#preprocessor definitions

[gvbesims]

　

This is one of the many presets born from me trying to make one to be my main one. So expect many more, I'll be sharing them all!　

BIGGER BEFORE & AFTERS: O1 • O2 • O3

You'll find the download below the cut at the end of the post, some mandatory stuff is listed before.

Pictures taken on @theneighborhoodsave 　

　 1 — I'm using — Sunblind by @softerhaze and Even Better In-game Lighting Mod (Bright) by @northernsiberiawinds 　 2 — MANDATORY DOWNLOAD: The Moods MultiLUT by @pictureamoebae (Tbh a must even if you don't use my preset!)

To install amoebae's MultiLUT just open your GShade Control Panel > Installs > Open Custom Shaders & Textures Folder.

DO NOT copy the "reshade-shaders" from MultiLUT download. Instead open it and merge the "Shaders" and "Textures" folders from inside it with the ones from GShade's. — Here's a gyazo video showing what I mean!

You won't need to download Prod80's Framework as stated by amoebae, GShade already comes with all Prod80's shaders. 　

　 ADD THESE TO YOUR PREPROCESSOR DEFINITIONS:

　

SHORTCUTS LIST: (on/off is for what it is by default)

(on) Adaptative Fog — Numpad /

(off) Ambient Light — Alt + Numpad 7

(on) Bloom & Lens Flares — Numpad 7

(on) MXAO (Immerse) — Alt + Numpad 9

(off) More MXAOs (make it stronger) — Numpad 9

(off) Cinematic DOF (focus w/ mouse) — Alt + Numpad 8

(on) ADOF (auto-focus) — Numpad 8

(off) ReLight (if you have it...) — F6 　

　 PRO TIP: I always adjust the "BloomAndLensFlares" shader to my needs, which is where the magic of this preset lies. The settings I'm uploading it with may be too strong or too light for some cases, so it really depends on your shot. Just mess with the "fBloomThreshold" slider a bit and see what I mean and, if you're feeling confident, mess with the "fBloomAmount" altogether. 　

DOWNLOAD: PATREON (FREE)

[thatonegreenleaf]

~urban haze~ reshade preset!

I've been using this preset on my twitch for a bit now, and i've finally gotten around to releasing it!! I'm very happy with it and I currently use it for everything😅

Urban haze has a focus on realistic lighting with a slight hazy and warm feel. Less blue in shadows, darker nights, deeper afternoon shadows, saturated sunsets, balanced greenery. Use it in any world, I've tested them all :)

__________________________________________

How to download:

♥ Download Reshade: (I use reshade 5.7.0, I can't say how this preset will behave with other versions of reshade, or G-shade.)

♥ During Reshade Installation, select The Sims 4, choose DirectX9 as the rendering API.

♥ Effect Packages to install: standard effects, sweetFX by CeeJay, qUINT by Marty McFly, color effects by prod80, and Legacy effects.

♥ Download urban haze below, drop it in your Sims 4 installation's "Bin" Folder

♥ Open the Sims 4, Disable edge-smoothing in your graphics settings if it's not already, In the reshade menu, set RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED= to 0 in global preprocessor definitions if it's not, and MXAO_TWO_LAYER= and MXAO_SMOOTHNORMALS= both to 1 in qUINT_mxao's preprocessor's definitions.

♥ If you're struggling with installation, I suggest you check out @kindlespice's installation tutorial! It was made for reshade 4.9.0 but the instructions remain the same.

__________________________________________

Notes:

♥ Both Depth of field shaders are off by default, you can enable them using their shortcuts: ctrl + Q (MagicDOF), ctrl + W (MartyMcFlyDOF) or enable them manually.

♥ MXAO.fx also has a shortcut (ctrl + R) bc sometimes the DOF blur makes the shadows weird, most of the time it's fine!

♥ Could potentially be gameplay friendly, depending on your GPU! The MXAO and DOF shaders will be the most performance heavy, feel free to adjust to your liking.

