Seeing DF doing special coverage of mods on a more regular basis is absolutely awesome. Halo 2 is having its E3 lighting engine restored in some form, and I hope we'll get to see it covered as well in the future! Anyway, great video!
@@sunman2566 +1, when i got a pc after years of console, i understood what i was missing out on, but the attitude of "console peasants" just felt more dodgy lol. even before, i thought the spec sharing (read: wealth contest) was strange i roll my eyes any time i see someone list their specs in their bio, it's only interesting to a specific set of people and in my experience it always felt like they were chasing approval (i wish more people would list their low specs, that'd be fun. they'd get treated like dirt but still) i'm sure there are people who do it for the love of it but it's still not my thing so i can only be indifferent at best
I mean if you can configure your TV settings you can make it look like that. It's to do with Dark souls 2s art style being shaped around the game being dark but then they were kinda forced to brighten the game up.
@@MikeTie-ne6tg that's a good thing tbh. As nice as this mod is, it really messes with the game's art direction in some places. It's fantastic for any replays but first time through should be the regular game imo
Played the whole of dark souls 2 with a mod that made it really dark. I’m absolutely convinced that that was a mechanic that was pulled at the last minute. The design is perfect for actually needing torches and bonfires to light your way. There’s loads of traversal mechanics that are just left unused when the levels are brightly lit.
I'm not sure if I had the brightness set to the lowest or if there was an early sotfs patch that had especially dark lighting but my first time playing it I was forced to use a torch in no man's wharf. I genuinely couldn't see without it, which meant that lighting each sconce was vital. I'll never forget what an incredible experience that was. Having the entire area lit up by the end was a treat.
Love this mod. Been using it for several years now and it just keeps getting better. I also recommend using a mod called Modern UI which is designed for the DS2 lighting mod and significantly improves the Hud and menus while retaining the original style.
@@Raidxn96 you can! I highly recommend this mod as well as Blue Sentinel (basically a mod for detecting hackers in multiplayer and allowing you to kick them)
Weirdly, the things this mod adds (DLAA to replace FXAA, additional shadow casting sources, volumetric fog, GTAO, more shadow casting objects, etc) are all things added with FF14's Dawntrail update too. Seems to be basically everything you could add to an old deferred rendered game. Except this manages much more transformative visuals.
FFXIV implemented it weirdest way possible of course. it disables dlss/dlaa during cutscenes, and it doesn't have presets but works with dynamic resolution.
You could add more given enough time, I wouldn't call this game "old" either because it's still too close to a lot of games now. We're still not divorced from the PS4 generation after all, I don't think the From games started to look genuinely good until DS3/Sekiro though.
@@DriveCancelDCI think “old” is fine here. 2014 was a decade ago and we’re at least halfway thru the PS5 lifespan already (it released 4 years ago). It’s definitely not vintage, but you gotta start calling things old at some point 😆.
Ehm... almost every single game/engine from todays age is still deferred rendered so calling the tech old is not necessarily true. There are a few games which do hybrid rendering but those are very few and only use it to get around some limitations of deferred pipelines. Even UE5 is using a deferred renderer (can be switched to forward but comes with a hefty performance penality and limitations in material complexity, can also do hybrid forward shaded translucency but again at a hefty performance cost), even DX11 is still supported to some extent albeit without Nanite and somewhat broken Lumen. The results from this mod could even be pushed further before the API will become the limiting factor (in DS2's case DX11). Even Elden Ring still uses the same engine just with some improvements to streaming and lighting and a switch to DX12 (for better or for worse because this engine isn't really suited for DX12 anyway given the the traversal stutter/shader stutter issues still haven't been fully fixed today after god knows how many updates and 1 massive dlc)
I would say the scene can be overdarkened at times, loosing detail and the volumemetric fog can be a bit too much in some areas, but that all can be tweaked. Overall very impressive mod!
We have a broken culture where the mere fact that a fancy word exists, “volumetric fog” here, suddenly that becomes a “good” “amazing” thing. When it’s clearly bad and wrong. The player shouldn’t be seeing fog haze while looking at a wall 2 meters in front of them. The lighting and textures look great here, but the fog is mostly ridiculous. It’s also incredible to see anyone acting like fog is “good” considering the history of fog in games. It should obviously be used for particular effects in certain areas, yet instead people talk about it like it’s some high-level broad “feature.”
@@AquaticMammalOnBicycle no one considers it a high level feature lol it simply can like nice it is not a new feature either and has been in games for years and years now it's not a broken culture surrounding a fancy word. it simply can and does look nice in many games. you're ranting about something no one argues. In terms of history of fog, yea duh it was used to hide draw distance among other things. Irrelevant on the subject of volumetric fog. I literally agree with the OPs comment in it's entirety but your rant is misplaced.
But let’s not do the thing where we just throw out terminology labels for things while going through a video/scene without actual insight or information.
@@AquaticMammalOnBicycle What are you n about? There's clearly some parallax occlusion mapping going on there. If you don't know what that is then it's better to not throw out comments at all.
Looks amazing. I do think I like the original look more in the areas that have good handcrafted lighting (most notably Majula) - but 90% of DS2 is blighted with completely flat lighting, so this is huge.
Fascinating. I'd say lighting is by far the most important part of game's visuals. Proper physically correct lighting transforms any game, that's why I'm stoked for HL2 RTX remix!
Yes, lighting is important for the overall cohesiveness of the scene but things like material pipeline, tessellation and textures are also equally important since light bounces off these objects in the game world. A souls game with full RT GI and shadows would look soo good and immersive.
@@turbotrup96 there's a color graded preset that keeps the tone of the original. they seem to be using the default preset intended for HDR that removes the grading
It's remarkable how much of a difference lighting can do to the overall visuals of a game, the original looks rather flat here compared to the modded ones, so much so that the lighting seems to be making many of the textures look better, and I suspect this is without a texture mod which could make it look even better. It's also remarkable what passion over profit can achieve, basically, modders are doing this because they want to make it better, whereas a lot of publishers don't care and their focus is more on the profit not the quality of the game, at least that's the impression you get with the majority of publishers.
Yeah, you can see this to greater effect if you watch just a few minutes of Crowbcats side-by-side of the Dark Souls 1 remaster vs its original 2011 release. Many textures on armor, and the environment, just disappear. Horrible remaster. I can’t even fathom what they were thinking.
While this is technically impressive and some great work, I think the mod makes the visuals lose a lot of their character. I personally prefer the original look even if its technically inferior.
@@Winnetou64 yeah same here, I was wondering if I was crazy. This mod has the energy of one of those UE5 tech demo kinda things you see. Like, sure it's technically impressive, but it doesn't feel like there was a lot of care paid to the artistic direction of scenes and vistas. It just doesn't feel as deliberate as the original, rather it feels like they just slapped the same kind of lighting on every area and scene. I don't think realism is really what FromSoft was going for.
Extremely impressive mod. Kudos to the author! At times the lighting reminds me of the 2021 Demon's Souls remake, which is excellent. Hopefully the author shows Elden Ring some love in the future, even if it's just DLAA and higher graphical settings.
People always point to Ubisoft when they talk about downgrading games but i'll never get over how amazing DS2 looked in the E3 trailers and early gameplay
@@_CrimsonBlademaybe because Ubisoft do that in almost all their games and in top of that full of micro transactions, I still buy their games, but let’s be real.
@@alanrablingUbisoft hasn't done any egregious downgrading since that Rainbow Six Siege trailer a decade ago. I don't like Ubisoft games either but the way people just make shit up about them to dunk on the company is exhausting.
@@myel8531 well maybe because of their aggressive micro transactions and like 6 versions of the game, like deluxe mega deluxe and super deluxe editions for example
Dark Souls 2 was clearly not an experiment by Fromsoftware. It was a meaningful evolution of the first game with more weapons, more spells, a huge amount of different armor sets, more ring slots, a third slot for the left and right weapon hand, a simplified weapon upgrade system, etc. Most of the changes made in DS2 were then also reused in DS3 and the recent Elden Ring Souls adaptation. It is nice to see that mods such as this lightning mod for DS2 can be applied to experience the game in a new way.
