Dark Souls 2 fans, get ready for a treat. The creator of the amazing DS2LightingEngine Mod is currently working on a new version that will add support for real-time RTGI. Although there is no ETA on when the mod will come out, Ganaboy shared some early screenshots from it. And, as you will see, it already looks glorious.
What’s crucial to note is that this mod will add proper support for real-time Ray Tracing Global Illumination. This isn’t an “RT hack” like those we’ve seen with Reshade.
To showcase the visual benefits of RTGI, the modder shared a comparison between the game’s vanilla and RTGI lighting. On the left, we have the vanilla lighting. On the right, we have RTGI. As you can see, Dark Souls 2 looks awful with its default lighting. But with RTGI, the game can look almost as good as a lot of current-gen titles.
The modder shared even more screenshots that you can find below. The one with the dragon statue reminds me of the early shots for Dark Souls 2 that FromSoftware shared, right before downgrading it. So, thanks to RTGI, we may finally get a version of DS2 that feels closer to what the devs initially wanted to create.
As I said, there is no ETA on when this new version of the DS2LightingEngine Mod will come out. Naturally, though, I’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Speaking of Dark Souls 2, you may also be interested in this other mod for it. The First Sin InfiniDetail is a mod that aims to eliminate texture LOD pop-in. It will also greatly increase the game’s draw distance. In theory, it should work with the Renewal Project.
Dark Souls 2 Renewal Project upgrades every texture in the game to 4096×4096 resolution. It also adds roughness maps to every texture, along with fixes to missing/low-quality normal maps, vanilla displacement maps, and the occasional texture seam present on the vanilla files.
If you want more free content for the game, you should try the Firelink Edition Mod. Dark Souls 2 Firelink Edition adds new weapons, shields, armor pieces, and two whole new miracles. It will also allow players to sell the Soul items at their actual soul value. Soul items display their soul value in the descriptions, and we get some buffed ring effects.
These three mods are for the Scholar of the First Sin version. If you are still playing the first/vanilla version of DS2, you can use this mod to overhaul its graphics.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!
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 amazing, quite possibly the first RT mod that looks like a comprehensive improvement in all areas unlike most of them. I know this didn't start as an RT mod but they've really improved this game, possibly even above the pre-downgrade state.
OOne Step closer to the reveal demo shown that had incredible lighting
dangit i just replayed it
Would be nice to replay with the new Steam controller.
Would be nice to replay with the new Steam controller.
This is the sort of modding that I can get behind; rather then just texture upscale to 4k that already looks good enough
Dark Souls 2: "What lighting?"
I've always loved the idea of modding dark souls but I worry about being banned from the online services or flagged as a cheater and only matched with true cheaters. This looks like a really cool mod and would look great on an OLED.
Play offline.
I hope DS1R will get a decent, finished and functional graphical enhancement mod one day. Sticking with PTDE remains the best solution despite several over-hyped projects being released.