serbwizard Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 (edited) Ever wanted to City of Heroes to look better and the revamped graphics still not cutting it for you? I've put together a Reshade preset that adds in MXAO, bloom, vibrance, ambient lighting, godrays + more! It adds so much more body and lighting to CoH that's sadly missing from the base game. Ouroboros is a particular standout: the original lighting is flat and lifeless, but bloom and ambient lighting through Reshade adds a whole new dimension to the zone. The screenshots do more justice than I can post, so the comparison is below: No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade Download the preset here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/537wc380p54ho9i/CoHReshade.ini/file To install, download and install Reshade (https://reshade.me/) to the CoH directory with OpenGL as the game engine. You need to install Reshade to the cityofheroes.exe in the live folder (example path: C:\Games\Homecoming\bin\win64\live). Enable all textures and shaders, and select CoHReshade.ini as the preset and you're done! A final heads up; there may be some performance hit, depending on your computer. Hope you try this out, and enjoy! 🙂 Edited October 23, 2023 by serbwizard 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunsette Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 As a general rule, I'm really skeptical of Reshade presets, but I actually think all of these screenshots do look a lot nicer! I will give this a try later, I'm not used to seeing a reshade preset add better shadows. In the first pair, you didn't change any of the settings in CoH the game proper at all? I'm going to try this out regardless, but if I may make a request: even really pretty ReShade presets often harm visibility in gameplay. I think it might be helpful to add comparison shots from dark environments where people often have trouble distinguishing characters from the background, like Arachnos lairs and Croatoa, to see how those look. I may do so myself when I get back to my computer. 1 Sundered Marches: The Website | The Official Soundtrack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serbwizard Posted July 20, 2019 Author Share Posted July 20, 2019 no difference in settings at all between shots! i'm running on max settings fyi. you're right about darkness - i'll try to get some shots of that. it's a hard balance between getting nice shadows and shading and preserving visibility in the dark, and unfortunately it can't really be tweaked between all the different environments, but i think i managed to get a good balance and compromise. feel free to try it yourself, take screens of your own and lemme know any critiques - feel free to edit the preset as well if you've found a better config! all in the name of making CoH look its best :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal_General Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 It looks to have way too much yellow in a couple of the shots. Blindingly so. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwitchFade Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 I'm blind! I'M BLIIIIIND! =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abraxus Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Any effect on overall frame rate? I'm all for a prettier experience, but if it slows things down to slide-show speeds in a simple 8-man team run, I'd have to think twice before trying it. What was no more, is REBORN! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serbwizard Posted July 20, 2019 Author Share Posted July 20, 2019 Any effect on overall frame rate? I'm all for a prettier experience, but if it slows things down to slide-show speeds in a simple 8-man team run, I'd have to think twice before trying it. it'll depend on your computer really - i get performance slowdown from upping the original settings than i do from Reshade. give it a go and see if it has any impact on your FPS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunsette Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Having trouble getting Reshade to work -- installed, set to DXD9. Set it to open on both cityofheroes.exe and homecoming.exe -- no dice. Something I'm missing? Sundered Marches: The Website | The Official Soundtrack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serbwizard Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 Having trouble getting Reshade to work -- installed, set to DXD9. Set it to open on both cityofheroes.exe and homecoming.exe -- no dice. Something I'm missing? i've just got it to open on cityofheroes.exe, having it on both might be the issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunsette Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 I'd tried one at a time before. Also for anyone else trying this, CoH is actually openGL, so once I changed that it went from 'not doing anything' to 'CTDs immediately.' Sundered Marches: The Website | The Official Soundtrack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abraxus Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 What the heck, I'll give it a shot! What was no more, is REBORN! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serbwizard Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 As a general rule, I'm really skeptical of Reshade presets, but I actually think all of these screenshots do look a lot nicer! I will give this a try later, I'm not used to seeing a reshade preset add better shadows. In the first pair, you didn't change any of the settings in CoH the game proper at all? I'm going to try this out regardless, but if I may make a request: even really pretty ReShade presets often harm visibility in gameplay. I think it might be helpful to add comparison shots from dark environments where people often have trouble distinguishing characters from the background, like Arachnos lairs and Croatoa, to see how those look. I may do so myself when I get back to my computer. as requested: more screenshots of darker and villain areas. it's definitely darker than vanilla, but i think it adds enough atmosphere and enhanced lighting to be worth it. No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serbwizard Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 continued No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade No Reshade Reshade 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunsette Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 It ain't DiGiorno, b/c OP delivered. +1 inf. Shame I can't get Reshade working to test out some of those lighting options for myself. Sundered Marches: The Website | The Official Soundtrack! