ReShade & RedM: A Graphical Match Made in Heaven

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Jasper Fields

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So you want to make your RedM experience a bit more colourful, or dramatic, or sharper? Or perhaps you want to make it a combination of all of the above. Well have I got good news for you, because that’s where ReShade comes in! Taken from ReShade’s own website, “ReShade is a generic post-processing injector for games and video software developed by crosire. Imagine your favorite game with ambient occlusion, real depth of field effects, color correction and more…”

What this all means is that with a variety of options you can make games, including RedM, look better than they already do.

compare-1-small.png


Installing ReShade to RedM...

  1. Go to https://reshade.me/ and download the latest ReShade version using the download button at the bottom of the homepage.

  2. Run the ReShade setup file (it will be a .exe file).

  3. Using the “Click here to select a game…” button, point ReShade to RedM.exe, usually located within C:\Users\[YOUR USERNAME]\AppData\Local\RedM.
    Note: Do not point ReShade to your RedM Application Data folder, or a RedM.exe shortcut. These will not work. Similarly, simply pointing ReShade to your RDR2.exe file, for regular Red Dead Redemption 2, will not work.


  4. You will be prompted to select the rendering API used by your game. Your selection here will depend on the API you have chosen within the game settings.

  5. Next, you will be prompted to select the Effect Packages you wish to install. In my case many of these did not work, but to save on time testing I simply opted to Uncheck All, then Check All - marking them all to be installed.

  6. As each Effect Package installs, you will be prompted to select the effects within each package that you wish to install. Again, I opted to install all of them.
    Note: You will be prompted several times. This is simply the installer going through each Effect Package.


  7. One you are prompted to Edit ReShade Settings you have successfully installed ReShade to RedM - as shown by the “ReShade Setup was successful!” at the top of the window.

compare-11-small.png


Installing & Using my ReShade Preset…

  1. Download CN_ColorfulRoleplay_1.ini.

  2. Drag CN_ColorfulRoleplay_1.ini into your RedM directory.
    Note: This file does not go into your RedM Application Folder. Your RedM directory is the same place that RedM.exe is located.
    reshade-8.png


  3. Select CN_ColorfulRoleplay_1.ini as your preset within the in-game ReShade menu (opened by default with the HOME key).
    reshade-9.png

compare-8-small.png


Customising ReShade for You…
There are a lot of different options within ReShade, and given my… ehem… clunky install process, there’s going to be plenty of them that simply don’t work. The most simple options to play with for first-time users will be things like Colorfulness and Vibrance - both of which can be found by using the search bar at the top of the ReShade menu.
reshade-10.png

As you enable different effects, their individual options will display at the bottom of the ReShade Menu, all of which are collapsable. All tweaked through sliders and numbers, there’s a fair possibility that you will find yourself spending hours tweaking various effects to make things look exactly how you want them to.
reshade-11.png


I've uploaded higher-res before and after images to Imgur for anyone wanting a better look at what this ReShade preset will do to your game.

Which API should I use?
Based on my own testing and some testing from folks here in the Wild West RP Community, I'd suggest using the Vulkan API in order to get the smoothest RedM x ReShade experience. In the majority of cases a Vulkan install works right away, where many of the DirectX and OpenGL installs may require files to be renamed, and things like Steam and Discord overlays to be disabled.
Note: Some players, myself included, have experienced a bug during character creation where the game will crash while scrolling through beards. My current work-around for this is to create a character without a beard, and then go straight to a barber upon spawning in as the barbershop menu does not cause this crash to occur.

Using DirectX
A lot of the troubleshooting steps that I'm using for RedM are based entirely on those used for FiveM; meaning that some work and some don't.

Having installed ReShade using a DirectX API, you will find some additional files inside of your RedM directory.
- Rename dxgi.dll to d3d12.dll
- Disable your in-game Steam Overlay (if enabled)
- Disable your in-game Discord Overlay (if enabled)

I can't guarantee that this method will work for DX12 users. As mentioned previously, I strongly suggest using the Vulkan API as it seems to work much more smoothly. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you need further help!

I know my preset is super vibrant, but honestly that's a look that I adore! I'd love to see screenshots from your own presets if you make any!

Enjoy! :)
 

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Last edited:

Florence Knight

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I dunno about my feelings..... the face looks kinda red from what I can tell, can that be fixed?
 

