#mxao faq

[pictureamoebae]

hi! i recently switched from gshade to reshade and loads of my presets broke :( i always use mxao but i tried it for the first time and my sims are just grey???

Make sure you've set reshade_depth_input_is_reversed to 0 if playing TS4, and MXAO and other depth effects should work correctly.

[montyranch]

Your photos are gorgeous! Do you use any Reshade presets in your game or PSDs for editing? Thanks in advance :)

Hi! I do use Reshade, but I don't use any presets other than the one I made myself which is only the Sharpen filter and the Vibrance filter. I like to use the least heavy 'preset' as possible to help with lag. I've been having a horrible time with it lately.

I crop in Photoshop (540x650px) and run Topaz Clean with these settings:

After I run Topaz I use Smart Sharpen with these settings:

Save and upload :)

[buglaur]

mobile faq + resources

what mods do you use / wcif this mod?

all my mods can be found here

what reshade do you use?

edited sunset & vinyl by nesurii for legacy

lithium by gunthermunch for calloways

personal one for cas

what cas lighting mod do you use?

cas light 4 by anvilesi

are sim requests open?

no, sorry

how do you edit your photos?

here is my process

how do you record videos with gshade?

using obs

what are my dof / mxao settings?

here

will you put _ sim up download?

once they’re not a legacy sim, calloway or private request, mostly likely yes, just ask!

how do you roll for your legacy?

using this website

what defaults do you use?

dynastid eyes by squea and dathúil skin by me

[hiddenspriings]

hi! hope youre having a good day <3 is your most recent reshade the one you mention in your faq or is it a different one? it looks amazing

Thanks, I hope you’re doing well too! 

You mean starburst, right? I used it till the end of generation 2 of my lepacy, then I switched to something I called ‘personal preset’ on my f.a.q page which is actually a very simple preset I made myself, just adding some dof, mxao, clarity, bloom and I think sunset filter? I keep tweaking it a little still but I’m glad you like it <3

[simgerale]

Hello!! I was wondering what reshade preset your using for your legacy? Did you edit it at all, it’s so soft!

hi!! i use the clarity preset by @/intravertt, but i edited it slightly (i think i just added blur effects and maybe even mxao… it’s been so long i don’t quite remember 😞). And yes I edit my photos just a little bit by using softening actions! All of this is linked in my faq if you want to check it out 😚

[gerbits]

hey! wasn't sure whether or not this was classed as wcif but I was wondering if you were still using lavender & yoghurt for your reshade? think i saw on your twitter you were trying a new one and your recent posts have looked so good!

hi anon!! First thank you- I'm so glad you're liking them bc I've been really back & forth on my editing so it's nice to have some validation lmao

I talked a little bit about my new reshade preset here (and I'm now realizing I still have yet to add a link to faq tag itself, so it would have been very easy to miss)

some of the pieces do come from lavender & yogurt, mostly the brightening and I think mxao and dof?? and then I'm using a couple of those LUTs mentioned in that last ask, but I don't have them set at 100%.

the preset is a hot mess and I don't see myself ever releasing it bc it isn't mine at all, it's a Frankenstein mash up of things I liked lol

I'm also using a slightly edited version of this PSD which is different than the one I was using before as well.

[cerubean]

Hi! Since your reshade preset uses alot of shaders, what do you do with the duplicate shaders you end up with? do you just delete them?

are you referring to the multiple mxao shaders that are used in the preset or something different? for the mxao's or any other shader, they're necessary for the overall look of the preset, but if you want you can just click the check mark to toggle them on and off, but removing/toggling them will make it not look the same anymore

if you're talking about the reshade-shaders folder in the bin folder, if you have duplicates of shaders i'd recommend just doing a fresh re-install and in the event it asks you if you want to 'replace all duplicate files' hit yes

unfortunately im not reshade expert, but pictureamoebae has some pretty helpful tips so i'd look through their FAQs/Replies or their resource masterlist: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EqcA6DrZ38sfHzWy9VQZVpFX9y8StsnWLvRVRw9mhQw/edit#gid=923793271

hopefully that helped but if u still have issues just let me know

[lamatisse]

Hihi love your content so much! Your skin tones and skin blends are virtually the only ones I use in CAS. I was just wondering if you took all your photos with reshade on? I think in your faq you said your laptop couldn’t really handle it too well so I’m just curious 🤍

thank you so much gaaah 🥺  i use reshade, but i cant use reshade presets. i only have 5 shaders and only use like 4 of them: fxaa, quint_bloom, quint_dof, and mxao! the color gradings are just psds! 

[intravertt]

i have looked through your faq and may have missed this but i was wondering why the mxao effect disappears in performance mode? im using the saule reshade and mxao works fine in configuration mode but it no longer shows up in performance. i don't want to play on configuration because it's so laggy so was wondering the reason for this or how to fix it, thanks!

