How To: Anti-Aliasing/Shader Injection (SweetFX, GeDoSaTo, GEMFX, and ReShade)

Anti-aliasing/shader injectors can be useful in the following scenarios
 

• Games that do not support multisampling/transparency anti-aliasing
• Games that offer unsatisfactory or non-configurable built-in anti-aliasing
• Situations where multisampling or supersampling causes too much of a performance hit
• Combining with other anti-aliasing methods to achieve better results or performance
• Adjusting and improving a game's visuals, by altering colors, sharpness and lighting, using post processing filters (Ex: Sharpening and desaturating a blurry, colorful game)

 
 

These tools were created by members of the PC gaming community. They are vendor agnostic, meaning they will work regardless of your GPU's manufacturer. The majority of DirectX 9/10/10.1/11 games are supported. Currently, ReShade is the only injector that also supports DX8 and OpenGL games.
 
Updated/Active Projects
 
 
 
ReShade is the most advanced shader injector currently available. ReShade has numerous advantages over older injectors, such as access to the depth buffer, automatic API and 32/64bit detection, and better compatibility with Windows 8.1/10, and the ability to reorder effects. DirectX 8 through 11.x, and OpenGL are supported. ReShade FrameWork combines shaders from several well-known developers. It is maintained by Crosire (ReShade developer), Lucifer Hawk (GemFX developer), CeeJay.dk (SweetFX developer), Marty McFly (MasterEffect/McFX developer), Ioxa and JPulowski. ReShade Framework also includes a powerful GUI tool called Mediator.
 
Download ReShade
 
Old/Inactive Projects


GeDoSaTo is a generalized downsampling tool for PC games. While initially focused on improving Dark Souls 2, GeDoSaTo has rapidly gained new features, including a versatile plugin system, which allows it to be used with any game. In addition to downsampling, GeDoSaTo provides support for injecting SMAA or FXAA, and custom post-processing shaders, such as the SweetFX shader suite. Some of GeDoSaTo's advantages include the ability to apply effects without affecting the HUD, capture HUD-less screenshots, run in borderless fullscreen window mode, and CPU/GPU frame timing information. As of current, GeDoSaTo only supports DX9.

Download GeDoSaTo

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)  
SweetFX Configurator is a GUI tool for SweetFX. It allows gamers to enable/disable SweetFX for any number of games and conveniently manage the settings for each game centrally, eliminating the need to manually find and edit separate settings files using text editors.
 
Download SweetFX Configurator 1.5.1
(Note: The program version is stated as 1.3.1 but it has been updated to use SweetFX 1.5.1)

SweetFX is currently the most popular shader suite. It is described as a universal image improvement and tweaking mod that works with almost any DirectX game or application. It merges Inject SMAA, some shaders from FXAA Tool, and Ceejay.dk's shaders into a single, easy to tweak package. SweetFX shaders are also available bundled with ReShade, GEMFX, and GeDoSaTo.
 
Download SweetFX 1.5.1
SweetFX 2.0 beta is available as a Standalone Reshade package, or as part of the ReShade FrameWork
 
Included Effects (Click to show)