Everything you said points to DS2 being an experiment, but that's not inherently bad, I would say they got most of it right considering how much was carried over to the rest of the series one way or another. If anything, DS3's biggest fault was playing too safe, not experimenting enough.
@@megaleuzao One can certainly see it that way, but the things I mentioned that were changed in DS2 are built on existing mechanics from DS1. Other things like Bonfire Ascetics to be able to promote a level by one game cycle, the method that enemies can be despawned if killed 12 times, the introduction of the new (and controversial) adaptibility stat are more of the experimental kind (and were then abandoned again in DS3). But I agree that it is good that Fromsoftware always tries out new ideas instead of repeating the same type of game again and again (and DS3 was clearly the least creative game regarding the addition of new ideas). In this regard I think that Bloodborne (rally mechanics), Sekiro (action game with Souls elements) and Elden Ring (open world) are also kinds of experiments derived from the classical Souls games.
This looks so good. If anyone is turned off by the slightly duller look, I’d say this could easily be remedied by a slight boost to the highlights in post processing, if this is still easily achievable these days. I’ve been off PC for a while. Are those refx post processing injectors still a thing in 2024?
@@plasmarey5856 perfect. There you go then. The overall image looks great. Looks like you could fix the darkened/duller look by just boosting highlights. Essentially it’s turning up only the peak brightness without messing with the entire picture like with contrast or brightness.
@@_CrimsonBlade lol. I bet you’ve never even held a PS1 controller. Best hyperbole of the day. This looks like a high end PS4 era game with the mod. Even prerendered cut scenes on PS2 games didn’t have lighting and shadows this good. Silly amounts of hyperbole lol
Agreed. I'm all in favour of advanced rendering techniques, and love that this is an option, but personally DS2 is not a game where I want ambiguity in the visual design. I need to be able to read the geometry, because one wrong step and it's right back to the start of the level (potentially undoing an hour's progress).
This is imo the perfect application of visual remakes and everything of that sort. Like I look at the original DS1 and I really don't think it needs any work, like it's cool to mod but not essential because it's what it was meant to be, it still holds up. But DS2? We know the notorious development it went through, we've literally seen how it was meant to look before being forced to cut so much down. So seeing it be almost restored in that sense really has a huge impact. It's beyond just fun modding, it's almost "saving" the game if you will. Praise the modding community :)
I will never understand companies that do not allow mods to be added to their games, the Mod community is the best thing that happened to video games and a clear example is Cyberpunk
I get why companies don't want people modding their games however it's a double edged sword since it's an easy way to scout for new talent. That Cyberpunk example you gave is a good one. A lot of those modders went on to work on Phantom Liberty.
It really depends on the company. Valve, CDPR, and Bethesda all love the mod community and show that collaboration with them can be beneficial, but other companies simply don't have the same philosophy (unfortunately).
@@ShaCaro Bethesda yes, but not CDPR. Yes CDPR games arrive with tons of bugs, but gradually even out with their own updates. Bethesda games can't work much without mods.
I hope the hard work done here by the mod creator(s) is seriously rewarded. The quality and depth here, there should be studios looking to hire them. I personally don’t think I have it in me to dive back into ds2, even though this mod makes it much, much more tempting. Again, great work on this mod and great coverage. Highlighting stuff like this is part of the reason I love DF so much.
I played DS2 for the first time ever with this mod and it was a great experience. The torch was an extremely engaging mechanic. It makes we wonder why they never tried to do anything interesting with it again.
Just to mention the mod works perfectly on Steam Deck too. Not only that but with stable 60fps once you disable "Flipmodel Swapchain" in mod settings. Unbelievable upgrade and looking forward to Dark Souls 3 mod.
It oftentimes ends up looking just as weird as the original overall, but in a different way. It also looks strangely blurry for some reason. And there's some kind of dynamic range compression, it seems, as both dark shades get lifted and bright ones are dulled significantly. The most obvious and strange example is fires not being bright at all.
Thanks Thomas & DF. Literally exhausted myself on Elden Ring dlc and was looking for a good reason to play an older Souls game (for the millionth time). Look like DS2 just shot up the list. Amazing coverage, as always. Cheers!
Wow, looks really impressive. Great to see coverage for this type of thing. I've had a good time with all of the souls games and dark souls 2 is no exception despite the mixed perspectives on the game.
It looks almost exactly like the Demon's Souls remake... which is paid, and ruined the visual aesthetic of the original, just like this mod does. At least we can edit what Lighting Engine changes to suit our preferences.
@@Ashlevonno it doesn't. The remake looked visually stunning. Apart from some shadow upgrades this still looks like the outdated garbage it released. No way they look remotely similar, open your eyes
@@Ashlevon Scholar of the First Sin already ruined the visual aesthetic of the original, lol. If anything, the colour palette and lighting of this mod are closer to the original release than SotFS.
@@rioplats Vanilla and SOTFS look barely different. You can some times notice a slightly nicer looking reflection on water and a slightly nicer looking sheen on some metal textures. The improved texture resolution is also hardly noticeable but was necessary due to increased resolution on modern gaming setups. The lighting changes in SOTFS were actually good for the most part - you see way way less issues like an elevator being green while the elevator platform is brown, due to lighting calculations applying in a weird way. Only bad thing that the lighting changes did was some locations aren't as well blended together like Cardinal Tower - but you do get to see more detail and more contrast in SOTFS; in Vanilla, everything blended together a lot more, which can look less appealing. This mod doesn't revert much of anything. In fact, it changes a lot of colors to be incorrect, something that Dark Souls Remastered also changed and messed up a lot of things (for instance, Ornstein armor and Sentinel armor used to be the same color, but they are noticeably different in Remastered). Lighting Engine does make textures less distinct/less sharp, just like Vanilla's were (even in Vanilla, the lack of distinction came from both the lighting smoothing things, less texture mappings, and the resolution on PS3 and X360 being lower), but it also adds so much fog that even if the textures were sharp, you would have a harder time seeing the details. In fact, the fog is the biggest part of my issue with the mod's changes. Fog was never much of a thing in these games (DS1 had blur at a distance I guess), but even Demon's Souls lacked it, oddly enough... until BluePoint added a bunch of fog effects to the DeS Remake. It's honestly a good idea, I liked it! And it made the Remake's aesthetic unique too, which was nice. But here? It doesn't make sense and it clashes with the entire game's aesthetic, and gives everything it touches a different hue (greyish-blue for Forest of Fallen Giants, yellowish-green for Heide's Tower, etc.) instead of the natural palette both Vanilla and SOTFS shared, which was already very nice looking.
