(Version 1.4 should be out within the next few weeks (as of April 30th), with major overhauls of specific weathers and many lighting improvements for all weathers!)
Hey just wanted to stop by and say this looks great. Really unique style with the way you use lut values and sky scattering to adjust light where a lot of modders will just bring up exposure to compensate.
1. i used to use TTO and honestly didnt really care much since i didnt really look at the terrain 24/7 so its kind of useless imo, i lost performance and the file was just big, i did use the old version though, i havent tested the new version but i probably wont use it. for xtreme grass it worked for me but i had weird LOD issues and horrible fps, it seems it's only me with this problem as its working flawlessly for other people so im not really sure lol, but if you like them i would say they would look good paired with my mod. 2. for your graphics card i would say the settings are adjusted to work really well with your graphics card, if you are running low on vram i would recommend changing any settings on ultra like global illumination and set them to high. i did just update the settings file for a few minor adjustments for better performance, so test it out and see if its any better than the older settings.
Thanks. I think adding many of benigues1899's mods to your mod should be enough eye candy for me (without TTO).
Regarding my Radeon graphics card, I've used all your game graphics settings except I set FSR 2.0 to "Quality", with it's Sharpening at 50%. The result looks good. I'm using under 5GB of vram, and using the game's test video, I'm averaging 96fps with a min of 44fps.
Not sure - I only ran the game's Benchmark Test. After I installed your VDLV along with all of beniguess1899' trees (and removed TTO), I then had :- 34 min fps 133 max fps 99 aver fps.
However, there is a recent mod called "RDR2 2025 Enhanced Edition (Also Improves Performance)". Sounds good, but it is really only a ReShade Preset. The great thing about the developer is that he includes advice on tuning you pc to get the best gaming performance. I used all of his tuning advice, and maybe that's where I get the extra fps from.
Haven't had a chance to play since I've added VDLV, but with just a quick look I can see a great improvement. Thanks heaps.
oh ok, im not sure about the reshade preset as i dont use any reshades but judging from the page it doesnt look that bad, well glad the game is running well for you
It's too dark at night. Is there any way to adjust this? I can't even distinguish the terrain or people standing around. Maybe it's because the clouds are blocking the moonlight... Even with Brighter Nights, it's still dark. I have also set the in-game brightness to the maximum on the right. Additionally, the screen flickers intermittently. During the daytime, however, this is truly the best graphics-related mod.
if you think its too dark it might be your monitor or personal preference, i can send you a modified file that makes the nights even brighter if you want.
Rather than saying that "night" is dark, I’d say… well, actually, if I remove the clouds, the night itself isn’t that dark—it’s just right. However, it’s a bit hard to explain, but I’d say the "contrast" is too strong. Areas that don’t receive moonlight are extremely dark, making it almost impossible to see characters. So, when the moonlight is blocked by clouds, during missions, or when traveling through densely wooded mountains, it feels like you can’t see anything around you at all. (In Chapter 6, during the mission where you raid the Murfree Brood’s hideout with Charles, it literally felt like I was just looking at a black screen.) Could this be happening because I have DLSS enabled? This mod is truly amazing and awesome, and despite some bugs (such as the screen flickering intermittently or turning completely white when entering a dark cave or house with a significant brightness difference from the outside), it’s still absolutely worth using. Is there any way to get a file that makes the night brightness and contrast the same as the vanilla version? If this issue gets resolved, this would be the ultimate graphics mod.
1. i dont recommend using DLSS with this mod as it has many bugs in itself and is not meant for this mod 2. i purposely made shadows darker at night time, each weather has multiple values determining it's darkness, it would be a major hassle to adjust every weather to be just right to your liking. (im probably going to do some changes to moon lighting in the future for 1.4) 3. im not entirley sure about the screen flickering, i've had past issues with screen flickering which i fixed all of them in 1.3. 4. when adjusting the tonemapping and contrast for brighter night time i used the original values from the base game as reference when tweaking them, the problem is that it also affects day so i have to balance out the tonemapping to not look super bloomy or low contrast for both day and night. 5. the whole thing with the extreme exposure rates outside in interiors or switching between is part of vanilla, it tries to replicate eye adaption except its extremely exaggerated, there are values to adjust them, i am still looking for them, im hoping i would've found them by 1.4
no, i dont recommend using any reshades as they can mess with performance and might mess up the intended looks with this mod. if you really wanted to use one maybe use something minor like increased sharpening or something, ones that changes color arent really recommended
thank you! ive put a lot of time into this mod to make sure was as good as it could've been. and for the lanterns its pretty complicated, i will send you a file the changes the lantern brightness back to normal soon
ok here it is, once you have the .xml first remove the "(2)" so its just "timecycle_mods_1.xml", then go to VDLV in lml, then go into the timecycle folder and replace the timecycle_mods_1.xml with this one.
