Settra's Simple ReShade (Graphics Mod)

[Settra]

As you can infer from the title, this is a fairly simple ReShade for Movie Battles II. The goal was essentially to make the game look a bit nicer without compromising the 'look'.

BEFORE/AFTER IMAGE ALBUM

SCREENSHOTS WITH RESHADE ENABLED​

What does it do?:
-Slight increase in vibrance.
-Ambient Occlusion and improved shadows.
-Additional bloom for lightsources such as sabers, blaster fire and ambient lighting.
-Minor color change that deepens colors to make them colder in cold shades and warmer in warm shades, applies to both textures and lights.
-Other effects such as sharpening specifically aimed at textures for enhancement.
-Several effect configs that you can customize with various other effects at your own leisure (examples include: cel-shading, film grain, ambient lighting, depth of field, motion focus, motion blur, etc..).
-Can also be used for Academy or Outcast.

How do I use it?:
1. Install.
2. Play.
3. Enable or disable with the scroll lock key (if you have no scroll lock key, you can rebind this to another key of your choosing in global.cfg file located in Profiles/Default).
4. If interested, customize the active effects or turn on other ones via config files in the ReShade folder (effects can also be tested and turned on/off while in-game!).

Potential issues?:
-The ambient occlusion can at times be seen through UI. With the UI already being somewhat transparent, it's not the biggest issue ever, but it's worth noting. It can be disabled if needed.

Does it affect FPS?:
I have it applied to my game on three different systems of varying specifications (one of which being a craptop) and have never had FPS issues from the ReShade. None of the effects are particularly demanding to my knowledge. In my testing, it has been toaster-friendly but your experience could always vary. Some people have reported FPS issues, so if you have any, my first suggestion would be to download the alternate optimized version below. If you still have trouble, tweak some of the settings and see if you can get a mix of good visuals and performance.

Installation:
1. Download the ReShade pack from HERE. Alternatively, you can download this version if you have FPS troubles. (credit to cannonfodder)
2. Open it using Winrar/7zip.
3. Extract/move all the files into your game folder. You want to put the files in Jedi Academy/Gamedata.
To uninstall, simply remove the files from this download and the ReShade folder.

I think that about covers everything, there's not a whole lot to it lol.

 

[Kell]

I'm struggling to get REShade to load up the effects pack on launch, it just keeps loading it up unconfigured.

 

[AaronAaron]

This kills my fps((( and the blur throws me off too, other than that its cool

 

[cannonfodder]

so the default one tanked my fps, but I got bad comp so I was trying to execute the other ones, if I try to execute them tho it says "Couldnt execute McFX" etc

It also turns on every time you minimize and maximize back into the game

Its very pretty tho even with 20 fps

 

[Settra]

It's odd, I have it working on a craptop from like 2011. But, if I had to guess, the source of the FPS issues would likely be the ambient occlusion since it makes it so new shadows are rendered on pretty much any surface they can be rendered on, like player models and most corners of the map.

As a potential fix, you could try one of two things. Both of which will require you to go into the McFX.cfg file though.
1. You could disable AO completely by simply changing the 1 next to USE_AMBIENTOCCLUSION to a 0.
2. You could go to AO_FADE_START and change it from 1, which means it never fades by distance, so shadows are covering everything at all times, to something like 0.5 or 0.1 which will make it render only at a set distance. Downside of this is you could see the shadows pop in from time to time as you get closer to something, but worth a shot I suppose.

so the default one tanked my fps, but I got bad comp so I was trying to execute the other ones, if I try to execute them tho it says "Couldnt execute McFX" etc

It also turns on every time you minimize and maximize back into the game

Its very pretty tho even with 20 fps

Also, I don't know what you mean by executing them? If you're trying to execute them from console, that's not how it works. The ReShade is using the .cfgs all at once, and they all have a lot of effects inside each one (most of which are turned off but left in, if anyone wants them). That's why if there's a certain effect or more, like let's say bloom for example, that you'd like to disable, you go to the .cfg and just disable them by turning a 1 into a 0. Then bloom is no longer active but the other parts of the ReShade are. You can do this while the game is open as well.

For experimenting I'd suggest playing the game in windowed just temporarily until it runs or looks the way you want it to (so you don't even to minimize and maximize constantly to change effects), and then at that point you could go back to fullscreen when you're done.

