ReShade & Capping FPS

[mozuzaeram]

As I am an avid multiboxer, I have noticed that the game consumes an excessive amount of system resources for a 22 year old game.  It turns out the game runs using *uncapped fps* (I was getting 1000 fps+), and since it's built with DirectX 8.1, it does not obey (at least on my system), the Nvidia max FPS settings in the nvidia control panel.

Things to Download:
The Non-Mod Version exe: https://reshade.me/#download
The Latest Stable Version zip: https://dege.fw.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/

Step 1:

Unzip the dgVoodoo2 zip file, and copy the MS\x86\D3Dimm.dll, MS\x86\DDraw.dll, MS\x86\d3d8.dll, dgVoodooCpl.exe, and dgVoodoo.conf files to the "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\EA GAMES\Earth & Beyond\release" folder.

Step 2:
Run the ReShade executable you downloaded, don't select an item in the list box, instead use the browse button and select "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\EA GAMES\Earth & Beyond\release\client.exe"

Step 3:
Setup ReShade for DirectX 10 and click next.

Step 4:
Select these shaders at least if you want to set up my example. (Click the shaders twice to make a check-mark appear.) Click Next.

Step 5:
Click Finish and then launch "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\EA GAMES\Earth & Beyond\release\dgVoodooCpl.exe" *with administrator privileges*.

Step 6:
Do not change the settings in the general tab, instead, select the DirectX tab in the dialog that pops up and make the settings look like the picture below and click OK.
*GeForce 9800 GT is necessary or else the navigation map will not display correctly.*



Step 7:
At this point E&B will obey your video card's Max FPS setting.  Please refer to your manufacturer's documentation on performing this task. Personally I used the Nvidia Control Panel to set the global max FPS of my system to my monitor's refresh rate, but you do you.  Set that then return.

Step 8:
Login to the character select screen and hit the Home key to go through the ReShade tutorial.  Or skip it. You do you.

Step 9:
Enable shaders.  I enable Vibrance, AdaptiveSharpen, and MagicHDR and it looks nice.  (Those are in the packs installed in the instructions above.)

Edited March 24 by mozuzaeram
Forgot to delete images.

[Doctor]

I've used reshade in FF14 to make it more beautiful. Is there any meaningful beauty to be extracted from this game? Before/after screenshots maybe? (my of my 2MB is taken up with my projects, like the tampermonkey script, map tool/files, etc).

[Doctor]

I found the normal HDR shader to be more appealing than MagicHDR, but that's the point of Reshade, preference.

Notes:

• If you have any autohotkey scripts based on Pixel/Image/color matching, these shaders WILL break that. Create a preset with no shaders so you can use your scripts without tweaking. You can change shaders on the fly in 1-2 seconds.
• Some shaders are more intense than others, so if you feel like your game is chugging, it's probably the shader(s) you picked. How 'heavy' a shader is depends entirely on what it is doing and varies wildly shader to shader. Try and find out.
• The FPS limit cut my client CPU usage about in 1/2.
• I recommend limiting it to 120FPS, even if you have a 60hz panel, because input speed seems limited by frame rate, so autohotkey will input much slower at 60FPS than you're used to.

[mozuzaeram]

1 hour ago, Doctor said:

that's the point of Reshade, preference

The FPS limit cut my client CPU usage about in 1/2.

Indeed.  I will probably run it with no shaders normally.  I really wanted this for the FPS capping, and now the machine I built Christmas 2022 doesn't sound like a Boeing 737 about to explode when I run multiple clients.

Edited March 24 by mozuzaeram

[Doctor]

11 minutes ago, mozuzaeram said:

doesn't sound like a Boeing 737 about to explode....

So...moving in any way? There is so much that can be said, but it's all off topic. And, fundamentally, pointless. Pointless until we go down a road everyone knows we need to take, and nobody (sane) wants to go down. sigh.

[mozuzaeram]

9 minutes ago, Doctor said:

There is so much that can be said, but it's all off topic.