Introducing: Easy Troubleshooting

INDEX
  INSTALLATION
    Requirements
    API
    Reshade not working
    Crash on startup
    Unable to download archive
    Reshade detected as virus
    Uninstall

  IN-GAME
    Presets related questions
    Performance related questions
    Changes not being saved
    Origin games related problems
    How to change key binds out of game
    Shaders missing from main tab
    Setting up a value over its limits
    Mouse issues

  SHADERS
    Shaders load order
    Depth - based shaders don't work
    Shaders messing with HUD
    Shaders settings
    How to control shaders opacity
    Extra Shaders

Requirements
Windows: Every version from 7 onwards are supported. DirectX End-User Runtimes must be installed.
 Some users reported issues with other versions than windows 10, so this one is highly recommended.
Linux: Seems like ReShade is supported on linux thanks to a recent DXVK update for Wine.
 Make sure you have a Vulkan-compatible GPU.
Mac: ReShade is currently not supported on iOS systems. No updates are planned for that.

About API


  - OpenGL - Vulkan - Direct3D 9 - 10 / 11 / 12. Which one?
During Reshade installation, the setup tool will ask you which rendering API is used by the game.
The setup will try to automatically recognize it and will try to place a check in the box considered the right one.

The automatic identification may still not be correct, thus It is recommended to search online which API the game uses.
You can either check in the ReShade Compatibility List in the "Games" section on top of the page, or by searching the game in the API section of the PC Gaming Wiki.

  - Missing DirectX 8 / 12 - Vulkan options
Experimental DirectX 12 and Vulkan support was introduced respectively in Reshade 4.3.0 and 4.4.0.
If these options are missing in your setup tool, you're using a previous version. Download the updated version from reshade.me

About DirectX 8 games, you'll need crosire's d3d8to9 tool, which you can find in the "Releases" section, on the top of the page.
Download the d3d8.dll, place it in your game folder (where the game .exe is located) and proceed to install Reshade by picking the "Direct3D 9" option.

  - How to install Reshade on even older games?   (Not confirmed yet)
There are some APIs used by older games that need to be converted into ones that Reshade can read, since there is no way to install Reshade directly in those games.
The API we're talking about are:  DirectX (1 to 7), DirectDraw and Glide.
The most common wrapper used to make Reshade compatible with these libraries are DXGL and dgVoodoo2 .
They both should do the job. While DXGL seems to be more efficient, dgVoodoo2 is the only one compatible with Glide APIs.

The installation procedure is the same: You need to install DXGL / dgVoodoo2 before installing Reshade.
Remember that DXGL converts older APIs into OpenGL, while dgVoodoo2 converts them into DirectX 11. So:
DXGL = Choose OpenGL during Reshade installation
dgVoodoo2 = Choose Direct3D 10+ during Reshade installation
(Based on acknowledge's suggestion)

Be aware!
Using this method to apply Reshade into older games might lead to visual / techincal issues, which can affect the integrity of your games.
More about it:


Full JBeckman response: reshade.me/forum/troubleshooting/5227-ea...again?start=20#35005

Reshade not working
If ReShade does not run when you launch your game, it hasn't been installed properly.
Make sure you selected the right game executable, as well as its correct API.
Read the information mentioned above about requirements and APIs, and ensure everything is okay.

Crash on startup
  - Reshade setup tool has stopped working
From reshade 4.4, the setup tool was updated to .NET Framework 4.8
You need to download the latest .NET Framework version in order to make the setup tool work.

  - The game crashes after its launch
There are several reasons that can lead into a crash. First, make sure your ReShade version is up to date.
Take note that any third party software, like MSI Afterburner / RivaTuner, can conflict with ReShade, so try to disable them.
If the game uses DirectX 11, try renaming every  "dxgi"  file to  "d3d11".

Some Anti-Cheat system could detect ReShade as an untrusted software. It often happens when a new ReShade version is released, waiting to be whitelisted. If so, you have to install an older version or, at worst, uninstall ReShade completely.

Unable to download archive
It happens when the setup tool fails to download the standard shaders repository. You can download it by yourself from the official GitHub Repository and place the  "Shaders"  and  "Textures"  folder in your ReShade folder, located in your game path.

