So Reshade, technically being an addon, does not negatively impact realms or other players.
And it would help if Blizzard actually gave real information other than just: “UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS”, because technically it does not go against the TOS as it does not actually alter the game itself, just what your GPU sees.
Which is in the same vein as using my Nvidia software to change settings and allow the GPU to alter the output rather than allowing the 3D application to decide. Or even running LInux.
And this, if what I am reading is correct, than WoW will still be years behind other games because I can add some simple sharpening only to the game and make things so much clear to look at and not have the blur effect that everything has instantly making the game look better with only one additional graphics setting.
It’s just pathetic with how little customising there is in game and not just sharpening, but lighting, and not even Ray Tracing, just adding light effects to make the game look so much better.
And after reading through older posts about Reshade, one of which got a blue reponse which is no longer on the forums (if a post is old enough it is just not there anymore, or if Blizz decide to delete it):
Here is an old post that got a blue response.
As long as it doesn’t have the ability to change models, such as making stealthed characters a shadow or colour, or give you an advantage over others in any way such as seeing nodes bigger than they are, etc then it should be fine.
And from the Reshade site: ReShade exposes an automated and generic way to access both frame color and depth information (latter is automatically disabled during multiplayer to prevent exploitation) and all the tools to make it happen.
And as many others have noted, it does not inject anything into the game files, it does not replace textures, it does not alter the game in anyway. And the forum posts you can find outside the official forums, with one person noting they did get a response from a GM stating: “The kinds of things that can get an account banned are the ones that provide some kind of in-game advantage or automates a part of the game so it can be done without a player.”
Well I mean yeh I get an advantage, I can see things clearer. But as others have also said, this is just like getting a better GPU and (as I noted above) using the Nvidia settings to alter the look of the game as long as your GPU supports it.
Basically WoW says “Here are your files” and the GPU goes “Thanks, now lets render them”, Reshade, and as I have found, many other programs just render the information prior to the GPU getting a hold of it.