Alright guys,
For those wanting to try out sweetfx, here is a bit of a guide. Don't worry, it is actually insanely easy to tweak and do this, and you'll instantly want to do it for any game - kind of like ENB, but I find this is more controlled and reasonable way to tweak what the game looks like (I just found about about SweetFX haha).
First do this if you have problems with framerate and don't want to compromise too much on meaningful things (like hair):
Code:
Tessellations: OFF
High Precision: OFF
Should give you a nice 10+ boost in FPS (did on my 7850).
With this card I am running everything else on max at 40-50 consistently. I honestly see no difference when I tweak the above settings to ON vs. OFF.
Next, you want to go here and download this:
Code:
http://sweetfx.thelazy.net/?p=91
Once you run it, you'll need to add the Tomb Raider executable (in steam directory) and then add SweetFX (effectively it installs this into the game directory).
Once that is done, check off HDR and Bloom in addition to what is checked already, and use the following values (use the "List Changes from Default to help your fellow man find better settings"):
Code:
USE_BLOOM = 1
USE_HDR = 1
BloomThreshold = 24 // USE_BLOOM
HDRPower = 1.3 // USE_HDR
radius2 = 0.8 // USE_HDR
Read the helpfile for useful tweaking instructions (Print Screen = screenshots, ScreenLock = on/off, Pause = load in new settings)
Finally, here are the results, it might be a bit subtle (it's not just "darker" though) as I had not played with it long enough, but in motion it is very apparent (sorry for huge files, I will only post links):
At Fire: Before
At Fire: After
Foliage: Before
Foliage: After
Character: Before
Character: After
Sample: