Ah, no, while I usually use standard-day mood, I switched to default with your preset because that's obviously how it was intended to work. I then tried standard-day with your preset out of curiosity.
@Maskerader - Fair enough. Thanks for reminding me about those options though, I'd completely forgotten about them! At a glance the Standard Day looks the best "mood" (stronger lighting and better colour grading) so I look forward to testing with it. I'm treble-checking my all displays' settings just in case I have some off colours or anything wrong at my end, but although it's very small in comparison I also use my Sony phone which has a perfectly calibrated OLED for final checks and that looks very close to my other displays that I've calibrated myself. I'll keep a closer eye on saturation values in Photoshop too as that will definitely tell me if anything's out of whack.
@largestyle sorry I don't want to monopolize your thread about this video glitch but I found out its indeed not Reshade the culprit. its the Vsync feature as if I set it ON, the glitch appears and if OFF, it does not. Its true also that moving the widget fixes it so issue is gone PS Love your commitment to this Game Reshade tuning
@nolive721 - no worries at all, and I'm glad you've gotten to the bottom of the widget issue. I don't know if it's the games internal vsync is at fault here but I personally never use games' vsync and set it at a driver level (in nVidia Control Panel, presumably possible with other GPU manufacturers). That way you get better reliability, compatibility, and just less chance for frame-pacing issues to occur. Many thanks for your last kind comment though - I am definitely not great at graphics work, but what I lack in skill I almost make up for in my commitment!
Quick update... I've managed to get Unreal Engine 4's tone-mapper working well in Raceroom. Don't expect miracles / anything else from UE4's capabilities, but results still warrant another release. I'm currently not feeling 100% and I also want to spend a bit of time with the current free weekend trial of Forza Horizon 5 on Steam, but when I can I'll put out "RRRvUE4"...
So V4 (or VUE4 as I'm calling it) is now released on RaceDepartment. I'll relink the page for convenience... https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/raceroom-remastered-reshade-2023.62484/ The required Reshade files are very similar to previous versions, but to clarify, here's what's needed... Reshade Package: FXShaders, Effect File: AdaptiveTonemapper.fx Reshade Package: AstrayFX, Effect File: BloomingHDR.fx Reshade Package: Color effects by prod80, Effect Files: PD80_04_Color_Balance.fx & PD80_03_Shadows_Midtones_Highlights.fx Reshade Package: SweetFX by CeeJay.dk, Effect file: ChromaticAberration.fx Reshade Package: Legacy effects, Effect File: AmbientLight.fx (Not required: ACESNarkowicz.fx) The only new effect file this time is the first one on the list - it contains the Unreal Engine 4 (ACES) Tone-mapper. As usual, run your downloaded version of Reshade and install everything above (if doing this for the first time) or "Modify" your existing installation with the new package / effect file. *** Important new step *** - After a helpful reminder from @Maskerader I looked into Raceroom's internal visual grading options and VUE4 now requires the "realistic.mood" file. If unaware of this, in the following directory... raceroom racing experience\Game\Shaders\dx9\fx\moods ...are 4 .mood files which are encrypted visual preset files which offer slight lighting and tonal changes. Raceroom automatically loads the "default.mood" file, but if another preset is desired then rename it's .mood file to "default.mood" after making backups / copies of everything first. I admittedly forgot to make an installation guide video, which I'll try to do when I can, but there's a readme in the download anyway that explains the essentials if anyone gets stuck. FWIW I've also cleaned all the files within the latest mod's .zip file as they just contained unrequired bloat. Hopefully I haven't deleted too much and broken anything. I didn't really think to describe what features / improvements V3 of my mod contained as I released that in a massive hurry, so I'll try and do better this time. If you just want to get on with seeing it in action and downloading it, then just watch the video below and skip the extra reading (but maybe read the next paragraph for some context to the video). Due to changing the .mood files it was practically impossible to make the photo comparisons in the demonstration video like I've done before, so I've tried a different technique which actually worked out well and really shows the difference VUE4 makes. Many apologies for the stutters in the video - Shadowplay just doesn't work well for me. Sorry also for reusing some replay data / footage - I've been too unwell for the past week to do any racing so some recycling had to happen. So V4 / VUE4's biggest feature is ditching my own tone-mapping efforts in favour of using UE4's own version - the ACES industry standard (in film as well as games). Their tonal changes are close to what I came up with, but it's just better to stick with what works than to try and reinvent the wheel. I hadn't used the ACES curve before now as that brought a sizable amount of crushing of details with shadows and highlights were rather blown-out too. As Raceroom's "realistic.mood" grading offered more toned-down visuals compared to the default.mood file, this really helped keeping tonal balances within workable ranges when applying a pretty high-contrast curve. Please remember that this is just the tone-mapper so don't expect Raceroom to magically look like an UE4 game now - I've looked into UE4 & UE5 systems and they're way more feature-rich and complicated than a 10 year old game could ever be. The awesome eye adaption remains from V3, but this time I took more time to dial out the unwanted tone-mapper that couldn't be disabled within the same .fx file. I seriously wanted just UE4 tonal changes so I had to make what might seem some weird changes to the effects settings just to neutralise that mapper, but the extra effort was worth it in the end. To fix the highlights not becoming overly bright I've had to knock down the fake ambient "volumetric lighting" and the very slight bloom that was in V3, but although this reduces the wow factor this change has just made it look more balanced and realistic so I was ok with the "compromise". To fix the crushed shadows I've used a new technique and increased the exposure value for them by quite a lot which allows for a much greater range of detail than I obtained in previous versions, and UE4's tone mapper allows for greater preservation of range so shadows are nicely balanced now. I also applied a touch of colour correction to the shadows using a "Soft Lighting" blending method to simulate real world atmospherics / particles. I've spent a bit more time on colour correction, and not just the simple de-yellowing than I've done before. The different .mood file wasn't as tinted anyway so that allowed for more freedom in correction than before. If you think that I've over-saturated it all (again) then use the saturation control within the BloomingHDR effect to dial it into your tastes. I strongly recommend doing it that way as that effect file's saturation control has great luminance preservation compared to some effects / ,fx files who's saturation changes destroy tonal balance. I think that my RRR project has now become what it set out to be in the first place - a technical remastering offering a bit more modern and pleasing visuals, and so "RRR" comes to an end. I watched a recent YT video of the devs "comeback plan" for Raceroom and improving visuals seems high up on their list, so this mod can maybe temporarily hold people over until their improvements take effect. VUE4 was made in just a couple of nights so if any refinement needs doing then I'll cover that, but it seems to be working well enough for general use. I'll end this up by thanking everyone that's taken an interest in and supported my mod, and I just hope that it makes your Raceroom time more enjoyable. Happy racing everyone!
Just because it's a relatively simple fix with massive results - @Raceroom Nederland devs: can we have updated skyboxes please? The sky can take up almost half the entire screen so new domes would make an incredible impact! Heck, you could even do what Assetto Corsa's Pure creator did and just buy domes online and chuck them in (probably with some tweaking to fit the tone-mapping). Now I've fixed the graphical toning issue, the sky's really stand out in a not great way... Compare vanilla skydome (GTA 4 style clouds)... with AC Pure's skydome photoshopped in... Massive difference. You could go one step further and convert HDRi data and effectively match the game lighting to the sky as best as your engine allows. Converting HDRi data is an irregular but still worthwhile manual process that I've done before, and I've emulated HDRi within Fallout 4's internal engine with surprisingly good accuracy, considering that lack of native support. To me skydomes and lighting is pretty easy and straight forward, especially when compared to complex physics systems, so it'd be little work for guaranteed results. Actually, can you just give me access to decrypting your track & lighting files and I'll fix it all myself?
You would need to tag @J-F Chardon for this. AFAIK some tracks already have better/newer sky boxes but I don't know which.
Ok and many thanks for pointing me in the right direction. That might explain the inconsistencies I've found where some skies look ok and some really don't (both visually and technically with low quality assets used). So @J-F Chardon, obviously you don't have to provide an answer so I'll raise awareness / be a reminder instead, for if improved sky domes / boxes are on the to-do list(?) My photoshop example shows the great impact that'll have, and combined with my Remaster mod would make Raceroom look new and fresh again!
@ravey1981 If you still have that issue that mood files get overwritten after every update, you can try using a .bat file that will copy the mood file you need and then run the game. You can also add this .bat file to Steam if needed.
