Elite Dangerous modding

Yeah, i know... new game and the first thing i do is modding it. O_o

However, i thought i simply share my settings bit by bit.

[heading]Part 1 - Hud modding[/heading]

The file you need to edit for setting different HUD colors is called "GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml" which should be located in "C:\Users\YOUR ACCOUT NAME\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics\".
Open that file and change it to something like this:

At Elite: Dangerous HUD colour theme editor you can find a color editor which where you can freely use the sliders to select the colors you want to have.
All you need to do then is to copy/paste the matrix code into your "GraphicsConfigurationOverride.xml".

e.g.

This would be a green hud.

Personally i prefer:

... as it is eye friendly and easy to read.

Well... save your file... launch the game and check your new HUD.

[heading]Part 2 - High-res Planets and Skyboxes[/heading]

Well, instead of guiding you through all the settings and explaining where you have to change what I simply give you the finished config file.
The graphic configuration can be found in the games main directory (where the "EliteDangerous32.exe" is located)... In my case this was "D:\Elite Dangerous\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous\Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1010" (your path might be different -> just try to locate the "EliteDangerous32.exe").

1. Make a copy/backup of the "GraphicsConfiguration.xml" (always make backups)
2. download the attackment
3. extract the zip into the ED main directory and overwrite the xml file

Congratz... now your Skybox looks a bit better and your planet textures are high-res.

[heading]Part 3 - Post Processing[/heading]

I meanwhile have 4 different post processing setups based on different shaders and methods.
Personally im not 100% sure which one is best.
They all have advantages and disadvantages and it mainly depends on the personal wish how the game needs to look like.

e.g. I have posted screenshot in the gallery showing some shader options which have major impact on the graphics including how colors are displayed.
Its really a matter of taste and a matter of processing power.

Attached below is a minimalistic setting which has nearly no impact on the game performance (i personally had only 3-4 fps less which wasnt even noticable).

The setting will improve the image quality of the game (reveiling alot more details than you can see in the original game). It also will add an additional bloom shader which works perfectly together with the already existing bloom (its clearly not too much but has great visual impact on distance light sources). There also is an improved anti aliasing, a local time clock and a FPS counter.

This post processing shader improves the details of the game without changing its original look.
If you want I can also upload my other profiles which are clearly aimed for taking screenshots of game sceneries.

Ok... how to use that?

1. download the attachment below
2. extract the content of the zip into the ED main directory (where the "EliteDangerous32.exe" is located)
3. thats it

You can enable/disable the effects with the "Scroll lock" key. There you clearly see the differences.

[heading]Part 4 - Ship Textures[/heading]

***reserved***

There is a method to change the ship textures on the client side without purchasing texture packs.
However, since Im not sure if that violates the EULA or something like that I will postpone a tutorial about how that is done (for now).

EDFX is just a configuration tool for sweetfx and reshade