Modder ‘Joao vitor alves’ has just released a Path Tracing Mod for the unofficial PC port of Bloodborne. The mod uses ray tracing to show moonlight, sky light, soft light, shadows, and reflections. It also uses NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction to clean up the image.
The new lighting system adds global illumination. This means light can bounce off walls and floors and reach dark spots. It also adds ray-traced shadows and reflections on wet and shiny surfaces. Water and puddles can now mirror the sky, moon, and nearby lamps. Glass windows and lamp covers can also show what is behind them.
The mod aims to keep the game’s original art style. It does not change the color palette, color grading, or dark gothic mood. Instead, it makes the same world look more real with deeper shadows and more natural light.
This is still an early alpha build, so the work is not done. The creator is still making changes to light sources, fire, fog, glow effects, water, and the overall look. Some areas may look wrong, and bugs are to be expected. The visuals may also change a lot in future updates.
The mod is easy to install. It only adds four files: a new build of the port’s engine with the path tracer and three DLL files. The rest of SuperMedo’s Bloodborne PC port and its launcher stay the same. You can also press F9 in-game to turn path tracing on or off. This lets you compare the new lighting with the stock version. Wait about three seconds after pressing the key for the light levels to adjust.
To use the mod, you need the working version 1.9.8.4 of SuperMedo’s Bloodborne PC port. You also need a ray tracing GPU, such as an NVIDIA GeForce RTX card or an AMD Radeon RX 6000 or newer. Since path tracing uses a lot of GPU power, the mod also needs DLSS or FSR 3.1 to help keep the frame rate up.
AMD cards are supported through FSR 3.1. However, the mod does not work with the standalone shadPS4 emulator. It only works with SuperMedo’s PC port. You can also change the look by editing the BB_RT_* settings in the launcher’s Advanced menu or by changing the shaders.
Finally, the mod includes an uninstaller. It restores the original files, so you can go back to the stock version at any time. You must own your own copy of Bloodborne, as the mod does not include any game files.
You can go ahead and download the mod from this link. Sadly, the modder has not shared any before/after comparison screenshots. However, we have the following two GIFs.
From what I can see, the game is now darker and has a grittier atmosphere. Still, since this changes the game’s art style, some fans may not like it. Personally, I enjoy the way Path Tracing changes the look of an old game. This is one of the reasons I enjoyed the Path Tracing Mods for Unreal Gold, Half-Life, Duke Nukem 3D, Dark Souls 2, Doom, Doom 2, Quake, GTA 4, and Serious Sam.
Have fun!
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