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serbwizard Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 It ain't DiGiorno, b/c OP delivered. +1 inf. Shame I can't get Reshade working to test out some of those lighting options for myself. really sorry about this! i'm not sure how to get it working unfortunately, might be worth going over and asking the Reshade devs? installation instructions have worked for other people, you're the first one who's had an issue! hope you can find a fix for it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodumas Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 The way I know reshade, when it's successful shouldnt there be some sort of text from the program at start-up? With like and ingame clickable menu or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drgran2 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 late to the party like always. I had the same problem as Sunette But i figured if i put it on Homecoming.exe like how Serbwizard said to. then after made a shortcut with -patchversion 20200628_1602 -auth 51.161.76.201 -patchdir homecoming after the " " target. you log into the game. but only works if you add the right patch. if they update anytime you have to go back to https://patch.savecoh.com/manifest.xml and get the right patch number i used the line with Homecoming 64bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solr469 Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 I have an odd question. I got a new computer and now Homecoming isnt using Tequila anymore and has its own launcher. Unlike Tequila it just launches the game and does not have a direct path to the actual game file. Do we have a way to link Reshade to it with the new launcher? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sovera Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 Found this thread and have been tinkering with Gshader (instead of Reshade, but same difference I believe). It does add more life to the graphics. Though it cannot fully replace something native such as godrays coming off my tanker's auras. But with nothing: And with a select few filters on: Annoyingly I can make the background graphics a lot nicer with less of the haze and removing the blue tint, but then the character itself and the auras start getting all iffy. Even so the trees and shadows really pop out more. - Simple guide for newcomers. - Money making included among other things. - Tanker Fire Armor: the Turtle, the Allrounder, the Dragon, and compilation of Fire Armor builds. - Tanker Stone Armor: beginner friendly (near) immortal Tanker for leveling/end-game and Stone Armor framework. - Brute Rad/Stone and compilation of Brute Stone Armor builds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sovera Posted July 2, 2022 Share Posted July 2, 2022 Without: With: - Simple guide for newcomers. - Money making included among other things. - Tanker Fire Armor: the Turtle, the Allrounder, the Dragon, and compilation of Fire Armor builds. - Tanker Stone Armor: beginner friendly (near) immortal Tanker for leveling/end-game and Stone Armor framework. - Brute Rad/Stone and compilation of Brute Stone Armor builds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sovera Posted July 3, 2022 Share Posted July 3, 2022 I was using Gshade, not Reshade btw, but had to turn the whole shebang off when I first tried to play and saw my usual 60 FPS drop down to 25. - Simple guide for newcomers. - Money making included among other things. - Tanker Fire Armor: the Turtle, the Allrounder, the Dragon, and compilation of Fire Armor builds. - Tanker Stone Armor: beginner friendly (near) immortal Tanker for leveling/end-game and Stone Armor framework. - Brute Rad/Stone and compilation of Brute Stone Armor builds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sovera Posted July 3, 2022 Share Posted July 3, 2022 Tried a few different filters. This time with Reshade: No filters: Filters: I liked it. Five FPS drop is livable. - Simple guide for newcomers. - Money making included among other things. - Tanker Fire Armor: the Turtle, the Allrounder, the Dragon, and compilation of Fire Armor builds. - Tanker Stone Armor: beginner friendly (near) immortal Tanker for leveling/end-game and Stone Armor framework. - Brute Rad/Stone and compilation of Brute Stone Armor builds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serbwizard Posted October 23, 2023 Author Share Posted October 23, 2023 (edited) Just a quick bump - this still works years later! Unfortunately I can't relocate this topic to the downloads folder (I made it before that existed!) I've reuploaded the preset file and updated the instructions in the OP as they were a bit confusing too. Hope you still enjoy this! Edited October 23, 2023 by serbwizard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High_Beam Posted October 23, 2023 Share Posted October 23, 2023 Some look worse with reshade in my opinion, others look great but hey, kudos for the effort with the screenshots. Girls of Nukem High - Excelsior - Tempus Fabulous, Flattery, Jennifer Chilly, Betty Beatdown, Two Gun Trixie Babes of War - Excelsior - Di Di Guns, Runeslinger, Munitions Mistress, Tideway, Hard Melody, Blue Aria Several alts and of course my original from live on Freedom, OG High Beam (someone else has her non OG name) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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