♥ The pictures above were taken with this preset and no further editing, but I do use a few lighting mods that will affect how my game looks:

♥ NoBlu by Luumia

♥ NoGlo by Luumia

♥ twinkle toes by softerhaze

URBAN HAZE RESHADE PRESET ↠ download on sim file share!

Follow me on twitch!

Support me on patreon!

TOU: do not redistribute, reupload, or claim my cc/CAS rooms/presets as your own! recolour/convert/otherwise alter for personal use OR upload with credit. (no paywalls)

[spinelr3d]

Unaffected UI - ReShade

REST ini for TS3 (REST 32x v1.2.3)

What this does? This edited ini file from REST allows the UI in the game to be viewable while using ReShade presets.

I will be leaving this as is for now until REST has better compatibility with dxvk with a x32 version that shows up in the addons (if it does in the future), since dxvk is essential for ts3 in a way.

Installation:

Install ReShade normally for TS3, at least making sure it is 5.8+ in order to use REST (you may need to select TS3W.exe, dunno if it makes a difference vs selecting TS3.exe though).

Important!! - When selecting ReShade's addons, don't select ReshadeEffectShaderToggle as it won't work on 32x nicely. Download the specified version of REST from the creators github instead, which will be linked in the step below. This will save you some frustration.

2. Then download ReshadeEffectShaderToggle v1.2.3 (release.zip file, Important!!), placing the content inside (step 3) it in the games bin folder. (There are other versions that work nicely with 32x version of ReShade but this one plays more nicely with shaders in the game. I will test to see at later dates to find one that works nicer if possible. [I don't think the version you use matters too much but v1.3.0 works I believe as well])

3. Place only the file "ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.addon32" in your games bin folder where you downloaded ReShade to. If you are on GShade and it's ReShade v5.0+ Equivalent (5.8+ required for REST v1.2.3), place it into your addons folder.

4. Download the addon .ini file here that's edited for ts3

sfs <- download

5. Then place "ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.ini" (The file from this post/sfs) into the same place as "ReshadeEffectShaderToggler.addon32"

This version of GShade v3.5 doesn't work with REST unless a version is made by someone for it (This goes for the regular GShade equivalent and older version of GShades). I don't recommend using official verions of GShade, especially the newer ones.

In-Game:

Make sure that anti-aliasing/edge smoothing is disabled in the in-game setting or Reshade effects will turn off with the REST ini after loading a save ( most likely the REST toggle shader I enabled is tied to the anti-aliasing shader of ts3).

Setting Up ReShade Properly & Enabling REST:

In the global preprocessor definitions, set it to look exactly like this in order to get ambient occlusion and etc. working properly. vvv

2. go into the "Add-ons" tab of ReShade, ticking ReShade Effect Shader Toggler on and then making sure the Toggle Group 1 or "TS3 Pixel Shaders" on the left, is activated.

Something Neat:

When hiding the UI with "F10" the shader toggle group doesn't affect that part of the game and your ReShade/GShade preset should be back to normal. (Tested on REST v1.3.0 I believe)

Downsides (Not REST's fault):

Existing Presets will need to be tweaked back to original form.

Some shaders may not work properly (maybe more than some dunno).

If you want to use existing presets without them looking wrong, you can disable the Toggle Group at anytime (one you activated in above picture).

Compatibility:

REST doesn't work properly with dxvk. It could also be the latest version of REST I tested which doesn't show up in the addons in-game, or the specific version in their github I linked to, which isn't working properly (shaders do show up in toggle groups though but that's as far as it works correctly).

References Used:

Clear UI by vyxated

Tutorial by Redronn

More by Me:

FO4 Version by me

Credits:

4lex4nder for creating ReShadeEffectShaderToggler

Frans Bouma for creating ShaderToggler

ReShade & ReShade Community

Clear UI by vyxated as reference

Tutorial by Redronn as reference

Affinity Photo & Designer for Title & Text Images

[pictureamoebae]

L = no ReShade; R = ReShade inc. ReLight

Quick little shader highlight for you.

