ReShade and SimCity 4: A horrible experiment

[Toby Ferrian 873]

After seeing the recent discussions about using DirectX wrappers to run SimCity 4 at higher resolutions, I thought, can I use this to run ReShade with SimCity 4?

The answer, to quote myself from Discord, is:

In this thread I will share the results of my experimentation.
Prepare yourselves, we are about to tread on unholy ground.

To make this work, I used the dgVoodoo2 wrapper, along with the latest version of ReShade at the time of this writing, ReShade 4.8.2.
I also ran the game at 1440p.

If you wish to try this yourself, download dgVoodoo2 and extract the files within the MS\x86 folder within the zip file into the game's Apps folder, same as the game's exe file.
ReShade comes with its own installer, so I will not provide instructions for that here.
(Note: The performance impact of all this is minimal on my system, but your mileage may vary.)

Once both are installed, simply run the game, and you should see the following:

The ReShade overlay at the top of the screen, and the dgVoodoo2 watermark in the bottom right. If you see both of these, you are now able to see the horrors I have witnessed with your own two eyes.

Now let's move on to my experiments.
 

Antialiasing
Easily the best use of ReShade within SimCity 4, at least in my opinion.
It simply smooths out jagged edges in an image. It does not make a huge difference, but it results in a softer image.
In my opinion, it looks much nicer than it did before, and is the only effect I can recommend using for normal gameplay.

 

HDR
HDR will make the image look more vibrant and colorful. With the right settings, it can look great.

However, I don't recommend enabling it for normal gameplay, only for screenshots.
The reason:

Like all other effects, it also affects the user interface.
 

Bloom
don't

just don't

but if you do anyway, it will allow for some fantastic night shots:

It can also be combined with other effects for an even better result:

It might even look good during the day, but in my experimentation I found that it mostly ends up too bright:

However, do make sure you hide the UI and unpause the game first, otherwise the bloom from the UI will bleed into whatever you're taking a screenshot of:

And do be careful when adjusting the settings, otherwise you might find your eyes dripping down your face from the blindingly bright images:

 

This is everything I have tested so far, but feel free to experiment with ReShade on your own and share your results here.

[matias93 7,535]

Honestly, it looks like typical photography issues.

This is very informative though, thanks!!!

[Terring 6,473]

The first pictures:

The last pictures:

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

I guess if you want to blast your retinas out with diffusers, this is the way to do it. Saves you a trip into GIMP.

[Turnstyled 486]

I decided to play around with SimCity 4 and ReShade. The original poster here stated that an anti-aliasing shader was the most effective use of ReShade with SimCity 4. I'm playing at 4K, and yes, I have a ton of SD content in my plugins folder. For this kind of game, though, I believe that ReShade is best used for silly purposes!

Perhaps, Timbuktu wasn't cinematic enough for you! I present letterboxed Timbuktu!

Now, Timbuktu has entered the Borderlands!

Now, Timbuktu is...ASCII art?

There are CRT experts out there. I am not one of them. Also, there are many CRT shaders available in ReShade. This is one of them.

This blueprint shader goes well with the grid that we all know and love!

A rain effect for City Journals?

And finally, some kind of VHS shader.

Edit: I got this working setting dgVoodoo 2 to Direct3D 11 on my AMD Radeon RX 580. Of course, your mileage may vary setting this up...if you want to for whatever reason. I've found Direct3D 11 to work best in dgVoodoo2 for SimCity 4 on my aging graphics card.

[Propfam 2,288]

1 hour ago, Turnstyled said:

This blueprint shader goes well with the grid that we all know and love!

Welcome back, Turnstyled! They all just look beautiful. What about using it with the 3D camera? It'd make a sick blueprint of the entire city.

[Turnstyled 486]

Thanks, Jidan! That's definitely something to try!

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

On 21.11.2020 at 12:39 PM, Toby Ferrian said:

To make this work, I used the dgVoodoo2 wrapper,

Is a wrapper a necessity here? Or did you need it due to your individual setup?

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

11 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Is a wrapper a necessity here? Or did you need it due to your individual setup?

Wrapper is necessary because the game uses an archaic version of DirectX and Reshade needs DirectX 11/12 to run it