Shades of Faerun - ReShade Presets

Before giving an overview, here are my main characteristics:

Intel i7-12700k

32 GB Corsair Vengeance 3600 MHz RAM

MSI SPATIUM M470 NVMe M.2 2 TB

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Keep in mind that I play with Ultra settings on 1440p with ~80 mods, so your experience can be better or worse depending on your graphics settings and mod loading. Generally, if you play on higher graphics settings, you will usually get a bigger hit per second in areas with high activity. The term "high activity zones" is used here to refer to places in the game that use dynamic crowds and/or extensive particle effects (rain, fire) such as Emerald Grove or Goblin Camp. DLSS/FSR is not active for the purposes of this list.

• Improved vanilla - 75-90 FPS in most situations. 65-80 FPS in high-activity zones. Minimal performance impact.
• Storybook Vibrant Preset - 65-80 FPS in most situations. 55-75 fps in high-activity zones. Minimal performance impact.
• Willow Cinematic Preset - 60-75 FPS in most situations. 50-65 FPS in high-activity areas. It is recommended to have a mid-range or high-end PC as it is the most demanding preset of 3, and it is difficult to turn off any of the filters (except film grit) without compromising the intended image.

If you are having problems, try using DLSS/FSR (found that this increases the FPS to 15-20). If you find that you need to disable the effect to save on performance, try disabling MXAO or DOF (if you have configured the depth buffer) as they are not used intensively.

• Extract the contents of the zip file to the bin folder of your game (i.e. SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin)
• Go to the ReShade website and download the latest version of ReShade.
• When running the installer, you will need to select the .exe file to play: Vulkan [bg3.exe] or DirectX11 [bg3_dx11.exe]. DX11 is recommended because ReShade reportedly has some instability with Vulkan at this time, but it will still work, except for MXAO/DOF.
• Select the rendering API (DX11/Vulkan) that corresponds to the selected .exe file.
• Select the preset (.ini) file you downloaded from Nexus; it should then automatically select and download all the necessary effect packages.
• The next time you launch the game, if you have installed it correctly, the ReShade guide will appear! :)

If you’ve never used ReShade before, follow the instructions to set the Toggle Effects and Blend Keys (the default is Home), as they are important. As a visual guide, I recommend this video (it is designed for Starfield, but most steps are the same).

More tuning tips for image calibration and performance

If after setting up you are happy with how it looks, great! However, if you want your photo to be as close as possible to the images I uploaded, I recommend you to do the following:

• In BG3 Video Settings: After applying any ReShade preset, I recommend resetting the gamma and adjusting it accordingly, as many presets also make gamma changes, which may result in an image that is too dark or bright depending on the game settings.
• In BG3 Video Settings: Make sure all Sharpness settings are zero or disabled. Because this customization template includes its own sharpness filter, if the sharpness setting in the game is also active, it may cause excessive processing or noise in the image.
• Sharpness not working/configured: Please refer to this manual. (Special thanks to JoPineapples68 for the detailed guide!)
• Make sure your ReShade is set to performance mode after you finish setting up settings on any shaders, as this can dramatically improve your FPS.
• This video also helps you determine which settings to reduce, minimizing the impact on graphics quality if you experience problems.