You've maybe heard me talk about the Nice Guy Lamps shader before, which lets you add spotlights and create shadows. It's a nifty little shader but it's not very precise, and the shadows suffer from jitter and noise.

Enter ReLight by Marty McFly. ReLight is a fancy and more polished alternative to NG Lamps. The shadows are far better quality, and the lights are easier to position and edit. You can theoretically add as many as you want by editing the preprocessor definitions, but to begin with there are (iirc) two for you to play with. I've set it to four, and haven't felt like I've needed more than that so far.

In the picture on the right I've used three lights, each by the light sources in the room to simulate actual light being emitted from them. The two lamps on the right have a warm neutral light, and the candle on the left has a warm orange light. I positioned them so they sat exactly where the source would be. So, for example, for the floor lamp I positioned the light right up inside the dome of the shade, and you can see shadows being cast by the shade and light only coming down where it would physically be able to fall.

You can also use ReLight to add lights to portraits, making them really dramatic with different colours on each side of the face, or just to brighten the character so you can see their features more clearly. Below is a screenshot I took in Baldur's Gate 3 where I added blue light to the left and warmer light to the right.

It's such a handy little shader that can help add both realism and a hefty dose of drama to a scene. You need to feel confident tweaking shader settings to use it, and have to edit it for every single shot because the lights stay static in relation to the screen coordinates, so you'll have to move them where you want them each time. It's easy to do though, and lots of fun.

ReLight is one of Marty's premium shaders, which means you'd need to subscribe to his Patreon to get access to it. It's not currently listed in any of his tiers because he stopped working on it in favour of other things, but it works well and is probably my favourite shader at the moment. I'm yet to set up a shot that can't benefit from it in one way or another. If you are interested in using ReLight, you need to sub to the Path Tracers tier. You can cancel your subscription once you've grabbed it from his discord server, but you won't get access to any updates until you resub (it hasn't been updated in a long time though, so I wouldn't worry too much about that).

Paying for shaders is something that doesn't sit well with some people, and that's fair. I would only recommend getting this if you're enough of an enthusiast that spending 30 minutes setting up one shot is your idea of fun (not that ReLight takes that long, it can take just seconds sometimes).

[michaelgogins]

Barry Vercoe (24 July 1937 – 16 June 2025)

I will not recapitulate what others have said in tribute to Barry Vercoe. You can read the Wikipedia article, or Richard Boulanger’s tribute (which is quoted in full here), or look at Barry’s old home page at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or read his New Zealand obituary.

Here I will offer my personal thanks to Barry for creating what, in my considered opinion, is one of the best musical instruments in history — Csound. I use it for almost all of my musical compositions.

There are now other systems, such as Max or Supercollider, that can do all, or almost all, of what Csound does. However, Csound came first, and is an ancestor of these systems. For at least some composers, such as myself, Csound is still easier to use, and perhaps more powerful. And just because it is older, Csound has the huge advantage of a very large base of running musical examples and pieces.

Here I will also offer my appreciation of Barry’s design choices and his implementation of Csound. My appreciation is based on my own experience, not only as an intensive user, but also as a sometime member of the Csound development team, when I contributed a number of features to Csound and came to understand Barry’s outstanding ability as a computer programmer.

There are some things I definitely do not like about the Csound code, mainly the cryptic names, and the use of preprocessor macros. Aside from that, here are a few of the good things in Barry’s code:

Of course the big home run was writing Csound in platform-neutral C, still the most performant programming language, and still available on more platforms than any other.

The extreme simplicity and efficiency of the inner loop for running Csound performances.

Invisible, automatic handling of multiple notes playing at the same time, for the same instrument.

