The NBA 2K series had a lot of potential during the Xbox 360 days. Back then, it had some of the best graphics ever seen in a basketball game. Those were the good times. Today, NBA 2K games don’t feel as special. But thanks to the PC modding community, we can now see how real and amazing NBA 2K25 could actually look.
Both of these videos show a lighting mod made by modder “aka7.” The lighting in the mod looks super realistic. It also shows how the NBA 2K devs have not done a great job with lighting in the newer games.
It’s a shame because if one modder can make something this good, the devs should be able to do even better. But instead, 2K Games keeps releasing games that look almost the same every year. What’s even funnier is that this amazing lighting mod doesn’t even come with a big performance hit.
2K Games will share the first gameplay trailer for NBA 2K26 tomorrow. And I’m almost certain that it won’t look as good as this modded version of NBA 2K25. Now, if you search YouTube for “NBA 2K26 gameplay”, you will find some fake videos. These are from the PC version of NBA 2K25 with mods. I’m saying this because a lot will be fooled by them.
Sadly, there is a downside to all this. While the lighting mod by ‘aka7’ looks incredible, it’s currently locked behind a paywall and hasn’t been released to the public. That’s a shame because it looks phenomenal. I understand that the modder wants to earn some money, but this may put off a lot of PC gamers who would have otherwise used it.
Still, these videos deserve your attention. If you view them on your phone, you’ll think that they are from a real NBA match. The lighting is THAT good.
Ideally, I wish NBA 2K26 would have this amazing lighting and smoother animations. Right now, the only thing that makes it obvious these videos are from a game is how the players move. With better animations, they could look almost real. But let’s be honest – 2K Games probably won’t do that. Instead, they’ll just add more microtransactions. What a waste.
Enjoy!
This mod makes NBA 2K look photorealistic
— NBA 2K26 Community (@nba2kcmty) July 28, 2025
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
Looks just like NBA 2024-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-09-08-07-06-05-04-03 to me
"how the game looks" is not the same as "how the game can look"… if you mod it.
N00d mod right?!
That’s gotta be a sight to behold.
haha, you wild'n out homeboy
Hopefully some of this innovation is what gets adopted and also applied to the new W mode.
Exciting sfuff indeed. If you like playing basketball on a PC that is.
nice
Hot Damn! This looks like watching the game on live TV. Even to the trained eye. Its super cool. This is the kind of innovation I like.
Edit: Locked behind paywall! What a bummer.
The animations are a dead giveaway though, they still have a ways to go there.
It's kind of arcadey game so it's expected. And I doubt they can improve on it to make it similar to old PES games which had the best animations
What is this, basketball on ice?!
But yeah, good for the fans.
F*k the pay wall but this looks like I'll have to get it.
It's hard to tell anything from a crappy Twitter video …… You'd think the world's richest man could afford a decent CODEC for his website ……
Looks rather good……… until it starts moving. Animations and clothing physics have a long, long ways to go.
Gotta love the invisible arm on that player around 0:35. And it's not just one second.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b34a5d59c706e24beff1b7159c0e6d5cd0b0dc26cd1692c36d69bf11582a202f.png
Does not look photorealistic to me you can still tell it is a game.
I have NBA 2K17 on PC. It looks exactly the same. Maybe 2K17 is even more realistic.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d031fb20e87f6675ec78ce12ab8ef6ae38f7540a09294c18f2d61b53851254a2.jpg
And the animations/gameplay are much better than the recent games.
There's no need to "upgrade" since many years already.
Even 2011 was already great, minus the "previous-gen" graphics.
2017 is the last great one, then it went downhill.
really ? might try it