Prey (2017)

About this mod

This mod aims to improve graphics and effects: all the lights cast shadows, corrected shadows for the original light sources, ultra view distance, improved particles, improved AO+IL, no texture pop-in, no shadows pop-in, uses only high poly lods, improved reflections, all decals stay almost forever, new effects, volumetric lights and more!

Permissions and credits

Screenshot by DIGITAL FRONTIERS

HI!

This mod aims to improve the graphics and realism of Prey, the general changes are:


  • All the lights cast shadows, incl flashlight!
  • Corrected shadows for the original light sources. 
  • Ultra view distance for everything, incl space station!
  • Improved particles effects.
  • New particles effects.
  • Improved AO+IL (Via Engine and Reshade)
  • No more pop-in! for textures, shadows, objects, and particles. 
  • Improved reflections.
  • Prevents medium size objects become transparent when carrying.
  • All decals (blood, gloo, bullet holes, broken papers, broken glasses, etc) stay almost forever, only disappears when you leave the level.
  • Adds Breakable lights.
  • Adds Volumetric effects to lights.
  • Adds New advanced video settings -Sharpness slider, Weapon FOV slider, Chromatic aberration toggle, Film grain toggle, Supersampling-
  • Adds POM to specifics floors and walls, improves the effects on the ones they already have.
  • Tweaks differents materials for greater detail.
  • Uses only high poly lods and textures for more than 350 environmental and main objects (vegetation, rocks, exterior stations details, npcs, props)
  • Comes with 2 presets: Default (vanilla environment "feel", only Reshade's AO and DOF enabled) and "Darker Atmosphere"
  • Optional file that maintains vanilla style flashlight that cast shadows.
  • Optional download without Reshade for fps gain (No AO+IL and DOF)
  • Optional download of a lighter version of the mod for a near to vanilla performance 

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE!


CHANGELOG:

1.4:
  • Some new stuff in this one, added new fire and smoke effects on the spilling oil when is set on fire
  • Changes in the size of the pipes fire physics embers (they were too big)
  • Updated Reshade version and shaders, rebuild from the ground up. Now comes whit 2 layers of IL and AO to be approximate of how ray tracing behave at half the cost of real RT shader. Also, an optional DOF toggle is included ("Numpad -") some small comparison of the mod whit and without reshade OFF - ON / OFF - ON / OFF - ON
  • Fixed particles code on blow torch fire effects of corrupted operators.
  • Added specific volumetric effects on Cargo Bay
  • Tweaked engine SSDO to take out the halos and to work in conjunction whit Rehade

1.3.2:
  • Very small update, after several months, trying to keep fixing bugs reported by the users:
  • Latest Nvidia drivers mess up some engine variables applying then on the desktop too, cause of this the little touch of image gamma (0.93) need to be taken out when a new driver comes I'll try it again.
  • Fixed specific pistol bug. There was an internal test file left on the released zip, that file causes a rendering problem on a unique pistol founded on the game.
  • Fixed some persistent screen particle effects after casting some thypon powers
  • New download for a more balanced and "mod-friendly" version, the ideal version to use if you want the best fps possible without cutting addons from this mod, ready to use in combination whit any gameplay overhaul mod. No reshade and much less LODS bypasses in comparison whit the full version. Uses the lighter version CFG files to archive the best FPS possible, that equal to near to vanilla view distances. Remember that some changes are tied to the same files that a gameplay mod generally changes (eg: if a mod change the health of the thypons, they will have shadows pop in cause those values are in the same file, or if a mod alters the behavior of the operators, etc) but the lighting, effects, and particles changes will be there always. Also, remember that you can choose not using the level files will give another boost of perf at the cost of specific level shadows and lighting changes and also denser global fog and good rays.

