Spore Enhanced Graphics Project (SEGP) - Improved graphics in Spore

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TheUltraCube6723
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Spore Enhanced Graphics Project (SEGP) - Improved graphics in Spore

Unread post by TheUltraCube6723 »

Overview

Screenshots (Slightly Outdated, Imgur album)

Please leave behind some feedback so that I know the shader worked for you, and if you liked it!

V2.0 Development Update:
I've been busy implementing some new features, including adaptive bloom and lens-flares. Also developing a fancy Wix site for SEGP, so stay tuned!


Here is a list of all things that will be added in V0.2:
* Many overall changes to many effects, and many contrast/vibrance/tonemapping changes.
* All toggle keys re-keymapped to be more comfortable.
* Alternative contrast (Toggled with Numpad *): A generally more vibrant contrast method compared to Curves (default contrast method, more filmic, toggled with Numpad -)
* Cross Processing (Toggled with Numpad /): Gives the image a minor contrast boost, and gives darker colors a distinctive blue-ish tint)
* A brand new, proper vignette (Toggled with Numpad 1)
* Adaptive Bloom (Toggled with Numpad 6): Basic bloom, but it has a perk, any sudden exposure to bright light, out of a dark area will result in high bloom that eventually fades away into it's normal state. To simulate how your eyes are unused to sudden sunlight.
* Lens flare and God rays (Toggled with Numpad 2): A basic performance-intensive lens flare applied to all very bright/white colors, and Crepuscular rays/God-rays, to simulate light from a bright object sending out light beams around the fine crevices of the object in front of said light source. (EG: Sun beams through leaves)
* Experimental DOF: Super experimental Depth of Field that only works in places where a depth buffer can successfully render (EG: Creature editor).
* Ambient lighting can be toggled now (Numpad 4).
* HDR (Numpad 8): Now changed to heavily increase image brightness.
* Further desaturation: Self explanatory.
* Sharper image: Sharpens the image.


EDIT: Improved installation instructions!

The Spore Enhanced Graphics Project (SEGP for short) is a project by me to improve Spore's graphics through third party post-processing programs.


UPDATE 0.1.0
* New version system arbitrarily starting from 0.1.0
* Intensity of toggle-able desaturation effect decreased
* You can now toggle SMAA with Numpad 6
* You can now toggle increased brightness with Numpad 8
EDIT: Update didn't work, now fixed in 0.1.0b


The SEGP greatly enhances the graphics while still retaining much of the games original appearance.

Do note that despite the improvements in graphics, this comes at a cost of dramatically lower framerates on weaker computers. High-end gaming PC's are highly recommended to run this at a playable framerate, best paired with the 60FPS modification found in the parent (Tutorials) forum/subforum.

Information

Features included (v0.1.0b):
* Blur effect/Tiltshift and Vignette
* SMAA (Anti aliasing) to greatly smoothen the overall image.
* Cinematic desaturation, tonemapping, and contrast changes.
* HDR.
* Adaptive Lighting/Bloom and color based lens effect
* Keys to toggle the shader and a few of its effects (Currently only 6 effects can be toggled, but this is prone to change as future updates comes)
* And a Sepia filter to increase color warmth

Hotkeys
(If these don't work, try pressing the Num lock key)
* Numpad 5 : Toggle Shader.
* Numpad 1 : Toggle Sepia filter - Increases "warmth" of image, hardly noticeable difference but it exists.
* Numpad - : Toggle Contrast.
* Numpad / : Toggles desaturation effect, desaturates the image a bit.
* Numpad 2 : Alternative contrast, it's recommended to disable the normal contrast (Numpad -) before enabling this.
* Numpad 0 : Blur effect/Tiltshift.
* Numpad * : Basic Vignette.
* Numpad 6: Toggle SMAA (if you want a sharper image)
* Numpad 8: Toggle increased brightness (Increases brightness of image without affecting saturation too much)

DISCLAIMER: This "mod" by definition is technically not a mod, that is in form of a package file you place in your Data folder. It is Reshade preset. It is also intended to be played with max graphics.


