ReShade Mediator

Do you have to select a "Game Profile" in "ReShade Setup" every time before you start a different game with different settings (shaders) or can you store a specific profile for a specific game?

Game profiles you create for tracking installation and uninstallation of the ReShade binary + link into the games folder. Also it stores the last configuration you used with the game (so a separate preset for each game that will be loaded whenever you select its profile).

If you start game X but you have game Y profile activated, game X will run with game Y profile.

If you have no profile selected but made some configuration or loaded a preset and run game X then that game will run with that current configuration.

Its just important to create game profiles at the beginning cause it is the installation of ReShade for that specific game.

Is this behavior going to change in the future? I'd rather not have to run Mediator and select a profile every time I want to run a game. How about an install/uninstall permanently option which would copy the necessary reshade files to the game folder, overwriting the CFG files with the profile created versions. The idea being that you would use the existing design to finalize your settings and then permanent install...

I created a separate app to do exactly what I was asking for. You can get it here .

The current/orginally idea was to have everyting centralized in one location and manage different app profiles from there. This helps with inconsistencies and redundancies.
As soon as you want to decentralize it again you will get back those two issues. However, if its useful I can at least try to add an option that lets you still manage decentralized profiles (copies) from one location together with the centralized ones. (Have to think about a clever way to do it though first )

The centralized idea is exactly what I would like, I just don't want the extra step of choosing a profile first. I realize my idea/program does exactly what you were trying to avoid but it doesn't exactly decentralize it, it just adds an install/uninstall. If you can figure out some way to keep everything or mostly everything in the reshade folder without having to change profiles, that would be awesome. Maybe some trickery with file softlinks?

My idea for mediator was not so much as having two copies but to simply add a 'Install Standalone' option. Using this idea, you could switch the Reshade.fx from an actual file to a lnk file and it would point to the centralized folder again. You make your changes and update, it copies all the files back over and switches the lnk file back to an actual file - it all being optional of course.

This was exactly what I was trying to get across. I obviously am lacking in the ability to make myself understood (I am not being facetious, I am quite serious).

Yeah, a local copy for each app will always be an option and if we split everything in levels then this is the Level 3 solution where each copy has its own mediator.

Level 2 would be a copy that can still be managed from one central mediator.

Level 1 would have everything centralized with the help of the links.

From trivial solution on Level 3 it gets more complicated towards Level 1. Have to find a layout and solution that can support it lets see!

A local copy of mediator for each game? Unless I've missed another conversation somewhere, that's not what I was suggesting. Just an install/uninstall button: copies/removes the profile CFGs plus the required files for reshade to function to the game folder if you want, that's all - Everything is still done within one centralized copy of Mediator.

That was what I was suggesting anyway....

Level 1 is the goal, level 2 is what you suggested, level 3 is the most trivial solution. I just listed them

I had a problem kind of similar to this stuff.
Basically I have a preset for ESO and a preset for VLC.

My ESO preset is designed only for ESO and the VLC one is a few small things like sharpening.
If I switch to VLC preset, ESO on next launch runs VLC preset. Vice-versa the same issue occurs with VLC player running ESO preset.
I want the Mediator to remember the VLC preset and the ESO preset without me telling it to use it, like how it used to work with manual installations.
I don't use global presets for games, I always have a individual preset per game. So it's problematic because the presets don't work for both usages.
Unless I'm missing a Mediator function, even when just selecting ESO to change global presets it would switch the VLC player one to the last one ESO used too.

At the momment I only use Mediator for ESO and everything else is a manual installation because of the mentioned issue. It's just really annoying changing presets constantly when I'm used to games automatically using the preset I designed for them (because it's in the game .exe location)
Maybe there's a way to make games use individual presets without me having to open mediator and choose it before game launch. I don't know.

edit: Actually I just thought of having multiple mediator installations to remedy this issue but that's a work-around

It is still possible to use the Framework just like before, without using the mediator at all and modifying the config files manually. It is also possible to use the mediator solely as a configurator for each individual game. Using it centralized is only a new option but it might that some people forgot that

Anyway, back on topic, I thought a lot about possible solutions and found one (which might be the only one) to make a Level 1 solution possible. However, be aware that you will also loose the advantage of simply using a profile configuration of one app for another app without creating a global preset.
This solution is still in theory so I need to implement it first and see how and if it works

I'm pretty okay with:

be aware that you will also loose the advantage of simply using a profile configuration of one app for another app without creating a global preset.

if that means I can have individual presets for games via the centralized mediator I'm okay with an extra step of making a Global Preset like "Sharpening/vibrance/dither" and then just applying it to multiple games.

Okay, will keep you updated here about the progress

So my Level 1 approach works so far and lets applications use a somewhat ReShade shadow within their profiles.

Pros:
- users can swap applications without changing the current profile in the mediator
- no real redundancy

Note:
- to modify settings in the mediator, the user still has to select the specific app profile first

Cons:
- changing source files (not .cfg file) will not trigger recompilation of ReShade and therefore make it harder for developers (possible solution is to allow a developer link which is what we currently have and the new user link)