Overview
This is an updated version of Jinx’s (How to add) Scanlines guide to Freedom Planet.
Introduction
Firstly, thanks goes out to Jinx for the original guide of how to add CRT style scanlines to freedom planet using SweetFX. I will refer to his original guide here which has inspired this guide and outlines some of what we will be covering which will essentially be transforming something a little like this…:
Without
With
If you didn’t know, this game had been updated to use OpenGL handling (build 1.20.3) unlike how it used to be handled. Because of this, it had changed the method in which we must deploy SweetFX to get scanlines to display… Simply put, the hook from the original method was different enough that the SweetFX configurator which the older guide revolved around will no longer work (as far as I’m aware). So the best way to address this while keeping it simple & keeping the context of the original guide relevant was to use Reshade as well as sweetFX2.0 instead.
Nothing is ‘wrong’ with the original guide, Jinx himself recommended to use it with the older version of the game (1.20.2) in order for it to be effective & while he is correct… this is something which I didn’t personally agree with encouraging because it meant playing an outdated version of the game.
(NOTE: Jinx’s original guide should work again as of v1.20.4 of the game due to the developers returning to using DX9 runtime)… You can either continue on here and get the benefit of OpenGL support from the Reshade injector or you can follow Jinx’s original procedure. Either way… both guides are now working at this time of writing.
I appreciated the AdvancedCRT settings Jinx shared but wanted to play the latest build of the game & so OpenGL support was needed. After a while of experimenting and reading around I was able to get the best of both worlds getting it working correctly. I found the default settings were very dark. My aim was to play on an LCD tv with a CRT style look & feel, I found that regardless of the changes within the game core; the information in the original guide was still pretty-much very relevant… yet, ironically quite different. Because of this, I tried to reach out to Jinx to share my own findings and make some suggestions about how he could update/Improve his guide… but I couldn’t reach him.
We should use a similar method to what was used in the original guide to give us the scanlines we desire but I have decided that we should employ a different method for application as it should be relatively easy to create an updated, more noob friendly tutorial based off Jinx’s original without any misconceptions occurring between the ‘old’ SweetFX, the Reshade & SweetFX2.0 programs. Hopefully because of the differences involved this will save people the confusion between multiple different methods, different programs, different versions of the game & hopefully to stop people getting mixed up & spreading misinformation all over the place in one guide.
Both methods work in similar ways & will add additional files into the game directory. In which, the layouts are different & because of this; the suggestions presented here are in order to try & keep all of the information both in the original guide and here to be as relevant, up to date & precise as possible.
I ended up writing this standalone, yet complimentary guide to serve anyone wanting to do this from scratch on a fresh install of any version of the game. Following these instructions ‘should’ also work outside of this game; however, this guide was written particularly with Freedom Planet in mind & so I have streamlined the guide for this particular game. Note that if you wish to use Reshade with SweetFX2.0 applications for anything else you can do so, but please be aware of the differences while selecting your file/folders @steps 6 & 7 of the Step by Step Instructions section of this guide.
The original guide still serves some excellent information which can definitely help make you more familiar if/when fine tuning the settings file that is used here with this guide. I will somewhat cover that a little more in-depth in the final chapter… Fine Tuning SweetFX2.0.
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The Information presented here is to be taken AS/IS & is what has worked for me to run freedom planet with Reshade. It might not work for you… but if you try it, you acknowledge that you do so at your own risk.
GalaxyTrails are NOT responsible if anything goes wrong while following this guide.
I have no affiliation with Reshade, SweetFX &/or the GalaxyTrails teams.
By following this guide you acknowledge that if you mess anything up it is you that messed it up & not me. I am NOT responsible if anything goes wrong while following this guide.
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OK, Now with all that boring stuff been said ~ Lets get to it…
NVIDIA user
Big thanks goes out to Phazon for confirming that this does indeed work fine with NVIDIA cards & also for pointing out that NVIDIA users will have to update graphics drivers to version 347.9 or above. Otherwise, a bug exists where the colors are inverted while running OpenGL in ReShade.