Reshade detected as virus
Sometimes ReShade can be identified as a False Positive by some antivirus (typically those using Heuristic Analysis) or even by other protection systems, like Windows Defender or Browsers' anti malwares. Like anti-cheats, also security softwares have to whitelist newest ReShade versions, so it's common to have this problem when a new update is released.
(Based on Wicked Sick's suggestion)

Uninstall
Automatic way: Launch the setup tool and select your game executable. After choosing the API, the setup will ask you to overwrite or uninstall ReShade for that game: click No and you're done.
Manual way: Navigate through your game directory and reach the location of your game executable. You'll find .ini files (ReShade.ini - Preset.ini), .dll files (d3d9.dll / d3d10.dll / d3d11.dll / dxgi.dll / opengl32.dll, depending on the game API) and a "reshade-shaders" folder. Select and delete them all.

Presets related questions
  - What are Presets?
Consider them as casings in the form of text document. They contain all informations about what shaders are used and their settings. An automatic - standard preset (named DefaultPreset.ini) will be created every time you'll install ReShade into a game and you'll start tweaking shaders. To switch preset / create / delete a new one, just use the + , - or the arrow buttons next to the preset setting on top of ReShade's Home page.

  - How to use Presets?
You'll find users - forged presets everywhere out there. Along with Google and YouTube, a sweet place you can rely is SweetFX Database: just click on the obvious "Presets" button on top of every ReShade page and start exploring new horizons!

To load a preset, once you downloaded it, drag it in your game folder. Once in game, you need to select it from the drop down menu, located on top of ReShade's interface, in the Home tab. Make sure you have all the shaders the preset requires in your shader folder.
Also, keep in mind that presets made with outdated ReShade versions will easily not work. If so, search for another updated preset, or downgrade your ReShade version. You can download all previous versions from Mediafire: ReShade Repository .

Performance related questions
  -How does ReShade affect performance?
ReShade is mostly GPU hungry.
Watch how GPU load behaves compared to the other statistics, when ReShade is active:


  - Loading time
Loading times are up to your CPU. The more powerful, the faster the loadings.
Enable Performance Mode when you're done with your preset configuration, as it will definitely speed up compilation by not rendering shaders variables and unused shaders.

  - How to improve performance
Some shaders allows you to set parameters like Quality, Resolution, Samples amount, and so on.
Don't be afraid to tweak them to get a little bit of extra performance in order to get the best quality - performance ratio.
Also, note that some shaders that have the same effect (AdaptiveSharp and LumaSharp, for example, are both Sharpening shaders) are more performance - friendly than others. Try out various shaders to see what fits better for you.

Use LUTs!
If on one hand they require some setup, on the other they can provide awesome grading without using many shaders at the same time, and save some performance accordingly.

LUT Guides:
FierySwordswoman's LUT's: Powerful Color Correction - The Guide
moyevka's The Guide 2 ft. MultiLUT

...And remember to check Performance Mode after you finish configuring your ReShade preset!

Changes not being saved
You need to have writing folder permissions. To give those ones to your account, navigate through your game folder Properties > Security > Edit and check "Full Control" for your user account. Alternatively, you can run the game as administrator every time you want to launch it.

Origin games related problems
If you're facing weird stuff with any Origin game, disable Origin In Game overlay.
How to disable Origin In Game

How to change key binds out of game
If you need to modify the default Home/Pos1 hotkey to toggle ReShade's interface on, without having access to it, you'll have to change it out-of-game.
Navigate to your game's main directory (game .exe location) and open ReShade.ini with any text editor.
Locate KeyOverlay=36,0,0 under the [INPUT] section, and change it to whatever value you desire (on old ReShade versions pre-4.8 this was called KeyMenu instead).

