add slow motion to stuff. I doubt that will ever be available with ReShade since it's an injector and can't control time in the game. Probably have to wait for the kit for something like that, but man... we could do SO much with that effect.
This sounds awesome. I guess I'll go ahead and update Fantasy with the latest ReShade, this sounds really neat. I think I might wait a little longer for this new ReShade release though.
I can't wait to see ReShade evolve even further, these presets are looking great
I understand that we're all anxious to try the new preset (I personally feel like playing and tinkering with the new effects Roxxtar has been working on), but I feel like it would be underwhelming to see this stuff half-done without the proper button assignments. If it were my project, I would want to wait until ReShade updated too so that I can show you guys the "new effects" in all their glory. I understand how "messy" these files can get while constantly tweaking them and entering and exiting the game like a maniac. Testing and changing variables over and over again. Props to Roxxtar for going through all that tedium.
It shouldn't be long now. This could possibly be one of the best shading injectors around if we can do all the things we're hoping, given that ReShade updates based on what Roxxtar heard from those guys. This can be so much more than "just a preset." It'll be dynamic and interactive. "Evolved," so to speak.
Thanks! I'm a big fan of your preset too, before I made my own I used yours for like 40 or so hours of playtime. We have very similar visions when it comes to colors, many presets want to desaturate everything and go the whole "E3 route" but it's pretty obvious you and I like our colors I haven't gotten around to trying out your latest version since I've been so busy working on this, but will definitely check it out once I get the down time. You should DEFINITELY check out the new ReShade, there's so many more options. Also consider adding the PPFX shader suite, it gives you a lot of additional control over color/saturation/gamma.
I really wanted to release 1.3, but as Speedy elaborated on, once I got to messing around with these spell effects I had to do major alterations to the framework itself, and posting those specific files that I changed here on the Nexus is against the new ReShade terms. The guys over at ReShade are awesome and are going to add some functions to the next release just so I can make these spell effects a reality. The fact that they'd add new code for me shows how cool they are... the last thing I'd want to do is step on their toes.
If I was to release 1.3 in it's current state without those files that I'm not allowed to upload, it would be a complete mess, you need everything or you'll just get red/yellow errors when the game boots up. Once the new ReShade release is up I'll be able to do all of these one-time effects right in the config files where we do everything else (instead of going into the hard coding like I have to do right now), so I'll be able to upload it without worries.
In the meantime, I'll try to get some 2.0 teaser screen shot up for you guys to see what it is going to look like, and maybe even a video that shows off the new spell effects in action.
If there is an effect that lasts as long as the sign, a heat wave for instance, what stops the player from "running off into the sunset" sprinting away to their heart's content? Then there's this weird wavy effect and no Yrden in sight. I really agree with you that a lingering effect would look badass... but if the player can abandon the Yrden field COMPLETELY... it could dip into the oh-so whimsical realm of silliness.
The "holding/second function Yrden" would be fine and free from this possible issue. Just thought I'd bring it up.
Diving... The "C" key... Swimming in general... Well, I assume if there's a SPRINT effect like motion blur and slight gaussblur to make the ambient lights in the scenery look "washed a bit" (like how everything looks while "I" run for a few miles IRL), these effects would translate appropriately to boating with "sprint," horsing with "Sprint," and swimming with "sprint."
Now, if the "dive key" added a lingering "my eyes are wet and light is all reflecting all over like a kaleidoscope" (Unsharp mask, extra godrays, chromatic aberration, and maybe heightened contrast along with increased bright color gamma too).. that might make diving sessions fun. It'll take some care and time to iron out the logistics.
I've been playing around with customizing the ".h" files to test some of these "on button toggle" effects... The fact that we can't disable the toggle key is really frustrating. I tend to "mash" the keys while dodging and rolling, and that's flip-flopping the "enabled-disabled states pretty badly. (I just added some generic motion blur to the "dodge" key, didn't bother creating separate effects because that would be WAY too much work for a simple proof of concept). I understand, like you mentioned to the ReShade guys on their forum, that sign usage is tied to stamina, however, but my fingers aren't... A lot of people may be inadvertently screwing up the toggle states,
I'm not testing this very thoroughly so I may be missing something and it seems like you've timed out the timeouts (...heh) pretty nicely from what you've been saying. Just noting that in it's current form, and maybe even when ReShade updates, the timeout toggles may act "funny." It might be a better idea to just stick to the "hold-key" technique toggle when it releases.
But who knows. When the next ReShade comes out, hold-key technique toggles should at least let us do most of the effects that were mentioned.
By the way... If you're creating separate custom effects of every single shader used, duplicating and renaming them, and you plan on having several effects per toggle, and tons of different toggles (sprinting, rend, all the signs, whirl, etc...), that sounds like a HUGE amount of work... So, as Ash said in the film "ALIEN": "You have my sympathies." Seriously though, can't wait to see how this all pans out! Good job so far and Good Luck!
