Luma - Native HDR - SMAA - Bloom

Features

• []Native HDR output with Paper White, Peak White, and separate UI brightness. The game's look is preserved: defaults are vanilla-equivalent[/]

  []16-bit float canvas and output in place of the game's 8-bit ones, plus animated triangular dithering that reduces gradient banding[/]

  []AutoHDR for pre-rendered videos, with a boost slider.[/]

  []Grade controls: Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Highlights Desaturation.[/]

Anti-aliasing and sharpening:

• []SMAA replacing the built-in FXAA[/]

  []RCAS sharpening with a slider, applied after SMAA[/]

Bloom:

• []HDR bloom replacing the game's own - wider and softer, with an intensity slider.[/]

Fixes and extras:

• []Vignette intensity slider for the game's own vignette.[/]

  []Hide the HUD.[/]

Requirements

• []dgVoodoo2, which translates the game's DirectX 9 to D3D11. Use 2. 87. 3 or 2. 81. 3 versions. Other builds emit different shaders.[/]

  []An HDR display for the HDR path. SMAA, sharpening, bloom and dithering work either way.[/]

  []SMAA works with the game's anti-aliasing on or off.[/]

Installation

• []Install dgVoodoo2 (v2. 81. 3 or v2. 87. 3): copy its MS/x86 D3D9.dll, dgVoodooCpl.exe, and dgVoodoo.conf next to the game exe (Binaries\Win32\Borderlands2.exe), then apply the settings shown below the list.[/]

  []Extract the mod files next to the game exe as well.[/]

  []Start Borderlands2.exe directly, not through the launcher.[/]

  []Enable HDR in Windows, boot the game, and press <HOME> to open the ReShade UI.[/]

  []Leave the in-game Brightness slider at its default.[/]

  []Set Paper White and Peak White to your display.[/]

Set these in the dgVoodoo control panel (dgVoodooCpl.exe, next to the game exe):

• []General tab, Output API: DirectX 11 (feature level 11. 0)[/]

  []DirectX tab, Videocard: GeForce 9800 GT, VRAM: 1024 MB[/]

  []DirectX tab: untick dgVoodoo Watermark to remove the logo[/]

FAQ

• []The game appears dull. Is this even HDR? - By default, Luma is configured to match the vanilla look. From there, you can tweak to your liking: Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, and Highlights Desaturation are in the Grade section.[/]

  []I don't have HDR. Can I use this? - Yes. Without HDR enabled in Windows, Luma switches to SDR output; SMAA, sharpening, bloom, dithering, and the Exposure and Vignette sliders all still apply. Set the tonemap type to "SDR" for a vanilla reference.[/]

  []How is this any better than other HDR processes? - The game's 8-bit canvas and output are upgraded to 16-bit float. The HDR image is built from the scene before the game compresses it to SDR, not from the finished SDR frame.[/]

  []Why does it need dgVoodoo? - The game renders in DirectX 9, and Luma supports only DirectX 11 for the moment. dgVoodoo translates it to D3D11, and Luma works on that.[/]

  []Can I use it with my ReShade preset? - Effects still work, but anything that grades or tonemaps will fight the HDR path. Do not run another HDR mod (e.g. RenoDX) alongside it.[/]

About Luma

Luma is a DirectX 11 game modding framework built on ReShade's add-on system. It hooks and replaces rendering passes instead of drawing a filter on top, which is how it can add HDR to a game that never had it. Mods for many other games are listed here, and the source code is on GitHub.

Discord

HDR Den Discord.

Credits

Luma for Borderlands 2 is developed by DristoforColumb and is open source and free.

Pumbo and Ersh for the Luma framework, crosire for ReShade and its add-on API, Dege for dgVoodoo2.

Thanks to the Luma team for the help.