SweetFX – Cartoon

📅 January 20, 2014
Some video games render their graphics in a way that produces a cel-shaded, cartoon effect noted for its thick, black borders and flat-style surfaces. This effect is possible with SweetFX using the cartoon effect, and it can give games somewhat of a Borderlands 2 style.

There are two settings that control the cartoon effect.

#define CartoonPower 1.5      // Range: 0.1 to 10.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 1.5  // Range: 0.1 to 8.0

Screenshots

001

001

#define CartoonPower 10.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 1.5

002 – Minumum Settings

CartoonPower and CartoonEdgeSlope at their lowest values.

#define CartoonPower 0.1
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 0.1

003 – Maximum Settings

CartoonPower and CartoonEdgeSlope at their highest values.

#define CartoonPower 10.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 8.0

Setting both to their highest values does not produce a maximum cartoon effect as might be expected.

004

004

#define CartoonPower 10.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 1.0

Pronounced cartoon effects are achieved by increasing CartoonPower while keeping CartoonEdgeSlope low.

005

005

#define CartoonPower 10.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 2.0

006

006

#define CartoonPower 8.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 2.0

007

007

#define CartoonPower 6.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 1.5

008

008

#define CartoonPower 3.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 2.0

009

009

#define CartoonPower 2.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 2.0

010

010

/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 / Cartoon settings /
 '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define CartoonPower 8.0
#define CartoonEdgeSlope 2.0

 /*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 / HDR settings /
 '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define HDRPower 1.35
#define radius2 0.85

In this example, two effects are enabled for improved colors and contrast: HDR and Cartoon. SweetFX_settings.txt comments mention that the cartoon effect interferes with certain other effects, such as HDR, but no further explanation is given. HDR works fine and seems to improve the visual quality of this game, but this will be a matter of personal opinion.

Many of the cartoon adjustments are too slight to record in screenshots, but they are noticeable during gameplay at higher resolutions. These screenshots and values should provide an idea of what is possible.

SweetFX Effects

• SweetFX Shader Suite
• SweetFX – Splitscreen
• SweetFX – Cartoon
• SweetFX – Technicolor
• SweetFX – Monochrome
• SweetFX – Bloom
• SweetFX – Border
• SweetFX – HDR
• SweetFX – Sepia
• SweetFX – SMAA
• SweetFX – Vibrance
• SweetFX – Cineon DPX
• SweetFX – Explosion
• SweetFX – LumaSharpen
• SweetFX – Tonemap
• SweetFX – Lift Gamma Gain
• SweetFX – Vignette
• SweetFX – Levels