[GUIDE] How to Improve Elite's Graphics with Mods and Tweaks...

TitaniumSparrow · Jun 3, 2016

Insomnia said:
/elite-dangerous-64
It needs to be injected into the Elite Dangerous x64 executable, which is in that folder, for it to work.

Edit: Remember to copy the ReShade64.dll if you're on Horizons and then rename the .dll to dxgi.dll

Your post is the first I have seen to reference dxgi.dll, this was all that was needed.
Thanks a million!

ledpup · Jun 5, 2016

MAIN SEQUENCE said:
Yeah to confirm also I tried messing about with Trails, ParticleEffects and Debris and nothing I changed made any difference so I guess it's hard-coded.

I finally decided to put the effort in to get ride of the space dust. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=260740

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Insomnia said:
If you find anything with CE pls let me know! I've used CE for screenshot purposes before in other games but never looked through the actual variables and scripts. Also, be aware, CE might not go well along with FD's anti cheat policy...

I managed to get rid of it by modifying the pixel shader. Ended up being not so difficult and the results are fantastic, so long as you don't want any space dust at all (which I don't). https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=260740

Qohen Leth · Jun 14, 2016

Hmm, I'm gonna lurk here and see if I can gather tweaks. I have a couple ones here.

Galenmacil · Jul 19, 2016

Wow! Amazing video. Are you a professional actor or radio animator by any chance? You sure sound like one. I could listen to the sound of your voice all day long without getting annoyed. So calming and soothing. Thanks for the information!

Don Alvarez · Jul 19, 2016

Anybody else get a warning from your anti-virus software when downloading/installing these?

ThatFeel_IknowIt · Sep 29, 2016

Can someone please tell me how to install SweetFX? I downloaded the files and put them in my steam/common/steamapps/elitedangerous/products/elitedangerous64bit folder (I made sure to use the 64bit DLLs from the folder included in the download).

When I open the launcher from steam and click Elite Dangerous 64-bit and click PLAY, it doesn't launch.

Any help would be appreciated.

Insomnia · Sep 29, 2016

ThatFeel_IknowIt said:
Can someone please tell me how to install SweetFX? I downloaded the files and put them in my steam/common/steamapps/elitedangerous/products/elitedangerous64bit folder (I made sure to use the 64bit DLLs from the folder included in the download).

When I open the launcher from steam and click Elite Dangerous 64-bit and click PLAY, it doesn't launch.

Any help would be appreciated.

Try ReShade and see if it starts. What's your OS?

DukeIronHand · Sep 29, 2016

Since this thread has been brought back to life (by someone other then me) guess I'll throw this question out:

I am not a real graphics guru.
I have a 16:9 monitor so what is the advantage to me going 21:9 as mentioned in the OP?
Won't my picture be "stretched out" and oddly scaled?

Insomnia · Sep 29, 2016

DukeIronHand said:
I have a 16:9 monitor so what is the advantage to me going 21:9 as mentioned in the OP?
Won't my picture be "stretched out" and oddly scaled?

It doesnt work that way. If you use the resolution 1920*1080 (16:9 aspect ratio) on a 21:9 monitor then yes your image will be stretched. But if you use standard ultra-wide resolution 2560*1080 (21:9 aspect ratio) then your image will contain more pixels on each side.

Here's an example:

Bottom picture is 21:9 aspect ratio with a resolution of 2560*1080, and you can clearly see that the picture is wider than the top picture, but not stretched.
This gives a little more immersion but bear in mind, with wider image comes stronger warping on the sides. Planets will start to look like eggs.
And 2560*1080 will cost you performance.

Hope this helps!

DukeIronHand · Sep 29, 2016

It does very well indeed.
+1 sir. Thanks for the clear and logical explanation!

Asbo · Oct 3, 2016

Love the community on here always trying to help others kudos to you all I've had the game since alpha but still not got round to playing it until now so adding all these goodies before I don my helmet

raeat · Oct 5, 2016

What really gets to me is the "construction paper" effect of space games, particularly noticeable in the Elite Dangerous opening and main menu screens. It looks like a bunch of kids cut up some construction paper and overlapped them to "add depth." Sudden jarring changes in colour and texture.

Insomnia · Oct 5, 2016

raeat said:
What really gets to me is the "construction paper" effect of space games, particularly noticeable in the Elite Dangerous opening and main menu screens. It looks like a bunch of kids cut up some construction paper and overlapped them to "add depth." Sudden jarring changes in colour and texture.

I'm not sure what you mean... But as I understand it you say ED looks "simple"?

lysan · Oct 5, 2016

Insomnia said:
I'm not sure what you mean... But as I understand it you say ED looks "simple"?

The Graphic upgrade looks great to me, nothing simple there, maybe he/she can give some examples with pictures.

CitizenLee · Oct 5, 2016

It sounds like he's referring to the gradient effect where colours band rather than blend into each other.

Here's an example from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_banding#/media/File:Colour_banding_example01.png

Insomnia · Oct 5, 2016

CitizenLee said:
It sounds like he's referring to the gradient effect where colours band rather than blend into each other.

Here's an example from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_banding#/media/File:Colour_banding_example01.png

Yeah ED does have loads of color banding and it has stopped me multiple times from taking screenshots here and there. I thought 16bit colors were a thing in the past.

raeat · Oct 5, 2016

Yes, colour banding, that is it precisely. I just didn't know what to call it. Is there any way to fix this?

Also, I get a fair bit of line jittering, especially in space docks, that is very hard on the eyes.

lysan · Oct 5, 2016

raeat said:
Yes, colour banding, that is it precisely. I just didn't know what to call it. Is there any way to fix this?

Also, I get a fair bit of line jittering, especially in space docks, that is very hard on the eyes.

What are your system spec, maybe its because I just didn't noticed but I don't believe it's on my system, however will check later today.

Can anyone link to some pictures so I can see where to look for it?

Insomnia · Oct 5, 2016

raeat said:
Yes, colour banding, that is it precisely. I just didn't know what to call it. Is there any way to fix this?

Also, I get a fair bit of line jittering, especially in space docks, that is very hard on the eyes.

The jittering is probably the aliasing, and it's one of biggest gripes I have with the graphics. Unfortunately, it seems we aren't getting better anti aliasing methods any time soon. And color bandings has been in the game since release.
Both these issues can be resolved with the help of post process injectors, but only to a certain degree.

kalniel · Oct 5, 2016

raeat said:
Yes, colour banding, that is it precisely. I just didn't know what to call it. Is there any way to fix this?

Also, I get a fair bit of line jittering, especially in space docks, that is very hard on the eyes.

Banding on the intro graphics is likely caused by the video/image compression. Given Elite must be a nice candidate for high colour space TVs/monitors in the future I hope we'll have an updated intro as well.

Line stepping is aliasing - inevitably noticeable with the lines and geommetries in Elite. Anti-aliasing blends the edges of lines where this happens, but it's a computationally intense process when applied to the whole scene (super sampling), so typically various tricks are used to try and detect edges and only anti-alias them, but they don't work very well with the kind of rendering that Elite uses. Super sampling is pretty much your only solution that'll help.