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a subtle hack UI Mask

  • Posts: 15
11 months 3 weeks ago - 11 months 3 weeks ago #1 by UTwelve
a hack UI Mask
Working in FF14. so，maybe other games will work too...
so subtle,you need to try，I can't guarantee anything. :unsure:

There are three in the list，is order
  • HackUIMask ←top
  • ** other fx **
  • HackUICut ←is a UI black mask，avoid UI impact on next FX
  • **other fx **
  • HackUIRestore ←end

HackUImask.fx

Warning: Spoiler! [ Click to expand ]
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  • Posts: 15
11 months 3 weeks ago #2 by UTwelve
other game
Warning: Spoiler! [ Click to expand ]
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  • Posts: 67
8 months 4 days ago - 8 months 1 day ago #3 by aaronth07
Probably a stupid question, but how is this different from the already existing UI mask that comes with Reshade?

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  • Posts: 176
8 months 4 days ago #4 by Daodan

aaronth07 wrote: Probably a stupid question


Not at all. In some games the UI is visible in the alpha component of the backbuffer. With that it is possible to create a UI mask at runtime (i.e. a mask that automatically adapts to the UI). As far as i know UIMask.fx masks the UI based on an image you provide and UIDetect.fx can bypass other effects (DOF for example) based on the color of certain pixels.

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  • Posts: 90
8 months 4 days ago #5 by Scorpio82CO
can be used to respect fog and lightning effects.. i.e. bypass the mxao shader or rtgi shader?

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8 months 4 days ago #6 by dddfault
unfortunately no

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  • Posts: 12
6 months 3 weeks ago - 6 months 3 weeks ago #7 by peronmls
honestly Would there ever be such a fix? It's the only thing really bad with reshade. I never understood why the dev's never try to fix it but can release more advanced shaders like raytracing that will just obscure any HUD on screen. That's the only immersion breaking reshade does for me.

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6 months 3 weeks ago #8 by Marty McFly

peronmls wrote: honestly Would there ever be such a fix? It's the only thing really bad with reshade. I never understood why the dev's never try to fix it but can release more advanced shaders like raytracing that will just obscure any HUD on screen. That's the only immersion breaking reshade does for me.


Doubtable that it'll ever happen. Each game renders their UI in a different way, different elements and so on. It would defeat the purpose of ReShade to manage things on a game to game level. It also can't be done perfectly with a shader either as UI elements are so diverse, detecting them with any sort of failsafe heuristic is impossible. Also it's not possible to restore data obscured by the UI, so effects that would require such data cannot be fixed, even if the UI was detected perfectly.
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  • Posts: 455
6 months 3 weeks ago #9 by Martigen

Marty McFly wrote:

peronmls wrote: honestly Would there ever be such a fix? It's the only thing really bad with reshade. I never understood why the dev's never try to fix it but can release more advanced shaders like raytracing that will just obscure any HUD on screen. That's the only immersion breaking reshade does for me.


Doubtable that it'll ever happen. Each game renders their UI in a different way, different elements and so on. It would defeat the purpose of ReShade to manage things on a game to game level. It also can't be done perfectly with a shader either as UI elements are so diverse, detecting them with any sort of failsafe heuristic is impossible. Also it's not possible to restore data obscured by the UI, so effects that would require such data cannot be fixed, even if the UI was detected perfectly.

But isn't this exactly what the shader posted in the OP is doing? It's not even using a texture as an overlay, so it seems to be doing it on the fly. I haven't tried the shader yet but it's intriguing.

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6 months 3 weeks ago #10 by Marty McFly
It uses the alpha channel of the backbuffer before any rendering happened. By chance, FF14 draws the UI mask into alpha channel, so you have info where UI is and where not. No other game I know of does this, and thus you'd have to infer from the screen colors, a failsafe method is impossible that way. Plus you cannot restore data behind the UI, that's why this shader masks it with black to mask it from future effects that might smear it beyond the UI mask borders.

Also, transparent effects, what the person above asked for, is completely impossible. Just because our eyes can discern what's a transparent object does not mean that a shader can.
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  • Posts: 455
6 months 3 weeks ago #11 by Martigen

Marty McFly wrote: It uses the alpha channel of the backbuffer before any rendering happened. By chance, FF14 draws the UI mask into alpha channel, so you have info where UI is and where not. No other game I know of does this, and thus you'd have to infer from the screen colors, a failsafe method is impossible that way. Plus you cannot restore data behind the UI, that's why this shader masks it with black to mask it from future effects that might smear it beyond the UI mask borders.

Also, transparent effects, what the person above asked for, is completely impossible. Just because our eyes can discern what's a transparent object does not mean that a shader can.

Cool, thanks for explaining Marty :)
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  • Posts: 87
4 months 3 weeks ago #12 by Niko of Death
Omega Force games all display the UI in the depth buffer (as an example, here's Warriors Orochi 4's: i.imgur.com/vU2yFLL.png ), and I have long hoped this could be used for automatic UI masking. Would it be possible/easy to adapt your shader to use this information to create a UI mask?

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  • Posts: 3740
4 months 3 weeks ago - 4 months 3 weeks ago #13 by crosire
Should be pretty simple to do by replacing this line: github.com/UTwelve/Reshade-shaders/blob/...a2/HackUImask.fx#L44 
float4 UIMask = tex2D(ReShade::BackBuffer, texcoord).a;
with this:
float4 UIMask = tex2D(ReShade::DepthBuffer, texcoord).x == 0.0;
Provided that the depth value at the UI is indeed 0.0 (which I assumed based on the pictures). This will just create a mask that masks out all parts of the screen which have a depth value of 0.0.
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  • Posts: 87
4 months 3 weeks ago #14 by Niko of Death
That worked, thanks (just had to change 0.0 to 1.0 since the depth was reversed)
i.imgur.com/hcwTlLq.png

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  • Posts: 3
3 weeks 2 days ago #15 by Radstark
Can confirm it also works on DCUO. Awesome!

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