ReShade is a post-processing injector for games and videos software. It can be used to improve the graphics experience when playing computer games on your PC. It supports DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11 and DirectX 12. It also supports OpenGL and Vulcan. If the games are really old and use an older version of DirectX then it can still attempt to improve their graphics using some additions plugins.
It is very easy to use and works wonders with most of the PC games. You have to launch the downloaded ReShade executable and click on the big button labeled Select game to install or uninstall from. Then you have to select the game executable for the target game.
Depending on the game, it might have to download some extra files. These files are kept inside the target game folder. These are effect files pertaining to the DirectX version, OpenGL or Vulcan libraries selected. The files are not that large in size and the download is finished in seconds.
After the downloads are completed, you will be shown a big list of effects that you choose from. The list contains effects like cartoon, chromakey, ascii, ambient light, adaptive sharpness and more. You should select only the effects that you may want to try.
Once the changes are made, you can try launching the game and experience new improved graphics. The graphics effects look better not only for relatively older games but also for the newer games. And when you are done using ReShape, you can uninstall it using the same method.
I tried it with GTA3 and Need for Speed Carbon. In the first case, it downloaded some extra files because GTA3 is using DirectX 8. But it failed to work as GTA3 will not run with the ReShade optimizations. But in the case of Need for Speed Carbon, it made the graphics really amazing.
You can download ReShade from https://reshade.me/.