@@SimonRobeyns My eyes are quite open, thank you very much. I don't care about graphical fidelity so much as I care about what changing the graphics of a pre-existing game does to said game's defined aesthetic. I care more about what meaning the graphics are conveying than about what the resolution of a texture is. See my comment above for examples of changes to the visual aesthetics that Dark Souls Remastered, Demon's Souls, and now this mod made that very much change its existing aesthetic. For Dark Souls 2 specifically, it's a game that loves to contrast the darkest pits with the brightest peaks, and do it jarringly. It's also a feature in other Souls games, together with the use shortcuts. They both give you a sense of whiplash and an Eureka! moment, which both create amazement. In Dark Souls 2, you go from the dark and dank Things Betwixt to the bright and idyllic Majula. Then you delve into the darkness again and emerge into bright light once again at either the Forest of Fallen Giants or Heide's Tower. At Heide's, you can defeat the Dragonrider and delve into a dark pass leading to the even darker No-Man's Wharf, which eventually you can light up with blindingly harsh light that contrasts the deep darkness that preceded it. You could also emerge from a bit of a somewhat dark area into the bright Forest of Fallen Giants; proceed and you enter the interior of a dark wall section, to later emerge into the warm light of the Cardinal Tower area, and then the warm glow of a bonfire in the dark Cardinal Tower itself. Do you see what I'm getting at? There's always a lot of contrast in light and dark. That's what the entire game, and ostensibly the entire series is about. But then you add fog with this mod, and the gray that comes with it. It's neither light nor dark. It fails to capture the cycle of fire like the entire game's level design and visual aesthetic does, because everything is a mix of light and dark. You could say that that's what the alternative ending seeks - something in between or something else, but that ending wasn't within the original purview of the game, it was partly an afterthought. And even then! discarding light and dark doesn't mean you choose the gray in between, it means you get to choose something else entirely, outside of light and dark. Fog works in Demon's Souls because the fog and the grayness and stillness that comes with it is the point! And the remake did a great job at showing more of that fog than the original ever did. But then BluePoint thought they knew better than From and decided to change the *entire castle of Boletaria* from a sober, no-nonsense, utility-focused and well defended early medieval-era fortress into a palace with a mix of gothic and baroque architecture. Where From Software placed a flat wall made of bricks meant to be defensive and not pretty, BluePoint changed the entire idea of the wall and made it ornate and opulent. When I look at Boletaria in PS3!Demon's Souls, I think "Boletaria and Allant seem to value utility and success, but they don't seem to have many good craftsmen... did this kingdom fall despite being so well-defended? The demons must be incredibly powerful.", but when I look at Boletaria in PS5!Demon's Souls, I think "Boletaria and Allant seem to put a lot of value into aesthetics, but they weirdly don't seem to have many gardeners... did the kingdom fall because they cared more about aesthetics than about defense? Seems like a waste and lack of foresight." Aesthetic is incredibly important. More important than visual flair or graphical fidelity. And it doesn't matter how dated graphics look - thinking it does is missing the entire point of the game.
Interesting tech achievement I love it, but somehow i prefer the look of the game in SOTFS. Bit more vibrant, and honestly I dont think you real need shadows in all places. Its kinda like going back to old games and RTXing them, like clashing HD texture mods it can sometimes improve the look of the game, but most times it clashes with the game style.
Yeah that's what it seemed like. Would be nice to have in the areas that were clearly meant to use the darkness + light source mechanics but having it going 24/7 even in the crisp detailed areas seems like a waste.
It's extremely impressive - in fact I'd say it's the best mod I've ever used. Been playing with it for a couple of weeks , and it transforms the game in all the best ways, without messing with the core of it. super simple to install, and it just worked right away. I'm even playing it on Rog Ally, with no issues at 60fps. Much respect to the modder.
Ppl make fun of RT and stuff but THIS is a good example of how important lighting in games is (I know it's not RT, but that makes it even more clear). Looks stunning. Guess it's time for a replay. Been 10+ years.
Just downloaded this mod to play ds2 again, and Im enjoying it a lot, and there's still signs down to play with people and get help if you need it. I loved this game when it came out, and now it's even better. Night and day better looking.
I don't like it :P, but i say that as someone who doesn't like the pursuit of realism, i like it when a video game looks like a video game, example 3:39 the mod arguably looks better here because the hard textured look is broken up more with what looks like texture edits and additional shadows, but i like the original look, i played the game and i remember this wall it makes me nostalgic, if the wall lacks additional details because the artists ran out of time that's part of the experience for me, it tells the story of development, but i see darkness as the removal of visuals, so more shadows is taking away from the image. A more negative example i'll use is 3:25, that objectively looks worse to me, every visual element that makes this room pop is gone, the original artists were probably very proud of this room but now it conveys a completely different emotion.
I wholeheartedly agree. The mod may make the game look more realistic, more modern, but so much is lost on the way. It lacks the charm and character of the original visuals and makes the areas look and feel more similar to one another. The washed out look and lack of colors isn't helping either.
Very strong disagree, but I respect your viewpoint. DS2 lighting always looked very flat to me, even compared to og DS1. But luckily this mod allows for many tweaks to suit varying preferences. So it is a net win for everyone.
I played DS2 for the first time earlier this year after FINALLY beating elden ring. I used this mod after the first boss and have to say what a difference it makes. Looking the reflection of my armor at night while holding a torch 🥹
Love the slideshow when you cut to Bloodborne. Overall this mod looks great, been tempted to go back to SoTFS as I never got all the achievements and this seems like a great excuse to do so.
Uhm why didn't you name the mod creator? Little weird to refer to him as "the mod creator" during the whole duration of this video. Unless or course I missed it.
Wow... never thought I'd see DS2 look so good. Also, thanks for including a performance review, as that was my biggest concern through most of the video up to that point.
Most of the scenes look dull and extremely blurry. Yeah the shadows and grass blades look nicer but if the tradeoff is a blurry image [party because of DLAA/DSR and rest for the volumetric effects] and overall dull looking lighting, I'd just play the original as it is. Heck even the textures look blurrier.
this mod made things looks like a lousy B movie lol it turned things darker as if its supposed to look better some scenes you can't even see wtf is 5 meter in front of you they should really add in some torch to make the overall lighting look true to the original
Honestly I think alot of these look better in the original. I get that every game needs to look realistic these days, but ds2 has a really special vibe because of the way it looks. Not everything needs to be dark and foggy.
Brilliant work and great video! I do this kind of stuff in Reshade whenever I am not satisfied with the lighting in a game, basically 90% of the time. DS1 is in dire need of something like this. 6:32 There's a mod that addresses that in Elden Ring, lately has been redone and expanded, it's called "Force dynamic shadows reborn" on nexus.
From a merely technical standpoint it is completely amazing. From an aesthetical point of view, as others have pointed out, it could use a bit more work on the colour grading side, and toning down of the volumetric fog at many points.
You should also look up the work that stayd3D has been doing for years for DS2. There's no release date at all, but they been doing a complete remake of the game's shader pipeline while also enhancing textures, particles and models. It looks amazing and really promising.
Nope. He stopped working on that DS2 mod altogether about 3 months ago (he changed to an Armored Core 6 mod). After 4 years It's as if he had been stringing everyone along for the attention it brought. After the DS2 lighting engine was released and universally praised he stopped getting attention and so he conveniently moved on... Thankfully others picked up the torch
@@hjhooch3355 I mean maybe they won’t finish it, they’re a modder who is doing it as a hobby, it happens. Plus they’ve been open about being on and off with it before, they were working on DS1 stuff like a year or two ago. This is coming from someone who gave to their patreon, I have no quibbles with how long it takes.
I've been playing through this with the Seeker of Fire mod and I sometimes can't believe how good it looks. Majula at different times of day is incredible
Great video. Really in-depth details and I can tell a lot of heart went into making this. Thank you Tom, this is the best video I've seen from you so far.
Oh man, I'm so stoked to hear about the DS3 version of the mod being worked on. Please, if you guys can figure out how to get the game to render at whatever custom resolution you want without black bars, instead of being stuck on 720p 16:9, plus a similar general featureset as DS2 I will be all _kinds_ of happy. I love Dark Souls 3 but that fixed resolution and aspect ratio is so annoying. DS2 Lighting Engine is incredible though, I finished my last playthrough with it installed and it was fantastic. I'll have to try out this newest update, it looks stellar, the idea to add in mod support that you can access from within the game itself is just so cool, absolutely going above and beyond.
I like the original Scholar of the First Sin graphics, but wow this mod looks like a remaster. The original graphics look more vivid and saturated, while the mod looks softer, more like Elden Ring actually. The dark areas are especially nice with the flames
Glad that this mod is finally starting to see some major traffic from gaming outlets. Been repping it ever since we got the first public release a year and a half back. It's a definite look at what could have been if BAMCO didn't enforce the previous-gen release shite on FROM. I seriously consider it a MUST-HAVE for modern day DaS2 playthroughs, along with the Blue Acolyte anticheat and the Centre Deadzone mod to improve movement with controllers. None of this will get you banned from online play and it doesn't affect other players negatively. My main hope is that people will rework some of the rougher models (female body, Hollows and certain environmental meshes) to be much more complex and consistent with the other two games in the series, from what I know from the dev at least static mesh swaps are possible with the current mod, not sure if animated meshes are possible currently.
