Elite / Frontier FFED3D + SweetFX + 4K

Bounder

Bounder
Knocking up a profile for this, because... Awesomeness.




















(click on thumbnails for full-size images)


To use, just install the latest version of sweetFX, and copy over the settings file with the one attached here.

I've tried to balance the bloom so that surface details remain visible (waay enhanced, in fact) on cooler stars (Type M's etc.), while hotter stars produce blinding glare. Atmospheres glint, without washing out too much detail.

IMO space looks better (even in the base game) with some blue set in the in-game graphics option menu, but dilute to taste.

Will post any worthwhile updates here, hope others will likewise..


ETA: doesn't work with the in-game menu screens, you have to hit the Scroll Lock key to enable / disable..

Also, you may want to disable the mods' cockpit glare effect in the cfg file..
 
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Steve

Steve
Gave it a go, but the game wouldn't load after I'd installed SweetFX. Had to delete the d3dx9.dll the installer had added to get it working again [woah]
 

Bounder

Bounder
Open ffed3daj.cfg and set "enableMSAA=0". SweetFX conflicts with antialiasing.

SMAA is already enabled in the SweetFX filter, so you won't lose the effect..

Again, while you have ffed3daj.cfg open, you may also wish to set "doPanelLighting=0" - nice effect as it is, you'll struggle to see the dashboard through the glare..

(edited out redundant babble - pretty sure this is the problem)
 
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Bounder

Bounder
ahh you don't need it anyway, game looks sweet enough as it is!

Also just noticed i didn't even attach the cfg, duh..

It works, anyhoo, with a little tweaking.. I'll prolly get tired of constantly switching it on and off for the menus before too long, but it does add a nice 'pop' in-game..
 
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Bounder

Bounder
Final tweaks...

Tried to get it compatible with the in-game menus but it's never gonna work while retaining any benefit for the in-game graphics. Only option for now is to hit scroll-lock to diable SweetFX when using the menus, and hit it again to re-enable upon launch.

Removed the vignette effect, only wanted it in the lower corners not the upper ones too but not worked this out yet..

Spent most attention balancing the HDR with bloom effects and tonemap, focusing on the preception of temperature and surface clarity (or lack thereof) of stars, while making the background stars, planets and atmospheres 'pop' without compromising too much fine detail.

There's a slight loss of the lowest contrast range, at least on my cheap LCD panels, but seems a minor compromise.

This image below shows the surface detail of the dimmest star you'll see, type M's, which is purely my guess of how it might look to the naked eye but seems a reasonable baseline..



Concise instructions (this time, soz about that):

- only intended for use with Andy J's and Ittiz's FFED3D

- download the SweetFX package from the website (linked above), and place all the files in your FFE folder, replacing the settings file with the one attached to this post

- open ffed3daj.cfg and disable antialiasing - "enableMSAA=0"

- you may also want to disable panel lighting - "doPanelLighting=0" - as this will have bloom applied


SweetFX will conflict with any other effects processing or overlays (eg. Steam), especially antialiasing, so if you use graphics profilers (Geforce Experience etc.) make sure you're not applying any AA effects either globally or to FFE's profile, if it has one.

Tested working in windowed and full screen with basic Nvidia hardware.. expect a significant FPS hit, obviously..
 

Attachments

  • SweetFX_settings.txt
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Bounder

Bounder
Honed it a little further:

[video=youtube_share;z_QIQ2TO8xU]https://youtu.be/z_QIQ2TO8xU[/video]

..still more to do...










ETA: Here's the latest version.

- set space to light blue in FFE settings
- disable MSAA and (optionally) panel lighting in FFED3DAJ settings


Changes:

Tonemap reworked. Added tight-fighting chroma and gamma mask to further delineate star brightnesses by colour tempterature. Shifted the blue / red balance towards green / orange instead, allowing more overhead for selectively 'cooling' red dwarfs, while 'heating' main sequence stars. This also allows better blending of the Milky Way with the rest of the image (it was too 'unsettled' previously). Finally, low-end contrast clipping has been eliminated, fading from deep blue to black, and giving a richer irridescence, depth and glow to the starfield. The video above can't do the original effect justice - the sky's really coming alive..