If you wish to follow this guide and are an NVIDIA user, please be advised that your graphics drivers are upto date. You can get the latest NVIDIA drivers here[www.nvidia.com]
I’m using an AMD GPU here and this problem doesn’t affect me.
It is however generally best advised to keep your graphics card drivers up to date for use with this application… The driver will differ depending on the type of hardware in the card you’re using.
You can quickly and easily check the hardware in Device Manager /under Display Adapters.
General Tips (Monitors & Refresh Rates)
General tips I would like to share before we get started is to make sure that your screen resolution is set to windows recommended or the maximum possible for the display you are using and the refresh rate is set to 60Hertz or the maximum possible for your monitor refresh… You can set them like so: (Right click desktop) Screen resolution also Screen resolution/Advanced settings/Monitor/
You can see I have 2 monitors connected.
Output 1 = COMPUTER> HDMI->TV=1280×720
Output 2 = COMP_PROJECTOR>DVI->Dell Monitor=1440×900
If duplicate screens are turned on in windows the lower resolution of the two will be your main & the game will look fine on that screen… however, the screen will appear to tear on the higher resolution 1440×900 monitor which is perfectly normal considering it is image downscaling & will even do so on the desktop.
If wanting to play on the monitor with the higher resolution I would simply set windows display to show Projector only (set mode with windows key+P) then check, BEFORE launching the game.
In Short… Make sure your graphics card drivers are upto date, choose your display & have it set MAX or recommended Resolution with a 60Hz or above display refresh. You should be good to go.
Downloads you will need…
OK, so onto the good stuff…
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Programs you are going to need:
7zip[www.7-zip.org]
ReShade+SweetFX2.0[reshade.me]
{LINK REMOVED}FREEDOM
& Freedom Planet (steam game)
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Step by Step Instructions
1: If you haven’t already got 7zip installed get it from here[www.7-zip.org] and install it.
2: Goto [link], and at the bottom of the page find and download the ReShade and SweetFX 2.0 package.
3: Make a new folder anywhere you would like to store Reshade on your computer and extract the contents from what you downloaded in step 2 into it.
4: Rename your New folder to ReShade and download the file {LINK REMOVED}FREEDOM if you haven’t already done so.
5: Open your ReShade folder and run: ReShade Setup.exe. A window might pop up asking you if you want to allow it to make changes to your computer… If it does. click yes and you will be presented with a window that says Welcome and a button that says: Select Game.
6: By default Autodetect hook is on. Click Select Game and select and navigate to your local steam folder /steamapps/common/Freedom Planet/FP.exe. After it completes, the prompt will change to RUN… There is no need & you can click the X to close this window if you wish. We are nearly done at this point.
7: In windows explorer navigate to /steamapps/common/Freedom Planet
You will find some added files and a newly created /SweetFX/ folder since doing step 6.
Open the SweetFX folder and within it exists a file called SweetFX_settings.txt, you can either delete it now or overwrite it in the next step.
8: Open up FREEDOM.zip, go into the sweetfx settings folder & decide which CRT style you want.
Four different flavours are now included:
Jinx_Original = The exact same AdvancedCRT settings found in Jinx’s guide.
Original_Retro = Similar to Jinx’s Original but with Technicolor2 effects applied.
Remixed+FXAA = Remix of Original_Retro but with FXAA also applied. (for smoothing)
Sonic_Bloom = Remixed+FXAA but also adds slight Chromatic Aberration & Bloom effects.
Simply navigate into a folder from above and drag over whichever SweetFX_settings.txt preset you wish to use overwriting the existing one in step 7.
~ If unsure just use the sweetfx_settings.txt file from either the Jinx_Original or Original_Retro folder. (These will likely consume the least system resources out of the bunch)
THATS IT… YOU ARE ALL DONE ! 😀
You can now play the latest and greatest version of Freedom Planet with AdvancedCRT settings.