The extremely flexible design for unit generators (opcodes), the building blocks of sound synthesis. Essentially, although written in C, Barry’s unit generators are classes -- data structures that derive from a virtual base class, and include methods for operating on their own data. The virtual base class idea makes it quite easy to extend Csound with new unit generators, and now even plugin unit generators.

The musical power and flexibility of Csound’s score language, which permits the user to define any set of fields for an event; and these fields are not limited to integer values, but are real numbers. Furthermore, based on his experience as a composer, Barry made sure his score language could handle tied notes, polyphony, changes of tempo, and so on. This is far more powerful than MIDI.

The policy of complete backwards compatibility. The very first examples and compositions still run on today's Csound!

Based on Barry's foundation, the current implementation of Csound (far more capable than the original) remains highly efficient, flexible, and easy to extend.

[maddymakesgames]

The more I use C and C++ the less I hate certain aspects of them. Not because I no longer see them as bad, but because they're now a bad I know.

That said I will never get over the decision to separate definition and implementation between two files. It incentivizes me to just shove all my code in the main file because then I don't need to write any headers. If there was a way to just include .c or .cpp files directly I might actually use these languages for personal projects ever. Like yeah I know why things are the way they are but jesus christ it makes me never want to use this language because tbh I'm never writing code in a context where the distinction between interface and implementation matter. Every other language I use has proper import statements and let you just include shit and not have to fuss with preprocessor macros to ensure you don't accidentally define the same struct 20 times.

[jorvikcity]

does anyone know how to solve this reshade issue? there's a strange border around everything when i use MXAO and other effects that use the depth buffer, i already fixed it like a year ago but now it's there again. it's an issue with the depth buffer i think, but it's not that it's flipped, i've already messed with the preprocessor definitions. i forgot what i did to fix it last time and google isn't helping T_T

[florydaax]

Hello! I am trying to use your reshade and the DOF seems to be funky with it. Is there a way you could post your DOF settings? Thanks!

Hii! For the ADOF shader to work you need to click on "Edit global preprocessor definitions" and make sure the settings look like this!^ You also need to play in windowed mode and make sure "edge smoothing" is off in the game settings! I hope this helps 💜

[leonaquitaine]

Copyright.fx + GPosingway!

For those struggling with the Copyright.fx shader migrated into ReShade, or using the shader bundled with GPosingway, here's a fix to make it work:

Locate and Enable Copyright.fx

Click 'Edit Global preprocessor Definitions'

add a key named _Copyright_Texture_Source

set one of the valid numeric codes in the reference table below... and voilà! You should be able to use Copyright.fx as usual.

(Keep in mind that creating a Global key will set a default selection for all presets, while a Current Preset definition will keep it restricted to the preset in use.)

[windslar]

Hi, I'm really wanting to get your latest Reshade preset Tawhay to work on mine, but it comes out really as a really grainy dark brown. I don't have the CAb.fx do you know where I would be able to get it?

Hey! Do you mean CAb [CA.fx] shader? I found it in my main shaders folder so I believe that's part of one of the default/recommended shaders when you install reshade. After searching, I found it here so you can download it, add it to your shaders folder, and see if it works.

That being said, I doubt that the missing shader is causing the grainy dark brown issue since chromatic aberration usually just distorts edges to give that colour fringing effect. Personally, I toggle off my 'G' shaders (film grain and chromatic aberration) since I prefer adding those effects in PS.

My guess is the grainy dark brown issue may be related to your MXAO? IDK, that's the only thing I can think of that would add darkness/shadows and choppy lines(?). This post by @pictureamoebae explains changing the preprocessor definitions to make MXAO work for the game.