To do:

I reckon a lil' lick of lensflare could be the icing on the cake here.. might have to check out some other reshaders..
 
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Bounder

Bounder
[video=youtube;rJO7UEgNtTo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJO7UEgNtTo&feature=youtu.be[/video]

..as i say, the MP4 codec's losing some colour and sparkle off the top end, the raw effect in 4K is more vivid. Also, these vids are only 1080p..

You almost get a sense of false-parallax.. there's a slight stretching in the X plane, which seems to boost this; along with the improved chroma and gamma contrast, it gives a real impression of depth of field..

Note also the brightness difference of the type 'A', Phekda, compared to the previous faint type 'M'..
 
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Bounder

Bounder
..another slow pan, this time featuring an earth-like, Topaz in Facece:

[video=youtube_share;QuhEhj_avs4]https://youtu.be/QuhEhj_avs4[/video]

..as you can see, i've left panel lighting enabled this time - it's a great effect, and really helps lighten up the otherwise gloomy cockpit.. if only there was some kind of multiplier available to prevent it saturating (nudge nudge AJ)..

So anyway, sky looks lush, planets and stars nicely lifted... How's about the metal?

Check the gleam and shading detail on this viper - almost looks bump-mapped:

[video=youtube_share;rshuM4eMpDg]https://youtu.be/rshuM4eMpDg[/video]

...finishing with a nice type 'K' for the money shot.


Main priority now is lens flare. Shouldn't be able to look upon a star with the naked eye, or any lens for that matter, without it reaching out and giving you a little slap...
 

Bounder

Bounder
I've begun trying to port the mod into Reshade, but not much success so far - SweetFX simply doesn't seem to produce consistent results between its standalone and Reshade versions, which is a pity, as it would've made adding lensflare a doddle...

Still working it out tho.. in the meantime, here's the intro sequence..

[video=youtube_share;ySql6Mwsa7M]https://youtu.be/ySql6Mwsa7M[/video]

(...it actually runs smoothly, not choppy like in the vid)
 
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Bounder

Bounder
Shame we don't have acretion disks, but near the galactic center there's a preponderance of contact binaries.. three such examples here - two of 'em in the same system!

[video=youtube_share;PCPrWFTpFyQ]https://youtu.be/PCPrWFTpFyQ[/video]

~20 mins of flybys, finishing up with some pew pew.

Quite a lot, actually. I do like a bit of pew pew, me..

So far, only finding type-M's and giants in contact.. but you'd think there should be edge-cases with white dwarfs and type-A's, type-K's with blue giants etc.

Unfortunately all these systems are unmapped, so manual exploration is the only way to discover these things...
 

Bounder

Bounder
Using a trainer called "Buffet" from FrontierAstro:

http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Buffet/buffet.html

Since none of these systems would have any reason for existence otherwise, due to the limited servicing range you mention, i sometimes consider it as a semi-legit ship upgrade... type stuff? Doesn't seem too much of a stretch to have more than one laser fitted per ED etc., and you don't have to resort to using the so-called wormhole bug (as i've done here) - for the truly hardcore you can just override the equipment servicing clock so it never runs out, or else "manually repair" stuff as it breaks via the trainer.. so is that 'cheating', or just 'mend and make do'?

It's a grey area innit... Here however i just wanted to show off some contact binaries, and this particular sector of the galaxy has some long-noted interesting POI's, these being one of them.. (plus, secretly, i'm not sure i'll ever stop searching for the hitherto undiscovered black hole that DB has explicitly and categorically assured us is there, somewhere at the 'exact center'...)
 

madbilly

M
No that's not cheating, I was genuinely curious to know how you made it that far. It must still have taken you a long time, so well done! And good work on the exploring!
 
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