1.3.1:
  • This small update fixes some bugs introduced by the mod reported by the users:
  • Fixed several graphical glitches in the station exterior map.
  • Fixed a particle effect that remains in the screen after cast Superthermal power.
  • Fixed some flickering volumetric effects in specific areas
  • Updated the Darker reshade version installation notes (see the bottom of the page) 

1.3:
  • Updated mod to make it compatible whit all the latest official fixes and updates, including all the survival options, no new game is needed if you are currently using some of the new modes.
  • Added helmet auto-deploying when the suit detects damage as seen on early gameplay demos.
  • Added new advanced mod settings tab in the graphics options menu. Note that changes inside the game will be reverted after a new launch, this it's because if the game can write the file to actually save the settings of the advanced sliders will revert other not related settings to vanilla and break the mod.
  • Updated Reshade and reshade-shaders for AO, IL, and DOF. DOF is deactivated by default now because how reshade works it will be always applied on top everything else (menus, HUD, etc) if you want to activate DOF use the "Home" key to show the reshade menu and activate it from there, also you can gain some fps using the "Numpad +" that will deactivate Reshade's AO and IL.
  • Fixes more specific levels related lighting inconsistencies left on vanilla game.
  • Fixed a bug that makes a specifical particle effect to stay in screen after killing whit the q-beam the bigger thypons introduced on V1.2
  • Fixed a model lod issue whit a file misnamed introduced on V1.2
  • More minor fixes for 1-2 fps gain depending on the scene
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT I BEEN REALLY BUSY AND WAS COMPLICATED FINISHING THE UPDATE
SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THE USERS THAT PROVIDED FEEDBACK AND TEST THIS LAST VERSION
AND OF COURSE DIGITALFRONTIERS AS USUALLY FOR THE GREAT SCREENSHOTS


Vanilla Flashlight Fix:
  • Fixes player shadow blocks the flashlight when crouching and looking up at the same time. Thanks Iazu for the feedback!

1.2:
  • Added tracking cameras sparks on emp grenades and Thypons interference, augmented reach of tracking, also they can be broken.
  • Now Operators react properly to environmental fire and produced fire, added burning effects. Also, they will evade the fire of a leaking pipe if they can. 
  • Adjusted the material settings and shaders for many brushes and props: 
  • Replace Offset Bump Mapping whit Parallax Occlusion Mapping on rocks floors, BeforeV1.0/AfterV1.2.
  • Greater unified detail mapping for vegetation and rocks.
  • More pronounced POM displacement effects on walls and floors whit tessellated sun shadows BeforeV1.0/AfterV1.2.
  • Adds POM displacement on floors and props, by brand new displacing maps BeforeV1.0/AfterV1.2. On future updates, I'll keep adding new ones.
  • Adds unused specular texture maps to several objects and brushes materials.
  • Change of material shaders on arboretum greenhouse to make it a real glass structure BeforeV1.0/AfetrV1.2 On vanilla having the Greenhouse not being transparent was used as a help to hide the pop-in of the vegetation inside.
  • Tweaked mirrors material to make it fully mirror-like. But note that they don't reflect real-time due limitations on the engine.
  • Tweaked water material to be more reflective and detailed. Note that the game doesn't use real water volumes, without an in-house editor further modification or implementation of water volumes is not possible atm
  • Changed plant boxes glass normal and gloss maps to a more detailed ones.
  • Adds unused SSS texture map for opacity to vegetation.
  • Replaced the Levels Save-Load images to new ones that correspond the real state of the modded in-game areas, all the new shoots were taken by Digital Frontiers.
  • Improved fire effects of pipe leaks.
  • Added heat distortion effects to all the heat emitters.
  • New gore effects on Humans and Thypons deaths.
  • Now the lights and electronic props also react to the stun gun.
  • Added more blood on weapons impacts on Humans.
  • Improved particle effects of powers cast by the player.
  • Prolonged the time of Thypon blood splatters on player's camera.
  • Added effects for Humans npc blood splatters on camera.
  • Added interference effects for all sings.
  • More particles effects added to recycler recycling animation.
  • Tweaked how flashlight dims on different distances, now it maintains intensity constantly (the drain of power remains the same, the gameplay isn't affected)
  • Added specific fog and volumetric effects on arboretum greenhouse, Crew Quarters, Neuromod Div and Psychotronic levels.
  • Uses only high poly lod models of more rocks and special structures.
  • Changed space texture using the one that appears in old gameplay demos.
  • New Earth position and lighting, to be more on the line of moon-earth real life position in space, thanks Jlbiggs!
  • Improved impact effects of water
  • Augmented view distance for fog/cold/mist particle effects.
  • Improved destruction effects on lights.
  • Activated missing shadows on the medbay of life support level.
  • Adjusted intensity of some very bright and noisy volumetric effects on cargo bay level.
  • Adjusted intensity of the lamp post volumetric effects on Arboretum to be more subtle. 
  • Adjusted several base game lighting inconsistencies from the base game across all the levels, for eg: BeforeV1.0/AfterV1.2, BeforeV1.0/AfterV1.2.
  • Adjusted the pause menu to be fully clear, leaving a lighter effect when the options are selected.
  • Fixed mist particle effects not being rendered properly introduced by the last ver of the mod.
  • Fixed flickering of volumetric effect near the exterior transition door at power source level.
  • Fixed persistent sparks effects on some turrets after being fully repaired.
  • Cleaned particles code gaining 3-7 fps depending on the scene and the number of particles being rendered.

