That Fledgling Will

Disclaimer: Modded setup was initially 9800X3D + 4070Ti Super, now using 9800X3D + 5090, all with a basic undervolt, with a 60hz 4k TV

Graphics Mods:

Reframework https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/8

Required for pretty much everything. I use Version 01105 https://github.com/praydog/REFramework-nightly/releases/tag/nightly-01105-29ed2062312581f7c62ae603bbe5f6e90b9acb06 because more recent ones messed with the text size of the UI in some windows

Better Shadow Filtering https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/489?tab=description

Using modded version seen in the comments, can alternatively use Graphic Suite Lite's setting

Unofficial Texture Patch https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/766

Changes are most noticeable with skin patch, where fine lines, pores, and skin under the brows are sharper

Vanilla

Texture Patch

Vanilla

Texture Patch

BetterUI Series https://www.nexusmods.com/profile/Caites/mods?gameId=6234

For changing up the UI

HUD Control https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/105

For making different components conditional (like turning on health/stamina bars, pawn names and health bars only during battle) instead of turning them off completely in the menu

Freecam mod on Haven's Night https://discord.gg/9Vr2SJ3

More control than REFramework's freecam, however controller lacks a deadzone

Otis_Inf Freecam https://opm.fransbouma.com/igcsdof.htm https://www.patreon.com/cw/Otis_Inf

This is a paid mod, however it's worth it to me

Freecam with smoother controller use and additional tools such as locking the camera position, turning game input on/off, removing HUD in live gameplay, allows setting camera speed/zoom, raising and lowering camera from a fixed point, zoom = FOV. Plus allows use of the IGCS DOF Reshade Addon.

Sometimes I lock the camera in place and re-enable game input to use photo mode settings or have it locked in live gameplay. Or I remove the UI and disable game input so that I can take screenshots in conversations.

Also, this is another program to open after starting DD2 if that's a problem. I sometimes forget and sometimes if IGCS is installed the picture won't show until you start the program :')

r457's Camera Control Mods https://www.nexusmods.com/profile/r457/mods?gameId=6234

For better M+K controls and camera positioning tweaks (will alter camera position in Photo Mode as well)

I use True Shoulder Camera however there is a more customizable improved Camera module in the DD2 Tools mod

ReLit https://framedsc.com/GeneralGuides/relit.htm https://github.com/originalnicodr/RELit

I usually stick to the game's natural lighting during the day but it's a good supplement and it helps when I'm tinkering with equips and whatever in realtime because of the passage of time. I also find it useful at night/indoors/darker areas and for manipulation of light sources.

You can also turn off Auto Exposure and adjust it yourself while taking screenshots. I don't utilize it enough.

Graphics Suite https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/1283

Graphics Suite Lite exists and has removed the need for Quality Water, Quality Raytracing, and Tint Remover. Latest update has shadow filtering but I find I prefer enhanced shadow filtering due to how you can adjust the variance/softening of edges. This, subsurface scattering and fixed contact shadows make a difference even in vanilla raytracing. Makes skin soft and adds dimension to characters and environment

Note: Disabling postprocessing filter will remove the in game filters in Photo Mode so re-enable it when you want to use them

DD2 Utility Pack https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/1317

The new kid on the block with several modules including improved camera customization and effect toggles, optimizers, etc. Still testing this out

It does replace a few things such as No NPC/NPC Limit Control

Reshade:

Better HDR https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/188

It did not mention anything about disabling the postprocessing filter but I did and I liked the result. Have been tweaking the values though, specifically reducing midtone saturation and increasing vibrance

or

Clean Light Reshade https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/353

Clean Light states it requires RE4 Tint Remover, however Graphics Suite Lite can also disable the postprocessing filter and includes other tweaks specific to DD2 so Tint Remover is no longer needed

I ran both Reshade presets together for giggles and everything went off the rails vivid

Additional Reshade Shaders:

AspectRatioMultiGrid.fx

Custom ratio 45:21 is similar to in game Photo Mode's Letterbox frame

Listed ratio 2 is the usual cinematic ratio and 21:9 is ultawide

I like this one because you can use the ratios on top of the game so that the borders don't get smeared if the ICGS DoF tool is used or even just customizing it with more frames than available in the game's Photo Mode. I also take advantage of the grid tools when taking screenshots (Rule of Thirds, etc), and have my most used grids assigned to hotkeys

Also, by setting the ratio similarly to DD2's photomode one, I can use it in live gameplay with HUD Control and disabling some parts of the UI. If I need to peek at my health bar or the boss' health bar, I just turn toggle the frame.

