SweetFX – Bloom

Some SweetFX effects might make the resulting image too dark overall. The Bloom effect counteracts this by making whites whiter without affecting darker areas much.

SweetFX Bloom does not add a soft, illuminating glow around light sources as its name might suggest. This is simply an overall “whitening” effect.

There are three settings that affect the bloom effect: BloomThreshold, BloomPower, and BloomWidth.

Defaults

/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
 / Bloom settings /
 '-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define BloomThreshold 20.25 //[0.00 to 50.00] Threshold for what is a bright light (that causes bloom) and what isn't.
#define BloomPower 1.446 //[0.000 to 8.000] Strength of the bloom
#define BloomWidth 0.0142 //[0.0000 to 1.0000] Width of the bloom

Original Image

Original Image. (Oops! The character moved, but the shadows in the clouds are still visible.)

Bloom can remove all shadow detail from white areas, so use sparingly. Notice the clouds in the image below from the game Fallout: New Vegas.

The clouds are almost full white due to bloom. Detail in darker areas, such as the character’s clothing, is visible without the same amount of whitening being applied.

The clouds should have dark areas to indicate shading as seen in the original image above. However, they appear bright white because the darker areas of the clouds have been removed and replaced with white.

The darker areas of the scene, such as the dark clothing, are somewhat brighter compared to the original, but they have not been brightened to the same extent as the clouds or other light portions of the scene.

BloomThreshold 0.00 to 50.00

The lower this value, the more areas that will be brightened. Higher values create fewer blooms because the threshold is too high to register white areas for blooming. As a result, higher values show fewer changes and cause the resulting image to look more like the original image.

The entire image is brightened, but white areas are mostly affected.

BloomPower 0.000 to 8.000

Specifies how much to brighten the white areas that exceed the threshold set by BloomThreshold.

Higher = brighter
Lower = less brightness

BloomThreshold and BloomPower tend to have the most effect upon the image compared to BloomWidth, so BloomWidth is rarely adjusted in the screenshots below.

001

001

#define BloomThreshold 20
#define BloomPower 8
#define BloomWidth 0.0142

002

002

#define BloomThreshold 10
#define BloomPower 8
#define BloomWidth 0.5

003

003

#define BloomThreshold 30
#define BloomPower 8
#define BloomWidth 0.5

004

004

#define BloomThreshold 50
#define BloomPower 8
#define BloomWidth 0.5

Even though BloomThreshold and BloomPower are set to their maximum values, the image is darker, not lighter. This is because BloomThreshold is set too high, which reduces the available white area to brighten.

005

005

#define BloomThreshold 35
#define BloomPower 6
#define BloomWidth 0.5

006

006

#define BloomThreshold 35
#define BloomPower 6
#define BloomWidth 0.0142

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