Last month we covered an upcoming lighting overhaul mod for Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin on PC, and today we wanted to share a new comparison shot that its creator has released alongside some new details.
As we wrote last month, this lighting mod aims to aims to rival the lighting of From Software’s pre-release version of Dark Souls 2. This version of the game was never released due to limitations of the available consoles at that time.
"From what I understand DS2 was intended to be a next-gen game like Bloodborne, but partway through development their dev time was halved and it was changed to target current-gen consoles, hence the aggressive downgrades and generally rushed feel of the game", the mod's creator, 'Stayd' writes on Twitter.
Alongside another impressive-looking comparison shots, 'Stayd' also shared some additional details of the mod, including its current name.
According to the lighting artist, the overhaul is currently named ‘Flames of Old’ will likely become available through Nexusmods once it releases. It’s currently unknown when the mod will be released, but don’t expect it to be released anytime soon for now.
The ‘Flames of Old’ mod will not only improve the game’s lighting, but will also improve shaders, maps and a “few other” things, according to its creator. As noted by ‘Stayd’, modding Dark Souls 2 is pretty hard due to the engine only being partially understood.
Pretty difficult honestly, the engine is only partially understood and many of the tools available aren't very developed, or don't support DS2 very well.
As for tools used: DSTools, DSMapStudio, Yabber, Yapped, FLVER Material Studio, ACB Editor, and more I'm forgetting.— Stayd (@Stayd3D) February 2, 2020
The new comparison shot, showing off Shaded Woods with and without the mod enabled, has been included below:
Finally another comparison, this time Shaded Woods. Took quite a while to get just this one spot presentable, as this area is one of the roughest in the game.
Of particular note is the addition of more ruins, foliage, and a gap in the trees to frame the Shrine of Winter. pic.twitter.com/QUKqzFg3EP— Stayd (@Stayd3D) February 1, 2020
As many of you know, Dark Souls 2 features a lot of rooms that feel empty of basically don’t seem to have a purpose. Through the “Flames of Old” modification, ‘Stayd’ will do his best to make the environments in the game feel like they serve a purpose.
That's my intent, though I'm limited by the assets available in the game. In general though I try my best to make areas feel like they have purpose and history.
— Stayd (@Stayd3D) February 2, 2020
Once released, it’s likely that the mod will be quite demanding, but not as demanding as Dark Souls 3 is on PC. According to ‘Stayd’, in its current form, he’s still able to run the game at more than 60FPS on max settings on average hardware.
It's substantially more demanding, but not as demanding as DS3. I still get 60+fps at max settings on middling hardware.
— Stayd (@Stayd3D) February 2, 2020
We will keep you updated about the progress of this mod.
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin was released for PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PS4 in 2015.
About the author: Passionate gamer since the NES era and begun writing about games in 2014. Joined Wccftech gaming section in 2015. Has owned every console since then. Can never make up his mind on what console to play. Weird sense of humor but can be funny from time to time.
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