EDIT: Skimmed the ReShade posts... sounds like Crosire added a "block toggle" for timeouts, coming up in the next version! Yay! It's looking like users will be able to add timeouts at the entire GemFX suite (which was honestly where a large percentage of my creative attention was focused... a real shame about that "sin city" effect you mentioned though... overhead and all that.)
Yeah, I suggested a block for the toggle key while it's timeout is in effect, and it seems like Crosire is going to run with it. That will solve a lot of problems.
Duplicating the effects so we have many variations with separate settings is actually pretty easy. I have plenty of tricks I learned throughout my years in web design that will speed up the process. It would realistically take about 5 minutes to create a "HeatHaze2" and only another 2 for HeatHaze3 and so forth, since I can automate most of the process after doing the first copy for each shader. That's the easy part.
What's going to be time consuming is adjusting and testing all of the settings for everything once we have 3-5 copies of every effect. That obviously has to be done individually so each copy looks good in game for it's own unique purpose. It will be well worth the effort though, so I'm up for it.
Sounds nifty! I love how all this is... "EVOLVING"...wow, that was bad.
Might I suggest a version later down the road (after 2.0 is said and done, bugs and all) that is EXCLUSIVELY centered around effects with NO preset values otherwise? I fully understand that's essentially a complete re-work on tweaking from the ground up since all the shaders will need to be fine tuned for "vanilla" lighting. (I personally would use the full package, but not everyone hates the vanilla look.)
My reasoning. Not everyone likes W3E preset values. WE do... but not the community as a whole. Some people like that (boring) blue tint/E3 stuff (no judgement... it's just... eww) Some people hate dark lighting and won't be satisfied no matter how much you compromise your shadows. Some people just want to stick with their current "favorite." (I personally LOVE the pitch-black darkness in this one and will probably tweak my files to "keep" that effect, maybe go with Witcher Vision to see in the dark by reversing the Technique Toggle, which can be done: press to DISABLE a shader for the timeout period by flipping the TRUE/FALSE values. If "on button hold" is available, I'll be using it! Though if you simply elevate gammas and reduce contrast OVER TOP of your preset, that would be fine too.)
Anyway, suppose your "Special Effects" become super iconic and incredible looking... Centering your mod on toggle effects (Roxxtar's Special Effects) may be better in the long run than "just another ReShade/ENB perset," lost in a chaotic miasma of "ditto mods." Awash, lost amidst a sea of modding-minutiae... as a poet might suggest.
Some day, hopefully, it may be a relatively "easy" process to "tune" these effects to work with several popular ReShade presets floating around. You could simply have an "Roxxtar's Special Effects Pack - Vanilla" for people who came here for the "cool signs and special effects," then if they really like some other preset, they could possibly download a fine-tuned compatibility patch for "Roxxtar's Special Effects," given their favorite preset author gives you permission to offer a compatibility setup. (I have to say, witcher modding is still a bit underdeveloped and cooperation tends to help these modding communities survive their infancy, especially when we lack real tools as of yet.) As more and more people add countless more ReShade presets to the nexus and elsewhere, I'm afraid people will stop caring about them. But what's happening here with these in-game toggles can be so much more!
Sorry to ramble, I just really like were this mod might be headed and can see a lot of potential in it.
OKAY... now that I'm done rambling... about Gamepads: What do you think? Too big of a pain to deal with all that "Antimicro" stuff? I've seen a few mods such as "GAMEPAD PLUS" that made using an Xbox controller tolerable. ( personally, M&K for the win! ...but the Gamepads are real, and people use them. I sometimes sit back and "lazy-game" since my monitor is as big as my wall...) Maybe later down the road. Just wanted to get the gears turning on "controller layouts" since you'd have to add them as toggles (which is why I asked about button-combinations earlier, for example: Right Trigger + Y being Axii, toggling "Axii shader-timeout effects, and so on).
It's funny you should mention that, because I play exclusively with a 360 controller. I only use m&k for testing purposes, using the console, and alt tab. With that said, controller support will be available out of the gate. I always figured I'd have to release my animicro settings and input.settings along eith 2.0 for controller compatibility. Will definitely be an optional download, but not a half assed one, since that how I play and all these special effects are actually getting tested on a controller first, then the keyboard second (just to be sure both are behaving identically).
Interesting idea... having the effects as a separate mod. That's probably the best way to go with it; a separate mod completely in which the default is tailored for the vanilla game, then have a W3E Version, an UBER version, a Fantasy version, etc... but just never a Real Graphical Suite version :p
Truth be told, 2.0 in my opinion is almost perfect visually based on the tools we currently have available, so I'm getting really close to the point where updates are going to slow down, since I won't really have much to change unless new shaders come out.