Installation Instructions
Downloading Reshade and locating your Sporebin folder

First of all, go to Reshade.me, scroll down and click Download. Once you downloaded the Reshade_Setup_3.0.6 exe, place it on your desktop or a folder of your choice.

In order to install the mod, you will need to find the Sporebin folder. To do that, search "Sporeapp.exe" (if you have GA, use the one with the GA icon), and click "Open File Location".


IMPORTANT: It is heavily recommended that you backup your Sporebin folder before installing this mod, in case you want to uninstall Reshade.

Installation

Open up the .exe file you just downloaded, and click "Select game". Select SporeApp.exe and select Direct3D 8/9.
If it says "Do you wish to download a collection of standard effects from https://github.com/crosire/reshade-shaders? click Yes and when an effects list opens up, click OK.

Now download this file and place it in your Sporebin folder, it will download as a .txt file. But you must change it to be a .ini file (File should be segp(exampleversion).ini)

Setup
Now, open up Spore, and wait for the shaders to load. (Note: this will happen on every startup until you uninstall Reshade)

Press Shift + F2 ingame and follow the tutorial. Create an example shader of any name. And then in the drop-down menu and select SEGP(version).ini. Your shaders should be active now!

Once you finished making desired changes to the shader, click "Settings" near the "Home" tab and change "Configuration mode" to "Performance mode" for a performance boost, at the cost of being unable to tweak the shader.


FAQ and Troubleshooting
* Q: Does SEGP work on all versions of spore? -
A: Yes, by all versions I mean the expansion packs and patches.

* Q: Does it work on Mac? -
A: I believe yes, use the Data folder location guide to find the Sporebin folder, as both are located in the same folder, the tutorial was made for Windows, however.

* Q: Help! My shader doesn't work! -
A: Did you follow the tutorial correctly?

* Q: I can't toggle the shader or its effects! -
A: Try pressing the Num lock key.

* Q: What if I don't have Numpad keys or they don't work?/I want to change the Shader effect toggle keybinds! -
A: You can easily toggle the shader or its effects by pressing Shift+F2 ingame and opening up the Home page, which contains the list of all shaders. Press the blue boxes near them to toggle them, or reassign them to different keys of your choice.

* Q: My game is really slow when shaders are enabled! -
A: Try setting your battery mode to High Performance, following the tutorial on getting 60FPS in Spore, and assigning Spore to your dedicated graphics card (if you have one) and not the one integrated into your CPU.

SEGP is meant for beefy gaming computers, if you don't have one, don't expect the shaders to run at a playable framerate.
Last edited by TheUltraCube6723 on Fri Jun 23, 2017 12:37 pm, edited 10 times in total.


Just another fellow user.

It's possible to improve Spore's graphics using Reshade. I'm planning a V0.2 public release soon
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Shattered
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Re: Spore Enhanced Graphics Project (SEGP) - Improved graphics in Spore!

Unread post by Shattered »

going to use this later..
I have a really good PC for this.
Thanks for killing me
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InfurnoHD
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Re: Spore Enhanced Graphics Project (SEGP) - Improved graphics in Spore

Unread post by InfurnoHD »

Hi. I cant select the preset in the shaders HUD ingame. Any ideas? I can hover over it but not select it. I can select the default presets and any i create.
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Spikiii
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Re: Spore Enhanced Graphics Project (SEGP) - Improved graphics in Spore

Unread post by Spikiii »

Heya! I have no idea if this project is still active, but while trying to set up my own Reshade setup for Spore, I found a trick that lets Reshade successfully grab Spore's depth buffer (at least, in the creature stage).

If you set the DOF in Spore's menu to 'Low' (causes flickering in depth buffer if not), and then enable the 'Copy depth buffer before clear operations' feature in Reshade, you should be able to successfully get the depth buffers.

Hope this helps with the project!
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