VulkanFX (fork of vkBasalt with some spices)

vkBasalt is a Vulkan post processing layer to enhance the visual graphics of games.

Currently, the build in effects are:

• Contrast Adaptive Sharpening
• Denoised Luma Sharpening
• Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing
• Enhanced Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing
• 3D color LookUp Table

It is also possible to use ReShade FX shaders.

Fork difference

So far:

• unbundled stb headers, use system package
• unbundeled ReShade FX, bumped to most recent version, use system package
• migrated to vkroots, use system package
• split in 3 parts, removed depthCapture option from config, config initialized only once
• VULKANFX_CONFIG environment variable

Disclaimer

Expect it to have bugs. Use it at your own risk.

Building from Source

Dependencies

Before building, you will need:

• GCC >= 9

• x11-libs/libX11

• dev-util/glslang

• dev-util/spirv-headers

• dev-util/vulkan-headers

• dev-libs/stb

• media-libs/vkroots

• dev-util/vma (Vulkan Memory Allocator)

• >=dev-util/reshade-fx-6.4.1 (Parser/Codegen for the ReShade FX shader language)

• (optional) dev-util/reshade-fxc (ReShade FX shader compiler)
  In my gentoo overlay it also contain patch to generate config from ReShade FX shader.
  

  e.g. `$ reshade-fx2conf Daltonize.fx`

  # Daltonize.fx
  
  # type: combo
  # items: Protanopia
  #        Deuteranopia
  #        Tritanopia
  #        
  #Type = 0
  
  # Directives
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_X_OFFSET=0
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_Y_PIXEL_OFFSET=0
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_X_PIXEL_OFFSET=0
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_Y_OFFSET=0
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_Y_SCALE=1
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_X_SCALE=1
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_LINEARIZATION_FAR_PLANE=1000.0
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_LOGARITHMIC=0
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_MIRRORED=0
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED=1
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_MULTIPLIER=1
  #RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_UPSIDE_DOWN=0
  

Building

Gentoo

Prepare overlay

emerge app-eselect/eselect-repository -vp
eselect repository add vulkanfx git https://github.com/pchome/VulkanFX-gentoo-overlay.git
emaint sync -r vulkanfx

64bit

emerge media-gfx/VulkanFX -q

32bit

nano /etc/portage/package.use/multilib

media-gfx/VulkanFX abi_x86_32
dev-util/reshade-fx abi_x86_32
dev-util/reshade-fxc abi_x86_32
# on/off hotkey
x11-libs/libX11 abi_x86_32
# required by x11-libs/libX11-1.8.11::gentoo
# required by media-gfx/VulkanFX-9999::vulkanfx[xlib]
# required by media-gfx/VulkanFX (argument)
>=x11-libs/libxcb-1.17.0 abi_x86_32
# required by x11-libs/libxcb-1.17.0::gentoo
# required by x11-libs/libX11-1.8.11::gentoo
# required by media-gfx/VulkanFX-9999::vulkanfx[xlib]
# required by media-gfx/VulkanFX (argument)
>=x11-libs/libXau-1.0.12 abi_x86_32
# required by x11-libs/libxcb-1.17.0::gentoo
# required by x11-libs/libX11-1.8.11::gentoo
# required by media-gfx/VulkanFX-9999::vulkanfx[xlib]
# required by media-gfx/VulkanFX (argument)
>=x11-libs/libXdmcp-1.1.5 abi_x86_32

emerge media-gfx/VulkanFX -q

non-Gentoo

You can try to follow pchome/gentoo-dev-playground instructions and then return to gentoo route.

Usage

Enable the layer with the environment variable.

Standard

Implicit vulkan layers will be loaded automatically when corresponding environment variable was provided. Use one of:

• ENABLE_VULKANFX=1 - default: depth capture disabled
• ENABLE_VULKANFX=depth - depth: depth capture enabled
• ENABLE_VULKANFX=simple - simple: depth capture and ReShade FX disabled

Testing

System

Get some ReShade FX shaders

$ git clone https://github.com/crosire/reshade-shaders /tmp/fxs

Launch an vulkan application

$ ENABLE_VULKANFX=1 VULKANFX_CONFIG='effects=fxaa:cas:dlt;casSharpness=1.0;dlt=/tmp/fxs/Shaders/Daltonize.fx;reshadeTexturePath=/tmp/fxs/Textures;reshadeIncludePath=/tmp/fxs/Shaders' vkgears