From Software doesn't know how to optimize games. it's their fault DS2 ended up the way it did. just look at DS1 remaster by a different dev - it's a night and day difference from how the original runs.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi PTDE ran fine in of itself, that wasn't issue with the port; the issue was that they didn't have enough support for high framerates or resolutions. QLOC might have put those features in the remaster, but they butchered a LOT of stuff in the process including textures, lighting and the audio engine
@@Gigadweeb PTDE couldnt hold a locked 30 on the PS3, so no, it definitely didn't run fine. And female bodies, hollows, and environmental meshes differ greatly for each game in the series, so I'm struggling to find your point there. I'm betting on it being the usual anti-DS2 bias most people have, and remembering DS1 and 3 looking better than they do.
This is incredible work. I have yet to tackle DS2 and this makes me wanna dive in more than ever. I hope some of this work carries over to other FromSoftware titles. Especially DS1.
@@CaptToilet Yeah, that's the prevalent opinion on the internet formed by a couple of youtubers. I personally really enjoyed DS2 and thought it was good for what it tried to do.
I played DS2 with Lighting Engine FPS unlock mods for the first time earlier this year. I absolutely loved it and the graphics were impressive considering how old the game is.
Don't think the complete removal of (somewhat ironically) lightning magic was worth a few more shadows and grass. But maybe it can be improved to have both at some point.
@@xtr.7662 I think you missed the point. A lot of mods and shader packs will add effects at the cost of overwriting the original art direction. Even when its not a mod and just a graphics option in games RT lighting can make for a worse visual read than something fine tuned or more baked.
@@Uhcip yeah, folks that are confused by this statement should take a closer look at the sea by Majula comparison shot at 9:07. the mod strips all impact and character from that vista, and while it looks "good", it's not nearly as visually arresting, and it certainly doesn't look like Dark Souls 2. i'm sure they're not this blunt, but it feels like a sledgehammer approach of adding technology for the sake of it, rather than considering what would allow the existing identity of the game to flourish
@@Harrysound No we get new games like crazy. The entire trilogy needs a Dead Space Remake style remake. Or to be entirely remade from the ground up with all the content cut from the original release due to time and resources. the last half of DS1 could be as good as the first half.
@@Harrysound Also getting a ton of those... Maybe broaden your tastes a bit if the idea of someone wanting a remaster makes you yell into the clouds about "new games."
Ironically it's too dark. It should be called Shadow Engine since all it adds are shadows (ambient occlusion being synonymous with indirect shadows). Any kind of bounce or even just skylighting is sorely missed. In outdoor scenes it's bizarre how dark everything is while there is a bright sky overhead that should light the scenery.
it adds proper tessellation, ambient occlusion, proper shadow calculation, parallax occlusion to the textures and proper specular and other sub-texture rendering that just makes the game look wonderful. You're really missing out a lot, if you prefer post-process rtgi over a proper pipeline with features that are actually implemented on the core level of the game, just cus it's "too dark". + you can just adjust the brightness, i for example had no issues with the game being too dark with this mod, but it still looked even better than some games that have come out in 2024.
The mod authors really did an outstanding job here. I usually dislike dramatic visual overhaul mods because they change the aesthetic or have inconsistent results across the game. This just looks great and retains the vibe.
Insane work! The results from this mod are in some scenes almost as great as the difference between PS3 Demon's Souls and PS5 Demon's Souls at least on a quick glance.
Seeing DF doing special coverage of mods on a more regular basis is absolutely awesome. Halo 2 is having its E3 lighting engine restored in some form, and I hope we'll get to see it covered as well in the future! Anyway, great video!
playing the mod rn
there's only one mission left to add
@@Owul333I just played through the uncut version guess I’ll need to play through it again lol
@@Owul333 whats the mod may i ask
@@qwdiloa2400 on the Halo: MCC Steam Workshop page it’s called Halo 2 Restored Lighting.
@@qwdiloa2400
I think it’s “Halo 2 Lightning Restoration”, it’s one of the most downloaded mods in the MCC steam workshop
Local FROM fan goes crazy and replaces DS2's entire engine
Incredible. Things like this are why I love being able to game on a PC.
it's called the master race for a reason
@@Motion_God As primarily a PC player I always thought this mindset was kinda weird
@@sunman2566 +1, when i got a pc after years of console, i understood what i was missing out on, but the attitude of "console peasants" just felt more dodgy lol. even before, i thought the spec sharing (read: wealth contest) was strange
i roll my eyes any time i see someone list their specs in their bio, it's only interesting to a specific set of people and in my experience it always felt like they were chasing approval (i wish more people would list their low specs, that'd be fun. they'd get treated like dirt but still)
i'm sure there are people who do it for the love of it but it's still not my thing so i can only be indifferent at best
I mean if you can configure your TV settings you can make it look like that. It's to do with Dark souls 2s art style being shaped around the game being dark but then they were kinda forced to brighten the game up.
@@sunman2566 I own both both so I can say that lol
Yes indeed. This video came completely out of the blue. Thanks Tom!
This mod is the perfect excuse to start a new playthroug of DS2 for me
Maybe if you’re high
@@_CrimsonBlade Why's that?
Is there a mod like this for the steam version of the first dark souls?
Yeahhh and I have JUST beaten it in console version but still
@@MikeTie-ne6tg that's a good thing tbh. As nice as this mod is, it really messes with the game's art direction in some places. It's fantastic for any replays but first time through should be the regular game imo
Played the whole of dark souls 2 with a mod that made it really dark. I’m absolutely convinced that that was a mechanic that was pulled at the last minute. The design is perfect for actually needing torches and bonfires to light your way. There’s loads of traversal mechanics that are just left unused when the levels are brightly lit.
Scholar edition also artificially darkens certain areas when you enter them, making it clear when the developers want you to grab a torch
I'm not sure if I had the brightness set to the lowest or if there was an early sotfs patch that had especially dark lighting but my first time playing it I was forced to use a torch in no man's wharf. I genuinely couldn't see without it, which meant that lighting each sconce was vital. I'll never forget what an incredible experience that was. Having the entire area lit up by the end was a treat.
It’s a great mod. Reminds me a bit of Doom 3 which has those stencil shadows. Much more dramatic lighting, fits the DS2 design well.
Love this mod. Been using it for several years now and it just keeps getting better. I also recommend using a mod called Modern UI which is designed for the DS2 lighting mod and significantly improves the Hud and menus while retaining the original style.
I was just thinking a UI overhaul would be necessary to match these visuals. Good info!
Can you play online with this installed or no?
@@Raidxn96 you can! I highly recommend this mod as well as Blue Sentinel (basically a mod for detecting hackers in multiplayer and allowing you to kick them)
@@klementineQt Blue Sentinel is just for DS3 though, right?
@@R1SKbreaker you're right, I meant Blue Acolyte, which is the DS2 equivalent by the same dev (also same dev as Seamless Coop for ER)
Weirdly, the things this mod adds (DLAA to replace FXAA, additional shadow casting sources, volumetric fog, GTAO, more shadow casting objects, etc) are all things added with FF14's Dawntrail update too. Seems to be basically everything you could add to an old deferred rendered game. Except this manages much more transformative visuals.
FFXIV implemented it weirdest way possible of course.
it disables dlss/dlaa during cutscenes, and it doesn't have presets but works with dynamic resolution.
ffxiv also added a whole ass material based rendering pipeline though
You could add more given enough time, I wouldn't call this game "old" either because it's still too close to a lot of games now. We're still not divorced from the PS4 generation after all, I don't think the From games started to look genuinely good until DS3/Sekiro though.
@@DriveCancelDCI think “old” is fine here. 2014 was a decade ago and we’re at least halfway thru the PS5 lifespan already (it released 4 years ago). It’s definitely not vintage, but you gotta start calling things old at some point 😆.
Ehm... almost every single game/engine from todays age is still deferred rendered so calling the tech old is not necessarily true. There are a few games which do hybrid rendering but those are very few and only use it to get around some limitations of deferred pipelines. Even UE5 is using a deferred renderer (can be switched to forward but comes with a hefty performance penality and limitations in material complexity, can also do hybrid forward shaded translucency but again at a hefty performance cost), even DX11 is still supported to some extent albeit without Nanite and somewhat broken Lumen.
