All games include at least a few display settings with which to configure graphics. However, such settings are usually limited to adjusting the graphical quality. In-game graphics tabs don’t include options for applying filters that change the visual appearance of their games.

GeForce Experience is gaming optimization software you can utilize on desktops and laptops with supported NVIDIA GPUs. It includes a Freestyle feature with which you can apply 23 filters to give your games a unique look. This is how you can add filters to your games with GeForce Experience’s Freestyle feature.

First, Install GeForce Experience

You may not need to install GeForce Experience if your PC has an NVIDIA GPU. GeForce Experience comes pre-installed with the NVIDIA Control Panel on some PCs. First, check if you already have that software by right-clicking the NVIDIA system tray icon to look for a shortcut that opens GeForce.

If you don’t already have GeForce, look at that software’s system requirements to check your PC meets GPU and OS requirements before installing it. This NVIDIA system requirements page for GeForce Experience lists all supported GPU series.

You can download the software from this NVIDIA GeForce Experience page. Our guide to using GeForce Experience includes more detailed guidelines for how you can install NVIDIA's gaming software.

How to Enable the GeForce Experience Overlay

Now you can have some fun with GeForce Experience! However, you’ll need that software’s overlay turned on to apply its Freestyle filters. Experimental features also need to be enabled. This is how you can enable GeForce Experience's experimental features and overlay:

  1. Bring up the GeForce Experience software.
  2. Press GeForce’s Settings (cog) button to the left of your username.
    The Settings button in GeForce Experience
  3. Select the Enable experimental features checkbox.
    The Enable experimental features option in GeForce Experience
  4. Click the toggle switch for the In-Game Overlay option to turn on that feature.
    The In-Game Overlay option in GeForce Experience
  5. Also, look at the Features box on the right of the General tab to check that Freestyle and the overlay both have ready status with all requirements met. If they do, then you’re ready to go!
    The Freestyle system requirements box in GeForce Experience

A GeForce 430.64 driver is a minimal requirement for Freestyle. If your system doesn't meet that requirement, you can update your NVIDIA driver with GeForce Experience. Check out our guide to updating NVIDIA drivers for further details.

How to Apply Freestyle Filters to Games

You can now start applying Freestyle filters to games. However, note that the Freestyle feature will only work with supported game titles. This NVIDIA Supported Games page includes a pretty big list of titles you can optimize with GeForce Experience. Forget about applying filters to games that aren’t on that list.

The GeForce Experience overlay incorporates the Freestyle feature. When you activate Freestyle, you’ll see a sidebar from which you can select and apply numerous filters. You can apply filters to a game in the following steps:

  1. Launch a game for which to apply filters.
  2. Press the Alt + F3 keyboard shortcut to bring up the filter sidebar. Or you can press Alt + Z and click Game filter on the overlay.
    The GeForce Experience overlay
  3. Click the 1 Styles box.
  4. Press the Add Filter button.
  5. Then select one of the filters to apply.
    The Filters menu on the sidebar in GeForce Experience
  6. To further configure a filter, click its box to view its settings. Then you can drag at least one bar slider for the filter.
  7. When you’ve selected and configured some filters, press the Done button at the bottom of the sidebar.

You can set up three different filter presets to apply in games. Clicking the 1, 2, and 3 buttons at the top of the Game filter bar selects a different preset to configure. Selecting Off will disable the presets.

You can remove any filter added. To remove a filter, select it on the sidebar. Then click the trash button to delete the selection.

Experiment with the numerous Freestyle filters available. You can completely change how your game looks or apply more subtle visual tweaks with them. Some might be fun filters, while others are more genuinely useful visual enhancements. These are some of the more notable filters you can apply:

  • Tilt-shift: This filter blurs the borders of the screen. You can adjust the curve and size of the blurring with its bar slider settings.
    The Tint-shift filter using GeForce Experience
  • Stickers: A filter that enables you to add nine stickers to the screen, such as a cat, dog, chicken, and crown. You can reposition each sticker with the filter’s options. This is one filter that's more fun than useful.
    A dog sticker added with GeForce Experience's Sticker filter
  • Vignette: If you're a photographer, you might be familiar with the Vignette image-editing option that darkens the edges of a picture. This Freestyle filter applies a similar darkening effect to the screen’s edges for your games.
  • Old film: This Old film filter gives your games a retro look by combining black and white with film dirt effects. It might appeal to players playing World War II games.
    The Old film filter using GeForce Experience
  • Watercolor: The artistic Watercolor filter gives games you apply it to a painting look. You can adjust the filter’s blurriness, fuzziness, detail, and intensity with painting and pencil bar sliders.
    watercolor-filter
  • Brightness/Contrast: Some games already have graphical settings for adjusting brightness/contrast. Yet, this filter is more detailed since it includes options for modifying the contrast, exposure, highlights, shadow, and gamma.
  • Color: A useful filter that lets you modify a game’s colors with bar sliders for vibrancy, tint shift, intensity, and temperature.
    The Color filter in GeForce Experience
  • Black & White: This is a filter that turns your game a simple black and white without any of the other extra effects you get with Old film.
    The Black & White filter in GeForce Experience
  • Sharpen: The Sharpen filter enhances edges in a similar way that the same option does in image-editing software. Sharpening edges can give games a slightly clearer and crisper look by bringing out details.
  • Night mode: This filter reduces blue light in games like Night mode options on mobile devices.

Once you start applying filters, you'll appreciate that Freestyle is kind of like an image-editing feature for games. The Sharpen, Brightness, Black & White, Vignette, and Color filters are standard editing options you'll find in many image editors. Those filters are there to help you tweak how your game looks much the same as a photo within an image editor.

How to Apply Filters In Photo Mode

You can also apply filters to game screenshots with the GeForce overlay’s Photo mode feature. Bring up the Photo mode sidebar by pressing Alt + F2. Alternatively, you can select Photo mode on the overlay.

The Snap button

The Photo mode sidebar includes all the same filter options. You can select and configure them there much the same by clicking the Add Filter button. Then click the Snap button to capture screenshots with the filter applied.

Give Your Windows Games a New Look With GeForce Experience's Freestyle Filters

So, now you can truly transform how your Windows 11/10 games look with the Freestyle filters feature in GeForce Experience. You can give a game a more cinematic or photorealistic look with some of the more useful Freestyle filters. It’s a feature that enables players to unleash their creativity in more ways than one.