Version 0.3 - Beta
This is a playable
BETA. Testers welcome. PM me if you want to help. Keep scrolling for a guide, a to-do list,and a list of known bugs. Low-end, performance Presets included! If you're having problems, make sure to update to the latest version. Guides below.
*Note: A UIDetect feature is in the works. This will turn turn off some effects to prevent ReShade messing with the Inventory/map/etc. windows. For now, I'd recommend hitting Numpad 0 to toggle the effects off when they're interferingwith your UI. *Note 3: This mod is optimized for 1080p. All the visual enhancers will work on higher/lower resolutions too, but the UIDetect feature will break.
*Note 2: Check the FPS Boost (Graphical Tweaks)guide for yeah, more frames. Super easy and looks good.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Installation
Uninstallation
Features
FPS Boost (Graphical Tweaks)
To-Do
Known Bugs
Specs
Credits
Changelog
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I love Kenshi. It's like comfort food, in a game. Its story is unique; it tells its narrative not just through dialogue, but through a vast, unforgiving landscape, littered with pieces of the past. It's a beautiful world, full of wonder and mystery, its history scattered far and wide across its sun-baked, ill-fated expanses.
But as one dude in a comments section put it,
it looks like dog-sh*t.
Well, no more.
"Kenshi Enhanced" is a ReShade 4.0 mod, designed to make Kenshi really shine. It's meant to take the natural beauty of this game and really bring it to life. My intention here is to enhance the overall look and feel, without changing so much that it isn't recognizable; if I've done my job right, you'll walk away saying "wow, that looks x1000 times better." The Kenshi we know and love, but pretty.
It is going to be graphically intensive. But, I will be including several different presets of this mod, each with their own specially tweaked and optimized settings. I can't promise your computer won't go up in a flaming pyre to the Old Gods, but I'm working on getting it playable for everyone from 1060/laptop users to rtx 3080 PC-titans.
Since this is in a
BETA state, there will be some bugs. Make good use of the Bugs/Forum tabs to let me know what you find.
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Installation:
Manually download. Installing with mod manager will break the mod.
1. Pick which UI you want (Vanilla, DarkUI, DarkUI Retexture)
2. Download that version
3. Extract all contents
4. Open the extracted folder
5. Copy/paste all contents into your main Kenshi directory on Steam (where your "data," "save," "locale," etc folders are). All contents should be alongside these folders (not in them).
When you're finished, you should have the following files in your main Kenshi Directory:
1. "reshade-shaders" folder
2. dxgi.dll
3. Kenshi Enhanced - Low
4. Kenshi Enhanced - Medium
5. Kenshi Enhanced - High
6. Kenshi Enhanced - Mega High
7. ReShade
Open your game, select a preset that doesn't kill your FPS. There you go, all set.
**UPDATING**
1. Delete all previous Kenshi Enhanced mod files (check the "Uninstallation" guide below for detailed instructions")
2. Download and install the updated mod
3. Install new files as normal
*If updating from 0.1-Beta, make sure you delete the Kenshi Enhanced S P E E D, Performance, and Full files from your main Kenshi directory.*
Now let's get to a list of what this mod does.
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UninstallationGo to your main Kenshi directory. Select each of the same files from installation. You should have these selected:
1. "reshade-shaders" folder
2. dxgi.dll
3. Kenshi Enhanced - 1 Low
4. Kenshi Enhanced - 2 Medium
5. Kenshi Enhanced - 3 High
6. Kenshi Enhanced - 4 Mega High
7. ReShade
Delete all files and the folder. You can hold "control" while clicking to highlight each individually, or delete them one-by-one. And there you go. Kenshi Enhanced is safely removed.
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Features:
1. 4 presets - Low, High, Medium, and Mega High
2. Toggle-able effects, bound to keyboard numpad. If you have performance issues with a particular preset, make sure you didn't accidentally toggle something on/off!
3. Key-bound commands for the ReShade program.
4. Really good looks.
Each preset needs tuning. I made my best guess and went with it, so if you have trouble with the presets, let me know and I will adjust them. Your feedback = good stuff.
Key for Toggle-able Effects:
F7- Toggle UIMask (should be synced to main UI.
Make sure this is on if your main UI is on!)
Numpad 0 - Toggle all effects (useful for when ReShade draws over inventory and stuff)
Numpad 1 - Toggle shadows*
Numpad 2 - Toggle Cinematic DOF*
Numpad 3 - Toggle Bloom*
Numpad 4 - Toggle Extra-nice shadows* (Full preset only)
Numpad 5 - Toggle Cinematic Mode
Numpad 6 - Toggle FakeHDR (but why would you?)