• SMAA Anti-aliasing: Anti-aliases the image using the SMAA technique - more info here
• Explosion: Scatters the pixels similarly to the Explosion filter in Irfanview
• Cartoon: Creates an outline-effect that makes the image look more cartoonish
• Advanced CRT: Mimics the look of an old arcade CRT display
• Bloom: Makes strong lights bleed their light into their surroundings
• HDR: Mimics an HDR tonemapped look
• Levels: Sets a new black and white point. A fast and easy way to increase contrast but it causes clipping. The Curves effect does this in a more subtle way without causing clipping.
• LumaSharpen: Sharpens the image, making details easier to see
• Technicolor: Makes the image look like it was processed using a three-strip Technicolor process - more info here
• Cineon DPX: Makes the image look like it was converted from film to Cineon DPX. Can be used to create a "sunny" look
• Monochrome: Removes colors from the image so it appears as if shot on black and white film
• Lift Gamma Gain: Adjust brightness and color of shadows, midtones and highlights (avoids clipping)
• Tonemap: Adjust gamma, exposure, saturation, bleach and defog. (may cause clipping)
• Vibrance: Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation
• Curves: Contrast adjustments using S-curves
• Sepia: Sepia tones the image - more info here 
• Vignette: Darkens the edges of the image to make it look more like it was shot with a camera lens. - more info here
• Dither: Applies dithering to simulate more colors than your monitor can display. This lessens banding artifacts - more info here
• Border: Makes the screenedge black as a workaround for the bright edge that forcing some AA modes sometimes causes
• Splitscreen: Enables the before-and-after splitscreen comparison mode.
• Custom: A template to allow other to more easily program their own shader. Just edit /SweetFX/Shaders/custom.h (some programming knowledge required)

 
Inject FXAA is the mod that started it all and provided the base for subsequent AA mods by other authors. Based on NVIDIA FXAA by Timophy Lottes. Inject FXAA is comparatively difficult to configure and is no longer being worked on. Included here for the sake of completeness.
 
Download Inject FXAA
 
 
 
FXAA Tool (formerly a standalone GUI for FXAA PPI) is an advanced GUI utlitiy for installing and managing FXAA game profiles. Provides a centrally accessible database for game profiles, a wide variety of shader effects (including several exclusives), support for a user defined custom shader and profile sharing.
 
Download FXAA Tool

 
 
Inject SMAA by mrhaandi adds "Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing" to an application and is based on InjectFXAA by some dude. Usually achieves better, cleaner results compared to FXAA. Provides several AA presets (Low, Medium, High and Ultra) but lacks any shader effects.
 
Download Inject SMAA 1.2
 
 

SweetFX Injector is an alternative injector developed from the ground up for SweetFX, by Boulotaur2024. It provides several benefits over regular SweetFX (which depends on the original injectors created by mrhaandi and some dude). These benefits include better performance, on the fly switching between FXAA and SMAA, support for 64bit games, better logging, sensible screenshot names, cleaner file structure, and additional shaders such as Gaussian and film grain.
 
Download SweetFX Injector 20130601
 
 
 
GEMFX (Graphics Enhancement Mod) is a combination of a new shader collection (GEM) and a new injector (GEMFX). It includes a configuration GUI, and many exclusive post-processing effects, such as the RealisticColor and TrueColor shaders. It also includes the SweetFX shader suite, and a large variety of lens dirt textures. Supports DX9 through DX11, and 32/64bit titles. LuciferHawk's GEMFX shaders are also available as part of the ReShade Framework.
 
Dead Link Removed. Please use ReShade Framework.

 
 
SweetFX, InjectSMAA, InjectFXAA, and GEMFX (Click to show) SweetFX, InjectSMAA, InjectFXAA, and GEMFX

• Copy all files to the folder containing your game's main exe (see exceptions)
• Play the game
• To uninstall, delete the files you copied

 
Exceptions (Click to show) Black Mesa
Copy dlls and (and injector.ini if using SMAA or SweetFX) to \Steam\steamapps\YourName\source sdk base 2007\bin
Copy the rest of the files to \Steam\steamapps\YourName\source sdk base 2007\

Crysis
Copy dlls (and injector.ini if using SMAA or SweetFX) to the bin32 folder and everything else to the main Crysis folder
Disable built-in AA by adding the following lines to autoexec.cfg (create it in the main Crysis folder if it doesn't exist)
 
r_UseEdgeAA=0 r_FSAA=0
Crysis 2
Copy dlls (and injector.ini if using SMAA or SweetFX) to the bin32 folder and everything else to the main Crysis 2 folder
Disable built-in AA by adding the following lines to autoexec.cfg (create it in the main Crysis 2 folder if it doesn't exist)
 
r_FSAA = 0 r_UseEdgeAA = 0 r_PostMSAA = 0
Stalker: Clear Sky and Stalker: Call of Pripyat
Copy dlls (and injector.ini if using SMAA or SweetFX) to the bin folder and everything else to the main Stalker folder