The KeyOverlay line is composed of three numbers, of which each one is separated by a comma.
The first number is the keycode value. The second one defines if ctrl needs to be hold or not (0=no - 1=yes). The last one has the same purpose of the previous one, but it indicates shift.
Google "keycode" for values

References:
KeyOverlay=36,0,0     -  Home/Pos1  -  Actual default keybind
KeyOverlay=113,0,1   -  Shift+F2        -  Previous keybind

If, in your ReShade.ini file, there's no "KeyOverlay=..." line, just manually add it by yourself.
(Based on Crassius Curio's suggestion)

Shaders missing from main tab
Make sure that Shaders are present in your Shaders Folder located in Game Directory > reshade-shaders > Shaders.
If they still won't show up, navigate to the Settings Tab and set your Shaders Folder in "Effect Search Paths".





Setting up a value over its limits
You can set a higher, lower, or even negative value than the predetermined ones by holding Ctrl and clicking on the parameter you want to change. To set a negative one, just add the minus sign ( - ) before the value.

Mouse Issues
  - Mouse is stuck into a certain area of the screen
This happens when the game's resolution is upscaled. Set it to your screen native one to fix this.

  - Unable to move mouse
Some games prevent free mouse movement by steadily resetting its position. You need to get something that lets you use your mouse first when in game, like opening an inventory or going into a pause menu, then you can open ReShade's interface.
Keep in mind that you can also use your keyboard to navigate through the interface.

Keyboard Controls:
Arrow keys: Move
Spacebar: Confirm
Esc button: Undo
Ctrl + Tab: Switch tabs

Shaders load order
Shaders in the Home tab represents the order in which they are loaded. Each shader affects every overlying effects.
Here there's a list with the general rules you should follow for a better shaders ordering you can use as a reference:

 - Effects like Ambient Occlusion or the most recent Ray Traced Global Illumination, must be placed on top.
   You don't want to see effects like Bloom or Fog passing through, or to apply a color grading that does not includes AO or GI.
 - Apply Sharpening filters after Anti-Aliasing ones, and Depth of Field after them.
 - Pay attention to Color Grading shaders, as it should influence effects like Bloom or Ambient Occlusion.
   Place any grading effects after them.
 - Image - Correcting shaders like Deband or Denoise, as well as any Lens - Dirt shaders like Film Grain or Lens Flare, should be placed on bottom.





Depth - based shaders don't work
First of all check ReShade Compatibility List to find out if ReShade works perfectly with a game.
Watch for game's Anti-Aliasing. MSAA, in particular, is well-known for messing up with depth access, so disable it.
Verify that the Depth Texture Format is correct, by navigating to the last interface tab (DX9 / DX11 - depending on the game), in the section " Depth and Intermediate Buffers ".
(Based on Daodan's suggestion)

Besides, remember that ReShade automatically disables depth access in every game that make use of network activity.
So, during online sessions, the depth buffer may flicker or not work completely.

Shaders messing with HUD
This is due to the generic nature of ReShade. Differently from ENB, ReShade has no way to know when to apply a certain effect during the rendering of the game, so it applies them after the image is completely displayed on the screen.

Unfortunately there's no definitive way to fix this. You can use UIMask.fx to prevent one or more shader from being applied in certain areas of the screen, or UIDetect.fx to toggle off shaders when a predetermined image is detected. You can also hide this unwanted effect as much as you can by playing with values like intensity, blending and fade distance, depending on the shader.

  - MXAO is flipped / darkens the whole scene

You have to change the Preprocessor Definitions.
In the first case edit RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_UPSIDE_DOWN,
in the second one change RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED.
To modify them, click on "Edit global preprocessor definitions" in the Home tab of ReShade interface and invert the value.
(0 and 1 are the only acceptable values.)

  - FXAA / SMAA distort text
ReShade Anti-Aliasing techniques work on the entire screen. That's why texts, as well as other elements, are being altered.
To fix this, if you have depth access, use SMAA in depth mode.
Otherwise, play with each shader's settings to reduce its influence on unwanted elements.

Shaders settings
Some shaders options might not be displayed among configurable values.
To activate these settings, click on Edit Global Preprocessor Definitions, then add there your interested value.
(Example: if you wanna switch to the new MartyMcFly's Ambient Occlusion algorithm, type MXAO_HQ 1)

How to control shaders opacity
Some Shaders allows you to edit their Intensity by playing with their settings, some others don't.
Though there's not an official way to "reduce shaders opacity" through ReShade interface, I managed to achieve this by making some tweaks.
Basically we'll use a mask for a specific shaders and we'll make it cover the entire screen.

First of all you'll need the effect UIMask to be present in your Shaders Folder ( Game Directory > reshade-shaders > Shaders ), so check this Shader during ReShade installation.
UIMask shader comes with a sample texture called UIMask.png, located in the Texture Folder ( Game Directory > reshade-shaders > Textures ). Open this one with an image editor software and fill it completely with Black ( or download a full black image from google and rename it UIMask.png, after all it's the result that counts ).

Once all's set, launch your game, open ReShade interface and drag your interested Shader between UIMask_Top and UIMask_Bottom. In this way it will limit its effectiveness just to that specific shader (watch the image below to see the load order).
To increase or decrease the opacity, just move the slider "Mask Intensity" as you want.





Extra Shaders
The standard Shaders Repository does not contain all the authors' effects. Extra shaders are located in their own storages.
Unfortunately, due to the Forum limits, I couldn't directly place here the list containing all links, so I switched to Pastelink.
If I forgot to mention someone, please report it to me with a reply.

List for shaders not on Standard Repository

The list is sorted alphabetically according to the authors' names.

Awesome! Stickied. (Note: your image hoster redirects through cloudflare's browser check which causes the images to not show up. I'd suggest something like imgur instead).

Thanks! Appreciated.
Images should be fixed, hope they work now.

One suggestion for DEPTH DEPENDENT SHADERS DON'T WORK: also check the (DX9)/DX11 tab to see if the wrong texture is selected.

Added. Thanks for feedback!

Durante, you could go over about false positives, man. This should help because it always comes up with every new update.

Congratulations in making this thread, I am sure this will help a lot of people and provide answers to questions before they are even asked haha

Also, thanks for the other shaders, I was missing two from those links.

Section Added. Thanks for all!

No problem, man. Glad to help with that suggestion.

About the GitHubs, there is also Fuba's. Do you think he would mind putting his in that list?

github.com/Fubaxiusz/fubax-shaders/

I hope not. I'll add it to enrich the guide
In case he or anyone else, for whatever reason, didn't like their repositories to be on that list, I will remove them accordingly.

Anyway, thanks for reporting!

so I am trying to use reshade with Star Wars: Knights of the old republic and in the compatibility on this website it says it works perfectly and I click on the OpenGL (which is what it should be to install correctly) but it doesn't work I get to the title screen and it has what I assume is resahde as another game and then Kotor as the actual game but both of them have black screens and after a little while the reshade just closes and then I am able to play normally with any mods I have had and what not but I have spent hours now almost days trying to fix this problem and haven't found anything that has worked yet so please, if you can, help me.

@Crosire, i find this guide so usefull, what do you think about adding a link to it on the Reshade's web site ?

It is linked on the home page right below the download button already.

crosire wrote: It is linked on the home page right below the download button already.

Oh, didn't noticed that Thks a lot...

I didn't either and the fact that we missed it suggests it's not obvious to users.
The people the need the help the most are the people that don't read the fine instructions, so it should be SUPER obvious.

I suggest making another tab to the website (at the top) that says Help which takes you to this guide directly.

@Durante this forum scales down your gifs which ruins the quality. I suggest looking at what resolution they become when you click them and then making new gifs at that resolution so they are not scaled down.

Also why gifs when you can use video?

P.S. The awful bayer dithering triggers me. I know it was probably either the provider or imgur that added this but it hurts my eyes.

@CeeJay.dk. Your suggestion could be a solution, we'll wait crosire's response.

Edit: Never mind, I just noticed the big obvious "FAQ" new button on top.
[hr]The dithering, kindly offered by imgur's algorithm, should be a sort of gifs optimizer. Add to that the forum's downscaling and you'll get that triggering result. I should definitely switch to videos (don't ask me why I never thought about it before...).
Cleverly, I didn't backup original shots, so I'll have to recreate them from scratch!  yaay...

Happy to see you came back to the forum after months, anyway.

Hi Duran.te, thanks for all the effort!
And will you please consider adding some info regardding use ReShade on ancient games(DDraw, Glide, etc )?