Expected output

VulkanFX info:  no good config file
VulkanFX info:  config string: effects=fxaa:cas:dlt;casSharpness=1.0;dlt=/tmp/fxs/Shaders/Daltonize.fx;reshadeTexturePath=/tmp/fxs/Textures;reshadeIncludePath=/tmp/fxs/Shaders
VulkanFX info:  effects = fxaa:cas:dlt
VulkanFX info:  casSharpness = 1.0
VulkanFX info:  dlt = /tmp/fxs/Shaders/Daltonize.fx
VulkanFX info:  reshadeTexturePath = /tmp/fxs/Textures
VulkanFX info:  reshadeIncludePath = /tmp/fxs/Shaders
304 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.779 FPS
301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.002 FPS
300 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.999 FPS
...

Local

If built in e.g. gentoo environment and copied to different os / location

#!/bin/sh

export VK_IMPLICIT_LAYER_PATH="share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="lib64:lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
export ENABLE_VULKANFX=1

export VULKANFX_CONFIG="effects=fxaa:cas"

#export VULKANFX_LOG_LEVEL=debug
#export VK_LOADER_DEBUG=layer

vkgears

where curren directory contain lib lib64 run.sh share

Configure

Settings like the CAS sharpening strength can be changed in the config file. The config file will be searched for in the following locations:

• a file set with the environment variableVULKANFX_CONFIG_FILE=/path/to/VulkanFX.conf
• VulkanFX.conf in the working directory of the game
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/VulkanFX/VulkanFX.conf or ~/.config/VulkanFX/VulkanFX.conf if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set
• $XDG_DATA_HOME/VulkanFX/VulkanFX.conf or ~/.local/share/VulkanFX/VulkanFX.conf if XDG_DATA_HOME is not set
• /etc/VulkanFX.conf
• /etc/VulkanFX/VulkanFX.conf
• /usr/share/VulkanFX/VulkanFX.conf

If you want to make changes for one game only, you can create a file named VulkanFX.conf in the working directory of the game and change the values there.

Quick override

To override some of the default config options the VULKANFX_CONFIG env var can be used, e.g. VULKANFX_CONFIG='effects=fxaa:cas;casSharpness=1.0'. The separator is ;

ReShade FX shaders

To run reshade fx shaders e.g. shaders from the reshade repo, you have to set reshadeTexturePath and reshadeIncludePath to the matching dirctories from the repo. To then use a specific shader you need to set a custom effect name to the shader path and then add that effect name to effects like every other effect.

effects = colorfulness:denoise

colorfulness = /home/user/reshade-shaders/Shaders/Colourfulness.fx
denoise = /home/user/reshade-shaders/Shaders/Denoise.fx
reshadeTexturePath = /home/user/reshade-shaders/Textures
reshadeIncludePath = /home/user/reshade-shaders/Shaders

Ingame Input

The HOME key can be used to disable and re-enable the applied effects, the key can also be changed in the config file. This is based on X11 so it won't work on pure wayland. It should however at least not crash without X11.

Debug Output

The amount of debug output can be set with the VULKANFX_LOG_LEVEL env var, e.g. VULKANFX_LOG_LEVEL=debug. Possible values are: trace, debug, info, warn, error, none.

By default the logger outputs to stderr, a file as output location can be set with the VULKANFX_LOG_FILE env var, e.g. VULKANFX_LOG_FILE="VulkanFX.log".

FAQ

Why is it called vkBasalt?

It's a joke: vulkan post processing → after vulcan → basalt

Does vkBasalt work with dxvk and vkd3d?

Yes.

Will vkBasalt get me banned?

Maybe. To my knowledge this hasn't happened yet but don't blame me if your frog dies.

Will there be a openGl version?

No. I don't know anything about openGl and I don't want to either. Also openGl has no layer system like vulkan.

Will there be a GUI in the future?

Maybe, but not soon.

So is vkBasalt just a reshade port for linux?

Not really, most of the code was written from scratch. vkBasalt directly uses reshade source code for the shader compiler (thanks @crosire), but that's about it.

Does every reshade shader work?

No. Shaders that need multiple techniques do not work, there might still be problems with stencil and blending and depth buffer access isn't ready yet.

You said that "depth buffer access isn't ready yet", what does this mean?

There is a wip version that you can enable with depthCapture = on. It will lead to many problems especially on non nvidia hardware. Also the selected depth buffer isn't always the one you would want.

Is there a way to change settings for reshade shaders?

There is some support for it #46. One easy way so to simply edit the shader file.