The results from this mod could even be pushed further before the API will become the limiting factor (in DS2's case DX11).
Even Elden Ring still uses the same engine just with some improvements to streaming and lighting and a switch to DX12 (for better or for worse because this engine isn't really suited for DX12 anyway given the the traversal stutter/shader stutter issues still haven't been fully fixed today after god knows how many updates and 1 massive dlc)
I would say the scene can be overdarkened at times, loosing detail and the volumemetric fog can be a bit too much in some areas, but that all can be tweaked. Overall very impressive mod!
Yeah, the interiors remind me of the hazy look of old soap operas, or the warm bloom of Oblivion. Impressive otherwise, though.
We have a broken culture where the mere fact that a fancy word exists, “volumetric fog” here, suddenly that becomes a “good” “amazing” thing. When it’s clearly bad and wrong. The player shouldn’t be seeing fog haze while looking at a wall 2 meters in front of them.
The lighting and textures look great here, but the fog is mostly ridiculous. It’s also incredible to see anyone acting like fog is “good” considering the history of fog in games. It should obviously be used for particular effects in certain areas, yet instead people talk about it like it’s some high-level broad “feature.”
@@AquaticMammalOnBicycle no one considers it a high level feature lol
it simply can like nice
it is not a new feature either and has been in games for years and years now
it's not a broken culture surrounding a fancy word. it simply can and does look nice in many games.
you're ranting about something no one argues.
In terms of history of fog, yea duh it was used to hide draw distance among other things. Irrelevant on the subject of volumetric fog.
I literally agree with the OPs comment in it's entirety but your rant is misplaced.
Losing detail is the point! That's what darkness does :p
@@piotr78 It's more dark than From intended, though. This ain't Barry Lyndon.
Holy souls was not expecting a ds2 vid
You didn't talk about the parallax occlusion mapping on the floor tiles, at 11:20 for example. Looks really good! :)
wow, nice catch. those floor tiles are sexy
But let’s not do the thing where we just throw out terminology labels for things while going through a video/scene without actual insight or information.
@@AquaticMammalOnBicycle What are you n about? There's clearly some parallax occlusion mapping going on there. If you don't know what that is then it's better to not throw out comments at all.
I'm always pleasantly surprised when Tom makes a PC-focused video.
Looks amazing.
I do think I like the original look more in the areas that have good handcrafted lighting (most notably Majula) - but 90% of DS2 is blighted with completely flat lighting, so this is huge.
Agreed on Majula being perfectly lit as is. Amazing for the rest though for sure!
Fascinating. I'd say lighting is by far the most important part of game's visuals. Proper physically correct lighting transforms any game, that's why I'm stoked for HL2 RTX remix!
Lighting is arguably the most important part of any visual medium.
@@Case_ as a representational oil painter, I agree, or rather the observation of colour, light and shadow.
Yes, lighting is important for the overall cohesiveness of the scene but things like material pipeline, tessellation and textures are also equally important since light bounces off these objects in the game world. A souls game with full RT GI and shadows would look soo good and immersive.
agree
Definitely @@Case_
Almost a decade later and we may get the lighting that was anywhere near what was shown in the trailer.
I dunno, this lightning feels too realistic and removes a lot of the game's charm.
@@turbotrup96 there's a color graded preset that keeps the tone of the original. they seem to be using the default preset intended for HDR that removes the grading
@@turbotrup96 Flat source engine looking world is charming to you?
@@Wasdniak That's incorrect. HDR is disabled. Fromsoftserve is using an old build with it enabled and doesn't even realize it.
@@milesbbop9563 Don't tell me, you think modern games look better than the old ones because they have "pwetty gwaphics"?
It's remarkable how much of a difference lighting can do to the overall visuals of a game, the original looks rather flat here compared to the modded ones, so much so that the lighting seems to be making many of the textures look better, and I suspect this is without a texture mod which could make it look even better.
It's also remarkable what passion over profit can achieve, basically, modders are doing this because they want to make it better, whereas a lot of publishers don't care and their focus is more on the profit not the quality of the game, at least that's the impression you get with the majority of publishers.
Yeah, you can see this to greater effect if you watch just a few minutes of Crowbcats side-by-side of the Dark Souls 1 remaster vs its original 2011 release. Many textures on armor, and the environment, just disappear. Horrible remaster. I can’t even fathom what they were thinking.
In the end light truly is what makes all things visible
While this is technically impressive and some great work, I think the mod makes the visuals lose a lot of their character. I personally prefer the original look even if its technically inferior.
@@Winnetou64 yeah same here, I was wondering if I was crazy. This mod has the energy of one of those UE5 tech demo kinda things you see. Like, sure it's technically impressive, but it doesn't feel like there was a lot of care paid to the artistic direction of scenes and vistas. It just doesn't feel as deliberate as the original, rather it feels like they just slapped the same kind of lighting on every area and scene. I don't think realism is really what FromSoft was going for.
Yeah, everything just looks really dark to me. Maybe because the game wasn’t designed with this in mind?
Extremely impressive mod. Kudos to the author! At times the lighting reminds me of the 2021 Demon's Souls remake, which is excellent. Hopefully the author shows Elden Ring some love in the future, even if it's just DLAA and higher graphical settings.
Awesome that you guys are going over this. I recently replayed with this lighting mod and it was very much worth it, amazing visual update
People always point to Ubisoft when they talk about downgrading games but i'll never get over how amazing DS2 looked in the E3 trailers and early gameplay
Nah when fromsoft does something wrong theu get a pass but if ubisoft does it ubisoft bad
@@_CrimsonBlademaybe because Ubisoft do that in almost all their games and in top of that full of micro transactions, I still buy their games, but let’s be real.
@@_CrimsonBlade Well, From games are still good and Ubi games are still bad 🤷♀
@@alanrablingUbisoft hasn't done any egregious downgrading since that Rainbow Six Siege trailer a decade ago. I don't like Ubisoft games either but the way people just make shit up about them to dunk on the company is exhausting.
@@myel8531 well maybe because of their aggressive micro transactions and like 6 versions of the game, like deluxe mega deluxe and super deluxe editions for example
Dark Souls 2 was clearly not an experiment by Fromsoftware. It was a meaningful evolution of the first game with more weapons, more spells, a huge amount of different armor sets, more ring slots, a third slot for the left and right weapon hand, a simplified weapon upgrade system, etc. Most of the changes made in DS2 were then also reused in DS3 and the recent Elden Ring Souls adaptation. It is nice to see that mods such as this lightning mod for DS2 can be applied to experience the game in a new way.
Everything you said points to DS2 being an experiment, but that's not inherently bad, I would say they got most of it right considering how much was carried over to the rest of the series one way or another. If anything, DS3's biggest fault was playing too safe, not experimenting enough.
@@megaleuzao One can certainly see it that way, but the things I mentioned that were changed in DS2 are built on existing mechanics from DS1. Other things like Bonfire Ascetics to be able to promote a level by one game cycle, the method that enemies can be despawned if killed 12 times, the introduction of the new (and controversial) adaptibility stat are more of the experimental kind (and were then abandoned again in DS3). But I agree that it is good that Fromsoftware always tries out new ideas instead of repeating the same type of game again and again (and DS3 was clearly the least creative game regarding the addition of new ideas). In this regard I think that Bloodborne (rally mechanics), Sekiro (action game with Souls elements) and Elden Ring (open world) are also kinds of experiments derived from the classical Souls games.
This looks so good. If anyone is turned off by the slightly duller look, I’d say this could easily be remedied by a slight boost to the highlights in post processing, if this is still easily achievable these days. I’ve been off PC for a while. Are those refx post processing injectors still a thing in 2024?
also, they should know that the mod is highly customizeable. you can increase/decrease the fog, as well as edit post-processing like contrast etc.
