#reshade troubleshooting

Et tu reShade?!

I just want to take pics. So, why? After gShade started to capture empty pics only, I switched to the latest still DX9 compatible version of reShade. Worked wonderfully, didn't it? /s None of my google fu came up with something useful so far, so I think I'll have to ask pictureamoebae for advice soon.

ReShade 5.0 has been released, after 467 years of production (or so it seems).

It’s [MAYBE NOT*] safe to update, your presets should all still work.

* In-game shadows seem to be broken with 5.0. I’ve finally been able to update and test them. I asked over at the ReShade discord and they know the new version works strangely with TS4. They don’t know why, and don’t know if it’ll be fixed. If you’re having problems, revert to 4.9.1 - this is why we make backups.

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As always, MAKE BACKUPS of your current installation, along with all your current shaders and dll and ini files, keep them labelled with the version number, just in case you want to revert with minimal pain.

The biggest change end users need to worry about at the moment (apart from the shadows) is to the installation process. The installer has been redesigned to be more familiar, and what’s especially interesting is you can choose a specific preset when installing and it will attempt to work out which packs you need to download for that preset to work. If you’re using a preset by some absolute awkward weirdo like me, there are probably still going to be extra steps because I add in extra shaders and so forth, but it’s a cool new feature nevertheless.

What’s particularly exciting about 5.0 is it now incorporates an Add-Ons system. For the moment, you don’t need to worry about that. But eventually people will be producing all sorts of add-on modules that can tap directly into the game engine and do some cool stuff, like replacing game textures, etc. I’m not knowledgeable enough to fully understand what’s possible yet, and I very much doubt I’ll ever be in a position myself to create any add-ons, but over the next few months I expect lots of fun things will be happening and I’ll try to keep myself abreast of it in case any of it is useful for TS4.

Note: The main ReShade download has disabled all add-ons apart from generic depth buffer detection. This is because add-ons can be used to cheat in online games. There is a version that enables add-ons (you can dl it from the bottom of the release post in the forum) but if you use it be aware you may be banned from some online games (the regular version is whitelisted on game servers). Use at your own peril. If in doubt, stick with the official version - it’s all you need.

Some things you may need to be aware of if you’re using 5.0:

→ The shadows bug as per above (I'll update if a fix is found).

→ There is no longer any option to download the Legacy Pack as part of the installation process. GOOD! So many people encountered problems because they were downloading it alongside other packs when expressly advised not to. Now you have to follow the advice I’ve been giving: download the Legacy Pack manually from github, and only install those shaders you need (and all the textures).

→ If you’ve ever needed to access the d3d9 tab in the ReShade menu to troubleshoot the depth buffer, that has now moved. You can find the same screen in Add-Ons > Generic Depth.

→ For those who have updated to 5.0 and kept some of their older 3.x or 4.x shaders, they should still work as before, but if you do get any RED errors the offending shaders will be listed at the top of your shader list so you can easily identify them and decide if they’re worth keeping. If not, just go ahead and delete them from your shader folder. If you do need them, check to see if there are updates post-5.0 from their respective repository (usually found somewhere on github - if you google the name of the pack they’re part of you should find them). You can download the whole new pack, or just the relevant shader, and replace it in your shaders folder. There is also a list of popular shader packs here.

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I haven’t spent a lot of time with 5.0 yet, but if you encounter any problems I’ll do my best to help. As always, try to give me as much information as possible (saying ‘it’s not working, help me’ tells me absolutely nothing - how do I help you with that?), and screenshots are often a huge help. I have a discord server with a dedicated ReShade channel - I check that more frequently than I check my asks here, so it can be easier to get in touch that way. And there are lots of other people there who’ve been around the ReShade block a few times who can also help in my absence.

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GaussianBlur and HighPassSharp can be found under the legacy shaders when you download your shaders but they really arent that important to the look of it and are totally optional. quint_adof does all the heavy lifting.

is your dof not working at all? DOF effects won’t work with anti-aliasing on. So under Options make sure to have Edge Smoothing is Off. You can add your own anti-alising with reshade.

If the dof blur works but looks wonky or reversed then check and see if the depth buffer is reversed. Under “Edit Global   Preprocessor Definitions” make sure  RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED is set to 0 and not 1.

(side note: MXAO effects works best with the setting from Picture Amoebae)

if your dof effects stop working or never worked then it might be because the depth buffer is turning off (this is important if you are playing sims 3 on origin ver 1.69)

I’m troubleshooting some ideas that may or may not help, so if you’re experiencing problems with depth effects since the Story Progression patch PLEASE LIMIT YOUR FPS TO 30. You can do this in 3d Applications under the nvidia control panel, or by using Riva Tuner as part of MSI Afterburner, or by editing the GraphicsRules.sgr file in your Bin folder (make a copy and place it in your ConfigOverrides folder, and make the edits to that one).

If you’re experiencing ReShade issues after the patch, and/or you’ve tried the above, please provide me with the following information so I can better narrow down what people have tried, and what might or might not work:

Did limiting your fps work?

What is your ReShade version?

Do you use a custom/edited GraphicsRules.sgr file?

Do you use any custom camera files/mods?

Have you tested with a fully vanilla/repaired game?

What exact problems are you experiencing (depth effects flickering on and off? ReShade effects disappearing completely?)

Where does the problem occur (all the time, in Live mode only, in Build mode only)?

It would also be really useful to know if you’re NOT having any problems with depth effects after the patch, and answer the questions above too so I can cross reference with those who are and see if there are any similarities or discrepancies.

Thank you.

Hi! Crashing can mean you're missing something that's required for ReShade to run. This can sometimes happen when you get a new PC if you don't have the required Windows runtimes installed.

Depending on what version of ReShade you're using, you'll need the correct .NET framework. For ReShade 4.4 onwards that's .NET Framework 4.8.

You may also need to install this DirectX runtime (I know it doesn't come as standard with Windows 10, I'm not sure about Windows 11).

Knox Greenburg and Nikolai Graf have moved into Ruxpin Pet Foods, an old warehouse that has been taken over as a communal living/working/playing space.

Coming tomorrow, along with Clear POP! ReShade preset.

The Rasoya’s apartment, 20 Culpepper House. A darned sight better than the first time I made this over.

I’ve seen a few people now with crashing issues when using my most recent presets. Each time I’ve asked to look at their log file the last entry before the crash has been something like:

| INFO  | Resizing image data for texture 'V__texMultiLUT' from 1024x544 to 262144x69632 ...

Asking the user to delete MultiLUT.fx from their Shaders folder has fixed the crashing each time so far.

I recently switched to using Prod80′s LUT shader, because it’s modular and easy to use, and you can add an endless amount of extra LUTs with it. It might be that it conflicts with a specific version of the older MultiLUT.fx shader, but I’m not certain what’s behind the issue since I have the latest MultiLUT.fx shader installed alongside Prod80′s and I don’t get any crashing.

Nevertheless, if you experience crashing, open your d3d9.log file and scroll to the last line. If it’s the same as above, delete MultiLUT.fx and it should go away.

If you use any other presets that require MultiLUT.fx I can walk you through porting those settings to Prod80′s shader instead, so all your LUTs use the same shader set from now on for maximum compatibility (it’s very easy!).