IgcsDof.fx (IGCS through Reshade with Addon installer)

This addon allows use of Depth of Field tool with Otis Freecam (required), useful in reducing noise/smoothing out edges

lilium__hdr_and_sdr_analysis.fx

For any calibration you want to do such as editing the Black Floor Fix installed in Better HDR or just messing with settings in general

DLSS:

https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/129 includes instructions to run it with Reshade

DLSS Presets:

Default is Preset C

I use Preset E via DLSSTweaks (refer to above) for Quality/Balanced settings, Preset L for Performance/Ultra Performance

How trying Presets K and L went for me:

K:

Pointillism, oversharpening noise resulting in flashing/flickering especially in shadowed areas like the shops in bakbattahl, migraines and sadness

L:

Sharper and differences in lighting (presumably from the autoexposure I couldn't turn off at time of writing). The added autoexposure/lighting is actually pretty nice but in some aspects it might have reduced contrast.

The noise can get pretty bad and flickery like Preset K in some shadowed areas and definitely in forests/foliage. The denoiser can also result in the opposite effect where everything gets smeared or the noise still flickers but is smeared.

I didn't test Preset M much but I think it was a similar thing

https://imgsli.com/NDQ4MTc0https://imgsli.com/NDQ4MTU1https://imgsli.com/NDQ4MTc3https://imgsli.com/NDQ4MTU2

My attempts to run Frame Generation crashed the game. Maybe others can get it to work but there's no point for me because my TV is only 60hz :)

Per Optiscaler https://github.com/optiscaler/OptiScaler/wiki/Dragons-Dogma-2

The Quality and Performance settings are reversed, so if you want Quality you need to set the in game option to Performance and vice versa. You can confirm by enabling the DLSS Overlay and looking to the bottom left corner which will give information on preset letter, resolution, whether autoexposure is on or off, if framegen is running, etc

Special K can be run with DLSS and Reshade but I was not able to get it to work with Otis Freecam. I think it was convoluted getting all the dlls to run together anyway

Settings:

In-Game Settings

Display Mode=Borderless Window

Screen Resolution=3840x2160 This on top of the 4spp will reduce noise, though it is resource intensive

DLSS Super Resolution=Performance (because it actually sets it to Quality)

Upscale Sharpness=Default (in the middle)

Screen Space Reflections=On

Mesh Quality=Max

Texture Filtering=High (ANISO x16)

Texture Quality=High (3 GB)

Grass/Tree Quality=High

Resource-Intense Effects Quality=High

Shadow Quality=Max

Shadow Cache=On

Contact Shadows=On

Motion Blur=Off

Bloom=On

Depth of Field=On

Lens Flare=On

Lens Distortion=Off

Subsurface Scattering=On

Motion Quality=High

PCGamingWiki offered some driver-side tweaks which may or may not be of interest https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Nvidia_Profile_Inspector I used the Anisotropic Texture Filtering tweaks from here in case drivers were better than DD2's implementation. Maybe not?

Credit to heyjoehun81 https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/793?tab=description For providing a few tweaks and suggestions. Biggest one is making sure that the ParallelBuildProcessorCount is correct!!