That's not to say I don't have huge plans for W3E in the future. For example, on occasion you may notice me mentioning the fact that I'm a graphic artist and web designer by profession. Once we figure out how to override textures in this game, that's when my REAL modding skills are going to come into play. Custom sun, moon, clouds, fire, rain, water, stars, lightning, and snow textures are going to be included with the W3E package IMMEDIATELY once CDPR fills us in on how to retexture this game. I'm really quite upset that isn't possible yet, because I could make all of those above mentioned textures in a matter of hours and this preset would look twice as good.
Anyway, right now I'm much more excited about these toggle effects than anything else. Like you said... there's a lot of ReShade presets already, but nothing like this. It's unique and fresh, so it might be best served hot as a standalone mod rather than just another feature of W3E. Regardless of how that all pans out, my primary focus right now is on making as many toggle effects as possible before ReShade gets updated to include all of the suggestions I gave them so 2.0 can hit the Nexus as soon as possible and blow everyone's mind
I played my entire "first" playthrough with M&K. But without a mouse with several, several buttons such as the "Razor Naga" with the entire number pad near the thumb spot, I tend to use controllers as well. I also pretty much "need" one of those G13 key pads since I hate how the "s" isn't DIRECTLY below the "w" key on most keyboards and those arrow keys "just don't do it for me." I'm actually over 100 hours into my second playthough using the Xbox One/360 controller exclusively and I genuinely think that The Witcher 3 is slightly better played with a controller plus a really good Antimicro setup (with the exception of the inventory screen and horse mounted combat, which is great with M&K.) Even the M&K purists have to admit: Analog thumb-stick movement totally beats the 8-way WASD... too bad the mouse is generally better for "looking".
I'm glad to hear it'll be no hassle and you already got controller layouts covered since I'm sticking with my controller for now!
By the way, lots of people will prefer several controller button layouts from the one we might be using (I tend to be really picky about that kind of stuff)... would it possibly be better to make a custom "input.settings" file and ton of different antimicros that can be downloaded for people who don't really feel like tweaking that stuff themselves... or even, hopefully, cooperate with the GAMEPAD PLUS mod author for compatibility between layouts? I figured since a lot of people ALREADY use that mod for controller re-binding, it would be better on the community and the average user who just downloads what they need.
I'm sure you already thought of this stuff, just throwing stuff out there... Oh, and I can't wait for ReShade to update! [He exclaimed with unbridled excitement.]
Now, Witcher 2 rain looked pretty decent in my opinion... It seemed to have a transparency and blur filter as it fell in front of characters and objects... Witcher 3's rain is just white blaster bolts from star wars zipping down all around and making otherwise great looking scenery look ugly.
Yeah the rain is horrible. I made the "Perfect Rain" mod for the first Witcher game to make the raindrops smaller and more transparent, and will be doing the same thing here. On that note, I plan on retexturing the blood as well just like I did in the first game. Blood pools look way too "thick" like jello, it needs fixing.
But by far my biggest gripe is the rediculous lightning bolts. Seriously? They look like they belong in Minecraft or a Nintendo 64 game. You may have noticed that I was able to make it look slightly better in W3E by using bloom to blur the edges and make it glow, but it is going to take a full retex to get it looking truly acceptable.
The clouds are my second gripe. While they do look decent, especially during sunsets, it's only because CDPR did an invredible job with making them "absorb" colors (like how the sunlight and moonlight can completely change their look). However once you start adding things like Lumasharpen into the mix, it becomes very obvious how low res the cloud textures are. I wouldn't be surprised if they are 512x512. That needs to change.
You couldn't be more right about those lightning bolts! I actually thought for a few seconds when I first witnessed a few of them that they had been ripped directly from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or something!...then I remembered, Ocarina of Time just made the screen flash all bright when the lightning struck and had no proper "bolts" (at least according to my memory...). Honestly, that would have been WAY better in Witcher 3, just everything flickering brightly with a sound effect? Hell, I'd be satisfied with just that! I'd be fine with ditching the "lightning bolts" completely and just assuming (as most people would) that the actual "bolt" was "just" out of view. The flashes of brightness would look good enough anyway given that Witcher 3's lighting system is pretty good. Imagine that during dialogue sequences...
EDIT! Actually... Thinking about it... Too bad we can't use a toggle technique that caused the shader to not only "time out" for a specified period, but also "turn on and off" at a rate we can adjust, yielding, perhaps, a lightning effect whilst using Yrden? OR, a delay command that allows us to have several custom effects fire at a specified time after the button toggle, filing in one "flash" after the other and thusly creating a "flashing" effect while casting.