Also... it looks like you use something similar to the 8k Milky Way and Stars mod in your visual overhaul mod. Can you possibly send me a file with the normal Milky Way night sky? The Milky Way looks a bit too bright and unrealistic, and this comes from someone who lives in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming and knows what the Milky Way should look like.
damn thats cool! and for the images i actually didnt use any upscaled stars but just normal stars with the mod's increased intensity. when developing this mod realism is basically the number 1 thing i aim for. i could send you a file with decreased milky way intensity but you also have to consider back in 1899-1907 there was a lot less light pollution overall compared to modern day, so it would be way easier to see the milky way back then, im not sure how big the difference was but im sure it wasnt just a minor difference.
Your mod is spot on for realism, and the most realistic visual overhaul I've seen. The 8k Milky Way and Stars mod does the same thing by increasing the stars and Milky Way intensity. As I previously mentioned, I live in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming and go hunting and fishing where there are no artificial lights (zero light pollution) just as it would be in the 1800s. And while the Milky Way looks significantly brighter than it does when there is artificial light pollution, it does not look as bright as in your mod.
That would be awesome if you could send me a file with decreased Milky Way intensity. Star intensity is fine. Thank you!
sorry for not responding- you can change it by yourself in visualsettings.dat: in this section: stars.cloud.color.red 0.90 stars.cloud.color.green 0.50 stars.cloud.color.blue 0.60 stars.cloud.intensity 0.3 stars.cloud.intensityGalaxy 0.45 stars.cloud.axisBlend 4.0
the number next to "stars.cloud.intensity" controls it, lower it to like 0.1 and that will lower the intensity specifically for the galaxy dust, for the actual milky way stars blended with the dust its right under it and says "stars.dense" instead, and you can see other settings like the colors, you can change those around too to your liking.
FYI... I went back to your original lantern brightness. It is more realistic, especially for all the lanterns on cabins, camps, and other locations. The default lantern brightness was indeed LED brightness!
Question... when you dimmed the lantern brightness, did that also dim Arthur's lantern brightness? If so, is there a way to only have Arthur's lantern the default brightness?
im pretty sure the dimmed lantern brightness ONLY affects arthurs, thats the reason i turned it down because there are specific values for arthurs lantern, but if it affects other lights that cool i guess
First off, excellent mod!!! Absolutely gorgeous and the best part is the Dynamic seasons merge!!!
But, when i checked the conflicts after installing the merge, the only one that showed up is weatherclimates.xml should I give dynamic seasons or VDLV priority?
I just checked both weatherclimates.xml files within your merge pack and they do infact have different values.
i might've forgot to edit the weatherclimates, i thought i did but give dynamic seasons higher priority so mine can overwrite with the correct values. in the next update which is coming soon (2-3 weeks or so) i will be sure that the files are correct.
Thank you for the reply. So your merge of dynamic seasons should be loaded after VDLV so it takes priority, correct?
One other thing, it seems that performance takes a little hit when the sun is out. Is there some values I can tweak to make sunny days a little better for performance?
no, put my mod lower in the load order than the merge so it overwrites the seasons file with my values, and for the sunny days i have no clue, each weather affects performance in its own way, if there was any other settings for optimizing the game without reducing its quality i would change it.
oh wait! the "Brighter Nights" files can fix it! but I dont like the part of "brighter night". So I compared it with the file and change the daytime part # Tonemapping Tonemapping.bright.filmic.A 0.25 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.B 0.75 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.C 0.15 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.D 0.52 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.E 0.04 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.F 0.5 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.W 11.2 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.W.HDR 1.0 to # Tonemapping Tonemapping.bright.filmic.A 0.2 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.B 0.75 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.C 0.15 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.D 0.6 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.E 0.05 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.F 0.5 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.W 11.2 Tonemapping.bright.filmic.W.HDR 1.0 The changes is consistent with "Brighter Nights" files but just change the daytime part so I can have the "normally" brighter day and darker night.
if you think the sky is too bright you can turn down the sun intensity, i wouldn't recommend messing with the tonemapping though. also are you sure you dont have any other mods that edit visualsettings.dat?
well if you have 2 mods with the exact file name "visualsettings.dat" then delete the one thats not from this mod as that conflicts with the basic settings of this mod.
thank you, if you only want the glowing pick ups to be removed download this mod, as the file in this mod that removes the glowing pickups edits a bunch of other stuff too that wouldn't be compatible with the normal game.
264 comments
(Version 1.4 should be out within the next few weeks (as of April 30th), with major overhauls of specific weathers and many lighting improvements for all weathers!)
Love the effort, good stuff
But based on the items you have worked on in your mods, would you also recommend adding mods such as Terrain Textures Overhaul (TTO) and Xtreme Grass?
Another question :- Would you suggest any changes to your Graphics Settings recommendations for an AMD card (Radeon RX 660 XT - 8GB)?