Sorry for the late reply, was a bit busy lately. A .bat file can look like that, for example: Code: copy realistic.mood default.mood /y "C:\Steam\SteamApps\common\raceroom racing experience\Game\x64\RRRE64.exe" This one should be put in the same folder as mood files, but if you want to put it somewhere else, then include full or relative paths to mood files (this time with quote marks around them), like this: copy "C:\Steam\steamapps\common\raceroom racing experience\Game\Shaders\dx9\fx\moods\realistic.mood" "C:\Steam\steamapps\common\raceroom racing experience\Game\Shaders\dx9\fx\moods\default.mood" /y If you're running the game with some startup parameters, you can include them too, like this for example: "C:\Steam\SteamApps\common\raceroom racing experience\Game\x64\RRRE64.exe" -cefEnableGPU -webHudUrl=https://otterhud.github.io/ You can also add anything else you want to run with the game to your .bat file, for example, OtterHUD's or sample webHUD's dash.exe, or ReHUD, or whatever. If you want to disable a line without removing it, add REM in the beginning of the line. ------ Adding a .bat file to Steam requires two steps because Steam won't let you add a .bat file directly. First, "Add a non-Steam game..." and then select any .exe file, doesn't matter which one. Second, right click on it in your library and put your .bat file in "Target" field instead of that .exe. If your .bat file doesn't have full paths to all files, then also put the path to "moods" folder in "Start in" field. At the top of that page you can rename this library item.
Hi everyone, I hope y'all are doing well. I've just updated my Raceroom Remastered mod on RaceDepartment to VUE4.1 !!! Shortly after releasing V4 I found several flaws / imperfections with that version and immediately started working on a fix. This revision was mainly completed around a month ago but my Dad became very unwell all of a sudden so I moved back in with my folks for several weeks to help out, hence the delay in getting this update to you. He's better and I'm back home now so I've finished the mod (er again) today! This update is pretty comprehensive, and while I still like V4 very much, I regard V4.1 to be superior in pretty much every way. The visual differences between the two versions are what I call subtle but significant, but V4.1 is without doubt my most correct and complete work yet. The improvements in V4.1 are... - ACES Tone Mapper no longer crushes blacks - Highlights (bright areas) contain more visual detail - New Dynamic White Level Optimiser - Gamma corrected to normal values - Mid-tones have better contrast - Colours are more faithful & accurate to "vanilla" After some deep analysis I found what seems to be a flaw in V4's ACES Tonemapper which unavoidably caused black crush. So V4.1 goes back to using the ACESNarkowicz.fx file (from V3). I've implemented a better White point system too - the ACES file doesn't contain the required white point correction math and in V4 I used part of the BloomingHDR.fx file to raise this level instead, but that approach was flawed being a static fix which gave inconsistent results - sometimes it made some scenes look great and sometimes it broke tonality & colours. So V4.1 now uses a dynamic white point optimiser which just does the job without breaking anything. Because the technical aspect of V4.1 is far more correct than before, I've not needed some rather unconventional compensatory tweaks such as altering gamma and raising "shadow" exposure levels - now that those tweaks have been returned to values that are either completely normal / standard or close to that, the whole image has a decent improvement in colour & tonal accuracy. My new video show it all really so... This video (if now watched yet) also contains a full walkthrough guide to installing and using both Reshade & my mod. Also, as V4.1 is technically so balanced now it can be used in older racing games (that don't already have a tone-mapper). I had to make a "Legacy" preset version of V4.1 simply due to a small saturation reduction for universal compatibility (Raceroom needs a slight boost in this area) but the Legacy preset works nicely for titles such as GTR2, Richard Burns Rally & AMS1 and so on. Heck it'd probably work well for most old games full-stop! For both V4.1 and the Legacy alternative, here's the required file list... Reshade Package: SweetFX by CeeJay.dk, Effect file: ChromaticAberration.fx Reshade Package: Color effects by prod80, Effect Files: prod80_01A_RT_Correct_Contrast.fx, PD80_03_Shadows_Midtones_Highlights.fx, PD80_04_Color_Balance.fx Reshade Package: AstrayFX, Effect File: BloomingHDR.fx Reshade Package: Legacy effects, Effect File: AmbientLight.fx ACESNarkowicz.fx (found within the download) Head over to RD to check it out for yourselves... https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/raceroom-remastered-reshade-2023.62484/ Any feedback welcome, and I hope y'all like it