I just thought of another great idea for a new ReShade effect... but I'll keep it a secret for now. It's very special and I think I'll wait until things develop a bit further. Besides, I think it'll require REDkit to do it proper "justice"...
Is there possibly a typo in the color correction file? I keep getting the error, undeclared identifier use_colorsat, which results in the failing of the compilation.
Am I the only one who has trouble with this mod? Specifically there often are weird white lines on characters, mostly noticable when standing still and in conversations. Other than that the preset works fine, but that is ruining my experience.
Seems to be caused by the "new" 1.2 settings since it doesn't disable with Reshade Hotkey. Anyone still got a 1.1 version or can tell me which setting is causing this?
Only happens on the extreme version btw, balanced doesn't have that...
EDIT: For anyone having this issue too, it's the advanced motion blur located in Reshade/GemFX_settings.cfg
Hey guys I don't know if this is the place to get some help for this. I installed it the way it said to in the instructions, but I get a tonne of syntax errors on the left side of my screen, and the mod doesn't seem to load. Now I think it's because I don't have the right version of "Reshade + framework", since I can only find either 1.1.0. or "ReShade 0.19.0 with sweetFX" (but without Framework). Both don't work, if I could get a link or something I'd be very grateful.
snoffel wrote: can someone help me please...when i push numpad 1 it disable the ppfx effects.
I want to chance the key binding...where can i chance it?
Roxxtar wrote: Awesome, I couldn't find the toggle for PPFX, but now that I know what the key is I should be able to work some magic. I'll check it out tonight and come up with a fix.
Roxxtar wrote: LOL, I hit up the ReShade site to check for new shaders and I saw your post on the forums about the PPFX toggle and posted the solution there, but here it is too:
Now all PPFX effects will toggle off with scroll lock key along with the rest of ReShade.
Thanks again snoffel for figuring out that numpad 1 was the toggle for PPFX, without knowing that (it's code is 0x61) it would've taken me ages to find it in all of the code. Now in v1.3 of this mod I'll be able to make all of the effects toggle with a single key press! For now, anyone who wants the new PPFX effects to toggle with the rest of ReShade, just replace that one line I mentioned above.
I guess your solution is for v1.2 and as am still using v1.1 - v1.2 is a bit too dark for my taste - I can't find ppfx.fx file..
However, I have figured it out myself: To change the toggle button just take any button from KeyCodes.H in ReShade\Common folder, and update the #define RFX_ToggleKey line in CommonSettings.cfg file to your pick.
Just changed it to F12 and works perfectly, no more toggles for mouse wheel click
BTW the v1.1 is beautiful, thank you soo much for your efforts!
Hi , i've been trying to get this mod to work , but I have no common folder in Reshade folder , so the includes aren't working . Please help
1.2 not working for me. I followed the very easy, straight-forward instructions and all that happens is a giant list of syntax errors. All the other reshades on the nexus work just fine for me. But I had your 1.1 and I loved it, so now I want 1.2 and it's not working. Any advise? I'm using the full blast. My laptop can handle it.
And yes, I'm using Reshade 0.19.0. The one you specified.
hi im having problmes with this mod. I installed the mod as in the description with the full blast and later i tried the just right preset but with both it says loading effects .... failed and then i get bombed with red folder path´s. Can annyone help me with this? I reinstalled the mod 3 times but it doesn´t helped.
PS: sorry for bad english ^^
I'm having this exact same problem as well. I just went through all 32 pages of the thread to see if anyone has encountered something similar to what I'm experiencing--nothing. Followed install instructions very carefully. Unistalled and re-installed several times, and it still didn't work. Any help is appreciated,
Correct, they are most likely using the latest Reshade+Frameworks version, official 1.0 release, which is not compatible with the W3 Evolved settings.
As stated by the author, download and install Reshade 0.19.0 Public Beta with Frameworks, you can find it here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jzn2jsb0zt55ci3/AADOiSPtIE4SF-Iqo8cokiqha?dl=0
I'm using reshade 0.19.0 and the framework alone works, but then when I extract this mod over it I get the syntax error list. I know hat I'm doing and I followed the instructions very carefully just to make sure I wasn't spacing it. But this is not working.
This has to be the most egotistical and self absorbed description I've ever seen for a mod. Hahaha.
Also I've never understood where people are coming from when they say injected SMAA is "far better" than CDPR's Witcher 3 in house post process AA. It's actually, in my opinion, as good if not better (since it has a temporal filter, which you're giving up by turning in game AA off unless you edit INI file) than normal SMAA.
Hey, does anyone still have Evolve Extreme 1.1 around somewhere? I actually prefer the 1.1 version for various reasons, but my file got deleted when I reinstalled W3, and now I can't download it. If you have the original release, could you be so kind to email it to me? PM me for my email address. Thanks!
