Guide 03
Physical depth of field is a render mode, not a blur filter.
RE+ can now build every output frame across a real aperture through the modified IGCS Connector. The result has geometric foreground and background defocus, but every frame becomes a full aperture pass and the render can take hours.
What changed on 10 August 2026
DepthOfField is now the third value for RenderCaptureMode, alongside Sliding and Walking. RE+ seeks each output frame, asks the capture add-on to sweep a physical aperture, waits for that pass to finish and then records the accumulated result.
Real aperture sampling
Defocus comes from viewing the scene through different points on a lens aperture. It is not a screen-space blur applied after the frame is finished.
World-space autofocus
RE+ fires a ray through a chosen point in the frame and measures the surface depth for each output frame.
A separate pass for every frame
Each finished image is a complete aperture sweep. The source explicitly warns that a render measured in minutes elsewhere can take hours here.
This mode was added in commit d6c0a318.Inspect the source change
Requirements before the mode can work
An older ASI does not know the capture mode or its five lens keys.
The restricted ReShade build cannot load the capture bridge.
A stock IGCS Connector can load normally but does not contain the shared capture channel RE+ drives.
Place the bundled shader in reshade-shaders\Shaders\.
Prove a short Sliding render first so a dependency problem is not mistaken for a lens problem.
The five settings owned by this mode
| Setting | Official default | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
RenderDofBokehSize | 0.15 | Aperture width. Larger values create shallower focus and larger bokeh without adding samples by themselves. |
RenderDofQuality | 12 | Rings of aperture samples. Higher values smooth bright out-of-focus points and increase render time. |
RenderDofAutofocus | 1 | Measures focus from the world on every output frame. |
RenderDofFocusX | 0.5 | Horizontal measurement point from left 0 to right 1. |
RenderDofFocusY | 0.5 | Vertical measurement point from top 0 to bottom 1. |
The aperture shape, rounding, rotation, aberration, fringe and related look controls remain in the IGCS Connector panel. Those choices are meant to be judged on the live image rather than typed blindly into the INI.
Need an exact range or clamp? Each key has its own entry in the INI reference.
How shutter and sampling change in this mode
| Control | DepthOfField behaviour |
|---|---|
RenderSamples | Ignored and treated as 1. The aperture pass already performs the sampling. |
RenderDofQuality | Becomes the sampling-quality control for the aperture. |
RenderShutter | Still controls exposure time. Aperture samples are spread across this time window, so the pass can contain motion blur and optical defocus together. |
RenderFps | Still decides output cadence and therefore the duration represented by the shutter fraction. |
It cannot improve the aperture pass. Raise RenderDofQuality only when the actual bokeh shows visible discrete dots or rings.
A controlled first test
- 01Choose a two-second project
Use one free-camera shot with a clear foreground subject and small lights in the background.
- 02Prove Sliding first
Confirm ReShade, the connector, FFmpeg and the output folder are already working.
- 03Select Depth of Field
Use the Export screen or set
RenderCaptureMode=DepthOfField. - 04Place autofocus deliberately
Move X and Y onto the exact surface that must be sharp. Centre focus is only correct when the subject is actually centred.
- 05Start at the official lens defaults
Use aperture 0.15 and quality 12, then inspect bright bokeh before raising quality.
- 06Watch the log, not the live frame rate
A single pass can take tens of seconds. The renderer allows a long guard window because this is expected.
Known limits worth checking
The first frame can focus differently
The current source records a known first-frame autofocus measurement discrepancy. Inspect frame zero before committing to the whole sequence.
A pass can be refused temporarily
RE+ retries a refused aperture pass up to five times. Repeated refusal ends the render and the add-on log should name the reason.
Focus is a plane, not subject tracking
Autofocus measures depth through one screen point. It does not identify a face or remember an actor.
Wide bokeh exposes low quality quickly
Small bright highlights reveal discrete aperture samples sooner than soft surfaces do.