Note that this list of changes applies only to the complete and no Reshade versions. The lighter version packs only the particles effects fixes, flashlight changes and the new save/load images.

Special thanks to Digital Frontiers for all the awesome screenshots!

Updated info about others mods compatibility:
  • See notes section at the bottom of the page.

1.00:
  • Fixed black paint bug, big thanks to jlbiggs for find the solution! Now the game is 100% free of this annoying bug, but TSAA is now cut from the mod.
  • Deactivated glitch shadows for psychoscope (thanks to rattkin for feedback).
  • Fixed weird blood behavior when hitting mimics whit the wrench (thanks to IamMrSniffles for feedback).
  • Improves blood physic on all types of Thypons on death. 
  • 99.99% free of shadows flickering but may appear some at very higher res, due limitations on the engine on the added shadows.
  • More low poly lods models deactivations!
  • Adds high res textures for doors and sofa chairs (unused mips for the vanilla ones).
  • Adds an unused high poly model and textures for the microscope, and Psicotronics containment door.
  • Adds an unused high poly model for the good health turret state.
  • Adds a Weapon FOV slider on video options, unfortunately, needs to be set after the level is loaded and the engine retest to default on a new level load, but for some it will be useful.
  • More perf gains, up to 4-7fps depending on the scene.

Lighter Version update:
  • Tweaked more some variables for lighter CPU utilization.
  • Now Lighter version comes with vanilla AO and SSR, that results in nearly 5 to 10 fps increase depending on the scene.

0.99
:
  • Deactivated low poly lods and textures for several specific objects. Includes all vegetation, arboretums rocks, electrical objects, chairs, all exterior station modules, station antennas, panels and many other props and details (more than 300!)
  • Deactivated low poly lods and textures for mimics and all type of phantoms.
  • Added More parts of operators when they explode.
  • Replaced textures for male arms for ones splattered with blood for more realism (unused ones, as good as vanilla arms textures. Unfortunately they aren't available for the woman model)
  • Cleaned and optimized mod variables for more perf (5-10 fps depending on the setup) without any visual difference to the last ver of the mod.
  • Increased a little the shadows resolution. This is something that I'm still working to get the maximum res without introducing flickering but it's heavily limited by the engine.
  • Removed unwanted folders from optional No Reshade download.
  • New optional download of a lighter version of the mod that contains all the mod tweaks and addons except:
    -vanilla v.high view distance (except for lights raised from 75 to 125)
    -vanilla lods for specific props, npcs, and station elements
    -without Reshade
    -without level specific shadows
    -without denser global fog
    -without volumetric shafts for sun
    All that ensures an almost near to vanilla perf for those with limited setups.