OK So it turns out the it is vital that you use ReShade 0.19.0 and not 0.19.2 ..... if you do use 0.19.2 you will get a huge list of syntax errors stating this file & that file could not be loaded.
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Version 1.3 of W3E has been delayed. I've been collaborating with the creators of ReShade and they are going to be including new features with the next ReShade version (they typically update weekly) based on the idea about one-off effects that I suggested to them. These new features will allow much more control when implementing effects that only trigger upon pressing/holding a key or button, and I'll be able to complete the visual effects for all of the spells in the game.
Possibly, I may even be able to completely change the effects for Witcher Vision as well. I'm thinking perhaps changing it to have complete desaturation except for the red/orange highlighted items and a very high level of contrast... just like the Sin City movies.
As of right now, the default version 1.3 of this mod is fully complete. Shadows have been adjusted to remove pitch black, contrast and saturation have been altered for a better balance, bloom and blur has been dramatically improved, ALL reported bugs have been fully fixed, and the world looks more gorgeous than it ever has. I've also completed the special effects for the Igni and Aard spells, and I'm about halfway finished with Axii.
Since version 1.3 would be changing so much with the addition of ReShade one-off spell effects - something never done before in this game (or with a ReShade preset for ANY game for that matter) - I'm jumping the next release straight to version 2.0 to highlight the major advancements this next version of W3E will be bringing to the visual aspects of The Witcher 3.
With spell-activated visual effects now in the mix, this is starting to become more than just a graphics preset that places a static "overlay" over the game to make it look better - now effects can be triggered by YOU as you play the game. I guess it's just starting to live up to the Evolved part of it's name
Stay tuned for progress updates, and don't worry - it won't be very long before version 2.0 is released - I can continue working on the spell effects while waiting for the ReShade update and get them looking right, I just can't finalize them (like making them last the perfect amount of time and turn on when a key/button is held down, then go off when the key/button is released). Once ReShade updates, I'll have the 2.0 version of W3E posted up for your enjoyment with haste.
In the meantime, keep the suggestions coming! If it wasn't for suggestion from SpeedyParticles, siv162, and snoffel I wouldn't be nearly making as much progress with this preset as I am now. Thanks again guys!
Remember: Very soon I'll be able to attach ANY ReShade effects (even ones not in the framework since I can merge them in like I did with the PPFX) to ANY key press in the game, whether it's a simple press or a hold down. Any cool ideas on how I can further implement this are encouraged and welcome!
Also, thanks to everyone for the support and endorsements!
Keep showing the love and I'll keep pushing the limits
Well, as I said before, since Advanced Motion Blur can be used in a very "selective" fashion, it no longer interferes with the close-range dialogue situations that cause issues with NPCs... So now it can be applied to any "fast motion" action that we can assign a special button to... (or button COMBOS! I really hope button combinations are going to be an option with the ReShade update. Then we can have a "sprinting with SHIFT+W" effect, which if was motion-dependent, would look really kick-ass on the horse as long as we held the two keys... so yeah, SPRINTING and HORSE SPRINTING too.)
Rend: I still think Motion Focus with a bit of adv motion blur and maybe even some minor distortions (subtle ones for sure).
Whirl: Of course adv motion blur... but a lot of it.
Witcher Vision: I really think Witcher Vision being close to vanilla lighting with a few effects (like minor desaturation and maybe crank up the Godrays) is probably the most "all encompassing" ways to go. That way we won't need to shy away from the excessive darkness too far since Geralt's eyes can "pierce the shadows"... though the Sin-City effect might be really cool, I'm just afraid it would invalidate Cat Potions.
Yrden: A burst of Bloom, "Lenzflare" and over exaggerated Godrays, with a minor heatwave effect and possible ONLY THE ZOOM EFFFECT from motion focus, to "jolt" the camera in with the "electric" effects. I figured Yrden should look like you're altering physical laws and bending reality around you whilst casting.
...Potions. hmmm... too bad you can slot "food" there too, other wise we can have some kind of weird looking distortion while you down a potion. I was thinking about that opening "movie" from Witcher 1 when Geralt prepares to kick the Striga's ass and he takes that potion. Slightly distorted color and tint values, similar to Chromatic Aberration but maybe more subtle.
Quen: Similar to Yrden, maybe have the heat haze more dominant and without the Lenzflare. Might still want the "zoom" effect though. Here's my philosophy regarding Quen effects being too distraction for people: There SHOULD be some sort of "cost" for using such an Over Powered sign, that cost being a graphical effect that MIGHT cause you to loose concentration. Only stamina (not that hard to regain) is stopping players from spamming Quen in fights. Now they'll at least "prepare their wits" before casting, and feel the "weight" of being enveloped in a strange kinetic barrier. Some would say it should only cost your stamina, I think is should cost some sanity as well.