I noticed in the config.ini file that there is a film grain setting that you can change to OFF. I couldn't tell if it worked because the path tracing noise is practically the same thing but I turned it off anyway. A reshade shader can probably add the film grain back in if desired

My config.ini settings if you'd rather look at that than the in-game menu

[Render] Capability=DirectX12 TargetPlatform=DirectX12 UsingIndepentRenderWorker=Enable RenderWorkerThreadPriorityAboveNormal=Enable ParallelBuildProcessorCount=16 ParallelBuildCommandList=Enable CentralUpdateTileMapping=Disable AllowMeshShader=Enable ForceMeshShader=Disable TextureStreamingBudget=32101 [AppOption] TargetDisplay= RenderingMethod=Normal WindowMode=Borderless Resolution=3840x2160 RefreshRate=60.00Hz ImageQualityRate=10 VSync=ON FrameRate=Max60 FoliageQuality=High EffectQuality=High MeshQuality=HIGHEST TextureQuality=High TextureSamplerQuality=Anisotropic16 StreamingTextureQuality=High StreamingTextureBufferSize=_03_0 ShadowQuality=Highest ShadowCacheEnable=ON ContactShadowEnable=ON BloomEnable=ON DepthOfFieldEnable=ON MotionBlurEnable=OFF LensFlareEnable=ON LensDistortionSetting=OFF FilmGrainEnable=OFF # isn't even an option in the game settings, so can toggle here or in Graphics Suite Lite AntiAliasing=FXAA_TAA AOEnable=DFAO SSREnable=ON SSSEnable=ON UpscalingAlgorithm=DLSS UpscalingQuality=MaxPerformance UpscalingSharpness=5 RayTracingEnable=ON PadButtonIconType=TypeB DynamicResolution=OFF DLSS=MaxPerformance TextureQualityAndStreamingTextureBufferSize=High__03_00 DLSS_FrameGeneration=OFF DLSS_Reflex=Off MotionQuality=High FSR3=None # Below are suggestions from https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonsdogma2/mods/793?tab=description for POSSIBLE performance boost, could be placebo [Render/SoftParticles] SoftParticles=Enabled StreamingSettings PriorityAsyncLoadingExtraTime=50 AsyncLoadingTimeLimit=500 MaxNumAsyncLoadRequests=15

Reframework

Graphics: Hybrid Path Tracing

4spp

1 bounce

Using Hybrid Path Tracing over Pure Path Tracing because of the loss of shaders in Pure aka no subsurface scattering resulting in rougher skin, weapons losing their lighting effects, high GPU cost. PT Sun Fix is useful here too for reducing the more intense sunlight present in this mode. 4spp (samples per pixel) is reduces noise the most, but is resource intensive. 2 bounce is more resource intensive, though it does lighten some areas/reduce weird shadows. On the other hand, it seems to get closer to the vanilla raytracing look and the eyes kind of lose that nice sparkle

Bounce comparison https://imgsli.com/NDQ3OTAy/ https://imgsli.com/NDQ3OTM0

ASVGF/Vanilla Raytracing Noted that at night/indoors, ASVGF is superior. Hybrid Path Tracing brightens light sources too much. Pure Path Tracing looks great! But the GPU cost is still intense on top of loss of shaders etc

Hybrid PT + ASVGF vs Hybrid PT only I forgot to add an ASVGF comparison I think https://imgsli.com/NDQ2Nzgz

Graphics Suite Lite:

General Improvements:

Better Clouds=Enabled

Better GI Point Cloud=Enabled

Exposure=Enabled

Local Exposure=Disabled Local Exposure kind of flattens the picture, not really a fan of it

Image Post Processing=Disabled

Disable Character Spot Light=Disabled

Adjust Lantern Position=Enabled

Disable Lantern Backlit Spot Light=Enabled

Better SSS Diffusion=Enabled

Denoise Strength=Strong

Water SSR Quality=Enabled

Subsurface Scattering Strength comparison https://imgsli.com/NDQ3MjIw

Better Shadows

Shadow Quality=High

Shadow Resolution=Highest

Actual Contact Shadows=Enabled

Swing On Shadow Enable=Enabled

testing

Better Shadow Filter=Disabled

Disable Shadow Caster Culling=Disabled

Shadow Variance Scale=Disabled

Shadow Quality and Texture Quality help smooth out the edges of shadows and reduce flickering. I tried setting Shadow Quality to Highest and the difference from High is minute so I'll stick to High