Numpad 7 - Toggle Motion Blur
Numpad 8 - Toggle Film Grain effect (off by default)
Numpad 9 - Toggle auto-Color Correction* (it can be BEAUTIFUL, but it's buggy)
Numpad .-Toggle the "Comic" effect (for those who dislike it)
Numpad +- Toggle Depth Slicer effect (a nice visual for dramatic screenshots)
Numpad -- Toggle LumaSharpen
*Performance heavy effects.
Key for ReShade Commands:
Delete - Open ReShade GUI
Insert - Reload ReShade Effects (careful, this can take a while)
Shift + [- Previous Preset
Shift + ] - Next Preset
\- Toggle Performance mode (disables effects editing, use this to get a few more FPS)
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FPS Boost (Graphical Tweaks)
Here's a couple changes I made to make the game look about as nice, but run a lot better, plus some explanations.
1. Set Terrain slider between 0.5 and 0.75 (minimal quality loss, decent FPS boost)
2. Turn textures to "high" or below (going from "Mega-High" to "High" has a minimal quality loss, and more FPS)
3. Turn off shadows OR set shadows to "RTWSM," set resolution to 1024/2048 (there's virtually no difference visually, for me)
4. Set Reflections to Landscape only (good boost, I generally don't miss them unless I'm taking screenshots)
5. Set Foliage slider to 0.5 (this is huge, especially for the presets with shadows). Less grass arguably makes Kenshi look more sparse in a good way.
6. Make sure Performance Mode is on. It is off by default, but can be toggled on with the \ key. I think it should give you a few more frames.
7. Test the view distance slider. I actually like how it looks at 3000; I'd say put it as low as you think still looks good to you. It can save you some frames and even look better, in its own way.
Making any/all of these changes shouldn't effect the overall look of the game too much. But, they should give you a moderate to major FPS boost. I'd recommend you play around with your in-game settings yourself, to figure out what makes you happy.
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To-Do:
1. Make presets that are playable for everything from low-end to high-end systems.
2. On-going effect optimization and efficiency boosts.
3. A UIDetect feature. This will make those ugly lines on your UI (map, inventory, etc.) disappear when you access it, then reappear when it's closed. A neat feature, but difficult to implement.
4. Effect tweaks for better visuals.
5. Another two presets. I'm working on a "Kenshi Enhanced - Ultra" setting that will absolutely push your computer to the limits. This will be for the bougie among us. Also, a stripped-down, basic color-correction and sharpening preset. Stay tuned.
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Known Bugs:
1. The UIDetect feature sometimes activates when it's not supposed to. This will look like a lightning-quick on-screen flash. Tricky to fix, but adding more pixels to UIDetect's code will probably eliminate this issue, or at least make it almost un-noticable.
2. The UI Mask that protects your main UI sometimes un-syncs. Seems to be on game reload after quitting with the main UI off. Good news is, you can fix this simply by opening up the ReShade menu, and clicking it back on to re-sync it.
3. Auto-Color Correction feature bugs out and shifts color hue all over the place. I'm not sure how to stop this, let me know if you know. This feature works great when it does though!
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Specs:
Recommended Minimum Hardware for Full Mode @1080p (Courtesy of u/EvanRaimond):
GPU GTX 3060 (overclocked)
CPU i7 11700K overclocked to 4.65 GHz
Memory
3200Mhz Patriot 16 gigs
M.2 Samsung 980 SSD 1 Terabyte
~60 FPS for full mode, consistent (lower settings should run even better!)
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Credits:
To
Chris Hunt, and Lo-Fi Games, for the amazing piece of art that is
KenshiTo Crosire, Marty McFly, CeeJayDK, and all the team for the amazing ReShade
To Nookrium, for some good advertising
To the Kenshi Reddit/Nexus for testing and support
Testers:
Beilliant
Acolyte
EvanRaimond
Hijodeleon
To my awesome partner, love you babe
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Changelog:
0.3-Beta
-Changed "switch preset" keys from "[" and "]" to "shift + [" and "shift + ]"
0.2-Beta
- Changed presets from "S P E E D," "Performance," and "Full" to "Low," "Medium," "High," and "Mega High."
- Tweaked Presets to be more distinct in performance. Low should truly be low-impact, while Mega High should truly be mega high-impact.
- Various graphical tweaks. The presets should all have the same basic aesthetic, but with increasing degrees of detail and effects.
- Replaced old Kenshi Enhanced Overlay with a more useful Quickstart Guide. Guide is also more beautiful.
