The Very Best ME:A Screenshot Thread (with tips)

How are you finding fraps? I used it for an evening when Bandicam stopped working for me. It was very slow, very buggy, it sometimes needed several pushes of the screenshot key to register, and the gamma of the final image didn't match what I saw in-game. In general, fraps is quite a heavy program for what it does, in terms of resources. I'd be interested to know how (if?) you got it working so well.

(I'm using MSI Afterburner now, which is really quick and the pictures look as they should. Melissa has had problems with Afterburner, apparently, but I haven't had them. Bandicam was excellent until it stopped working for me in MEA, but others are still using it with no issues. Both Bandicam and MSI Afterburner are lightweight and fast.)

It's been working pretty good, at least until now, IDK if it changes anything but maybe Fraps is very heavy on CPU and could be dependant on having more cores (I have an FX8350 running at 4.2 GHz which is kind of old by today's standards, I'm hoping to get a Ryzen 7 as soon as there's stock for motherboards here). Maybe that's a plausible explanation!

I tried to take screenshots with MSI Afterburner but it didn't work for me sadly > and I didn't try Bandicam out because I already had Fraps downloaded in my PC.

I have an i7-4790 @4ghz - so hopefully it's not that my cpu is past it! It's still a pretty decent one all things considered.

You have to install the Rivatuner stats thingy with MSI Afterburner for the screenshot function to work - do you have that? Bandicam is free, though, so it's worth a shot. Although, if fraps is working fine for you there's no need I guess.

Elaaden is my new favourite location (having got there 88 hours into the game). I love how empty it is. It's the perfect backdrop for screenshots. I've already spent about 10 hours taking them there, and have achieved precisely nothing in terms of the game (I activated one monolith, stumbled upon someone who asked me not to shoot them, and stumbled across jettisoned cryo pods, but that's it - oh, and I tracked the worm for a while).

can't get ReShade to pop up in game. i made sure Origin in-game was disabled, used ReShade's mediator. . .picked, i think, the first API in the list of three. . .no joy.

more blood confetti

Mini Tutorial: Realistic Skin using ReShade

While the textures are impressive, skin in ME:A can look quite flat and lacklustre. It doesn't seem to have any kind of sss (sub-surface scattering) - which is what gives the appearance of skin having flesh and blood beneath it.

There's a way to semi-almost-sort of simulate a similar-ish look by using one of Ioxa's shaders: Gaussian Bloom.

This shader comes with 2.0.x, but to use it in 3.0.x you have to download it separately from the Presentation section of the ReShade forum.

Here is a comparison of skin with and without the shader: screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/206640

The settings are quite heavy-handed in this shot to show how radically different it can make the skin look. For regular use, I have the settings so that it makes cheeks look a little redder (or more fleshy), and noses benefit from it as well. You can increase or decrease the strength to suit your character and the location/lighting. Different skin tones may require different settings.

This shader won't only affect skin, but works as a general bloom shader as well. I use it in conjunction with Ganossa's bloom, which I use for more general scene bloom and lighting/colour. Using two different types of bloom together can impact on your performance, since bloom is one of the more performance-heavy shaders.

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Here are my current settings, with the important parts in bold:

#define USE_GAUSS 1 //[Gaussian] //-Gaussian Blur / Bloom / Unsharpmask

//>Gaussian Blur / Unsharpmask Settings<\\
#define Use_GaussianBlur 0 //[0:1] //-0 = off, 1 = on. Blurs the image
#define BlurStrength 0.13 //[0.00:1.00] //-Strength of the blur effect
#define Use_Unsharpmask 0 //[0:1] //-0 = off, 1 = on. Sharpens the image
#define SharpStrength 0.05 //[0.00:1.00] //-Strength of the sharpening effect
#define GaussSigma 1 //[1|2|3|4] //-Makes the blur and sharpening radius wider. Only works when GaussQuality is set to 1 or higher.
#define GaussQuality 1 //[0:12] //-Higher #'s = more blur passes for Blur and Unsharp Mask (Higher performance cost).

//>Gaussian Bloom Settings<\\
#define Use_GaussianBloom 1 //[0:1] //-0 = off, 1 = on.
#define BloomStrength 0.10 //[0.00:1.00] //-Amount of bloom effect added to the image.
#define GaussBloomWarmth 1 //[0|1|2] //-0 = neutral, 1 = warm, 2 = hazy/foggy
#define GaussThreshold 0.40 //[0.000:1.000] //-Threshold for what is considered a bright light. Lower #'s = brighter
#define GaussExposure 98.00 //[0.00:100.00] //-Exposure of the effect. Lower #'s = brighter
#define BloomSigma 4 //[1|2|3|4] //-Makes the bloom radius wider. Only works when BloomQuality is set to 1 or higher.
#define BloomRed 1.50 //[0.00:2.00] //-Adds a RED tint to bloom. #'s < 1.00 add color, #'s > 1.00 remove color.
#define BloomGreen 1.15 //[0.00:2.00] //-Adds a GREEN tint to bloom. #'s < 1.00 add color, #'s > 1.00 remove color.
#define BloomBlue 1.05 //[0.00:2.00] //-Adds a BLUE tint to bloom. #'s < 1.00 add color, #'s > 1.00 remove color.
#define GaussBloomQuality 12 //[0:12] //-Higher #'s = more blur passes

//>Performance and Misc Options<\\
#define GaussTexScale 0 //[0|1|2] //-0 = Off, 1 = 1/2 Resolution, 2 = 1/4 Resolution. Reduces performance cost. Works best with Quality settings > 1.
#define BloomTexScale 0 //[0|1|2] //-0 = Off, 1 = 1/2 Resolution, 2 = 1/4 Resolution. Reduces performance cost. Works best with Quality settings > 1.
#define Gaussian_ToggleKey RESHADE_TOGGLE_KEY //[undef] //-

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SETTINGS

Make sure you turn off #define Use_GaussianBlur and #define Use_Unsharpmask as they are sometimes on by default but we don't want them - we want everything that's in the bottom set of Gaussian Bloom settings instead.

#define Use_GaussianBloom 1 - This turns the effect on or off.

You can adjust #define GaussBloomQuality to suit your hardware's performance capabilities. Same applies to the values under Performance and Misc Options.

#define BloomStrength 0.10 - This will be the main setting you change from location to location, to either make the effect stronger or weaker as needed.

#define GaussBloomWarmth 1 - This is the key setting that allows Gaussian Bloom to work in this way with skin. Changing it to 2 will make it act more like Ganossa's bloom shader instead, but we don't want that.

#define GaussThreshold 0.40 - Ths defines what areas of the picture trigger bloom. I've found anything from 0.35-0.45 work well. Sometimes I go up to 0.55. The lower the value, the more parts of the image will have bloom.

#define GaussExposure 98.00 - I keep this number high because we don't want overly bright bloom for this effect - subtlety is key.

#define BloomSigma 4 - This ensures the bloom falls off naturally rather than being tight in one spot.

#define BloomRed/Green/Blue - These three lines specify what colour the bloom should be. I have it set here for a fleshy, warm tone.

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Feel free to nab my settings above, or play around with your own. I've so far found it to be a good way of bringing a little more life into the skin of characters, and hopefully it works as well for you as it does for me.

Finally, a picture where I used the above settings. You can see a slight redness in the cheeks, for example. It has the effect of skin looking alive.

I've also been messing around with amoebae's Realistic Skin effect, but I use Reshade 3 and the settings for Gaussian Bloom are all different in there, so I can't find most of the mentioned settings and haven't been able to get a similar result. Threshold, Exposure and color tint are in there but not much else. Will hopefully have more time to try this weekend.