Got pissed off by the ancient and not-really-awesome default Disco ENB settings.
So I trashed it and brought in a different ENB version ("Burning Paradise"). Which is much newer (mostly because it's a DX9 version and not an ancient DX8 one like the current one is) and still works with Freelancer (also eliminates the startup seizure-stroboscope). This has various benefits in terms of perfomance (MUCH improved!) and also visuals.
Where Disco Vanilla just slaps on a "bloom everything all the time to the maximum!" I decided to go for a more balanced approach, also reintroducing the "dynamic" bloom. Which means that when you stare into bright lights (suns, ships etc.), you no longer get a whiteout, but the bloom scales down (simulating your eyes getting used to the changed brightness). This also means systems with bright backgrounds like T37 no longer get the whiteout-overkill. Bloom still affects them and brightens the white nebulae up a bit, but it's far more appropiate. On the other end, dark systems/areas still get a stronger bloom effect, again simulating the effect of bright lights (especially small spotlights) in dark areas (just imagine headlights of cars on a lone road at night vs day).
And because the game still didn't look nice enough, I fiddled a bit further and introduced SweetFX as well.
Again, I tried not to go overboard and just use subtle effects to make the game look even more awesome.
And as both ENB and SweetFX can be very picky about Antialiasing, I fiddled some more to make sure all AA overrides are OK again, allowing FL to be run with the full palette of RadeonPro settings (except "LODBias", which doesn't do anything for FL anyway).
I don't think you can do much more to the game.
I would appreciate feedback on how it runs from other people, especially people with nvidia graphic cards.
INSTALLATION
1: Backups - If you don't trust me on my claims, back up your d3d8.dll and enbseries.ini, both located in your Disco\EXE\ folder.
2: Extract the archive to Disco\EXE\, confirm overwrites.
USAGE
Both mods are active on startup. However, the following hotkeys allow you to toggle:
Shift+F9: Bloom on/off
Shift+F12: ENB on/off
SCROLL: SweetFX on/off
PAUSE: SweetFX reloadconfig
The last options causes the sweetfx_settings.txt to be re-read, applying any alterations made within that file immediately ingame, without a need to restart game. Which is absolutely awesome if you are an advanced user and want to customize the looks on your own.
Sadly, the ENB version I use does not have a reloadconfig option (like some of the newer, non-comptabile versions of ENB do), so messing with ENB settings still is trial&error with frequent restarts...
Download: Version 1 - Conservative
This version is considered "default". It implements all the benefits, but does only very minor brightness and color alterations (mainly combined with the dynamic bloom effect). Vibrance is activated, but only very slightly, making colors a bit more accentuated (not that there are many to begin with, in most systems).
I personally use a version with additional SweetFX alterations that alterate contrast curves, making the game look far more realistic (=grim, dark space). If there's an interest, I might up it as well.
Yes, I know, you really love screenshots, so here you go:
Row 1: Trenton Outpost, New York
Row 2: Outside Falkland Station, Tau-37
Left to right:
ENB+SweetFX off
ENB on
ENB+SweetFX on
Still, these only show half the deal. Dynamic bloom as well as dynamic vibrance obviously won't be visible here. Bloom is in the "low" state in both images, as the camera faces the sun directly. When the majority of the screen is dark, bloom is more intense. In T-37 the only spots where you can trigger the strong bloom is in the shadows of stations, looking at their "dark side". In New York it suffices to look away from the sun, though some of the white stations also are bright enough to trigger the low bloom.
uhh..dunno whats the problem...game starts up then black screen..then nothing happens and game crashes to desktop, with no Errors.
checked if game is running in task manager ...but no it doesn't.
i tried to put a -dx9 in command line with a shortcut...no luck.
really like to see this working
please help.
my specs:
win7 ultimate sp1
intel core i5/2.4
Nvidia GT540M/DX11/2GB
@Ursus: Yes. It doesn't change anything "evil", as these plugins simply hook directly into the pipeline from the game engine output to the DX renderer. The game doesn't even know it's been altered.
@pitockm: Odd. Worst case, it's an Nvidia issue. Will wait for more feedback from nvidia guys and then see where the problem might originate.
Can you try launching with -w argument (windowed)?
Is one of you interested in trying some stuff? I can't really put the finger on what the issue is with you as I can't reproduce that error. If you want to help, it'd be lovely if you sent me a PM with your skype name, so we can test some possible fixes "live" instead of having dozens of posts here.
EDIT: One thing you can try right away: Open the enbseries.ini with Notepad and change the second line from
EnableProxyLibrary=1
to
EnableProxyLibrary=0
Save the file and try to start the game again. This would rule out SweetFX being the culprit.