Marty McFly's Ambient Obscurance (MXAO) with IL

Skyrim's depth buffer twitches randomly all the time, better use ENB AO.

Running Reshade 3.03 in SWG (Star Wars Galaxies) dx9, and having a small problem with MXAO. I was running HBAO in Reshade 1 + SweetFX 2 without problems, but 3 is giving me issues. The MXAO will randomly flick off for a second or two intermittently, even when not moving the character or camera. Sometimes it flickers a few times every minute, then other times it will go for hours perfectly without noticing any flicker. So far I haven't found any specific state, location or other that causes the issue. Looks great when working, but the the constant on/off makes it unusable for me. Any suggestions?

Hmm See you sure that it is not a depth buffer issue? The algorithm of MXAO does the same every frame so when it looks fine in one moment and not in another, input must be the issue. To test that, enable a strong DOF for testing purposes (not the fastDOF). If it switches to maximum blur or no blur at all at the same rate as the MXAO flickering, then you have your problem. If that's the case however, that's nothing a shader edit can fix.

Marty McFly wrote: Hmm See you sure that it is not a depth buffer issue? The algorithm of MXAO does the same every frame so when it looks fine in one moment and not in another, input must be the issue. To test that, enable a strong DOF for testing purposes (not the fastDOF). If it switches to maximum blur or no blur at all at the same rate as the MXAO flickering, then you have your problem. If that's the case however, that's nothing a shader edit can fix.

If as you say it's a depth-buffer issue, why would the HBAO I used previously work fine in that case? When I go back to the old Reshade, the HBAO still works fine. I will try the DOF when I can.

Edit: Tried all the DOF settings, and none of them flicker on/off at all. However, I can still see the MXAO going on and off with the DOF enabled.

Anach wrote:

Marty McFly wrote: Hmm See you sure that it is not a depth buffer issue? The algorithm of MXAO does the same every frame so when it looks fine in one moment and not in another, input must be the issue. To test that, enable a strong DOF for testing purposes (not the fastDOF). If it switches to maximum blur or no blur at all at the same rate as the MXAO flickering, then you have your problem. If that's the case however, that's nothing a shader edit can fix.

If as you say it's a depth-buffer issue, why would the HBAO I used previously work fine in that case? When I go back to the old Reshade, the HBAO still works fine. I will try the DOF when I can.

Edit: Tried all the DOF settings, and none of them flicker on/off at all. However, I can still see the MXAO going on and off with the DOF enabled.

I think MXAO is injected later. Driver Hbao is injected earlier. You even edit a dll with hex editor how the hbao shall behave. A good example for me is Deus Ex human revolution. Where Mxao only works in the pause menu. I use a hex edited hbao where I put. Dll file that handles the hbao. Took me like 3 years to set that up

I have games where Reshade has no connection to the depth buffer. Where I can use custom Hbao without problems. Though the Hbao can be a bit cheaper. Sometimes there are tons of artifacts

Oh...Driver HBAO. How am I supposed to know. That's HBAO+, ReShade Framework had HBAO (the predecessor of HBAO+ which I also ported but cannot release due to license). Also ,different ReShade versions might have influences on depth buffer recognition. With the DOF...uhm...how about this: at the almost very end of the file, add a line like shown:

Now you should see depth buffer output. See if that one randomly flickers.

Marty McFly wrote: Oh...Driver HBAO. How am I supposed to know. That's HBAO+, ReShade Framework had HBAO (the predecessor of HBAO+ which I also ported but cannot release due to license). Also ,different ReShade versions might have influences on depth buffer recognition. With the DOF...uhm...how about this: at the almost very end of the file, add a line like shown:

if (bMXAODebugViewEnable)
	{
		if (bMXAOIndirectLightingEnable)
		{	
			color.xyz = (texcoord.x > 0.5) ? mxao.xyz : 1-mxao.w;
		}
		else
		{
			color.xyz = 1-mxao.w;
		}
	}
color = GetLinearDepth(texcoord.xy); //ADD THIS
res = color;

Now you should see depth buffer output. See if that one randomly flickers.

It still flicks on and off randomly. I didn't notice it when in an interior, but exterior definitely flicked on and off almost as soon as I went outside. Also looked like this: imgur.com/a/EZpDe

Anach wrote: Running Reshade 3.03 in SWG (Star Wars Galaxies) dx9, and having a small problem with MXAO. I was running HBAO in Reshade 1 + SweetFX 2 without problems, but 3 is giving me issues. The MXAO will randomly flick off for a second or two intermittently, even when not moving the character or camera. Sometimes it flickers a few times every minute, then other times it will go for hours perfectly without noticing any flicker. So far I haven't found any specific state, location or other that causes the issue. Looks great when working, but the the constant on/off makes it unusable for me. Any suggestions?

SWG is an MMO. ReShade will disable the depth buffer when it detects network activity. That is most likely why you are seeing flickering.

Ioxa wrote: SWG is an MMO. ReShade will disable the depth buffer when it detects network activity. That is most likely why you are seeing flickering.

So you're saying we can't use the new Reshade in anything with network activity?

