How to Use Reshades: A Complete Tutorial for The Sims 4

Hello, fellow simmers! Have you ever heard about ReShade? This open-source software is well-known for its powerful post-processing features for games and video software, and it’s the main tool for making reshades for The Sims 4. WHAT ARE RESHADES? Reshades are like photo and video filters for your game. They can change the lights, shadows, colors, field depth, etc. The main goal here is to make your game more appealing to your eyes. HOW DO I USE RESHADES? 1 – Downloading and Installing ReShade for The Sims 4 1. A) First of all, you’ll need to download and install ReShade on your computer. You can download it here: https://reshade.me/ 1. B) Run the installer. You’ll be prompted to choose the game to use with ReShade. Find your game’s .exe, it should be in C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin.

1. C) Next, it will ask you which rendering API does The Sims 4 use. Select Direct3D 9.

1. D) Now it’s time to choose some effect packages to install. I recommend the Standard Effects, SweetFX by CeeJay.dk, and the Legacy Standard Effects IF you’re planning on using legacy reshades, A.K.A. reshades made with previous versions of ReShade. You can select only those three, more, less, or all of them if you want it to work with any reshade. Once you’ve selected everything you needed, click OK.

1. E) Now for the following pop-up boxes, you’ll be prompted to select the files you want to install from the effects packages you just downloaded. Make sure to select all of them, hitting OK to confirm for each box. This screen will pop-up:

And you’re done with the first part! 2 – Installing Reshade Presets 2. A) Download the presets (you can choose one of the ones I recommended in this tutorial, or choose any of your liking here: https://www.simsdom.com/en/downloads/the-sims4/mods-reshade-789). 2. B) Once you’ve downloaded the reshade, you’ll notice it comes as an .ini file. Put it inside your game’s folder – not the Mods folder! -, at the same location where you found the TS4_x64.exe before. Now your reshade is ready to run! 3 – Adjusting the Settings 3. A) Open up your game. It may appear unresponsive, depending on your graphics card and the overall processing power of your computer, but if you can run The Sims 4 with high graphics then you should be fine. Just wait and it’ll work! 3. B) You’ll see this box at the top of your screen:

Once your game is running, hit Home as the message says. ❗ IMPORTANT ❗ Remember to disable edge smoothing in your game’s options for the shaders to work properly! 3. C) Let’s get to the configuration now. This pop-up window with instructions will appear. Be sure to follow the given tutorial carefully if it’s your first time setting up ReShade!

3. D) On the next window, you’ll choose any preset you’ve installed previously, or continue with de default preset as the tutorial says. I’ll use a previously downloaded preset called Blogueira by Serenity.

3. E) Now you should see this window:

Head over to your preset’s download page to see the settings you’ll need to choose here. It will vary from preset to preset, so be careful when setting this up as the reshade may not work properly if a setting is missing! ⚠ WARNING ⚠ If you can’t find the setting you need, it may not be installed. Close your game and go back to step 1 to install the packages! It’s time to set toggles and shortcuts! 4 – Toggles and Shortcuts 4. A) Head to the Settings tab. This is what you should see:

Now let’s cut that into pieces and learn the main shortcuts and toggles you’ll use! The Effect Toggle Key

Let’s say you only want the reshades to take effect when you’re taking a screenshot, how do you toggle it on and off? That’s right, with the effect toggle key. Click the box where it says “click to set keyboard shortcut” to set the desired toggle key. I’m using Shift+E. You can read through and set other shortcuts for the General tab, but for this tutorial, I’ll be using only the effect toggle one. You can always review this later by pressing the Home key on your keyboard! The Screenshot Key

The default screenshot key for ReShade is the PrintScreen key, but you can choose any other you prefer. I’ll just keep mine as it is. ⚠ WARNING ⚠ Although the default key for taking a screenshot in The Sims 4 is C, this will not work for ReShade. The screenshot took with the C key will save the image WITHOUT the effects! From here you can also change de directory of the screenshots, alter the file format, alter the name format, and other stuff. Show Screenshot Message

Head to the Overlay and Styling tab and there you’ll be able to turn screenshot messages on and off. You can change everything you want here, but I’ll only toggle the screenshot messages off. Toggle Individual Effects On and Off

Go back to the Home tab and click Active to Top, if you haven’t done this yet. See that some effects already have toggle keys? Right-click over the name of the effect to change/add a shortcut, or leave it as is if you like it that way.

Once you’ve adjusted all settings you needed, just hit the Home key again to close the ReShade settings. You’re done! This is how my game looks like with the Blogueira reshade I mentioned before:

And here comes some of my favorite reshades! ⚠ WARNING ⚠ Always read the download description, there may be extra packages you’ll need for the reshades to work! Blogueira by Serenity

Download: https://www.simsdom.com/downloads/270509/blogueira-a-reshade-preset-by-serenity-sims4 Summer Skeletons by Bloomlet

Download: https://www.simsdom.com/downloads/140746/summer-skeletons-reshade-preset-by-bloomlet-sims4 Wilma by Lotusplum

Download: https://www.simsdom.com/downloads/195244/wilma-reshade-preset-sims4 Pumpkin Pie by Softpine

Download: https://www.simsdom.com/downloads/174255/softpine-pumpkin-pie-a-reshade-preset-sims4 Sulani Sunshine by Honeymunched

Download: https://www.simsdom.com/downloads/159219/honeymunched-introducing-sulani-sunshine-a-reshade-preset-sims4 Caramel KitKat by Ipasosx

Download: https://www.simsdom.com/downloads/152201/ipasosx-caramel-kitkat-reshade-sims4 Spellbook by Fuchsiateasims

Download: https://www.simsdom.com/downloads/153411/fuchsiateasims-spellbook-a-reshade-3-0-preset-for-ts4-sims4 You can find more reshade presets also by searching “reshade” in the search bar of SimsDomination! I hope you liked this tutorial and the reshades I presented here, if you did please hit that “helped me” button below. Always support creators and happy simming!