If you've never heard of this before, SweetFX is a Direct3D injection dll that works between the program and DirectX to provide specialized D3D functions like AA, color changes (sepia, saturation, film-grain, etc), Luma changes (brightness, contrast, HDR, Bloom), and other shader-based effects. The 1.4 version doesn't work, but I found a new version that is being worked on with the original creator. This new version supports 64-bit applications and supports DX9, DX10, and DX11. The software works with all Windows-based systems, and I highly recommend it for everyone regardless of hardware. The algorithms used for the post-processing effects are very efficient and can enhance your experience in the game when used correctly (and in moderation for those of us with only moderate hardware or laptops).
For FFXIV I focused on two aspects of the graphics engine that could use improvement: Color saturation and Antialiasing. The FXAA engine (Fast Approximate Antialiasing) provided with FFXIV causes an undesireable blur effect to the entire scene. This is the nature of FXAA, as it was designed to blur all edges regardless of their location in the game.
SweetFX also uses a shader-based AA algorithm, but it is a bit smarter than FXAA. Taken from the SMAA (Smart Morphological Antialiasing developer page:
One caveat of SMAA is its effect on text rendering. The text becomes very slightly altered by SMAA's processing. It isn't detracting, but it is noticeable.
You can grab the zip package of SweetFX from here: http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4581604&postcount=528. Extract the contents of the zip file to your ..\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\game\ directory.
For reference, here is my settings file. I have everything turned off aside from SMAA and Vibrance. Vibrance increases the color saturation. It is really gorgeous and makes the game pop even more. Don't be too generous with the saturation, though. My SMAA settings are about equivalent to 6x - 8x SSAA. The results are great, as I get smooth edges while retaining a crisply rendered scene. I've also changed the keybindings for reloading the injector settings. They are defaulted to Scroll Lock, which is the key to hide your UI. I changed it to the Pause/Break key- which reloads the injector's settings. I should mention, you can change your settings in the settings file ON THE FLY! You don't have to unload and reload the game to put your new settings into effect. Simply make your changes, save the settings text file, go back into the game, and tap the Scroll Lock key to apply your changes to the game!
My Settings file: http://puu.sh/4kuJd/2a2ab53446.txt. You can right-click and click Save Link As... to save the file. Put it in the same directory as above.
I have no screenshots to provide of the effect in-game. I only discovered this compatible version last night, and I wasn't feeling very well so I didn't play with it much before going to bed. There are often concerns that this sort of activity can get you banned, but I assure you that is false. The program does NOTHING to the game itself. All functions occur within the D3D processing tree only and do not touch the application that hooks into D3D at all. I urge you to try it out and add some screenshots of your experimenting to the forum's albums. Remember you can make your changes on the fly and revert them just as easily! Have fun!
For FFXIV I focused on two aspects of the graphics engine that could use improvement: Color saturation and Antialiasing. The FXAA engine (Fast Approximate Antialiasing) provided with FFXIV causes an undesireable blur effect to the entire scene. This is the nature of FXAA, as it was designed to blur all edges regardless of their location in the game.
SweetFX also uses a shader-based AA algorithm, but it is a bit smarter than FXAA. Taken from the SMAA (Smart Morphological Antialiasing developer page:
One caveat of SMAA is its effect on text rendering. The text becomes very slightly altered by SMAA's processing. It isn't detracting, but it is noticeable.
You can grab the zip package of SweetFX from here: http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4581604&postcount=528. Extract the contents of the zip file to your ..\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\game\ directory.
For reference, here is my settings file. I have everything turned off aside from SMAA and Vibrance. Vibrance increases the color saturation. It is really gorgeous and makes the game pop even more. Don't be too generous with the saturation, though. My SMAA settings are about equivalent to 6x - 8x SSAA. The results are great, as I get smooth edges while retaining a crisply rendered scene. I've also changed the keybindings for reloading the injector settings. They are defaulted to Scroll Lock, which is the key to hide your UI. I changed it to the Pause/Break key- which reloads the injector's settings. I should mention, you can change your settings in the settings file ON THE FLY! You don't have to unload and reload the game to put your new settings into effect. Simply make your changes, save the settings text file, go back into the game, and tap the Scroll Lock key to apply your changes to the game!
My Settings file: http://puu.sh/4kuJd/2a2ab53446.txt. You can right-click and click Save Link As... to save the file. Put it in the same directory as above.
I have no screenshots to provide of the effect in-game. I only discovered this compatible version last night, and I wasn't feeling very well so I didn't play with it much before going to bed. There are often concerns that this sort of activity can get you banned, but I assure you that is false. The program does NOTHING to the game itself. All functions occur within the D3D processing tree only and do not touch the application that hooks into D3D at all. I urge you to try it out and add some screenshots of your experimenting to the forum's albums. Remember you can make your changes on the fly and revert them just as easily! Have fun!
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