@@plasmarey5856 perfect. There you go then. The overall image looks great. Looks like you could fix the darkened/duller look by just boosting highlights. Essentially it’s turning up only the peak brightness without messing with the entire picture like with contrast or brightness.
reshade is still used heavily
Good job on the modder it looks like a ps2 game now instead of a ps1 game
@@_CrimsonBlade lol. I bet you’ve never even held a PS1 controller. Best hyperbole of the day. This looks like a high end PS4 era game with the mod. Even prerendered cut scenes on PS2 games didn’t have lighting and shadows this good. Silly amounts of hyperbole lol
Perfect time to replay. Man, this is why I game on PC.
Not forgotten by me! My favorite DS, my first DS!
9:07 oh damn. That's crazy because in the original the buildings in the distance are not models, these are 2D imposters.
The volumetric fog completely washes the image clean of any personality and I had hoped to see what it looked like in a lower setting tbh
Yes, looks too washed out.
Agreed. I'm all in favour of advanced rendering techniques, and love that this is an option, but personally DS2 is not a game where I want ambiguity in the visual design. I need to be able to read the geometry, because one wrong step and it's right back to the start of the level (potentially undoing an hour's progress).
Yeah, the interiors remind me of the hazy look of old soap operas, or the warm bloom of Oblivion.
The mod is customisable, you can turn off bits you don't like and alter colours
@@suddenfootloss1337 I know, that's why i said I wanted to see it with a lower setting
This is imo the perfect application of visual remakes and everything of that sort. Like I look at the original DS1 and I really don't think it needs any work, like it's cool to mod but not essential because it's what it was meant to be, it still holds up. But DS2? We know the notorious development it went through, we've literally seen how it was meant to look before being forced to cut so much down. So seeing it be almost restored in that sense really has a huge impact. It's beyond just fun modding, it's almost "saving" the game if you will. Praise the modding community :)
lol
You use the word "like" too much
@@jarlwhiterun7478 He used it twice. Lighten up.
@@jarlwhiterun7478that’s just like your opinion man
Are you insane? I'd LOVE to have this modification available to both DS1 & DS3 as well!
I will never understand companies that do not allow mods to be added to their games, the Mod community is the best thing that happened to video games and a clear example is Cyberpunk
I get why companies don't want people modding their games however it's a double edged sword since it's an easy way to scout for new talent.
That Cyberpunk example you gave is a good one. A lot of those modders went on to work on Phantom Liberty.
It really depends on the company. Valve, CDPR, and Bethesda all love the mod community and show that collaboration with them can be beneficial, but other companies simply don't have the same philosophy (unfortunately).
@@mileskosik472 CDPR and Bethesda only love modders because they finish their games for them though. Don't forget the creation club exists.
@@ShaCaro Bethesda yes, but not CDPR. Yes CDPR games arrive with tons of bugs, but gradually even out with their own updates. Bethesda games can't work much without mods.
I hope the hard work done here by the mod creator(s) is seriously rewarded. The quality and depth here, there should be studios looking to hire them.
I personally don’t think I have it in me to dive back into ds2, even though this mod makes it much, much more tempting.
Again, great work on this mod and great coverage. Highlighting stuff like this is part of the reason I love DF so much.
This looks 15 years ahead from Elden Ring, it's so good I will replay DS2 with this for sure!
You can really tell the assets and art were all made for that enhanced lighting engine that they eventually had to cut late into development.
This mod doesn't restore cut content, it overhauls the way the game renders itself.
@@yonimeller Don't believe that was being suggested, just that there were cutbacks to the lighting techniques.
@@MBeeching Ah sure
I played DS2 for the first time ever with this mod and it was a great experience. The torch was an extremely engaging mechanic. It makes we wonder why they never tried to do anything interesting with it again.
Nice coverage from Tom and DF.
Just to mention the mod works perfectly on Steam Deck too. Not only that but with stable 60fps once you disable "Flipmodel Swapchain" in mod settings. Unbelievable upgrade and looking forward to Dark Souls 3 mod.
DS2 has such a great lightning by default.
Great coverage on modding and reworking the lighting in a classic it would be great to see DF do more of these.
It oftentimes ends up looking just as weird as the original overall, but in a different way.
It also looks strangely blurry for some reason.
And there's some kind of dynamic range compression, it seems, as both dark shades get lifted and bright ones are dulled significantly. The most obvious and strange example is fires not being bright at all.
Thanks Thomas & DF. Literally exhausted myself on Elden Ring dlc and was looking for a good reason to play an older Souls game (for the millionth time). Look like DS2 just shot up the list. Amazing coverage, as always. Cheers!
I'm a simple man. I see DS2, I like.
Incredible work. With a lot of lighting mods the original atmosphere gets lost, but with the color grading work he put in everything looks just right.
More of this. Also more Tom.
Wow, looks really impressive. Great to see coverage for this type of thing. I've had a good time with all of the souls games and dark souls 2 is no exception despite the mixed perspectives on the game.
This looks better than most paid "remasters" lol...
It looks almost exactly like the Demon's Souls remake... which is paid, and ruined the visual aesthetic of the original, just like this mod does. At least we can edit what Lighting Engine changes to suit our preferences.
@@Ashlevonno it doesn't. The remake looked visually stunning. Apart from some shadow upgrades this still looks like the outdated garbage it released. No way they look remotely similar, open your eyes
@@Ashlevon Scholar of the First Sin already ruined the visual aesthetic of the original, lol. If anything, the colour palette and lighting of this mod are closer to the original release than SotFS.
@@rioplats Vanilla and SOTFS look barely different.
You can some times notice a slightly nicer looking reflection on water and a slightly nicer looking sheen on some metal textures. The improved texture resolution is also hardly noticeable but was necessary due to increased resolution on modern gaming setups.
The lighting changes in SOTFS were actually good for the most part - you see way way less issues like an elevator being green while the elevator platform is brown, due to lighting calculations applying in a weird way. Only bad thing that the lighting changes did was some locations aren't as well blended together like Cardinal Tower - but you do get to see more detail and more contrast in SOTFS; in Vanilla, everything blended together a lot more, which can look less appealing.
This mod doesn't revert much of anything. In fact, it changes a lot of colors to be incorrect, something that Dark Souls Remastered also changed and messed up a lot of things (for instance, Ornstein armor and Sentinel armor used to be the same color, but they are noticeably different in Remastered).
Lighting Engine does make textures less distinct/less sharp, just like Vanilla's were (even in Vanilla, the lack of distinction came from both the lighting smoothing things, less texture mappings, and the resolution on PS3 and X360 being lower), but it also adds so much fog that even if the textures were sharp, you would have a harder time seeing the details.
In fact, the fog is the biggest part of my issue with the mod's changes. Fog was never much of a thing in these games (DS1 had blur at a distance I guess), but even Demon's Souls lacked it, oddly enough... until BluePoint added a bunch of fog effects to the DeS Remake. It's honestly a good idea, I liked it! And it made the Remake's aesthetic unique too, which was nice. But here? It doesn't make sense and it clashes with the entire game's aesthetic, and gives everything it touches a different hue (greyish-blue for Forest of Fallen Giants, yellowish-green for Heide's Tower, etc.) instead of the natural palette both Vanilla and SOTFS shared, which was already very nice looking.
@@SimonRobeyns
My eyes are quite open, thank you very much.
I don't care about graphical fidelity so much as I care about what changing the graphics of a pre-existing game does to said game's defined aesthetic. I care more about what meaning the graphics are conveying than about what the resolution of a texture is.
See my comment above for examples of changes to the visual aesthetics that Dark Souls Remastered, Demon's Souls, and now this mod made that very much change its existing aesthetic.
For Dark Souls 2 specifically, it's a game that loves to contrast the darkest pits with the brightest peaks, and do it jarringly. It's also a feature in other Souls games, together with the use shortcuts. They both give you a sense of whiplash and an Eureka! moment, which both create amazement.
In Dark Souls 2, you go from the dark and dank Things Betwixt to the bright and idyllic Majula. Then you delve into the darkness again and emerge into bright light once again at either the Forest of Fallen Giants or Heide's Tower. At Heide's, you can defeat the Dragonrider and delve into a dark pass leading to the even darker No-Man's Wharf, which eventually you can light up with blindingly harsh light that contrasts the deep darkness that preceded it. You could also emerge from a bit of a somewhat dark area into the bright Forest of Fallen Giants; proceed and you enter the interior of a dark wall section, to later emerge into the warm light of the Cardinal Tower area, and then the warm glow of a bonfire in the dark Cardinal Tower itself.