Anyway, this is getting really fun. I hope the ReShade framework can keep up with our imaginations! Can't wait to see what all of this looks like in action.
The "quick menu" effect might be tricky. Taking into account that it's in "slow motion," a more "passive" effect might be more appropriate, like heightened bloom/godrays and some color desaturation.
Another thought about Quen in the "better" version: Some film grain, used moderately, creating a "fizzy" effect that accompanies the sudden monochrome and "radiance." May look weird with the heat haze, hopefully one day we'll be able to delay effects so that some play immediately when buttons are pressed and then others begin as the previous ones are ending, creating a "symphony" of shaders that cascade all around as we're casting signs, regardless of whether buttons are pressed or held.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I got rend working perfectly on a Motion Focus toggle and a splash of over saturated red tint (so it looks like a zoomed in blood lust type of thing) and it looks amazing. To get it working I set the effect to time out exactly when a "full rend" was done (held down until stamina depleted. The only problem is that right now it applies to all strong attacks since they use the same key, and doesn't look good with normal strong attacks at all. With the upcoming ReShade revision I should be able to set the effect to only apply when the key is held down, so it will only kick in during a Rend.
Haven't gotten around to testing Whirl yet, but due to it's similar nature I know the same rules will stand; it will apply the effect to all light attacks too, which we definitely don't want.
I think your Yrden concept will look badass, can't wait to see how that looks. My favorite part of that is the idea of bending the laws of physics. When you said that I immediately thought of the fish eye effect rather than motion focus because it really has the strong warping effect. What would make it really cool is to punch in an extended heat haze with a real slow wave that lasts as long as the Yrden itself, so enemies look truly distorted and "slowed" when they are inside of it.
Damn, thinking about that makes me really wish we had a "bullet time" effect to play around with and add slow motion to stuff. I doubt that will ever be available with ReShade since it's an injector and can't control time in the game. Probably have to wait for the kit for something like that, but man... we could do SO much with that effect.
I can't wait to see ReShade evolve even further, these presets are looking great
Would be nice if you can release v1.3 to use atleast so we can play the game without such dark shadows
Anyway, i have been looking at this 'cutscene lighting mod'.. Anyone here using it along with W3E mod ?? Gonna stick with W3E for now
It shouldn't be long now. This could possibly be one of the best shading injectors around if we can do all the things we're hoping, given that ReShade updates based on what Roxxtar heard from those guys. This can be so much more than "just a preset." It'll be dynamic and interactive. "Evolved," so to speak.
Thanks! I'm a big fan of your preset too, before I made my own I used yours for like 40 or so hours of playtime. We have very similar visions when it comes to colors, many presets want to desaturate everything and go the whole "E3 route" but it's pretty obvious you and I like our colors
If I was to release 1.3 in it's current state without those files that I'm not allowed to upload, it would be a complete mess, you need everything or you'll just get red/yellow errors when the game boots up. Once the new ReShade release is up I'll be able to do all of these one-time effects right in the config files where we do everything else (instead of going into the hard coding like I have to do right now), so I'll be able to upload it without worries.
In the meantime, I'll try to get some 2.0 teaser screen shot up for you guys to see what it is going to look like, and maybe even a video that shows off the new spell effects in action.
If there is an effect that lasts as long as the sign, a heat wave for instance, what stops the player from "running off into the sunset" sprinting away to their heart's content? Then there's this weird wavy effect and no Yrden in sight. I really agree with you that a lingering effect would look badass... but if the player can abandon the Yrden field COMPLETELY... it could dip into the oh-so whimsical realm of silliness.
The "holding/second function Yrden" would be fine and free from this possible issue. Just thought I'd bring it up.
Now, if the "dive key" added a lingering "my eyes are wet and light is all reflecting all over like a kaleidoscope" (Unsharp mask, extra godrays, chromatic aberration, and maybe heightened contrast along with increased bright color gamma too).. that might make diving sessions fun. It'll take some care and time to iron out the logistics.
About Timeout on effect shaders...
I've been playing around with customizing the ".h" files to test some of these "on button toggle" effects... The fact that we can't disable the toggle key is really frustrating. I tend to "mash" the keys while dodging and rolling, and that's flip-flopping the "enabled-disabled states pretty badly. (I just added some generic motion blur to the "dodge" key, didn't bother creating separate effects because that would be WAY too much work for a simple proof of concept). I understand, like you mentioned to the ReShade guys on their forum, that sign usage is tied to stamina, however, but my fingers aren't... A lot of people may be inadvertently screwing up the toggle states,
I'm not testing this very thoroughly so I may be missing something and it seems like you've timed out the timeouts (...heh) pretty nicely from what you've been saying. Just noting that in it's current form, and maybe even when ReShade updates, the timeout toggles may act "funny." It might be a better idea to just stick to the "hold-key" technique toggle when it releases.
