Sweet FX

[WingZ 547]

Tired of the same old look in your flightsim?

Here's a utility that lets you adjust a whole raft of display variables.

A bit like ENB bloom, but more.

Very easy to use, just change line by line values in a text editor while the sim is live.

This shot enables a switch called Technicolour, with a little contrast added in-sim:

 

 

 

Download here:

http://www.guru3d.co...e_download.html

Edited December 6, 2012 by firehawk44
Image removed - Exceeds 1600W and 400KB limits (yours over 800 KB). Please edit the photo and repost. Thanks.

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

Seriously!? :blink: That screenshot looks epic. The contrast is fantastic. I switch between ENB and FXAA at the moment.

Is that shot from the default SweetFX setting?

[WingZ 547]

As mentioned, I switched on something called Technicolour, and upped the contrast slightly, that's all.

And, very unusually for me, that is a straight screen grab!

 

What I like about this one, is that you can fiddle while the sim is running.

There's also a split screen facility so you can see the Before/After effect.

I haven't scratched the surface of this yet... probably has endless possibilities.

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

Thanks WingZ. Was just taking a look at the website and one effect that looks interesting is Cineon DPX : Makes the image look like it was converted from film to Cineon DPX. Can be used to create a "sunny" look.

 

I have a feeling that with the right setting combinations we might be able to pull off graphics like some of the FS vids on youtube that use effects from Sony Vegas.

 

I'm going to give this one a try.

[HaraldG 559]

Hi WingZ,

 

thank you for this information.

Can you confirm that the decrease in FPS is as slight as stated by some users on the linked site?

Thanks!

Harald

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

This thing is fantastic. So far I've enabled everything except for HDR, Vignette and Split Screen. It's way too blue with the default setting so I adjusted the Sepia settings. The result is excellent.

The level of brightness and color is very realistic now. I've played around with FXAA a lot and I could never get it to look like this.

 

Harald,

I've spent about 30 mins flying so far and I don't notice any fps hit (I have disabled screen text in fs9 cfg). If it's there, I'm guessing it's 1-2fps like ENB.

 

Thanks again WingZ.

[vector 7]

Does this utility make any permanent effects to the monitor or graphics card? If not - and it only affects the sim - then do you have to create the settings each time you run FS9? Also, can you return to default settings?

 

Many thanks for any info.

 

David

[WingZ 547]

As a firm believer that, if it works, there is no reason not to mess with it I am having a lot of fun too.

Can't say I've seen any performance loss.

 

No changes to system: you just drop the files into the FS9 root folder.

(They "inject" the settings you choose into whatever game is using the DX9 calls.)

As long as they are there, they apply the settings you have selected in the SweetFX_settings.txt file.

 

If you don't want to use the custom settings, just disable the effects, or remove the SweetFX files.

 

Here's the first few lines as a sample, you just change from a 0 to a 1 to switch on:

 

/*-----------------------------------------------------------.

/ Choose effects /

'-----------------------------------------------------------*/

 

// Set to 1 for ON or 0 for OFF

#define USE_SMAA_ANTIALIASING 0 //[0 or 1] SMAA Anti-aliasing : Smoothens jagged lines.

#define USE_LUMASHARPEN 1 //[0 or 1] LumaSharpen : Also sharpens the antialiased edges which makes them less smooth - I'm working on fixing that.

#define USE_BLOOM 0 //[0 or 1] Bloom : Makes bright lights bleed their light into their surroundings (relatively high performance cost)

#define USE_HDR 0 //[0 or 1] HDR : Not actual HDR - It just tries to mimic an HDR look (relatively high performance cost)

#define USE_TECHNICOLOR 1 //[0 or 1] TECHNICOLOR : Attempts to mimic the look of an old movie using the Technicolor three-strip color process (Techicolor Process 4)

.

.

.

[HaraldG 559]

I tested some settings now and I found out that even with all items disabled excepting Bloom it looks better, that means brighter. So I use it now.

Great tool!

I tested it at KPHL by SunSkyJet - a scenery recently blamed for low FPS - and FPS there are like before (and not the worst).

[Roger Ramjet 72]

Fixed problem (can't delete post?)

[Luc Brusselmans 1]

Hello,

 

I really should be in bed 'cause it's half past two in the morning here in Belgium.