This is nothing new at all. ReShade has always blocked access to the depth buffer in online games to prevent exploitation, since the very beginning.

crosire wrote: This is nothing new at all. ReShade has always blocked access to the depth buffer in online games to prevent exploitation, since the very beginning.

Well that is a real shame that I have to go back to the old Reshade+SweetFX, just for Ambient Occlusion to work. Everything else works great in 3.0, except AO, and the difference that AO adds to the game, I don't think I can live without it.

???? This is the same in ReShade + SweetFX as well. ReShade + SweetFX doesn't even have any AO ............. If you use driver AO then continue to use it alongside ReShade 3.0. You don't have to use MXAO instead just because it exists. You're arguing doesn't make any sense?

Hey Marty, is the new version 1.5.7r available for the Framework?

And if you don't mind write a changelog.

crosire wrote: ???? This is the same in ReShade + SweetFX as well. ReShade + SweetFX doesn't even have any AO ............. If you use driver AO then continue to use it alongside ReShade 3.0. You don't have to use MXAO instead just because it exists. You're arguing doesn't make any sense?

I never said I use Driver AO, this someone else was talking about that, not me. Rather than reading my previous posts of the initial issue, you appear to be assuming the issue from the comment above. So to reiterate; I have been using HBAO in Reshade+SweetFX, and I never had a problem with HBAO in Reshade + SweetFX. Everything works fine. However, in Reshade 3.0, everything works, including DOF, except for MXAO, which has the flicker problem. The only problem I have is that MXAO will intermittently turn off and on every few seconds, when moving or otherwise.

Anach wrote:

crosire wrote: ???? This is the same in ReShade + SweetFX as well. ReShade + SweetFX doesn't even have any AO ............. If you use driver AO then continue to use it alongside ReShade 3.0. You don't have to use MXAO instead just because it exists. You're arguing doesn't make any sense?

I never said I use Driver AO, this someone else was talking about that, not me. Rather than reading my previous posts of the initial issue, you appear to be assuming the issue from the comment above. So to reiterate; I have been using HBAO in Reshade+SweetFX, and I never had a problem with HBAO in Reshade + SweetFX. Everything works fine. However, in Reshade 3.0, everything works, including DOF, except for MXAO, which has the flicker problem. The only problem I have is that MXAO will intermittently turn off and on every few seconds, when moving or otherwise.

Turn on logarithmic and reversed depth to fix your AO problem and if you don't know how, do as crosire said here :

Abby wrote: Hey Marty, is the new version 1.5.7r available for the Framework?

And if you don't mind write a changelog.

Hi all
I'm trying to install the new 1.5.7r version but everytime i run a game I get an error saying "there were some error compiling the shaders". Basically I just copied the new version in the shader folder in the reshade-shaders folder and renamed it to mxao.fx. Can anyone help me?
Thanks a lot

Abby wrote:

Anach wrote:

crosire wrote: ???? This is the same in ReShade + SweetFX as well. ReShade + SweetFX doesn't even have any AO ............. If you use driver AO then continue to use it alongside ReShade 3.0. You don't have to use MXAO instead just because it exists. You're arguing doesn't make any sense?

I never said I use Driver AO, this someone else was talking about that, not me. Rather than reading my previous posts of the initial issue, you appear to be assuming the issue from the comment above. So to reiterate; I have been using HBAO in Reshade+SweetFX, and I never had a problem with HBAO in Reshade + SweetFX. Everything works fine. However, in Reshade 3.0, everything works, including DOF, except for MXAO, which has the flicker problem. The only problem I have is that MXAO will intermittently turn off and on every few seconds, when moving or otherwise.

Turn on logarithmic and reversed depth to fix your AO problem and if you don't know how, do as crosire said here :

Warning: Spoiler!

crosire wrote: There is no Global.cfg in ReShade 3.0. You go to the settings tab and will see the respective values under "Preprocessor definitions". Make sure you hit the reload button afterwards.

Thanks for the reply Abby. Unfortunately messing with any/all of the preprocessor definitions will cause various funky things to happen to the shadows. Oddly, after reloading various changes to the settings, the AO has been a lot more stable than it usually is. I've only had the effect flick off/on a couple times in 10 minutes, where normally its a constant off/on every few seconds. Also it only seems to happen when outdoors; so far inside structures I have never noticed the effect turn off.

This shaderfile for 1.5.7 is for ReShade 2.0 hence it maybe won't work on ReShade 3.0. A port will happen in due time, the only thing that currently happens is that for some reason, using same texture or sampler names in different shaderfiles seems to affect each other. There is a weird bug I encountered on GTAV where using texNormal and SamplerNormal as names didn't work ,texture was empty even though a pass filled it. Renaming it to an arbitrary name worked though so I might have to find unique names for all textures.

Abby, I have been writing what changed from version to version on each announcement of a new version, I think that's enough. Can move that to front page though.if you're interested which versions between received which changes, I changed a lot back and forth without keeping track, I mostly incremented the numbers for the beta testers.

I look forward to new version. I liked the new debug presentation, also my results where very good in the games tried it in.

Are you still working on the smoothed normals, it seams that it's not included in 1.5.7r?