But who knows. When the next ReShade comes out, hold-key technique toggles should at least let us do most of the effects that were mentioned.
By the way... If you're creating separate custom effects of every single shader used, duplicating and renaming them, and you plan on having several effects per toggle, and tons of different toggles (sprinting, rend, all the signs, whirl, etc...), that sounds like a HUGE amount of work... So, as Ash said in the film "ALIEN": "You have my sympathies." Seriously though, can't wait to see how this all pans out! Good job so far and Good Luck!
EDIT: Skimmed the ReShade posts... sounds like Crosire added a "block toggle" for timeouts, coming up in the next version! Yay! It's looking like users will be able to add timeouts at the entire GemFX suite (which was honestly where a large percentage of my creative attention was focused... a real shame about that "sin city" effect you mentioned though... overhead and all that.)
Duplicating the effects so we have many variations with separate settings is actually pretty easy. I have plenty of tricks I learned throughout my years in web design that will speed up the process. It would realistically take about 5 minutes to create a "HeatHaze2" and only another 2 for HeatHaze3 and so forth, since I can automate most of the process after doing the first copy for each shader. That's the easy part.
What's going to be time consuming is adjusting and testing all of the settings for everything once we have 3-5 copies of every effect. That obviously has to be done individually so each copy looks good in game for it's own unique purpose. It will be well worth the effort though, so I'm up for it.
Might I suggest a version later down the road (after 2.0 is said and done, bugs and all) that is EXCLUSIVELY centered around effects with NO preset values otherwise? I fully understand that's essentially a complete re-work on tweaking from the ground up since all the shaders will need to be fine tuned for "vanilla" lighting. (I personally would use the full package, but not everyone hates the vanilla look.)
My reasoning. Not everyone likes W3E preset values. WE do... but not the community as a whole. Some people like that (boring) blue tint/E3 stuff (no judgement... it's just... eww) Some people hate dark lighting and won't be satisfied no matter how much you compromise your shadows. Some people just want to stick with their current "favorite." (I personally LOVE the pitch-black darkness in this one and will probably tweak my files to "keep" that effect, maybe go with Witcher Vision to see in the dark by reversing the Technique Toggle, which can be done: press to DISABLE a shader for the timeout period by flipping the TRUE/FALSE values. If "on button hold" is available, I'll be using it! Though if you simply elevate gammas and reduce contrast OVER TOP of your preset, that would be fine too.)
Anyway, suppose your "Special Effects" become super iconic and incredible looking... Centering your mod on toggle effects (Roxxtar's Special Effects) may be better in the long run than "just another ReShade/ENB perset," lost in a chaotic miasma of "ditto mods." Awash, lost amidst a sea of modding-minutiae... as a poet might suggest.
Some day, hopefully, it may be a relatively "easy" process to "tune" these effects to work with several popular ReShade presets floating around. You could simply have an "Roxxtar's Special Effects Pack - Vanilla" for people who came here for the "cool signs and special effects," then if they really like some other preset, they could possibly download a fine-tuned compatibility patch for "Roxxtar's Special Effects," given their favorite preset author gives you permission to offer a compatibility setup. (I have to say, witcher modding is still a bit underdeveloped and cooperation tends to help these modding communities survive their infancy, especially when we lack real tools as of yet.) As more and more people add countless more ReShade presets to the nexus and elsewhere, I'm afraid people will stop caring about them. But what's happening here with these in-game toggles can be so much more!
Sorry to ramble, I just really like were this mod might be headed and can see a lot of potential in it.
OKAY... now that I'm done rambling... about Gamepads: What do you think? Too big of a pain to deal with all that "Antimicro" stuff? I've seen a few mods such as "GAMEPAD PLUS" that made using an Xbox controller tolerable. ( personally, M&K for the win! ...but the Gamepads are real, and people use them. I sometimes sit back and "lazy-game" since my monitor is as big as my wall...) Maybe later down the road. Just wanted to get the gears turning on "controller layouts" since you'd have to add them as toggles (which is why I asked about button-combinations earlier, for example: Right Trigger + Y being Axii, toggling "Axii shader-timeout effects, and so on).
Interesting idea... having the effects as a separate mod. That's probably the best way to go with it; a separate mod completely in which the default is tailored for the vanilla game, then have a W3E Version, an UBER version, a Fantasy version, etc... but just never a Real Graphical Suite version :p
Truth be told, 2.0 in my opinion is almost perfect visually based on the tools we currently have available, so I'm getting really close to the point where updates are going to slow down, since I won't really have much to change unless new shaders come out.