Couldn't sleep though so just browsing the forums for info.

 

So my question...

Can I use this in fsx to?

 

Luc Brusselmans

Belgium

 

[C16thFoxe 0]

Can I use this in fsx to?

 

Yes, it has been discussed since late October (see: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/389455-have-any-of-you-tried-this-sweetfx/).

 

Regards,

Dorian

[HaraldG 559]

There is one problem left: Everytime I change from 2D panel to VC or if I change my direction of view within 2D panel (currently I fly an aircraft without VC) there is a flickering or flashing that is so unrealistic and annoying that I switched all effects to "0" until I find out how to correct this problem.

 

Will investigate a little.

 

Do you have experiences with this?

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

Harald,

Maybe the file you downloaded got corrupted. You might want to try a fresh download again. I can't say I got any flashing switching from 2D to VC or looking around.

I have almost every effect checked.

 

I'm getting some nice intense graphics. If anybody want to try my settings, here they are. It takes away the greyish look of FS9. Turn on the effects and adjust sepia. That's all I've done so far and it looks fantastic.

 

// Set to 1 for ON or 0 for OFF

#define USE_SMAA_ANTIALIASING 0 //[0 or 1] SMAA Anti-aliasing : Smoothens jagged lines.

#define USE_LUMASHARPEN 0 //[0 or 1] LumaSharpen : Also sharpens the antialiased edges which makes them less smooth - I'm working on fixing that.

#define USE_BLOOM 1 //[0 or 1] Bloom : Makes bright lights bleed their light into their surroundings (relatively high performance cost)

#define USE_HDR 0 //[0 or 1] HDR : Not actual HDR - It just tries to mimic an HDR look (relatively high performance cost)

#define USE_TECHNICOLOR 1 //[0 or 1] TECHNICOLOR : Attempts to mimic the look of an old movie using the Technicolor three-strip color process (Techicolor Process 4)

#define USE_DPX 1 //[0 or 1] Cineon DPX : Should make the image look like it's been converted to DXP Cineon - basically it's another movie-like look similar to technicolor.

#define USE_LIFTGAMMAGAIN 1 //[0 or 1] Lift Gamma Gain : Adjust brightness and color of shadows, midtones and highlights (avoids clipping)

#define USE_TONEMAP 1 //[0 or 1] Tonemap : Adjust gamma, exposure, saturation, bleach and defog. (may cause clipping)

#define USE_VIBRANCE 1 //[0 or 1] Vibrance : Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.

#define USE_CURVES 1 //[0 or 1] Curves : Contrast adjustments using S-curves.

#define USE_SEPIA 1 //[0 or 1] Sepia : Sepia tones the image.

#define USE_VIGNETTE 0 //[0 or 1] Vignette : Darkens the edges of the image to make it look more like it was shot with a camera lens. May cause banding artifacts.

#define USE_DITHER 1 //[0 or 1] Dither : Applies dithering to simulate more colors than your monitor can display. This lessens banding artifacts (mostly caused by Vignette)

#define USE_SPLITSCREEN 0 //[0 or 1] Splitscreen : Enables the before-and-after splitscreen comparison mode.

 

And for the sepia....

 

/*-----------------------------------------------------------.

/ Sepia settings /

'-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define ColorTone float3(1.00, 1.00, 0.90) //[0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00] What color to tint the image

#define GreyPower 0.11 //[0.0 to 1.0] How much desaturate the image before tinting it

#define SepiaPower 0.58 //[0.0 to 1.0] How much to tint the image

[HaraldG 559]

Maurice,

 

thanks for your help, I will try the US download server now and test it today in the evening...

Maybe my words "flashing" and "flickering" were not correct, I'm no original english speaker... This "appearance" depends on the effect activated within SweetFX. If I activate bloom, then the panel gets very bright, as if a strong light shines on it, before changing the view. If I activate HDR, than it gets sharply coloured (with many yellow, red and blue pixels) before changing. This occurs perhaps not even half a second long, but it disturbs as the view doesn't change as immediately as I want it to change.

BTW I have the latest version of DX9 installed.

Do you use windowed or full screen mode for FS2004? (I use windowed mode, maybe that's the problem.)