 
SweetFX Configurator and FXAA Tool (Click to show) SweetFX Configurator and FXAA Tool

• Extract and run the tool from any location
• Use the GUI to add games to the list and modify settings
• Play the game
• To uninstall, remove game profile

 
GeDoSaTo (Click to show) GeDoSaTo

• Extract the tool anywhere, and run it (GeDoSaTo does not copy any files to the game folder)
• Check the whitelist to see if your game listed
• If your game is not listed, you may either follow the instructions at the top of the list to add it (the HUD will be affected by shaders), or follow this guide to create a profile so the game's HUD remains unaffected by the shaders
• Start the game

 
ReShade (Click to show) ReShade

• Run the setup and point it to your game's main executable
• Play the game
• To uninstall, delete the files copied over by the setup

 
Make sure you have the latest version of DirectX installed. If you encounter any issues, check the included documentation or the Troubleshooting section.
 
 
Old SweetFX Presets (Click to show)  
Here you can find some of the presets created by members of the OCN community. Feel free to modify each preset to suit your personal preferences.
 
For more presets, please see the SweetFX Settings Database.
 
Game Title
Presets
Aliens: Colonial Marines Lifeshield Showcase Assassin's Creed Derko1 Showcase Borderlands 2 jim2point0 Showcase Dead Space 2 jim2point0 Showcase Dead Space 3 Xinoxide Showcase Dishonored jim2point0 Showcase Far Cry 3 jim2point0 Showcase Mount and Blade Warband TFL Replica Showcase Mafia 2 Derko1 Showcase Need For Speed Shift 2 Unleashed Derko1 Showcase Resident Evil 6 Lifeshield Showcase Risen 2: Dark Waters TFL Replica Showcase Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl TFL Replica Showcase Super Street Fighter IV : Arcade Edition TFL Replica Showcase The Ball TFL Replica Showcase Titan Quest Derko1 Showcase Torchlight 2 TFL Replica Showcase
 
 
 
The injectors may fail to load due to any of the following reasons
 

• Incompatibility with built-in anti-aliasing: Disable the game's built-in anti-aliasing and check for any driver anti-aliasing you may have forgotten to disable. In the case of games like Crysis 1/2, a config file (autoexec.cfg) or a configuration tool is the best way to do this. 

 

• Incorrect dll or dll location: One way to find out if the injector is attempting to load is to check for a ".log" file. If no log file is being created then you have probably copied the dll to the wrong folder or you're using the wrong dll for the game's version of DirectX.

 

• Incorrect location of injector files: If the injector tries but fails to load (crash during startup), the location of the ".log" file indicates where the injector expects the rest of the files (everything sans the dlls) to be. For games like Crysis 1/2 and Stalker CS/CoP this involves copying the dll to the bin folder and copying everything else to the game's main folder.

 

• Incompatibility with 64 bit applications: Most of the older injectors only support 32-bit applications, and will crash if used on 64-bit appliactions. Switch to a newer injector, such as ReShade, GEMFX, or Boulotaur's.

 

• Insufficient user permissions: If a game is installed into a location that is read only for your current user it may cause the injector to crash on startup. The solution is to either run the game in administrator mode (right click and select "run as administrator") or to modify the game folder's properties and grant your user account write access.

 

• Incompatibility with LucidLogix Virtu MVP: In some cases, LucidLogix Virtu MVP will conflict with the injectors causing the game to fail to load. If your system has Virtu MVP, try disabling it.

 

• Conflicts with Third Party Applications: Third party applications such as FRAPS, MSI Afterburner and RadeonPro have been known to cause various conflicts with AA Injectors. For example, In Windows 8, having FRAPS running in the background will cause all injectors to fail. If none of the other solutions have worked for you, try closing these kinds of applications.