That's not to say I don't have huge plans for W3E in the future. For example, on occasion you may notice me mentioning the fact that I'm a graphic artist and web designer by profession. Once we figure out how to override textures in this game, that's when my REAL modding skills are going to come into play. Custom sun, moon, clouds, fire, rain, water, stars, lightning, and snow textures are going to be included with the W3E package IMMEDIATELY once CDPR fills us in on how to retexture this game. I'm really quite upset that isn't possible yet, because I could make all of those above mentioned textures in a matter of hours and this preset would look twice as good.
Anyway, right now I'm much more excited about these toggle effects than anything else. Like you said... there's a lot of ReShade presets already, but nothing like this. It's unique and fresh, so it might be best served hot as a standalone mod rather than just another feature of W3E. Regardless of how that all pans out, my primary focus right now is on making as many toggle effects as possible before ReShade gets updated to include all of the suggestions I gave them so 2.0 can hit the Nexus as soon as possible and blow everyone's mind
Roxxtar, I also play with a 360 controller so THANKS for your future support! I honestly can't play this game confortably with M&K...
And yes, please... many textures and shaders are meant to be modded
I'm glad to hear it'll be no hassle and you already got controller layouts covered since I'm sticking with my controller for now!
By the way, lots of people will prefer several controller button layouts from the one we might be using (I tend to be really picky about that kind of stuff)... would it possibly be better to make a custom "input.settings" file and ton of different antimicros that can be downloaded for people who don't really feel like tweaking that stuff themselves... or even, hopefully, cooperate with the GAMEPAD PLUS mod author for compatibility between layouts? I figured since a lot of people ALREADY use that mod for controller re-binding, it would be better on the community and the average user who just downloads what they need.
I'm sure you already thought of this stuff, just throwing stuff out there... Oh, and I can't wait for ReShade to update! [He exclaimed with unbridled excitement.]
...that rain... Just... why CDPR, why?
Now, Witcher 2 rain looked pretty decent in my opinion... It seemed to have a transparency and blur filter as it fell in front of characters and objects... Witcher 3's rain is just white blaster bolts from star wars zipping down all around and making otherwise great looking scenery look ugly.
But by far my biggest gripe is the rediculous lightning bolts. Seriously? They look like they belong in Minecraft or a Nintendo 64 game. You may have noticed that I was able to make it look slightly better in W3E by using bloom to blur the edges and make it glow, but it is going to take a full retex to get it looking truly acceptable.
The clouds are my second gripe. While they do look decent, especially during sunsets, it's only because CDPR did an invredible job with making them "absorb" colors (like how the sunlight and moonlight can completely change their look). However once you start adding things like Lumasharpen into the mix, it becomes very obvious how low res the cloud textures are. I wouldn't be surprised if they are 512x512. That needs to change.
EDIT! Actually... Thinking about it... Too bad we can't use a toggle technique that caused the shader to not only "time out" for a specified period, but also "turn on and off" at a rate we can adjust, yielding, perhaps, a lightning effect whilst using Yrden? OR, a delay command that allows us to have several custom effects fire at a specified time after the button toggle, filing in one "flash" after the other and thusly creating a "flashing" effect while casting.
But Roxxtar where are you bro? We all start to miss ya and cant wait for the release of 2.0
Keep it up
Greetings!
really loved your ideas and how you develop your preset
Update or riot.
(Double post warranted)
Seems to be caused by the "new" 1.2 settings since it doesn't disable with Reshade Hotkey. Anyone still got a 1.1 version or can tell me which setting is causing this?
Only happens on the extreme version btw, balanced doesn't have that...
EDIT: For anyone having this issue too, it's the advanced motion blur located in Reshade/GemFX_settings.cfg
Disable it and those lines are gone!
Update or riot.
Hi , i've been trying to get this mod to work , but I have no common folder in Reshade folder , so the includes aren't working . Please help
And yes, I'm using Reshade 0.19.0. The one you specified.
I'm having this exact same problem as well. I just went through all 32 pages of the thread to see if anyone has encountered something similar to what I'm experiencing--nothing. Followed install instructions very carefully. Unistalled and re-installed several times, and it still didn't work. Any help is appreciated,
As stated by the author, download and install Reshade 0.19.0 Public Beta with Frameworks, you can find it here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jzn2jsb0zt55ci3/AADOiSPtIE4SF-Iqo8cokiqha?dl=0
Also I've never understood where people are coming from when they say injected SMAA is "far better" than CDPR's Witcher 3 in house post process AA. It's actually, in my opinion, as good if not better (since it has a temporal filter, which you're giving up by turning in game AA off unless you edit INI file) than normal SMAA.