In game graphics, expansive ways of delivering different styles of styles in games (and the use of shaders, profiles and presets), by RPG
An overview (and photos) of personal projects; in game photography with the idea of presenting differing types of graphics presets and the importance of certain settings like MXAA, FXAA and Tessellation.
(Above) Bentley Bentayga pictured in FiveM:
The use of graphics modifications: Reshade (LUT shaders, MXAA/FXAA tessellation modifiers, the ability to modify presets), ENBSeries (Shadow/shader enhancer, the ability to enable "VehicleFXAA") (and works well with GTA V's "FXAA" "MXAA" and relevant Nvidia shader technology)
List of graphics mods used in photos:
Reshade (Custom preset based off one that works alongside Pascal Glitcher's/Marty McFly's "RTGI" (Ray Tracing Global Illumination) plugin.
ENBSeries (Normal weather settings, VehicleFXAA enabled alongside original and highest FXAA setting).
QuantV (August 2022 update? Latest "non modified" version after the infamous QuantV incident).
NVE Vegetation presets (Inclusion of modified, dense and ultra-high quality vegetation).
LARevo (Inclusion of real-world brand placement, custom buildings and modified buildings to suit its real-life counterpart).
Custom .RPFs (for NVE, QuantV, LARevo, Lively World Expansion, RTGI and Forests of San Andreas (also works with Dubai Trees).
Custom depth of field settings, all texture/graphical settings set to very high/ultra with ambient occlusion on X16 and anisotropic filtering on highest possible (FXAA setting on highest, partnered with FXAA modification on Reshade).
Darker Nights expansion for NVE, and brighter emergency lights (though not in picture).
"Soft Shadows" setting on highest (Nvidia PCSS shadows work well on most PC's, but testing with Reshade shaders made things look weird).
QoL settings (graphical settings, quality relative) are all on highest possible.
And possibly other .RPF based graphics/texture enhancers, with a total of 53 plugin-based mods connected to latest FiveM client.
Recommendation: DO NOT EXCEED VRAM, IT WILL FRY YOUR GPU AND CAUSE RAGE/FIVEM/DX10/11/12 ERRORS!!!
The good, the bad and the ugly; graphics mods in games and shader enhancers being used in in-game ray tracing:
Some shaders, notably those that follow the trend of 4k or 8k resolution or effect are known to be resource heavy; and tend to be catered to an audience where people have the GPU/RAM power necessary to handle heavy loads of data being offloaded by graphical programs like DX11.
In FiveM, and it may also be the case in other games, shaders and texture modifications can alter the appearance of the game to a permanent level (unless either a full re-install is done or the program in question is removed properly); I know this is the case for .RPF based modifications because the file format is a root, and used to be the case was the fact that most .RPFs had to be placed into the "mods" folder in GTA main directory and now being able to be easier implemented into a specialised plugins folder.
Shadows can be affected based upon MXAA/FXAA/PCSS settings; modifications can fix this (in certain circumstances, people have made similar modifications based upon 4k/8k and rendered down to a more easier-to-run level for people with not as powerful GPUs/Processors). Also, normal game shadows can be altered with ray tracing technology; a similar technology can be had with FiveM (with Marty McFly's "Ray Tracing Global Illumination" enhancement, but has to work alongside a Reshade profile that's mods work alongside RTGI).
LUT shaders (shaders that can change colour profiles, and certain palettes) can alter the way shadows look because of the use of vibrant colours. The more vibrant the LUT pack, the more apparent shadows will become with the possibility of an incompatibility between a FXAA plugin and the pack in question.
Using Reshade on other games will have a similar or majorly different affect on the colours, shadows and texture due to differences in engine or existing colour palette. For example, vanilla GTA V runs on a semi-subdued palette; so vibrant mods will not majorly affect gameplay...however, NFS Heat utilises refractions and reflections heavily so gameplay could be strained if a heavy LUT pack is used (Reshade, not an independent plugin).
For digital photography, it isn't 100 percent necessary that you use presets and profiles in your work; post-production can have a lot of action in a otherwise subdued image.
Photoshop, Lightroom or any other photo/image editing software with the right profiles can have nice affects on an image.
Conclusion: You do not necessarily need all the Gucci modifications to create photographs; but if you want to level up existing images, either post-production or the use of modifications would be a possible route.
