Yeah, I got the LumaSharpen and Curves settings from a "guru" article about SweetFX I found a few years ago. They work hand in hand, but I couldn't tell you exactly how.

Color saturation is determined by Vibrance. Some monitors do a much better job with color than others, so for more or less color try changing Vibrance from say 0.20 to 0.25 or 0.30 for more color, or something like 0.10 to 0.15 for less color.

I just tried these settings.....and wow, I thought my settings were good....but not this good!
Quite crisp and clean.

There is so much you can do with SweetFX. It's fun to just play around and see what you can accomplish with it.

For a minimal but still visible change you can leave every effect turned off except ToneMap (Controls Shading) and Curves (For Contrast). This will leave things pretty much as they were designed to look, but adds a touch more blue to everything (using a negative value is an undocumented feature that adds a tint without dimming the light) and increases the light/dark contrast.

#define USE_TONEMAP 1
#define Gamma 1.00
#define Exposure 0.00
#define Saturation 0.05
#define Bleach 0.0
#define Defog -0.020
#define FogColor float3(0.00,0.00,1.00)

#define USE_CURVES 1
#define Curves_mode 0
#define Curves_contrast 0.15
#define Curves_formula 3

For a big change from the original you can go for that washed out bright hazy day look. This uses Bloom, HDR, Lumasharpen, DPX, Liftgamma, and Vibrance. The low HDR value and the increased midtones for Lift Gamma are the major effects on display here. Look for things like more visible detail in the AA Bursts with this one.

#define USE_BLOOM 1
#define BloomThreshold 33.33
#define BloomPower 3.3
#define BloomWidth 0.0333

#define USE_HDR 1
#define HDRPower 0.66
#define radius2 0.80

#define USE_LUMASHARPEN 1
#define sharp_strength 2.00
#define sharp_clamp 0.035
#define pattern 2
#define offset_bias 1.00
#define show_sharpen 0

#define USE_DPX 1
#define Red 8.00
#define Green 8.00
#define Blue 8.00
#define ColorGamma 2.50
#define DPXSaturation 3.00
#define RedC 0.36
#define GreenC 0.36
#define BlueC 0.34
#define Blend 0.33

#define USE_LIFTGAMMAGAIN 1
#define RGB_Lift float3(0.600,0.600,0.600)
#define RGB_Gamma float3(1.200,1.200,1.200)
#define RGB_Gain float3(0.900,0.9.00,0.900)

#define USE_VIBRANCE 1
#define Vibrance 0.33

You can go too far with some effects and make things just too weird looking, but nothing is really permanent so have some fun, and see what you can come up with.

Thanks Bucksnort

I know, I can't believe I've been flying all of this time without SweetFX.

Good stuff, Lederhosen!

Thanks for all the tips, MajorMagee! I like this one the best: "nothing is really permanent so have some fun, and see what you can come up with."