None of my presets are intended to be used in performance mode (the way it turns Filmic Pass green is something I do not want to try to correct, along with other settings). You may not be able to use my presets if you're not able to use them in configuration mode. I don't see myself updating presets any time soon.

[intramoon]

hi! in ur suriya preset i want to increase the shadow but idk what to adjust. im still figuring out reshade b/c i just installed it on my game. what is the use of smaa and mxao? thank u and have a great day! 🥺

Hello! Please read my FAQ before you send an ask, there you’ll see I do not answer ReShade related questions and you’ll find a link to page where I have provided information on how to adjust the settings within ReShade including shadows (MXAO). 

MXAO creates shadows and SMAA is used as an alternative to edge-smoothing since in order for MXAO and DOF to work you must disable the Sims 4 edge-smoothing setting. 

[pictureamoebae]

hi, i was hoping you could help me figure out why the immerse mxao shader is causing these diagonal lines on the couch instead of smooth shadows. edge smoothing is off, it only happens with that shader and only in live mode, i've uninstalled and reinstalled reshade and all shaders and still can't figure it out, so i'm hoping for your help. thank you

I could tell it was immerse mxao before looking at your shader list and message lol. Unfortunately those lines do tend to appear, I believe it’s something to do with the dx9 implementation. I recommend switching to the quint mxao instead.

[ddaeng-sims]

Hello, Naya :) I've been having a problem with Reshade's MXAO not working in Sims 4 Tab mode and while looking for a solution everywhere I've found your post where you write that you had the same problem as well. I wanted to ask if you found solution yet? I think about switching to Reshade 2.0, but it would meen loosing all wonderful presets :( Thank you for your time!

Hi, not really, since my problem was only MXAO being softer on tab mode rather than not working at all, the only solution as for now is to make the MXAO effect stronger, so I’m configurating my MXAO settings on tab mode so I know for sure they will look good. But check out @pictureamoebae‘s reshade FAQ tag, maybe you’ll find a solution there ;)

[pictureamoebae]

Cant find the old MXAO.fx shader any more?

It’s here. Copy the code and paste it into a new text document and save it as MXAO.fx

It was removed from the Legacy shader pack on 2nd June 2022. You can still find anything that has been removed if you spend time going through the commits on github.

Please, please, please get into the habit of making backups of all your ReShade installations each time you update. You never know when a shader is going to be rewritten or removed completely. I’ve got backups stretching back to ReShade 0.12. It means you’ll always have whatever you need right at your fingertips.

To backup your current ReShade installation:

make a new folder and name it with your current ReShade version (e.g. ReShade 4.9.1)

in your TS4 Bin folder, copy the following: reshade-shaders (folder), d3d9.dll, reshade.ini

place those copied files into the backup folder you just made

do the same with any preset inis if you’re worried about losing them

Eventually you’ll have a nice collection of old installations that you can go to for old shaders, or if you ever want to revert to a previous version.

Top tip: to install an older version from one of your backups you don’t need to run the installation exe tool, you just need to drop the files you backed up into your Bin folder (after removing the ones you currently have installed). That’s it. Easy!

[pictureamoebae]

hi again! i have another issue--when taking shots indoors, one mxao starts turning shadows white. do you know how to fix this? here's with just the mxao that works:

here's with the mxao that doesnt:

and here's the debug:

thanks !!

Hi! That looks like you have Indirect Lighting set really really high. IL adds reflected light to areas and if set high enough it can overpower the Ambient Occlusion (AO). Take a look at the settings for it and see if lowering the IL value makes a difference.

[pictureamoebae]

Hi, I was hoping you could help me! I'm having issues with my MXAO shadows in gshade or reshade showing through some objects where it should be hidden. E.g on cars, you can see the pavement shadow through the car. Is there anyway to fix this?❤️

Hi!

Is this in TS4? One thing you can do if you haven't already is go into graphicsrules.sgr and find the lines for SSAO and set them to false instead of true. This file resets every time there's a game update; you can keep a copy of your edited version in the configoverride folder if you'd prefer and it will always take precedence over the main one so you don't have to keep re-editing it after every patch.

Make sure also that things like 3D Scene Resolution are set to their highest in the game's graphics options, and that laptop mode is turned off.

Are these cc cars or regular maxis cars? If they're cc cars it may just be the type of shader the cc creator used interacting badly with MXAO (you know how sheer curtains can look weird, that's because of the transparency shader curtains use). If that's the case, there might not be much you can do unless the cc creator is able to use a different object shader.

[pictureamoebae]

How do I turn mxao on in reshade 5.6 thanks!

1) Make sure Edge Smoothing is off in the game’s graphics settings.

2) Click on Global Preprocessor Settings underneath the shader list in the ReShade menu. Look for reshade_depth_input_is_reversed. It needs to have a 0 after it. It probably has a 1 after it. Change the 1 to a 0. Now the depth buffer should work correctly.