0.98 Special thanks to JLBiggs for the great feedback and the awesome screenshots!:
  • By now almost all shadow flickering is gone!
  • Added new effects to lights when breaking
  • Added a new step on installation instructions to ensure more stability and better texture streaming.
  • Lost of finetuning on lights parameters per level.

0.97fix Thanks to all the users who provided feedback!:
  • Fix Crash on game start due to missing lines on system.cfg.
  • Fix low fps on 8gb VRAM cards.
  • Fix some shadows flickering on specific areas, introduced in the latest version.  

0.97
:
  • NOTE! In this version, I changed the main file preset to have only Reshade's AO+IL and DOF active in order to maintain the game original art design view, if you come from older versions set in-game brightens at 0. For those who want the "Darker Atmosphere" a folder is included whit a Reshade config preset, place in C:\***\Prey\Binaries\Danielle\x64\Release and remember set the in-game brightness to -5.
  • Volumetric lights! Added volumetric effects to almost all lights e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (I'm open to suggestions if the effects are too strong).
  • Added volumetric shafts to sun, and improved flare effects
  • Now all the lights affect fog and smoke correctly.
  • Improved global Volumetric fog, now is denser (on par with smoke, gas, air and oxygen leaks across the station)
  • More fake lights deactivated in several levels.
  • Activated missing shadows on level-specific lights on all the levels, also specific level overrides for stopping some lights to cast shadows are deactivated letting specific lights cast shadows at the same time in a small area.
  • Tons of cuted particles effects activated! For Canister Explosions, lure grenades, Nullwave grenades, EMP grenades, operator dispatchers effects, recycler machine idle effects, particle lights effects, specific cinematics effects, and more!
  • Activated better muzzle flare and bullets tracer effects for turrets that weren't used.
  • Added black smoke for fire leaks in pipes
  • New effects added to recycle grenade detonation.
  • Increased power of mod flashlight, also now is more centered on screen being more accurate and easy to use. 
  • New effects for turrets! explosion when gets disabled, stunned effect, electrocuted effect.
  • New effects for operators explosions! Added fire effects, sparks and smoke
  • New particle effects for pistol, shotgun and wrench hits for all surfaces (Brand new and cuted ones).
  • Improved TOD on game beginning.
  • Added particle effects to electronics reacting to emp grenades and phantoms.
  • Arboretum Lamp Post now cast properly sun shadows
  • Lights on electronic objects react blinking when impacted.
  • Added physics to Thypons gibs
  • Added effect to wrench hit on computers screens.
  • Improved blood spreading when hitting humans
  • Activated shadows for all types of grenades when launched and when holding in hand.
  • Changed icons on the selection wheel to be as showed on early gameplay demos
  • Included system.cfg in order to get more robust implementations of engine variables.
  • Fixed different objects shadow not appearing in certain circumstances.
  • Fixed weird double Shadows on Morgan's corporate bedroom.
  • Toned down Reshade indirect lighting to be more subtle and accurate.
  • Fixed mimic blood sometimes gets stuck in the middle of the air and improved blood spreading.


0.9 Vanilla flashlight update:

0.9b:
  • Fix shadows glitch on arboretum path lights. 

