Exilitay Realism v1.09 (Public Preview)

This is the public preview for my updated ppfilter, Exilitay Realism v1.09 🤍

Compatibility:
• For Gamma & LCS (Pure v3.0+)
• Full HDR support for both Gamma & LCS
• VR support for both Gamma & LCS

Official Release - 20.02.26
Official Download: https://www.patreon.com/posts/exilitay-realism-151196084
Early Access Release: 10.02.26

Tonemapping

In this update, I’ve made some massive changes to the tonemapping by implementing my own custom GT7-Blend and a GT-Sport-inspired logic, GT-Film. In my opinion, these are the best tonemapping logics out there. Because of these changes, I’ve completely retuned the colors and exposure to work perfectly with the new default GT7-Blend tonemap.

This tonemap is a hybrid that blends a standard Uchimura curve with a Perceptual Color Volume method. By using the ICtCp color space, colors stay natural even in the brightest highlights. Along with this update, I have also added advanced tonemapping parameters directly into the tonemapping tab, so you can adjust the highlights, shadows, curves, shoulders, and more to your exact preferences.

HDR Support

Designed for HDR, the ICtCp color space provides the math needed to handle extreme brightness without colors washing out or clipping highlights. Even in SDR, it offers a massive upgrade by keeping your hues perfectly locked. By using this cinema-grade logic, your image gains a professional look with smoother gradients and none of the unrealistic color distortion or clipping in high-contrast scenes.

For the HDR version of the filter, I have fine-tuned my tonemaps separately to take full advantage of the expanded dynamic range. I’ve optimised the highlights and shadows for the higher peak brightness and deeper blacks of HDR displays. This ensures that even at extreme luminance levels, the image maintains perfect color stability and detail without any clipping.

For LCS Users

I’ve been focusing heavily on my LCS filter recently, spending a lot more time fine-tuning and tweaking the ppfilter to look as good as possible out of the box. After noticing that in some cases, the 'Tunnel Blinding' was affecting the overall exposure when outside of tunnels (occluded areas), I’ve completely overhauled the system. The result is a much smoother tunnel blowout with no exposure issues when outside occluded areas. (Gamma also received this new system)

I’m using the same tonemaps for the LCS version to keep the aesthetic consistent with the Gamma filter. I’ve kept them as similar as possible, but I did have to tweak specific parts differently, like Fog, World Lighting, Reflections & Sunblinding, since those systems behave differently between Gamma and LCS.

In my opinion, LCS is the future of Assetto Corsa, and I’m going to be pushing its limits in future updates. I’ve included a comparison below: while Gamma remains the 'safe' choice for stability and general use, LCS is where the biggest improvements are happening.

I’ve personally been using LCS a lot more for track racing and landscape cruising. Compared to Gamma, the world lighting feels much more natural, and the colors look much more true-to-life, giving the image a nice pop while keeping it grounded and never looking artificial.

Be sure to check out my comparison video of Gamma vs LCS on my filter:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWOuaLT3pok
I will try to update the video when the v1.09 filter is officially out :)

VR Support

LCS support is now officially in the v1.09 VR version! As for all my past VR filters, my advanced systems, such as exposure, godrays, and color grading, cannot be used due to the nature of VR systems. Instead, they'll be using the default Pure systems for these parts to keep the visuals safe and prevent any eye-straining brightness & bugs.

They don't take away much from the visuals; the style is still there, you just lose some options for adjustability or those features. It still uses my custom tonemapping, colors, reflections, world lighting, and more, so the overall look stays consistent with the main version.

Exilitay FX

Advantages of ExilitayFX:

• Performance First: Save 5–10 FPS on average compared to ReShade effects.

• Zero Clutter: No more messing with ReShade installs, updates & annoying bugs

• Plug-And-Play: The most advanced coding, but simple UI, all you do is plug-and-play

FX Changes Log & Current Effects:

• (NEW) Unified Color Engine: Introducing three presets: Natural, Photo Realism, and Vibrant, which utilise the ICtCp color space for industry-leading accuracy, allowing for advanced adjustments to White Balance, Midtone Gamma, Cine Tint, & Master Vibrance.

• (NEW) Sky Color Presets: Features specialised grading profiles designed to enhance atmospheric depth. These presets intelligently target the sky box to deliver richer blues and more realistic horizons without affecting the lighting on your car or the track.

• Film Grain (Luma-Weighted): Smart grain that only shows up where it should. It adds texture to the shadows but keeps your bright skies and white paint clean and crisp. Uses the HASH12 algorithm for more natural noise, keeping everything optimised.

• Luma Sharpening: Sharpens the car and the road. This gives you a crisp image without creating "halos" or jagged edges on the horizon.

• Clarity: Adds that "pop" and 3D feel to textures. It makes the world look high-detail without killing your FPS.

• Chromatic Aberration: Radial channel shift for a subtle lens-style look. As with several other effects, I added a very small safety margin around the edges so the effect doesn’t bleed at the screen borders. Custom radial falloff keeps the centre sharp and lets dispersion increase toward the edges, creating that beautiful film look.

• GoPro Lens Distortion: Recreates the iconic wide-angle GoPro lens look. The centre of your screen stays perfectly sharp and focused, while a natural radial stretch and subtle color dispersion increase toward the edges for maximum immersion.

• Lens Dirt Overlay: Responds to brightness and time of day so dirt appears where light hits the lens, sky, sun, and headlights, without washing out shadows or shifting the colors. Stays subtle and keeps the image crisp, like a real camera.

• Dashcam VHS Effect: A throwback mode that recreates the look of old-school racing tapes, featuring Vertical Jitter and updated animated Scanlines. (Film Grain is no longer under the VHS section)

Better LCS support: Added LCS compensation sliders for Film Noise and Cine Tint

Color Grading

After implementing new tonemapping for the best color accuracy, I decided to completely rework my color grading. I've kept it simple with just 6 color grades for v1.09. Below I share a comparison of my favourite color grades that I will be using for this ppfilter.

CG Changes Log:

• Reworked / New Color Grades:
  Exilitay Punch, Monaco, Film, Autumn, NFS reworked & Exilitay Kodak is new.

• Removed Color Grades: Exilitay Cinematic, Beach, M5, Vintage & Exilitay Summer.

Sunblinding

I had sunblinding off in the previous updates; turning this on with godrays creates a much smoother image. You can use a different godrays preset to achieve a more dreamy look.

• I've added a sunblinding checkbox in the godrays tab (will add more adjustments soon)

As shown in the image below, you can see the comparison of sunblinding toggled on & off.

A Final Note

Looking back at the past year, I really want to thank everyone for the incredible support. Your feedback through every version has been the main thing driving me to keep improving. I know it took a while for v1.09; however, I'm sure you guys will find it was worth the wait. It's the result of almost 2 years of learning and refining, with a focus on wide compatibility and support for every user, whether you’re on Gamma, LCS, HDR, or VR. There are a totle of 6 main scripts + a few subscripts that I had to code, update & tweak individually for compatibility and so the aesthetic can look consistent across all versions.

Each update, I try to make my filters as ready as possible for you to just plug in, no matter what your setup is. However, I will be releasing an in-depth tutorial on the official release date of v1.09 on how to tweak your Pure and PP settings to get exactly what you're looking for, and I’ll be giving you guys my exact 1:1 settings. Thank you, everyone, for being part of this journey! More great things coming for Exilitay Graphics🤍

I'm currently using:
CSP: v0.3.0 preview140
Pure: v3.14 (hotfix)