 

[DougieJones]

It looks very nice, but I noticed that on brightness settings below 1 it was faaaar too dark, probably because of the shading enhancement stuff if I had to guess. So for anyone else who gets it working I'd suggest setting your brightness to at least 1, maybe 1.5.

 

[Karus]

As a potential fix, you could try one of two things. Both of which will require you to go into the McFX.cfg file though.
1. You could disable AO completely by simply changing the 1 next to USE_AMBIENTOCCLUSION to a 0.
2. You could go to AO_FADE_START and change it from 1, which means it never fades by distance, so shadows are covering everything at all times, to something like 0.5 or 0.1 which will make it render only at a set distance. Downside of this is you could see the shadows pop in from time to time as you get closer to something, but worth a shot I suppose.

I tried both, with only a 10% increase in performance (frames went up from 36, to 46)
GTX 1050, Ryzen 3 2200G, 8GB RAM
This is pretty much the only reason I don't like using ReShade. Sure, you can make the game look great, but it'll be at unplayable frame rates.
Also tried editing some other effect values which are indicated to have an impact on performance, nothing really improved.

 

[Settra]

I tried both, with only a 10% increase in performance (frames went up from 36, to 46)
GTX 1050, Ryzen 3 2200G, 8GB RAM
This is pretty much the only reason I don't like using ReShade. Sure, you can make the game look great, but it'll be at unplayable frame rates.
Also tried editing some other effect values which are indicated to have an impact on performance, nothing really improved.

What FPS do you get with the ReShade turned entirely off? I would think those specs are more than capable for it, aside from maybe the RAM. But JKA doesn't take up that much memory, so not sure.

Have you tried tweaking the game's own effects (like dynamic glow and light, shadows) while ReShade is enabled? With experimentation we could probably isolate which effect is having the biggest hit.

 

[Karus]

What FPS do you get with the ReShade turned entirely off?

Minimum 60, with everything on High/Very High, Dynamic Glow, Dynamic Lights & Shadows turned on.

With experimentation we could probably isolate which effect is having the biggest hit.

I'm more than willing to assist with that, I don't have extensive knowledge on ReShade/other post-processing but I've had some previous experimentation with such.
I'll play around with some value's tomorrow and post any findings.

 

[DougieJones]

So I did my own tweaking and without a cap on my fps I get about 70-75 fps on average with the reshade and all its effects turned on. I was curious so I went and disabled the AO and that gave me about +10 fps, and no other effect seemed to have any increase upon disabling other than luma sharpening, which got me another 3 or 4 fps. With reshade turned completely off I get about 90, and if I turn the dynamic stuff in the game settings off its in the 120s.

The PC I tested this on is a pretty decent laptop, here's the specs:
GTX 1060
i7 4700hq
12gb RAM
1TB hard drive

EDIT: Although I will say I had a drop to 55 fps at one point with everything turned on, but that was in a completely full Open server with lots of explosions and blasters.

 

[cannonfodder]

also, while its active, I feel a slight delay in camera movement

 

[cannonfodder]

By changing values with little thought, I've managed to improve it from 35 fps to 70 fps where my normal is 120, I think the biggest changes came from the GemFX file

And on SweetFX, I highly recommend turning on Levels, it made it super crisp imo

With all my edits I got this now
Before__________________________________________________________________After

40 FPS drop. Worth it to me.

 

[cannonfodder]

Do you know what command is changing how the console text looks?

 

[Settra]

Do you know what command is changing how the console text looks?

What is changed about it? If it's glowing too much then it's to do with bloom.

 

[cannonfodder]

 

[Settra]

Oh, that ghosting effect. I think that's the chromatic aberration. You can disable that in the McFX.cfg, it's under the options for the 4th DOF method.

You'll want to just turn the 1 by ChromaEnable to 0.

 

[cannonfodder]

I did that and it didnt fix it, My depth of field section is turned off anyways, so it shouldnt be running regardless

 

[Settra]

I did that and it didnt fix it, My depth of field section is turned off anyways, so it shouldnt be running regardless

I remembered incorrectly, the chromatic aberration is in CustomFX.cfg under YACA. Same deal as before, 1 to 0. This should finally do it lol

 

[cannonfodder]

thanks a bunch

With that change now i'm going from 120 to 100 with it on, would you like me to post my files for the optimization?

 

[Settra]

thanks a bunch

With that change now i'm going from 120 to 100 with it on, would you like me to post my files for the optimization?

Please do, I'll include it in the main post above as a secondary download.