Automata-LodMod is a wrapper DLL that can patch/hook several graphics improvements into NieR Automata, helping to improve graphics quality & also reduce some annoying graphical bugs.

This was started just to help with the annoying "LOD switches causing AO to appear through walls" bug that the 2021 update added, but over time has grown to include much more:

• LODMultiplier: helps to reduce model-swapping & AO issues (should help a lot with the AO-through-walls bug introduced in 2021)
• ShadowModelHQ: allows using shadows based on real-time HQ models of objects (eg. shadows of trees can sway along with the tree)
• ShadowModelForceAll: allows smaller models like rocks/grass & other objects to cast shadows (eg: https://slow.pics/c/GIa50v0A click image to compare)
• DisableManualCulling: disables culling triggers used by the game to hide models/geometry, greatly reducing the number of pop-ins/pop-outs.
• DisableVignette: allows disabling the on-screen vignette effect (this only affects the in-game 3D view, 2D menus use a vignette texture instead, you can use ChaserJZX's Grid Vignette and Bunker Grain Removal mod to remove that)
• SkipIntroMovies & SkipBootingScreens: these work how you'd expect, should let you load into the game much quicker.
• AOMultiplier: Can improve AO resolution from the default quarter-screen-resolution up to your full resolution, reducing shimmering/flickering a lot.
• (In-game AO disable setting is now actually made functional, previously didn't seem to have any effect, useful if you want to replace it with a 3rd-party shader)
• ShadowResolution / ShadowDistance: lets you change the shadow resolution & increase the distance of the shadow cascades, allowing quality of shadows to be much improved. (eg: https://slow.pics/c/5P0FgpPz, click image to compare)
• ShadowFilterStrength: modifies strength of bokeh filter used on shadows, so shadows can be made sharper/softer as desired.
• CommunicationScreenResolution: The 3D renders of characters shown by your pod can have their resolution increased, slightly improving quality.
• HQMapSlots: (not recommended, see known issues section) increases the number of high-quality map slots used by the game, hugely improving the quality/distance of distant terrain (though sadly has many issues right now...), examples: https://slow.pics/c/Yd1UnR29, https://slow.pics/c/nKwmWW7K (click image to compare)
• MovieMultiplier: allows using larger-than-1080p movies (1440p/4K tested), best controlled by movie mods themselves (LodMod will load in overrides from any LodMod.ini found in game subfolders, eg. data\movie\LodMod.ini, LodMod_MovieSample.ini is an example INI for 4k movies, feel free to include with your mods!)
• EnableH264: adds H264 codec support for movie files, improving quality of them while decreasing the file size!
• TranslateEnable: translates some hardcoded Japanese text, in retail builds these are mostly just error dialogs, but on debug builds this can also translate a lot (~80%) of the Japanese debug menus for you, making them much more accessible
• FixJapaneseEncoding: converts Japanese Shift-JIS text over to UTF8 instead. In retail this will again mostly just affect error messages, but on debug builds this can fix the debug output given to any attached debugger too.
  

If you already have performance issues this mod might not be for you, though if you just want to use it for the non-graphical improvements (improved movie support / translation / etc) all the graphical settings can be easily disabled in LodMod.ini.

It could be worth trying out SpecialK's global illumination setting too, can help improve performance quite a bit. You can also downgrade to the 2017 build for a slight performance/latency improvement.

# Setup

• Download latest ZIP from the files section
• Extract xinput1_4.dll & LodMod.ini next to your NieRAutomata.exe
• (if playing with NA 2017 version, rename xinput1_4.dll to xinput1_3.dll)
  

The default settings will just disable LODs, increase shadow distance, and disable manual culling - in effect this should get rid of the AO-through-walls issue, slightly improve shadow quality, and prevent objects from randomly popping-out, this shouldn't impact performance too much, but if it does you could try disabling DisableManualCulling (some have reported that keeping that disabled helped improve the FPS a bit)

All the features mentioned in the list above can be enabled/changed through the LodMod.ini, by default majority of them are disabled as some can have significant performance impact - it's up to you to choose what ones you want!

If game doesn't run or gives an error code when running it, make sure you have VC2019 redist installed: https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

Dev/test-builds & source code can also be found on my github: https://github.com/emoose/NieRAutomata-LodMod

# Support
If anyone would like to help support LodMod development please check out https://ko-fi.com/emoose, currently saving up to upgrade from my 2012 PC, would appreciate anything you could help with!

# Known Issues / Errata

# Mod Compatibility

# Other titles
If you want more LodMod, here's some of the other LOD/graphics fixes I've made:

Yakuza 0: https://steamcommunity.com/app/638970/discussions/0/1743343017611794579/
Yakuza Kiwami: https://steamcommunity.com/app/834530/discussions/0/2800630252895668904/
Dragon Quest XI S: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1295510/discussions/0/3117025249764261520/
Improved Lighting Shaders (for Fallout New Vegas)
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/69833