Is it possilbe to change shaders?

[Axeface]

I want to make the xenon ships more shiny like they were in X Rebirth, but im not sure if its even possible. I assume that to do that would require changing the actual shader of the xenon ships rather than just adjusting the material for them?
Anyone got any idea? Also, anyone else think the current shader looks really boring in comparison?

[tomchk]

Yes, I was just talking about this with others. I've seen many agree with you and call it a "plastic-y" look for years. I also hate it. I feel like it's a holdover from the stripped-to-bone XRVR look, which I'm sure was done to maximize VR performance. I've seen screenshots and everything looks even more washed out in XRVR, but it seems like X4 never got good enough shaders for non-VR expectations. X4 still looks washed out with most surfaces too well lit.
You can put a band-aid on this for now using ReShade:
1) Grab the preset from optional files here: https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations ... escription
2) Install it with latest ReShade (Vulkan setup is a bit tricky but should work).
3) In the ReShade GUI, add EyeAdaptation, HexLensflare, and MagicHDR. I don't think I turned off anything. I kept on SSAO in game--the modder says to disable but I didn't see it on in the preset.

I got this to look closer to XR. The real solution I think is for Egosoft to (PLEASE) use some of the COH income to hire a shader pro at least for long enough (maybe contract or part-time) to port XR's amazing shaders into X4 or make Vulkan ones that are at least as impressive. I think the latest Vulkan HLSL support might allow porting or use of the DirectX shaders, which could be a big time saver. A pro would be able to determine that. Let's hope we see some improvements here soon!

[SirNukes]

Shaders are moddable. The asteroid fade-in mod needed to change shader code to implement dithering, for instance. But if you can do what you want by editing the material entry, that would be easier.