Usage & Removal
Now, whenever you start the game up it will show a box in the middle of the screen showing you a brief on the information I’m explaining here & the hook type used. Meanwhile in the top left corner it should display a header and read: Compiling… Succeeded. This is how you know it is enabled.
To disable (& also re-enable) the preset simply press the Scroll Lock [ScrLck] key on your keyboard.
A handy screenshot function also exists if you press [PrtScn] this will take a screenshot and add it into the game’s root directory.
You can manually remove Reshade & SweetFX from the game directory by simply removing the SweetFX folder, d3d9, dxgi, OPENGL32, injector, reshade, shader and sweet files from within the /common/steamapps/Freedom Planet/ folder. This should put you back to the stock game. If you don’t have all of these files, that’s fine, it’s normal. Here’s a quickfire list for easy removal.
Fine Tuning Global Settings
The global_settings.txt file found in the /Freedom Planet/SweetFX/ folder can easily be opened up & manually edited using any regular text editing software such as notepad. With it you can configure the keys that Enable/Disable the preset & to take a screenshot. You can disable SweetFX on startup, change the screenshot file type, display ON/OFF statistics & messages as well as options to display a clock & FPS (frames per second) counter. (which I haven’t messed with…)
I have Included some general global settings which will likely cover how you want it to work. I have probably covered the individual global settings you would want within the following folders.
I layed them out like this in FREEDOM.ZIP: global settings /
default=off (Preset effect is OFF by default)
/REVERSE-DEFAULT = Shows all hook & switch details on startup, shows switch status.
/SHOW-SWITCH-REVERSED = Shows switch status on startup & enabling/disabling the preset.
/STEALTH-PLUS = No SweetFX splash on startup, does not show any notifications.
default=on (Preset effect is ON by default)
/DEFAULT = Shows all hook & switch details on startup, shows switch status.
/SHOW-SWITCH = Shows switch status on startup & when disabling/enabling the preset.
/STEALTH = No SweetFX Splash on startup, does not show any notifications.
These settings are used for hiding the SweetFX hud, hiding the Enabled/Disabled Info &/or for starting the game with or withOUT the effects applied. Just switch in whichever style you prefer.
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If unsure, please check out the included README.txt for more information.
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If you wish to display Statistics/Clock/FPS please add it in manually using a text editing software.
Fine Tuning SweetFX2.0
– The SweetFX_settings.txt file found within the /Freedom Planet/SweetFX/ folder can also be easily opened up and edited manually with a regular text editor such as notepad to change/fine tune the effects. I have found that it even works on the fly if you wish… just don’t forget to save the changes…
There are literally far too many combinations for me to fully cover considering the explainations are quite clearly already written within the SweetFX_settings.txt file… However, lets take a quick look at some of the core basics :
/*———————————————————–.
/ Choose effects /
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This Portion of the text defines what effects will be used and the order they will be applied.
You toggle them:
On with 1. Off with 0.
Only edit what you need on / off here.
The sections after this one each go into seperate settings, so anything you marked 0 can be ignored… First up are a bunch of ascii settings, then onto SMAA (seeing as cartoon has no variable settings… yet?) then FXAA… and so on… etc. It really is fairly straightforward to follow.
We want to find the Advanced CRT settings & define the amount of effect to be applied…
The next few values you see are what are going to make the bigger difference based on your screen gamma/brightness and resolution. Chances are these are the settings you will probably wish to tweak if you do wish to tweak anything of the settings, but this of course depends on your personal preferences.
CRTCurvature setting and onwards is to emulate the look of the actual screen curving and following it are the settings/values. I have this variable disabled in the settings files that I have distributed as I’m not a fan of this effect. This is what you want on if you wish to have it enabled.
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I hope this guide covers the basics of how to get you started with using sweetfx2 with ReShade.
If you find a nice combination of settings or you can think of something which is missing from the guide please get in touch to let me know… I will try to keep this guide regularly updated wherever possible. If you found this helpful please consider favoriting it for quick, easy access in the future.
Thanks for reading…
~ LowTier.