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Back in February some amazing footage emerged of path tracing implementation in Dark Souls 2. At the time I was pretty impressed, but I didn't have my fingers crossed that the ambitious mod—which is an update to the beloved DS2Lighting Engine Mod—would be available to the public anytime soon.
I was wrong: the DS2LightingEngine mod on Nexus Mods was updated today with path tracing implemented. It's compatible with the Scholar of the First Sin version of Dark Souls 2.
The mod actually released on Discord late last month but is now more widely available on Nexus for people who might not be actively following its development. It's a beta, so you should expect some hiccups here and there, but it's an impressive feat and it brings the often scrappy-looking RPG to life.
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It's worth pointing out, as per mod creator Ragevitamins on the DSLightingEngine Disord, that path tracing will inevitably make Dark Souls 2 more challenging, which I'm sure is music to the ears of sickos the world around. If there aren't light sources the game's going to be dark, meaning you'll need to use in-game light items like Prism Stones, torches, or the Cast Light spell if you can't see anything. "If there is a cave without [a] possible light source, it means you must be prepared for the dark."
That's fine: if you don't want punishing realistic lighting the earlier, non-path tracing version of the mod is still available on Nexus. But if you do use path tracing, Dark Souls 2's once-touted survival elements come to life with tech that FromSoftware would not have had access to in 2014.
While development continues—this new version of the mod is after all in beta—it's a great result for Dark Souls 2, which the modding community has obsessed over for 12 years by dint of its famously lacklustre launch state. Pre-release footage of the original game showed dynamic lighting the likes of which was completely absent in the final game; modders have not only added those features over time, but improved on them exponentially.
If you want to see the mod in action, YouTube LobosJr demonstrates it, with the added bonus of having a randomisation mod installed:
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DS2 SOTFS Randomizer w/ NEW Lighting (Path Tracing) - YouTube
Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.
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