Do you see what I'm getting at? There's always a lot of contrast in light and dark. That's what the entire game, and ostensibly the entire series is about.
But then you add fog with this mod, and the gray that comes with it. It's neither light nor dark. It fails to capture the cycle of fire like the entire game's level design and visual aesthetic does, because everything is a mix of light and dark. You could say that that's what the alternative ending seeks - something in between or something else, but that ending wasn't within the original purview of the game, it was partly an afterthought. And even then! discarding light and dark doesn't mean you choose the gray in between, it means you get to choose something else entirely, outside of light and dark.
Fog works in Demon's Souls because the fog and the grayness and stillness that comes with it is the point! And the remake did a great job at showing more of that fog than the original ever did.
But then BluePoint thought they knew better than From and decided to change the *entire castle of Boletaria* from a sober, no-nonsense, utility-focused and well defended early medieval-era fortress into a palace with a mix of gothic and baroque architecture.
Where From Software placed a flat wall made of bricks meant to be defensive and not pretty, BluePoint changed the entire idea of the wall and made it ornate and opulent.
When I look at Boletaria in PS3!Demon's Souls, I think "Boletaria and Allant seem to value utility and success, but they don't seem to have many good craftsmen... did this kingdom fall despite being so well-defended? The demons must be incredibly powerful.", but when I look at Boletaria in PS5!Demon's Souls, I think "Boletaria and Allant seem to put a lot of value into aesthetics, but they weirdly don't seem to have many gardeners... did the kingdom fall because they cared more about aesthetics than about defense? Seems like a waste and lack of foresight."
Aesthetic is incredibly important. More important than visual flair or graphical fidelity. And it doesn't matter how dated graphics look - thinking it does is missing the entire point of the game.
Mods are simply amazing. Games continue to evolve and it improves the experience for others, which becomes great memories.
Congrats RageVitamins for this amazing mod that saved ds2 in a way❤
Scholar Aldia likes this video. I love everything about DS2, still one of the favourites.
Interesting tech achievement I love it, but somehow i prefer the look of the game in SOTFS. Bit more vibrant, and honestly I dont think you real need shadows in all places. Its kinda like going back to old games and RTXing them, like clashing HD texture mods it can sometimes improve the look of the game, but most times it clashes with the game style.
Yeah that's what it seemed like. Would be nice to have in the areas that were clearly meant to use the darkness + light source mechanics but having it going 24/7 even in the crisp detailed areas seems like a waste.
It's extremely impressive - in fact I'd say it's the best mod I've ever used. Been playing with it for a couple of weeks , and it transforms the game in all the best ways, without messing with the core of it. super simple to install, and it just worked right away. I'm even playing it on Rog Ally, with no issues at 60fps. Much respect to the modder.
Ppl make fun of RT and stuff but THIS is a good example of how important lighting in games is (I know it's not RT, but that makes it even more clear). Looks stunning. Guess it's time for a replay. Been 10+ years.
Just downloaded this mod to play ds2 again, and Im enjoying it a lot, and there's still signs down to play with people and get help if you need it. I loved this game when it came out, and now it's even better. Night and day better looking.
I don't like it :P, but i say that as someone who doesn't like the pursuit of realism, i like it when a video game looks like a video game, example 3:39 the mod arguably looks better here because the hard textured look is broken up more with what looks like texture edits and additional shadows, but i like the original look, i played the game and i remember this wall it makes me nostalgic, if the wall lacks additional details because the artists ran out of time that's part of the experience for me, it tells the story of development, but i see darkness as the removal of visuals, so more shadows is taking away from the image.
A more negative example i'll use is 3:25, that objectively looks worse to me, every visual element that makes this room pop is gone, the original artists were probably very proud of this room but now it conveys a completely different emotion.
I wholeheartedly agree. The mod may make the game look more realistic, more modern, but so much is lost on the way. It lacks the charm and character of the original visuals and makes the areas look and feel more similar to one another. The washed out look and lack of colors isn't helping either.
Very strong disagree, but I respect your viewpoint. DS2 lighting always looked very flat to me, even compared to og DS1. But luckily this mod allows for many tweaks to suit varying preferences. So it is a net win for everyone.
I played DS2 for the first time earlier this year after FINALLY beating elden ring. I used this mod after the first boss and have to say what a difference it makes. Looking the reflection of my armor at night while holding a torch 🥹
Amazing work
We are living in the future man.
Love the slideshow when you cut to Bloodborne.
Overall this mod looks great, been tempted to go back to SoTFS as I never got all the achievements and this seems like a great excuse to do so.
Very impressive mod work, great video from Tom!
Uhm why didn't you name the mod creator? Little weird to refer to him as "the mod creator" during the whole duration of this video. Unless or course I missed it.
doesnt matter
This is literally night and day! Outstanding!!
Modding truly is the gift that keeps on giving years after the original release.
I'm suggesting this mod to EVERYONE on Twitch, every day, THIS MOD IS A MUST HAVE
Wow... never thought I'd see DS2 look so good. Also, thanks for including a performance review, as that was my biggest concern through most of the video up to that point.
9:50 Original looks waaaay better here. I would only want this mod to improve shadows and AO, nothing else cause its a blurry mess.
That particular shot looks like they applied a late-2000s PS3/360 green filter, ironically.
Most of the scenes look dull and extremely blurry. Yeah the shadows and grass blades look nicer but if the tradeoff is a blurry image [party because of DLAA/DSR and rest for the volumetric effects] and overall dull looking lighting, I'd just play the original as it is.
Heck even the textures look blurrier.
this mod made things looks like a lousy B movie lol
it turned things darker as if its supposed to look better
some scenes you can't even see wtf is 5 meter in front of you
they should really add in some torch to make the overall lighting look true to the original
Honestly I think alot of these look better in the original. I get that every game needs to look realistic these days, but ds2 has a really special vibe because of the way it looks. Not everything needs to be dark and foggy.
Brilliant work and great video! I do this kind of stuff in Reshade whenever I am not satisfied with the lighting in a game, basically 90% of the time. DS1 is in dire need of something like this.
6:32 There's a mod that addresses that in Elden Ring, lately has been redone and expanded, it's called "Force dynamic shadows reborn" on nexus.
From should hire this guy to give their engine a tune up. They’ve needed it for about a decade now.
From a merely technical standpoint it is completely amazing. From an aesthetical point of view, as others have pointed out, it could use a bit more work on the colour grading side, and toning down of the volumetric fog at many points.
1500 hours in dark souls 2 and 500 in dark souls 3 for me, I 💚 darks souls 2 back in the day
That's impressive work from the modder.
You should also look up the work that stayd3D has been doing for years for DS2. There's no release date at all, but they been doing a complete remake of the game's shader pipeline while also enhancing textures, particles and models. It looks amazing and really promising.
Wanted to second this, been waiting to play the game for when stayd’s mod comes out
Nope. He stopped working on that DS2 mod altogether about 3 months ago (he changed to an Armored Core 6 mod). After 4 years It's as if he had been stringing everyone along for the attention it brought. After the DS2 lighting engine was released and universally praised he stopped getting attention and so he conveniently moved on...
Thankfully others picked up the torch
@@hjhooch3355 I mean maybe they won’t finish it, they’re a modder who is doing it as a hobby, it happens. Plus they’ve been open about being on and off with it before, they were working on DS1 stuff like a year or two ago. This is coming from someone who gave to their patreon, I have no quibbles with how long it takes.
we'll get Bloodborne on PC sooner than he releases that mod. it's basically vaporware.
I actually thought this is was Stayd3D's mod until you brought it up. At least this mod has actually released.
I've been playing through this with the Seeker of Fire mod and I sometimes can't believe how good it looks. Majula at different times of day is incredible
DS2 is a better co op experience than DS3 for me. Also DS2 has so many bosses it's ridiculous.
Ds2 bosses were meh every boss fight another Knight.