Antonio Celso

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I was just wondering does this take away any fps? because i dont have the greatest pc and can run rdr2 okay and this looks really cool and something i wanna do but i want to keep my frames from dropping to low
 

Jasper Fields

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I dunno about my feelings..... the face looks kinda red from what I can tell, can that be fixed?
That can be changed with a variety of effects and sliders. Within one of the LUT effects you can turn down the red saturation, or you can simply turn down the overall saturation with the Colorfulness effect.

I was just wondering does this take away any fps? because i dont have the greatest pc and can run rdr2 okay and this looks really cool and something i wanna do but i want to keep my frames from dropping to low
I find I do lose some frames, yes, but the amount lost will depend entirely on how many effects you have running. You could turn off some of the effects in my preset and get a similar look.
 

Kane Mclaine

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got a question reshade loaded the first time i installed it (and i mess with some settings etc. all seemed fine) now it doesn't seem to be is there something i did wrong nothing happens when i press the home button etc.
 

Jasper Fields

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got a question reshade loaded the first time i installed it (and i mess with some settings etc. all seemed fine) now it doesn't seem to be is there something i did wrong nothing happens when i press the home button etc.
I can't say I've heard of this happening to anyone yet, and unfortunately it's not happened to me either so all I can do is guess what might have happened.

If RedM updated it's possible that it may have messed with, or even cleared, the ReShade files from your RedM folder. I know there was a recent update to Red Dead Online, which may have messed with some of your in-game settings - for example, your API setting may have changed to something else, as opposed to the one you picked during the install.

All I can really suggest is to check your RedM folder for the correct files, check your RDO/RedM API settings, and potentially give ReShade an install.
 

Doug McColm

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got a question reshade loaded the first time i installed it (and i mess with some settings etc. all seemed fine) now it doesn't seem to be is there something i did wrong nothing happens when i press the home button etc.

This has happened to me a as well. After the first time I deleted the files from the RedM folder and did a fresh reinstall. Just opened RedM again and no prompt for ReShade and HOME button doesn't open the interface.

I can't say I've heard of this happening to anyone yet, and unfortunately it's not happened to me either so all I can do is guess what might have happened.

If RedM updated it's possible that it may have messed with, or even cleared, the ReShade files from your RedM folder. I know there was a recent update to Red Dead Online, which may have messed with some of your in-game settings - for example, your API setting may have changed to something else, as opposed to the one you picked during the install.

All I can really suggest is to check your RedM folder for the correct files, check your RDO/RedM API settings, and potentially give ReShade an install.

This has happened all on the same day (within an hour the first time). The only thing that seems to work for me is to reinstall but I don't want to believe that's how it's intended to work. As for the API settings, I don't believe anything is changing but I'm really not sure where I would even address that.
 

Kane Mclaine

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Mine started working after a PC restart, meant to say this earlier. Hope it helps folk with a similar issue
 

Tahani

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It doesn't seem to work for me... are all of you using Vulkan or DirectX? Cause I am using DirectX, also choose that API of course, but it won't work or open, when I press the HOME button. Anyone made it work with the same settings I have and might be able to tell me what I do wrong? ^^'
 

Melody Carrington

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It doesn't seem to work for me... are all of you using Vulkan or DirectX? Cause I am using DirectX, also choose that API of course, but it won't work or open, when I press the HOME button. Anyone made it work with the same settings I have and might be able to tell me what I do wrong? ^^'

Did you check the "spoiler: Troubleshooting" text in the original post?

Which API should I use?
Based on my own testing and some testing from folks here in the Wild West RP Community, I'd suggest using the Vulkan API in order to get the smoothest RedM x ReShade experience. In the majority of cases a Vulkan install works right away, where many of the DirectX and OpenGL installs may require files to be renamed, and things like Steam and Discord overlays to be disabled.
Note: Some players, myself included, have experienced a bug during character creation where the game will crash while scrolling through beards. My current work-around for this is to create a character without a beard, and then go straight to a barber upon spawning in as the barbershop menu does not cause this crash to occur.

Using DirectX
A lot of the troubleshooting steps that I'm using for RedM are based entirely on those used for FiveM; meaning that some work and some don't.

Having installed ReShade using a DirectX API, you will find some additional files inside of your RedM directory.
- Rename dxgi.dll to d3d12.dll
- Disable your in-game Steam Overlay (if enabled)
- Disable your in-game Discord Overlay (if enabled)

I can't guarantee that this method will work for DX12 users. As mentioned previously, I strongly suggest using the Vulkan API as it seems to work much more smoothly. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you need further help!
 