 

• Windowed Borderless Mode: Windowed Borderless Mode has been known to cause issues with AA injectors. If you are are using this mode and are having trouble getting your AA injector to work, try switching back to regular fullscreen mode.

 

• Windows Update KB2670838: This particular windows update may cause the injectors to fail in certain games. If you've tried everything else, uninstalling this update may fix the issue. Alternatively, try switching to Boulotaur's SweetFX Injector which has been coded to work with this update.

 

• Windows 8.1+: Windows 8.1 uses an updated version of DirectX 11 which is incompatible with some injectors. ReShade and RadeonPro are not prone to this issue.

 
 
 
The RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) is used by MSI Afterburner and EVGA Precision for displaying useful information such as framerates and temperatures on the screen as well as framerate limitting and screen/video capturing.
 
In recent versions of the RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS 5.0+), simply enable "Custom Direct3D support" from the main window, for each game profile.
 
 

 
 
Enabling this on the global profile is not recommended as it can cause issues with certain incompatible applications, preventing them from starting (this is rare). If all else fails, set application detection to "none", effectively disabling the OSD for that particular application.
 
 
 
RadeonPro is a tool that runs in the background and automatically applies various 3D settings (AA/AF/vsync/etc.) whenever a game is run. RadeonPro can also be used to apply FXAA, SMAA or SweetFX, display an OSD and capture screenshots. In order to integrate SweetFX, simply set the path to SweetFX in the RadeonPro settings. You may now use RadeonPro to enable SweetFX for any of your games.
 
(Note: RadeonPro SweetFX Integration can also be used with Nvidia GPUs.)
 

 
 
 
ENBSeries is 3D graphics mod for a wide variety of games. It works by intercepting render function calls and applying additional effects such as SSAO and HDR. To combine ENBSeries with another injector, peform the following steps
 

• Rename d3d9.dll to something else like myd3d9.dll
• Install the ENB series files into the same directory
• Edit enbseries.ini so the top section looks like this:

 
[PROXY] EnableProxyLibrary=true InitProxyFunctions=true ProxyLibrary=myd3d9.dll  
 
 
AA injectors do not modify a game's files or memory data in anyway. It is virtually impossible to use them to cheat. They have been around for approximately two years and most video game companies are aware of them. During that period of time, nobody has been permanently banned for using an AA injector. Naturally, there are no guarantees. This should be adequately reassuring for users who worry about getting banned for using an injector online.
 
 
 
For capturing screenshots, it is best to use the injector's built-in screenshot function (bound to "Print screen" by default). Screenshots are saved to the same folder that contains the header/config files. Images are BMP or PNG depending on the injector. The toggle button ("Scroll lock" by default) is useful for taking comparison screenshots, eliminating the need to restart the game.
 
External image capturing solutions (such as steam's built-in screenshot function) are incapable of capturing the anti-aliasing and/or post processing effects. Use the built-in screenshot function instead.
 
 
 
DirectX Image Viewer is a simple tool that can be used to apply any AA injector to a screenshot. This can have a variety of uses, including the following
 

• Making the job of creating a preset easier and faster (light weight, instant alt tabbing and frame perfect comparisons)
• The option to apply your SweetFX config on other people's screenshots or screenshots from games that haven't been released yet
• Creating screenshot comparisons from your existing screenshots (Steam, RTSS, etc.) 

 
See ReadMe.txt for instructions.
 
Download DirectX 9 Image Viewer 1.4
 
 
 

• Anti-aliasing: The Basics
• How To: Downsampling with NVIDIA
• AMD Downsampling Guide
• Screenshot of your Games Thread

 
 
 

• Official ReShade Forum
• Official SweetFX Release Thread
• SweetFX Settings Database
• RadeonPro Download
• RivaTuner Statistics Server
• ENBSeries Mods
• Downsampling: How to (Alternative NVIDIA guide)

 
 
Feel free to share screenshots, configs and ideas or inquire about a particular game
If troubleshooting, please include the contents of your log file