@@RaymanJob thats a pretty insane take honestly...seriously look up the bosses, maybe your memory is clouded
@@Decenium Hard to remember the bosses, honestly. They were all really boring for the most part.
@@Decenium What? Insane? 🤣 Jabba the hutt was good to you?
@@RaymanJob DS2 had more boss variety than any other DS.
Great video. Really in-depth details and I can tell a lot of heart went into making this. Thank you Tom, this is the best video I've seen from you so far.
Oh man, I'm so stoked to hear about the DS3 version of the mod being worked on. Please, if you guys can figure out how to get the game to render at whatever custom resolution you want without black bars, instead of being stuck on 720p 16:9, plus a similar general featureset as DS2 I will be all _kinds_ of happy. I love Dark Souls 3 but that fixed resolution and aspect ratio is so annoying.
DS2 Lighting Engine is incredible though, I finished my last playthrough with it installed and it was fantastic. I'll have to try out this newest update, it looks stellar, the idea to add in mod support that you can access from within the game itself is just so cool, absolutely going above and beyond.
I like the original Scholar of the First Sin graphics, but wow this mod looks like a remaster. The original graphics look more vivid and saturated, while the mod looks softer, more like Elden Ring actually. The dark areas are especially nice with the flames
Glad that this mod is finally starting to see some major traffic from gaming outlets. Been repping it ever since we got the first public release a year and a half back. It's a definite look at what could have been if BAMCO didn't enforce the previous-gen release shite on FROM. I seriously consider it a MUST-HAVE for modern day DaS2 playthroughs, along with the Blue Acolyte anticheat and the Centre Deadzone mod to improve movement with controllers. None of this will get you banned from online play and it doesn't affect other players negatively.
My main hope is that people will rework some of the rougher models (female body, Hollows and certain environmental meshes) to be much more complex and consistent with the other two games in the series, from what I know from the dev at least static mesh swaps are possible with the current mod, not sure if animated meshes are possible currently.
From Software doesn't know how to optimize games. it's their fault DS2 ended up the way it did. just look at DS1 remaster by a different dev - it's a night and day difference from how the original runs.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi PTDE ran fine in of itself, that wasn't issue with the port; the issue was that they didn't have enough support for high framerates or resolutions. QLOC might have put those features in the remaster, but they butchered a LOT of stuff in the process including textures, lighting and the audio engine
@@Gigadweeb PTDE couldnt hold a locked 30 on the PS3, so no, it definitely didn't run fine. And female bodies, hollows, and environmental meshes differ greatly for each game in the series, so I'm struggling to find your point there. I'm betting on it being the usual anti-DS2 bias most people have, and remembering DS1 and 3 looking better than they do.
This is incredible work. I have yet to tackle DS2 and this makes me wanna dive in more than ever. I hope some of this work carries over to other FromSoftware titles. Especially DS1.
Nice to see the mod upgrade.
I don't have a pc but I love this underrated game.
2:51 It looks really cozy in the dragonriders arena.
This is some brilliant work. DS2 was really let down badly by the technical shortcomings of its engine.
The game was a let down in more than just a technical way. To detail those I would run the risk of losing sleep.
@@CaptToilet Hey, you're not allowed to talk negative about DS2!
Meh, I love Dark Souls 2 even with it's shortcomings.
@@CaptToilet actually it's the best one, sorry you got filtered
@@CaptToilet Yeah, that's the prevalent opinion on the internet formed by a couple of youtubers. I personally really enjoyed DS2 and thought it was good for what it tried to do.
I played DS2 with Lighting Engine FPS unlock mods for the first time earlier this year. I absolutely loved it and the graphics were impressive considering how old the game is.
Wtf it looks better than a lot of remasters
those shots of No Man's Wharf look incredible
Don't think the complete removal of (somewhat ironically) lightning magic was worth a few more shadows and grass. But maybe it can be improved to have both at some point.
In some scenes it reminds me a bit of the demons souls ps5 remake. Might have to buy ds2 on pc
Dark Souls 2 finally gets the recognition it deserves.
No it doesn’t…
Some of the area do look very impressive but what this mod does to sea as viewed from Majula should be criminal.
It looks great technically. Just reminds me that modders are not typically visual directors though. Still, good lighting does a lot for this game.
There is no need to be a "visual director" to make a game look better
@@xtr.7662 Typical gamer response
@@wamba2097 well these are games nothing else wyt
@@xtr.7662 I think you missed the point. A lot of mods and shader packs will add effects at the cost of overwriting the original art direction. Even when its not a mod and just a graphics option in games RT lighting can make for a worse visual read than something fine tuned or more baked.
@@Uhcip yeah, folks that are confused by this statement should take a closer look at the sea by Majula comparison shot at 9:07. the mod strips all impact and character from that vista, and while it looks "good", it's not nearly as visually arresting, and it certainly doesn't look like Dark Souls 2. i'm sure they're not this blunt, but it feels like a sledgehammer approach of adding technology for the sake of it, rather than considering what would allow the existing identity of the game to flourish
Man this mod creators genius really motivates me to try and learn things like this but I have no idea where to even begin
Dark Souls 2 Classic is an underated Game.
Been playing DS2 since this was released, makes the game look modern.
I can't wait for something like this for Dark Souls 1... I've always wanted a remaster for that game.
We need to stop for the remaster yearning , I’d rather we had more games. Maybe remake the game after 20 years
@@Harrysound We have more new games every fucking day than we had new games per year in the 90s and early 2000s, what the hell are you talking about?
@@Harrysound No we get new games like crazy.
The entire trilogy needs a Dead Space Remake style remake. Or to be entirely remade from the ground up with all the content cut from the original release due to time and resources.
the last half of DS1 could be as good as the first half.
@@Xbob42 sorry I meant good games.
@@Harrysound Also getting a ton of those... Maybe broaden your tastes a bit if the idea of someone wanting a remaster makes you yell into the clouds about "new games."
Off to modding now. Thanks Tom!
Scholar of the first sin looks like a fan reshade preset of the lighting mod 😂
His DS3 mod is also coming along!
Ironically it's too dark. It should be called Shadow Engine since all it adds are shadows (ambient occlusion being synonymous with indirect shadows). Any kind of bounce or even just skylighting is sorely missed. In outdoor scenes it's bizarre how dark everything is while there is a bright sky overhead that should light the scenery.
To be fair dark areas that are actually dark seem to be the only thing DS2 fans actually want, so I can forgive them for going a bit overboard.
Yeah, it seems to ruin the contrast, especially on the main character. In some of the shots it simply looks like a big bloob of darkness;
Yeah that's what a lot of lighting mods end up doing in these games unfortunately. At least we have reshade, martys rtxgi makes a huuuuge difference
"The Dark." Let's show some respect.
it adds proper tessellation, ambient occlusion, proper shadow calculation, parallax occlusion to the textures and proper specular and other sub-texture rendering that just makes the game look wonderful. You're really missing out a lot, if you prefer post-process rtgi over a proper pipeline with features that are actually implemented on the core level of the game, just cus it's "too dark". + you can just adjust the brightness, i for example had no issues with the game being too dark with this mod, but it still looked even better than some games that have come out in 2024.
The mod authors really did an outstanding job here. I usually dislike dramatic visual overhaul mods because they change the aesthetic or have inconsistent results across the game. This just looks great and retains the vibe.
Some areas look worse with the more realistic lighting.
Wow..what a amazing mod.. truly awesome
10:55 "Trending in UK: Allahu Akbar" 😂
Insane work! The results from this mod are in some scenes almost as great as the difference between PS3 Demon's Souls and PS5 Demon's Souls at least on a quick glance.
The only thing I don’t like about these sort of upgrades is how they change the color so much. It changes the entire mood of the game.
Yeah it's almost like lighting does something with colors or something.
The whole idea of the mod is you can customise this exactly to your liking. This is just a preset
@@Xbob42 It was mentioned in the video there is a color grading applied. It helps smoothen out the color pallette of the original art and the mod.
While this is true I always felt DS2 has a bad visual identity of being too cartoonish.
it looks worse to be honest
Absolutely incredible ❤