Raytracing, Depth of Field

And Other Depth-Based Effects in SP

NumbersNumbersTheMan

Part 1: Reshade

1. Make sure you have Reshade 4.7.0. You can download it here https://reshade.me/
2. Open and follow the instructions
3. Select Direct3d 10,11,12 when prompted
4. Install every single shaderpack except the legacy pack. If you already have ReShade but not all shaders, simply reopen the installer exe, select SP, 10-12, and then you can install more shader packs.
5. Open Reshade with the Home key
6. To make your life easier, create a preset in ReShade.

1. By clicking “+” and entering a name, you will have created a preset that you can load later

7. Also, make sure to have an effect toggle key so you can turn the effects on/off easily. You can set this in the “Settings” tab at the top

1. Set it to anything you want, just make sure you have one.

8. You are now ready to begin depth mapping !

=Please try out Reshade. The following parts assume basic knowledge of Reshade Part 2: Depth Map

TURN OFF ANTI-ALIASING

1. You will need to get SP’s depth map in order to use DOF, fog, and raytracing / ambient occlusion
2. This is the hardest part but once you have finished the rest is easy
3. Create a preset called something like “DepthTest”
4. There should only be one thing in the preset: a effect called DisplayDepth. Check it

5. You want to go in F9 Mode (No UI), as the depth maps for UI and No UI modes are different
6. It may look like this, or a blue/white screen, or a full black screen

7. If it doesn’t look like the above, you will be a bit behind; if it does look like the above, you are a little ahead. Either way, you will now become familiar with the depth maps checker

1. 
2. Go to the DX11 tab, check “Copy depth buffer…”
3. Pick one of the depth maps until you get something that looks like this below
4. 
5. The left of the screen is the normals and the right is the depth map. Notice there is no depthmap and the normals are upside down. We will fix this

8. We will adjust DisplayDepth’s settings to try to get the depth map to appear in its correct orientation

1. 
2. The ONLY things you need to worry about are Upside Down and Reversed. For me, it took both of these set to 1 (true) to get the heightmap to appear. If the normals don’t even appear in the first place or are radically off from the main view, you will need to select a different depthmap / clear (see step 7)
3. A COMPLETED depthmap result will have the correct orientation as well as proper depthmap shading
4. Take notes on WHAT you changed in displaydepth (reverse and upside down). We will now apply these to the actual depth map SP uses

9. Go to global preprocessor definitions

1. 
2. Now you can input what you did in displayDepth
3. 
4. Make sure to confirm by clicking “Edit global…” again to close the window. These will put the changes into effect

10. We test out the new height data

1. Open displaydepth again
2. Now, check the box - use global preprocessor definitions
3. 
4. If it works and you get a working depth map, the effects are now easy to apply
5. Please note that this depthmap will only work for your UI mode - so if it works when you are in No UI mode the effects will only work when you are in no UI and vice versa

Part 3: Effects

1. Now it is time to apply effects into the game, such as the great DOF or even Ray Tracing / Ambient Occlusion
2. Create a new preset as you do not need the DepthTest preset anymore, unless you need to switch depthmap sources because the effects don’t work anymore. You should not need to change global preprocessor definitions though, just the source of depthmap in DX11
3. The best DOF shader is CinematicDOF

1. It will let you focus in on certain parts and leave the rest unfocused as if a normal camera. Here is a very bad use of it
2. 
3. If you are a fan of cameras, there are lots of settings to use

4. rAyTraCinG

1. The Shader is RTGI. Otherwise you can use MXAO
2. Play around with the settings until you get something you like
3. For terms of physical lighting, RTGI generates light from bright pixels on the screen.
4. RTGI has its own AO settings, it is recommended to put these at low and use the MXAO shader instead
5. For example, in here the light is coming from the shiny turrets. Note that since the depthmap cannot be fundamentally smoothened, smooth fuselages under high additional raytracing become flat shaded
6. Even better is Ambient Occlusion. This can make or break some builds and looks great in th sunset. Only use this sparingly - MXAO, a separate shader, fares much better -
7. w/o
8. with

There are other depth effects to try like DepthHaze for nice fog effects, or even SSR for realtime reflections (not baked) -  go experiment !

MXAO is a good setting to start with - try not to go crazy with color grading, bloom, etc.

Have fun !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please enjoy!

Yet, you can get render-quality ambient occlusion in realtime in SP

Contact if need help:

NumbersNumbersTheMan#6844

Gallery:

Raytraced cub

Strangely out of focus

Wasp wit and without AO

GTA 6