0.9:
  • More blood! Death hit blood of Thypons and Humans will spread more and remain on screen.
  • Tiny death gibs meshes of Typhons will remain on screen, added physics collisions and they'll cast and receive shadows.
  • Added effect for wrench hits on lights.
  • Added light effects to wrench hits on screens.
  • Tweaked and augmented physics and quantity for goo shattered parts when breaking after being attached to a character, the remains will cast and receive shadows.
  • Tweaked physics, added collision and augmented the quantity of player produced goo breaking pieces, the remains will stay on screen and also cast and receive shadows.
  • Finetuned and improved in engine AO (Before After Reshade On - Before After No Reshade ).
  • Updated Reshade's AO+IL to latest ver: support 2 passes, so now is more detailed and has wider range costing the same as before.
  • Operators mesh parts: Augmented screen lifetime for broken parts of robots on damage and destruction, the remains cast and receive shadows.
  • Player Bullets shells: Augmented screen lifetime and added physics collisions of bullets ejected shells they'll cast and receive shadows, note that they will remain on screen while the weapon is selected, at the moment that the weapon is changed they'll disappear (this is unavoidable at the moment).
  • Turrets Bullets shells: Augmented screen lifetime and added physics collisions of bullets ejected shells, they'll cast and receive shadows.
  • Activated effects that were cut on vanilla for mesh parts on damage for some operators, mesh parts on turrets destruction and mesh parts on random explosions. Added augmented screen lifetime and improved physics, the remains cast and receive shadows.
  • Activated other several particle effects that were cut on vanilla game such of sparks w/collisions, glow effects, smoke effects, etc
  • Expanded view distance for several types of sparks.
  • Activated shadows for missing exterior vistas elements.
  • Added new option in Game Settings: Hud toggle. Warning! makes ALL notifications, objectives, prompts, icons, reticle, etc disappear but you can check stats, objectives, health, etc in the inventory menu, can be very hard to play this way but very immersive.
  • Added new options in Advanced Video Settings:
  • Sharpness slider (mod default 0,35) 
  • TSAA (mod default on) 
  • Chromatic aberration (mod default off) 
  • Film grain (mod default off)
  • Supersampling 2x2 (mod default off) keep in mind that using supersampling will break Reshade AO and DOF, the others reshade effects will work
  • ATTENTION! These added options need to be set every time the game loads, this is needed cause if the game can write the file to save the changes also will change other mod related settings resulting in undesired IQ and others issues.
  • Leverage III objects are transparent again when carrying in order to don't affect gameplay.
  • Change optional file implementation: Now if you use vanilla flashlight optional file keep in mind that works in companion with the main file to save download space.

0.8c(Only apply for Reshade ver): Speedup Reshade initialization and helps with compatibility problems

0.8b:
  • Fix Shadows flickering in some areas
  • Stabilized fps in large areas.
  • Added optional file to become leverage III objects transparent again in order to don't affect gameplay (in the next number update this will be included in the main file)


0.8:
  • Breakable lights!: now lights also reacts to impacts such as bullets and collisions
                                                                                              
  • Light fixtures can be carried
  • Added slight DOF only for up closes (1-2 fps cost), can be deactivated pressing "numpad -"
  • Reshade AO+IL finetuned and improved (now cost fewer fps and is equally effective)
  • Added physics ability to Industrial lathe, drill press, crafting plans, Transtar hanging wall logo, workbench vice, board eraser, cigarettes, kitchen knife, lockers.
  • Amplified shadows view distance to avoid shadows pop-in on large rooms without fps cost.
  • More shattered parts when breaking goo
  • Fixed some burn decals disappearing before time
  • Added an extra file for those that have issues whit Reshade on game startup, this is to avoid further search and downloading files cause is a known compatibility problem on some setups. (see installation notes)

0.7
:
  • Increased view distance for environment decals
  • Ad collision for various types of particles
  • Increase collision for particles that already have
  • Increased particles view distance
  • Fix paper pieces decals disappearing before time
  • Deactivated fake lights in some areas
  • Burns decals for explosions and voltaic strikes on floor stay almost forever
  • Added shadows (cast and receive) for gloo shattered parts and augmented screen lifetime
  • Added physics (movement and carrying ability) to apartment nightstand, locker drawer, and fertilizer dispenser
  • Optional file without Reshade that maintains vanilla environment "feel", and fps gain (No added AO+IL)

0.6b: Fixes some decals disappearing before time, added an optional file for vanilla flashlight.

And much more to come!

