With the release of the Shader Injector 2.0 mod, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has never looked better, as modder David Matos masterfully addressed the flat lighting that Square Enix used for the second entry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series. Although the mod is in an excellent spot, combining graphical enhancements that feel like they could belong in an official remaster with limited impact on performance and an easy installation process, there's the chance that future performance improvements could open up the way for even crazier visuals and features, including more advanced Global Illumination, enhanced skyboxes with volumetric clouds.
"I did kinda go wild with 2.0 and hit many of the notes that I wanted to do. In the grand scheme of things I don’t really see any big improvements coming as of right now," David told me, suggesting that version 2.0 could be the final version of a mod that essentially turned the PC version of the game into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Remastered.
However, there could still be some big things planned for the Shader Injector mod. "One of the main features I want to implement in the injector is custom render passes. Mainly this will allow me to really shrink the performance costs of the effects I added allowing me to make them super light and super clean. But implementing that also will open the door WIDE to potentially crazier graphics stuff that I could do. Some potential ideas I have in mind are replacing the skybox with a completely procedural one with actual moving volumetric clouds, or potentially implementing more advanced GI solutions than just screenspace," the modder said. In particular, the skybox could already be replaced at this stage and feature volumetric clouds, but it would be slow and it would look rough, David explained.
Although I believe the current version of the Shader Injector really feels like night and day in many instances, I can only get excited about the prospect of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's visuals reaching the next level, if David Matos eventually decides to working on the teased features. In case you are not able to experience the game with the mod on PC, you can check out a couple of comparison videos put together by FrameRateX which showcase how much visuals are improved over the vanilla game.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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