2. for your graphics card i would say the settings are adjusted to work really well with your graphics card, if you are running low on vram i would recommend changing any settings on ultra like global illumination and set them to high. i did just update the settings file for a few minor adjustments for better performance, so test it out and see if its any better than the older settings.
I think adding many of benigues1899's mods to your mod should be enough eye candy for me (without TTO).
Regarding my Radeon graphics card, I've used all your game graphics settings except I set FSR 2.0 to "Quality", with it's Sharpening at 50%.
The result looks good.
I'm using under 5GB of vram, and using the game's test video, I'm averaging 96fps with a min of 44fps.
After I installed your VDLV along with all of beniguess1899' trees (and removed TTO), I then had :-
34 min fps
133 max fps
99 aver fps.
However, there is a recent mod called "RDR2 2025 Enhanced Edition (Also Improves Performance)".
Sounds good, but it is really only a ReShade Preset.
The great thing about the developer is that he includes advice on tuning you pc to get the best gaming performance.
I used all of his tuning advice, and maybe that's where I get the extra fps from.
Haven't had a chance to play since I've added VDLV, but with just a quick look I can see a great improvement.
Thanks heaps.
i’ve been loving this visual overhaul, everytime I open the game I’m in awe, just like when I first started playing rdr2 :)
During the daytime, however, this is truly the best graphics-related mod.
(In Chapter 6, during the mission where you raid the Murfree Brood’s hideout with Charles, it literally felt like I was just looking at a black screen.)
Could this be happening because I have DLSS enabled?
This mod is truly amazing and awesome, and despite some bugs (such as the screen flickering intermittently or turning completely white when entering a dark cave or house with a significant brightness difference from the outside), it’s still absolutely worth using.
Is there any way to get a file that makes the night brightness and contrast the same as the vanilla version?
If this issue gets resolved, this would be the ultimate graphics mod.
2. i purposely made shadows darker at night time, each weather has multiple values determining it's darkness, it would be a major hassle to adjust every weather to be just right to your liking. (im probably going to do some changes to moon lighting in the future for 1.4)
3. im not entirley sure about the screen flickering, i've had past issues with screen flickering which i fixed all of them in 1.3.
4. when adjusting the tonemapping and contrast for brighter night time i used the original values from the base game as reference when tweaking them, the problem is that it also affects day so i have to balance out the tonemapping to not look super bloomy or low contrast for both day and night.
5. the whole thing with the extreme exposure rates outside in interiors or switching between is part of vanilla, it tries to replicate eye adaption except its extremely exaggerated, there are values to adjust them, i am still looking for them, im hoping i would've found them by 1.4
The darker nights are perfect. I was wondering what values to change to make the lantern brightness brighter and back to normal?
Thanks...
Also... it looks like you use something similar to the 8k Milky Way and Stars mod in your visual overhaul mod. Can you possibly send me a file with the normal Milky Way night sky? The Milky Way looks a bit too bright and unrealistic, and this comes from someone who lives in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming and knows what the Milky Way should look like.
That would be awesome if you could send me a file with decreased Milky Way intensity. Star intensity is fine. Thank you!
in this section:
stars.cloud.color.red 0.90
stars.cloud.color.green 0.50
stars.cloud.color.blue 0.60
stars.cloud.intensity 0.3
stars.cloud.intensityGalaxy 0.45
stars.cloud.axisBlend 4.0
the number next to "stars.cloud.intensity" controls it, lower it to like 0.1 and that will lower the intensity specifically for the galaxy dust, for the actual milky way stars blended with the dust its right under it and says "stars.dense" instead, and you can see other settings like the colors, you can change those around too to your liking.
Here are the values I changed to make the Milky Way look more realistic:
stars.cloud.intensity 0.03
stars.cloud.intensityGalaxy 0.05
stars.dense.intensity 2.0
stars.dense.intensityGalaxy 2.0
Question... when you dimmed the lantern brightness, did that also dim Arthur's lantern brightness? If so, is there a way to only have Arthur's lantern the default brightness?
But, when i checked the conflicts after installing the merge, the only one that showed up is weatherclimates.xml
should I give dynamic seasons or VDLV priority?
I just checked both weatherclimates.xml files within your merge pack and they do infact have different values.
One other thing, it seems that performance takes a little hit when the sun is out. Is there some values I can tweak to make sunny days a little better for performance?
# Tonemapping
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.A 0.25
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.B 0.75
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.C 0.15
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.D 0.52
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.E 0.04
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.F 0.5
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.W 11.2
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.W.HDR 1.0
to
# Tonemapping
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.A 0.2
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.B 0.75
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.C 0.15
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.D 0.6
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.E 0.05
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.F 0.5
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.W 11.2
Tonemapping.bright.filmic.W.HDR 1.0
The changes is consistent with "Brighter Nights" files but just change the daytime part so I can have the "normally" brighter day and darker night.
also are you sure you dont have any other mods that edit visualsettings.dat?