GOG Games Troubleshooting Guide for ReShade 2.0+

I couldn't get several GOG games to work with ReShade 2.0 and newer (2.0+) versions, even though they did work with ReShade 1.1.0. The Steam versions of the same games had no issues working with ReShade 2.0+. Thus, I realized that the issue was purely GOG-related and I was correct.

This guide may limit or disable your GOG Games network/online features (MP, Co-op, etc.), but only if those games heavily rely on GOG Galaxy or GOG-created network. Here's what you do, but you only need to do it to GOG Games that do not work with ReShade 2.0+, even though I do it for ALL my GOG Games:
1. Disable GOG Galaxy items (GalaxyClientServices and GalaxyCommunication) in your Services. To do so press R + Windows Key at the same time, type in Services.msc, press Enter, find the listed GOG services, right-click on each service, select Properties, and then select Disable (NOT Manual) for Startup Type.
2. Restart.
3. Completely uninstall GOG Galaxy and delete the GOG Galaxy installation directory.
4. Remove all GOG-related items from your StartUp and Task Scheduler. You can use CCleaner for that by launching CCleaner, selecting Tools, and then selecting StartUp.
5. Restart your PC.
***Stop at this point and check whether ReShade 2.0+ now works with your GOG Games .If not, the continue following my instructions.***
6. Move (not REmove) the following DLL files, after making a backup of these files, from GOG games directories to somewhere else: DXGI.dll, D3D11.dll, DInput.dll (not sure about it, but my games work flawlessly without it), GalaxyPeer64.dll, GOGGalaxyHooks.dll, GOGGame - XXXXXXXX.dll (XXXXXXXX = whichever game ID numbers). Moving Galaxy.dll or Galaxy64.dll works too sometimes, but some games may request Galaxy.dll or Galaxy64.dll files to be present in the game directory when you launch the game.
7. Just like in Step 6, move ALL GOG-related ICO, INFO, PNG, HashDB, DB, JPG, INI, ShortCut, and other unnecessary files to the directory to which you moved the DLL files in Step 6. It the game won't launch without one or some of these files, then place back only the files it wants - one at a time. There's no reason to keep unnecessary GOG Bloatware in game directories.
***Do not move or delete Uninst files and for some GOG patches to work you may need to place all the moved files back into the game directory, which may over-write your ReShade DXGI.dll, D3D11.dll, or D3D9.dll files, forcing you to re-install ReShade DLL file after patching is complete and all the GOG Bloatware is moved once more.***
8. Restart your PC (just to be sure)
9. Manually (without ReShade Assistant) and completely uninstall ReShade from GOG game directories.
10. Manually (without ReShade Assistant) install ReShade 2.0.3f1 into GOG game directories. Do not paste the entire ReShade folder content into games because you only need 3 items - 1) ReShade sub-folder, 2) ReShade.fx file, 3) Properly renamed ReShade32/ReShade64.dll file.

The GOG games that did not work with ReShade 2.0+ should now work just fine with the latest versions of ReShade! If my little guide limited or disabled your GOG game online capabilities, then you can try launching the game after Step 2 and if using ReShade 2.0+ still fails, then try launching the game after step 5.




P.S. GOG prides itself on installing raw games without any protection, unlike Steam versions. For example, Dying Light Steam EXE is 1.5MB and Dying Light GOG EXE is less than 1MB due to removal of unnecessary code. At the same time GOG games come with GOG Bloatware...

Best solution: don't use galaxy. There are no problems with the standalone installers (eg. Dying Light) of GOG. Even if they come with some useless galaxy related dlls.

brussell wrote: Best solution: don't use galaxy. There are no problems with the standalone installers (eg. Dying Light) of GOG. Even if they come with some useless galaxy related dlls.

In my case, simply uninstalling GOG Galaxy did not solve the issue because, for some reason, both Galaxy services were still running and GOG Galaxy-related files within game directories were the ones activating those services!.

I recommend to AT LEAST remove DXGI.dll and/or D3D11.dll files from game directories because they are mostly used for overlay purposes and can mess with ReShade. Game EXE files load all DLL's within game directories - why would you want to load DLL files that may mess with the game and/or ReShade or just be loaded with no function attached?

Or just don't install Galaxy in the first place and you won't run into trouble withe the game installers at all.

crosire wrote: Or just don't install Galaxy in the first place and you won't run into trouble withe the game installers at all.

Unfortunately Galaxy is also the interface to buy GOG games, as with Steam. Perhaps we can contact them and work for compatibility?

Martigen wrote: Unfortunately Galaxy is also the interface to buy GOG games, as with Steam.

Not necessarily. I use gog.com for that all the time.