#ts2 graphics

I’d been using Reshade in my game, and I loved using all the functions that work with it, for brightening up my game, smoothing edges, sharpening lines, etc. etc. But there are a lot of effects that Reshade has that are dependent on depth, and my game doesn’t allow Reshade to see the depth. There’s a post-processing mod by Pine and the version dreadpirate made with their blue snow fix but when I installed either of these, it slowed my game down considerably, to the point it was unplayable. But with the mod in, Reshade was able to use the depth buffer it created, so even with the post processing effects turned off, I could use Reshade’s depth-of-field functions and tweak everything the way I liked through Reshade. 

The other option was not using the mod at all, and just turning off smooth edges in my game. Depth functions are only possible when your in-game anti-aliasing is turned off. The problem I ran into is that I’d have insane screen tearing and flickering, with objects completely disappearing. Through watching a couple of youtube videos of the same problem, the recommended solution was to change the graphicsrules.sgr file to read “seti low 3″ instead of “seti low 1.″ That solved the flickering problem, but created a new one: I couldn’t use any Reshade effects anymore. This would happen:

I tried fiddling with EVERY setting in my graphicsrules.sgr files to no avail. It just so happens that the dumbest little tweak is what finally caused it to work, and I have no real idea why.

I changed it from “seti low 1″ to “seti low 2″ and what do you know, that did the trick.

No more flickering/tearing, no more Reshade craziness. Just perfection. I wish I understood any of it, but I’m just grateful it works. 

I also had to change “option DirtyRect” so that under the Low setting “intProp dynamicRenderStrategy 1″ reads “intProp dynamicRenderStrategy 0″ instead. 

For some reason this craziness was happening when I clicked on anything while controlling a sim:

And then it just stopped and now everything works fine without any problems, again I have no real idea why anything works the way it does.

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Of course now when I don’t have Reshade’s effects on, my edges aren’t smooth, but I have always played with Reshade on anyway, and I use its SMAA or FXAA effects, whichever one I feel like using at the time.

You can play with a dof effect on, but it might be weird, and it will take the UIs out of focus as well. You can make a UI mask and apply it through Reshade as well, and then use the toggle function to turn it off when taking screenshots.

A few unedited screenshots:

Sky and Don are in focus

Only sky + background are in focus

Only Don is in focus

Different depth of field effects and blooms on Samantha Cordial

QUICK RUNDOWN:

This is to use Reshade for depth of field and other depth-related effects (like ambient occlusion or bloom) instead of post-processing mod. 

Post-Processing mod may be too taxing on your game, but Reshade may be able to do the same thing with less difficulty. 

Download and install Reshade if you don’t already have it installed

In your game, lower smooth edges all the way

If your game gets all glitchy with smooth edges down, then out of the game change your GraphicsRules.sgr files to read “seti Low 2″

You may have to change “intProp dynamicRenderStrategy 1” under ‘option DirtyRect’ to “intProp dynamicRenderStrategy 0″

You may also need to check and see if you have settings on your graphics card already bumping up the FXAA on your game, because it can effect the depth buffer as well

Tip for screenshot taking: set up your shot the way you want it in tab mode, then open your reshade menu. With your reshade menu open, you can point your mouse over anywhere in the screen you want the focus to be when using a depth of field effect, so you now have full control of the focus area. Then take the screenshot with the menu still open so you can keep the focus you’ve chosen.

There’s been a lot of innovative ideas (re)circulating to get around the purple flashing texture memory glitch, and the one involving the Nvidia Control Panel settings has been really good to me... except for the part about not being able to turn all of the in-game settings down all the way.  I am glad, though, that the solution to Stachia and Saphir’s freaky-ass Vulcan nose bridges was turning the Sim/Object Detail setting back up.  It didn’t seem to affect Lehabim as much - maybe a F vs M rendering process?  Who knows.  I also couldn’t turn in-game texture settings down, either.  In-game smooth edges is completely down, though. Shadows are “off” and lighting is at low.  I’ve lost the on-the-ground shadows, but shading-shadows on objects themselves is still fine, so, I am sacrificing to make pond water stay.  

My computer is about 6-7 years old; it was custom built by my brother-in-law, an avid League of Legends/ESO gamer, and then he sold it to me on the cheap in about 2017 when he upgraded.  The processor is Intel i5, 16gb RAM, and the video card is a Nvidia GTX 770. Obvs, the OS is Windows 10.

I did or have previously done pretty much everything @dramallamadingdang has posted about doing, except that I maintain my fade distance at off, have my view distance at medium, and am keeping shaders turned on.  Prior to doing the Nvidia Control Panel fixes, though, I was still running into crashing issues, albeit not ones preceded by purple flashing (much).  I still haven’t played enough since making the changes to be sure it’s finally all better stable, but shifting the burden onto the graphics card and away from the program as much as possible makes sense.   Although these new ghost-shadows (see Stachia pic #2) are popping up every now and then, on the whole, this seems to be working for me.