Tahani

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Apr 25, 2020
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Yes I did, didn't work.

But now, after I deleted whole reshade and reinstalled it and then did the steps again, it works. No clue why, but well... it works now ^^
 

Ash Conan

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Before trying the below solution make sure that you have tried the
Which API should I use?
Based on my own testing and some testing from folks here in the Wild West RP Community, I'd suggest using the Vulkan API in order to get the smoothest RedM x ReShade experience. In the majority of cases a Vulkan install works right away, where many of the DirectX and OpenGL installs may require files to be renamed, and things like Steam and Discord overlays to be disabled.
Note: Some players, myself included, have experienced a bug during character creation where the game will crash while scrolling through beards. My current work-around for this is to create a character without a beard, and then go straight to a barber upon spawning in as the barbershop menu does not cause this crash to occur.

Using DirectX
A lot of the troubleshooting steps that I'm using for RedM are based entirely on those used for FiveM; meaning that some work and some don't.

Having installed ReShade using a DirectX API, you will find some additional files inside of your RedM directory.
- Rename dxgi.dll to d3d12.dll
- Disable your in-game Steam Overlay (if enabled)
- Disable your in-game Discord Overlay (if enabled)

I can't guarantee that this method will work for DX12 users. As mentioned previously, I strongly suggest using the Vulkan API as it seems to work much more smoothly. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you need further help!
And keep in mind: that the following solution might not work for everyone, or future reshade/redM updates.
I will try my best to keep the link up to to date.

After messing around with couple combination, i have found a solution that worked for couple of people now ,if you wish to skip the details then feel free skip ahead and read
Alternative solution.

What i have found that been working for me and others, is for some reason having DX12 and then installing reShade with DX12 thus creating additional files such as dxgi.dll etc. , then installing reShade again with Vulkan over it, will maintain the files that were installed from DX12 has fixed my problem.
To make matters easier since some people have tried the above said, some lost their files and some did not, i have created a download link that you can click download and extract.
In addition i have also modified the textures path so it does not have to be path specific.


Alternative solution:
1. Make sure you have the graphics API in game set to DX12

2. Download the following shaders zip file

3. Extract the files in your redM folder to where you have it installed, by default its in C:\Users\[YOUR USERNAME]\AppData\Local\RedM. or
any other path that you have chosen before installation

4. Upon launching redM you should see on top that you are able to press home, congratulations we are almost done, now you will face a problem with "reshade unable to save current preset make sure you have write permissions"

to fix that:

4-1. Click on CN_ColorfulRoleplay_1 in reshade in game, and then click the double dots as pictured here:

RedM_eqBltVX9fk.png

This should list you the pathes, go to your redM folder, wherever it is as mentioned in step 3, Copy the path by clicking the path bar as pictured below.
explorer_6D1WtwHYVJ.png
Go back to redM and paste the game path at reshade.

4-2. Now that pasting the path should list you all the ini files, simply chose CN_ColorfulRoleplay_1.

If that did not solve the unable to save preset for you, then proceed below:

1. Simply copy the CN_ColorfulRoleplay_1.ini from C:\Users\[YOUR USERNAME]\AppData\Local\RedM. or from the zip file that you have downloaded.

2.Create another folder and paste the CN_ColorfulRoleplay_1.ini in it.

3. As explained in step 4 above, copy the path of the folder that you have just created instead of redM, and paste it in reShade and select CN_ColorfulRoleplay_1.ini

This should be it, i apologise for any prior confusions, due to my English and/or my horrible formatting.

If you need any help feel free to dm me on Discord.

Due to redM's newest version update, this solution will most likely not work.
Instead, Please make sure you have reShade open while launching the game.
 
Last edited:

Odin Borr

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HI, love the tutorial, and have been using it for some time now.

But, is there an updated one for V5.02?

I've been on the Reshader Discord and got linked to a video for FiveM, following that process get stuck on a black screen when I try to load in on the server.

Yours
Odin
 

Kaahche

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May 19, 2020
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HI, love the tutorial, and have been using it for some time now.

But, is there an updated one for V5.02?

I've been on the Reshader Discord and got linked to a video for FiveM, following that process get stuck on a black screen when I try to load in on the server.

Yours
Odin
With what I've tried and tested with other people, anything V5 is unstable and sorta broken in relation to RedM. I'd recommend staying in any V4 of reshade.