RT Improvements

RT/PT: Secondary Diffuse Bounce=Enabled

RT/PT: Use Alpha Test=Enabled

RT/PT: RayTracing Resolution (ResRatio)=Enabled

1.000 Strength

PT Improvements

Hybrid Path Tracing

PT Sun Adjustments=On

0.1 Min Roughness

0.7 Bounce Intensity

1.0 Intensity Multiplier

ASVGF/Vanilla Raytracing

PT Sun Adjustments=On

0.1 Min Roughness

1.0 Bounce Intensity

1.0 Intensity Multiplier

Bounce Intensity affects the lighting in shadowed areas. Higher values lighten the shadows and add more color since more light is present, but may result in glowy looks in path tracing, which is why I have it reduced with path tracing on. It does work in raytracing! But I think it's more subtle than in path tracing

Culling & LOD

Disable LOD=Enabled I remember in the original Graphics Suite it was recommended to disable LOD. What it specifically said:

Disable Raytracing LOD for more accurate Path Tracing Shadows without weird geometry bugs

Disable Small Object Culling=Enabled

testing

Disable RT/PT Solid-Angle Culling=Enabled

testing

Miscalculations

Menu FPS Fix=Disabled

Depth of Field=Enabled

RT Reflection + SSR=Enabled

RayTracingReflectionEnable=Enabled

RayTracingWithSSREnable=Enabled

RayTracingSpecularRoughnessThresholdQuality=Highest (4)

50 SpecularRayLength

32 MaxReflectionHistory

Note that having the Menu FPS Fix will reduce the RT quality in photo mode. If you want to have quality pictures.

Menu Fix On

Menu Fix Off

And just because, Hybrid PT

I'm GUESSING that the Menu Fix exists because VRAM usage spikes when entering and exiting the menu smh. I saw my VRAM usage jump from 14gb to the limit on my 4070Ti Super causing massive stutter and from 14-16gb up to 20gb on my 5090. I keep it off because I have the VRAM headroom, but it would be good to keep it enabled and disable it when taking screenshots.

Adding RT Reflections can be way screwy as well, your discretion on whether or not you want them

RT Reflections comparison (although it bugged out pretty good from what I remember) https://imgsli.com/NDQ3ODg5

I will say that if you still want the water reflections without the RT Reflection + SSR setting enabled, have both RayTracingReflectionEnable and RayTracingWithSSREnable both enabled then DISABLE RT Reflection + SSR. If you disable RayTracingReflectionEnable it automatically disables the SSR part and you lose the water reflections

If you want to use Path Tracing keep these toggled on anyway if you want the water reflections in large bodies of water, though it can look… weird

Denoiser2022 Available in ASVGF only GI Good shadows, can have this enabled only and use as a clone over path tracing, preserving more of the path tracing's color palette GI Reflections Can make the environment brighter than it should be. Can be noticeable at night like at Vernworth Castle and the city walls since there's no moonlight. If cloned over path tracing, it brightens the entire scene, altering the color palette. With RT Reflections, everything might get this light blue sheen added to it

Custom Shadow Settings

Enable Custom Shadow Settings=Enabled

Shadow Filtering Mode=Better Filtering

2.000-2.250 Shadow Variance Scale

Can try this or the Shadow Filtering option in Graphics Suite Lite, which appears to sharpen the edges better than the original filter setting. I like this mod because I like how the edges blur together more to reduce edge flicker. Plus it softens things in my screenshots.

DD2 Utility Pack

Still testing but I lowered Max NPCs in Optimizer because otherwise it threw my CPU into overdrive. There's more NPC pop in, but the FPS has improved :o

Taking screenshots

I typically utilize the Rule of Thirds and other available grids in Reshade's Aspect Ratio shader. Can refer to cinematography and photography for composition purposes. Very useful in my opinion, just make sure to have it loaded last so that it isn't included in the DoF tool or the HDR/SDR Analysis Tool

Vain's recommendations https://bsky.app/profile/v-a-i-n.bsky.social/post/3lwdnsqmehk2w For IGCS and ReLit

As someone who takes screenshots in HDR and suffered converting all of them into subpar SDR in the Windows Photo program, Special K Image Viewer https://github.com/SpecialKO/SKIV is a lifesaver. It's part of Special K https://www.special-k.info/ but it is a standalone program.