Best Graphics Mods For 5 Games to Make Them Photorealistic
Kingdom Come Deliverance
Kingdom Come Deliverance features some of the best open-world graphics of 2018 right out of the box as a result of using the notoriously CPU-intensive Cry Engine.
However, with a few simple reshader mods and tweaks to the UI, it can look unbelievable — assuming you have the PC to run it.
Project Epyon’s True Photorealism mod and/or a few others that optimize ambient occlusion, texture quality, and lighting can transform KCD into a next-gen dream.
True Photorealism on its own will make the game much more “cinematic” with its color correcting and letterbox effect. As the developer puts it, this overhaul mod has been “meticulously crafted over countless hours to give you knock-your-socks-off-visuals”.
Kingdom Come Deliverance doesn’t have the sheer volume of mods that a title like Skyrim has, but the solid foundation of the “vanilla” game allows for a lot of enhancement with a small amount of modification.
Before you know it, this action-RPG can start to feel more like a 15th century Eastern Europe VR history lesson.
Best Graphics Mods For 5 Games to Make Them Photorealistic
Dying Light
Dying Light has a sizable presence on Nexus Mods with over 1.3 million downloads to date. The game released in 2015 but has maintained it’s relevance thanks to the fact that it’s frequently on sale and quality content has been steadily released over the years (often for free).
Dying Light is also one of only a small number of satisfying zombie/survival titles since 2015, let alone satisfying open-world zombie titles.
If you’re thinking of trying out this action-survival game for the first time, add a few mods to bring the look and feel up to next-gen expectations. SweetFX is a good place to start, as it removes the yellowish-green filter from the game (which is a bit dated at this point).
Combine SweetFX with a reshade mod of your choice (Apex is great) to update the color, contrast, lighting effects and more. Many visual overhaul mods will also enable you to change things like lens flare, depth of field, “blown out” light sources or any other effects that have become dated looking in Dying Light.
You can even download presets for certain mods that will save you some time and effort.
Best Graphics Mods For 5 Games to Make Them Photorealistic
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
It should come as no surprise that Skyrim makes it onto this list — it’s a game that has enjoyed a thriving modding community for over five years. What’s particularly exciting about Skyrim is that modders have invested a huge amount of time turning this dated open-world RPG into something that borders on photorealistic.
It’s amazing how each iteration of new mods somehow manages to make Skyrim even more “real” looking. Experience next-gen Skyrim in the video above, which features the enhancement of over 300 different mods. However, three crucial add-ons alone are doing a lot of heavy lifting: Photorealistic Tamriel, NAT Tamriel, and ELFX.
Designed by a professional artist, Photorealistic Tamriel beautifies Skyrim by “correcting” the colors of the game. Shadows become deeper, lighting becomes more natural and refined, and the transition between effects is made much smoother.
NAT Tamriel and ELFX simply provide more features and effects to play around with.
The great thing about all three of these mods is that they are easily customizable. Everything from particle effects to wetness shaders can be tweaked to your heart’s content.
Best Graphics Mods For 5 Games to Make Them Photorealistic
Grand Theft Auto V
The best thing about enhancing GTA 5’s graphics to a photorealistic level is that the absurd, hilarious, over-the-top antics of the game become that much more focused as well.
With the help of mods, you can make the already well-designed cars look like Forza, and then tear across a crowded golf course! Make the planes look as real as Ace Combat, and then put a drug-addled criminal in the cockpit. And let’s not get started on the strip clubs…
A single graphics overhaul mod like VisualV will completely revamp a host of areas/interiors while also improving draw distance, shadow effects, color accuracy, and a long list of other very noticeable improvements. From there you can customize Los Santos however you please by hand-selecting custom designed vehicles, weapons, skins, and even maps.
And if you somehow get bored with all these Earth-based modding options, take a trip to the final frontier in Grand Theft Space!
Best Graphics Mods For 5 Games to Make Them Photorealistic
Fallout 4
Enter another Bethesda-produced modification playground. Fallout 4’s modding community is huge, there is a long list of graphics-enhancing content out there, and with Fallout 76’s mod support still up in the air, new and better mods are coming out every day.
Just focusing on photo-realism alone, Fallout 4 offers mod content that is in some ways more exciting than Skyrim. Because of its post-apocalyptic setting, Fallout 4’s mod developers can be wildly original in how they interpret “realism”.
It’s really exciting to see all the varied interpretations of what a retrofuturistic wasteland would “truly” be like.
While the video above features an extensive mod list, PhotoRealistic Commonwealth alone brings a huge amount of next-gen goodness to Fallout 4. Photorealistic Commonwealth is based around the color grading and postprocessing effects employed in movies.
This mod works to produce ultra-realistic visuals by using custom designed shaders and lighting effects.
Next, if you want to take the game even further down the path of next-gen, you could start enhancing specific aspects: like water, weather/lighting, and textures.
About the author