[pizzleyanked]

hey cat, quick q that i hope you don't mind answering. i can't quite get depth of field to work right for TS2 in reshade. how do you have yours configured/what shader do you use, or at least how you get it to actually... work? if that makes sense!

hi nonners! before all else please know that i am no expert. i just clown around with the settings until i get close to where i want to be. so this may be a very roundabout way to get results, just the way i found to work for me.

from my experimentation depth of field dependent shaders are quite finicky with ts2, in my preset that includes dof and mxao shaders, and it does require a fair bit of tweaking with the d9 tab and selecting different options according to reshade's mood.

my biggest observation is it acts differently in free camera mode vs out of free cam mode, in the sense that depth shaders look to me as if they are very toned down in tab/free camera. so i tend to exaggerate my settings! in my preset i use adof/quint_dof. these are the parameters (u can edit them directly on your preset's .ini file or through the reshade ui in game):

i also have the following preprocessor definitions:

RESHADE_DEPTH_LINEARIZATION_FAR_PLANE=1000.0

RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_UPSIDE_DOWN=0

RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED=0

RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_LOGARITHMIC=0

MXAO_SMOOTHNORMALS=1

MXAO_ENABLE_IL=1

MXAO_TWO_LAYER=0

MXAO_MIPLEVEL_IL=1

i hope it helps! lmk if you have more questions or need clarification

[asciidot]

Ok. I need a consensus. C/C++ programmers.

[highhorsegirl]

How do you take photos with reshade on? It just turns mine off :/ thx

you might need to mess around with the settings!

make sure this box is checked in, and that you have the in-game setting "reflections" on (alternatively, go back to home, click "edit global preprocessor definitions" and find the option that says reshade_depth_input_is_upside_down (or whichever way the effects are incorrectly placed, but usually it's just upside down). change the 0 to 1). once all this is fixed you can reload the preset and see if it's working!

if the shaders still aren't showing up, try lowering the graphic settings in-game and reload the preset.

if it still isn't working, your computer might just not be powerful enough to use reshade properly. that or maybe someone else knows? idk

OH! and if you're using a third party program for screenshots (like obs, bandicam, etc.) that can mess with it as well. i noticed while recording lmao-

idk how to help with bandicam etc. at all, but with obs all i did was change the recording from game/window capture to display capture. i think it considers sso and reshade as their own seperate things and therefore only records sso in game/window capture mode, while display capture records EVERYTHING visible on-screen. idk if that's a good solution, but i couldn't be bothered to mess around more with it, so if you're having issues there you might wanna hit google up instead--

[bluebudgie]

thank you for sharing your reshade info! i know you're not tech support, but i've found that when i turn on the DOF shaders in your preset, they either don't affect anything or blur my character, not the background (the latter is the ADOF one). any ideas what's causing this in my graphics? fine if not :D

Hi!! This is likely a problem with the global settings!

Hit "edit global preprocessor definitions" and look for the entry that says "reshade depth input is reversed". Change the value in the field from 1 to 0. (if it's already set to 0 for you, try setting it to 1?) Don't hit the "-" button, that'll just remove the entire setting as I've learned :D

That should fix it!

If you still have issues after this, the DoF effects themselves (not the global settings) sometimes come with checkboxes for "auto focus" or "mouse focus" (something along those lines), try checking or unchecking those and see if it changes something. Usually I keep both unchecked. Sometimes it's also a matter of sliders that'll let you adjust what exactly the game considers as background.

Hope this helps and have fun!!

[lake-lunvik]

fixing my global preprocessor definitions and my pc sounds like its taking off omfg

[nicnevans]

Hey! Just a possible solution for your reshade bokeh problems, you might want to look under "global preprocessor definitions" and try changing the "reshade depth input is reversed" number from a 1 to a 0, if you haven't fiddled with that already. Best of luck!

I did try it initially, and although it made the DoF much more pronounced, it also screwed the focus (and mouse-driven autofocus) entirely, and I've been kind of relying on mouse-driven-AF since I couldn't figure out how to fix the depth issue (ie: blurring the background rather than the character, or else blurring nothing) maybe it's a combo of pre-processor definitions and manual focus that I need to do? I'll try it next time I'm on and pray it solves my woes 😂