Installation:

ALWAYS REPLACE ALL THE FILES IF YOU ARE INSTALLING AN UPDATE


MAIN VERSION
  • Extract the zip file, inside there are 6 folders each one has a name that explains where to put the files for the correct functionality of the mod. Don't forget to make a backup of the files before overwrite!
  • Open game.cfg  (%yourusername%\Saved Games\Arkane Studios\Prey) with notepad and set your preferred resolution, make sure to set as read only after.
  • Open autoexec.cfg  (Prey main folder) and on the very bottom line (r_TexturesStreamPoolSize=XXXX) set the size of your VRAM in MB. e.g for 4gb=4096 for 6gb=6144 and so on, you need to repeat the same on system.cfg.
  • If you want the "Darker Atmosphere" preset follow the instructions of the folder that contains the file and DON'T use any of the reshade files of the defaul preset the darker version uses and old reshade implementation, also set the in-game brightness to -5 (Don't worry, otherwise you'll get overexposed whites)
  • Enjoy!


***********IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE GAME CRASHING ON STARTUP USE THE ALTERNATIVE DXGI.DLL THAT COMES IN A SEPARATE FOLDER***************


NO RESHADE VERSION
   1.  Extract the zip file, inside there are 4 folders each one has a name that explains where to put the files for the correct functionality of the mod.Don't forget to make a backup of the files before overwrite!
   2.  Open game.cfg  (%yourusername%\Saved Games\Arkane Studios\Prey) with notepad and set your preferred resolution, make sure to set as read only after.
   3.  Open autoexec.cfg  (Prey main folder) and on the very bottom line (r_TexturesStreamPoolSize=XXXX) set the size of your VRAM in MB. e.g for 4gb=4096 for 6gb=6144 and so on, you need to repeat the same on system.cfg.
   4.  Enjoy!

LIGHTER VERSION: follow the same steps of no reshade version.

SLI OWNERS: Open autoexec.cfg and ad this line at the end: r_multigpu = 1

TO UNINSTALL DELETE THE ADDED FILES AND REVERT THE BACKUP OF THE ONES THAT NEED IT

Important Notes:


Others mod compatibility:

Fully compatible with immersion mods (very recommended), easy haking, better scopes , mimic sounds and Undarken.
For recycle more add a "zzz" in front of the name of .pak file of recycle more mod.
For Re-engineered add a "zzz" in front of the name of the .pak file of such mod (using this mod you will have lod and shadows pop-in on all the pickable items)
For Scarcity add a "zzz" in front of the name of the .pak file of such mod  (using this mod you will have lod and shadows pop-in on all the pickable items, gameplay objects, and some environmental objects) 
For swift and easy play add a "zzz" in front of the name of the .pak file of such mod  (using this mod you will have lod and shadows pop-in on all the pickable items, gameplay objects, and some environmental objects) 
It isn't fully compatible with hardcore/survival mods. A
dd a "zzz" in front of the name of the .pak file of such mod, if you are using these mods keep in mind that maybe will break some functionalities of this mod

Breakable lights don't affect normal gameplay, only powerful direct hits can break them (bullets, leverage II and III objects) and if you are in a room and destroy all (before and after) the lights and shadows produced by them will disappear but there are plenty others lights sources such as screens, lights on the highs that are unreachables and signs that will illuminate the rooms and guide you thru only a few small rooms will become very dark (like the one on the video) but they are specific ones and the flashlight do the job if you accidentally destroy all the lights

Warning! can be very taxing on some setups, on a GTX 1070 8gb, i5 3570k, 16gb ram and SSD, 1080p VSYNC ON I get 60fps (with some dips to 55 only on exterior, center of the lobby and Arboretum w/many Thypons around) you can gain fps disabling Resahde's AO+IL hitting "Numpad +" or using the version without Reshade, less powerful setups can opt for the lighter version.

Know bugs:

In the first mission, the sun looks oversaturated when using the "darker Atmosphere" preset.


Screenshot by DIGITAL FRONTIERS