Visual Overhaul Mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 that enhances the game’s atmosphere through improved lighting, realistic color grading and much more.
This mod was available on my Discord server for nearly a year, receiving monthly updates, and only now it has gotten to a version I’m happy with, so I’ve decided to share it publicly.
Lighting has been rebalanced to give the game a more natural look, sunsets and sunrises have richer tones without being overly saturated.
Nights are properly dark now, in the base game, nights are surprisingly bright, you can often see the landscape almost as clearly as during the day, which can take away from the atmosphere—especially in a game so focused on immersion.
The main goal is to bring a cleaner, more realistic look to the world without straying too far from Rockstar’s original style.
The mod is designed to be optimized, ensuring that you can enjoy the new visuals without significant performance drops.
Completely Reworked Clouds for All Weathers
Improved Overall Lighting Across all Weathers
Adjusted Sun/Moon Disk Size to Match Their Real Life Sizes
Increased Fog Resolution From 512p to 2K (No FPS Loss)
Each Weather Cycle Now Lasts About 6x Longer
Slower Weather Transitions
Minimized Color Correction (Not Fully Removed)
Heavily Decreased Bloom Effect
Removed Vignette Effect
Improved Rain, Thunderstorm, Sleet, Snow Particles
Improved Light Bouncing Effect for all Weathers
Improved Wind Gusts and Speeds
Improved Snow Glints
Improved Water Foam/Reflections
Added New Weather (Hail)
Nights Now Actually Feel Like Night
Mostly Fixed Vanilla Rain Sound Issue (Rain sound would play before the Particles appeared on screen)
Fixed Some Broken Vanilla LODs
Merged No Glow for Pickups
Merged Graphical Issues Fixes
Merged Rain Particles Fix
Many others Tweaks & Improvements
Those who play with DLSS must download DLSS Tweaks and enable the AutoExposure option; otherwise the game will constantly suffer from this Visual Glitch
(If you don’t use DLSS, you can ignore this)
Installation:
Simply drag and drop the “Renewal – Visual Overhaul” folder into your lml folder.
Notes & Tips
Set your ingame brightness to Default (50%) for the best image fidelity.
This mod does not rely on any reshade preset in order to match the same picture quality you see on the screenshots, so avoid using any if you wish to have your game looking exactly like in the photos!
If you are using HDR, it’s highly recommended that you turn it off when using this mod.
If you ever come across any irregularities during your playthrough, please let me know; I’ll try my best to address the issue.
If you’re playing through the story mode, I’d strongly recommend using the Vanilla Nights version; otherwise cutscenes that take place at night will become extremely dark when using the Main version.
Changelog:
Version 2.0 (Final)
Polished Remaining Weather Types That Still Needed Fine-Tuning (Highpressure, Sunny, Clouds, Misty & Fog)
Fixed Almost Every Issue Encountered Over Months of Playing and Testing (Most of the minor issues still present are also in Vanilla or come from engine limitations that just can’t be changed)
Miscellaneous Tweaks & Improvements Across Multiple Weathers
Version 1.8
Added an “Optionals” folder inside the mod file, which includes additional graphical settings, plus an optional merge with “Increased Geometry Level of Detail” (1.25-1.5 LOD Levels)
Fixed Excessive Bloom Effect on Windows/Doors Inside Interiors (Some interiors remain unchanged due to their original Vanilla behavior, but around 90% were fixed)
Fixed a Vanilla Lighting Issue for Shepherd’s Rise Cabin Interior
Fixed a Weather Transition Issue When Switching from Clouds to Hail
Fixed White Dust Effect Around Certain Areas of New Austin
Improved Overall Lighting Across Many Interiors
Improved Godrays for Thunderstorm & Overcast Weathers
Improved Indirect Light for Fog & Rain Weathers
Slightly Improved Sky Color for Sunny Weather
Slightly Increased Clouds Sharpness for Clouds Weather
Slightly Increased Overall Image Contrast (Again)
Reduced Color Correction Intensity by 50% for Highpressure, Sunny & Clouds Weathers
Increased Image Exposure When Playing Dominoes at Night (Tiles were sometimes difficult to see)
Removed Vignette from Locations That Still Forced the Effect to Reappear
Many Other Tweaks & Improvements
Version 1.7
Alleviated a Vanilla Issue Where Fog Around Light Sources Would Become Transparent and Expose the Background in Most Weathers
Fixed a Vanilla Issue Where Lights at Night Would Constantly Flicker During Hurricane Weather (Rockstar intended this as a feature, but it comes across more like a visual bug)
Fixed an Issue Where the Lights in Saint Denis Would Flicker When Approaching the City at Night
Fixed Some Minor Issues with Thunderstorm & Sandstorm Weathers
Improved Far-Distance Haze for Clouds Weather
Improved Sky Scattering for Highpressure & Sunny Weathers
Improved Moon Lighting for Overcast Weather
Slightly Improved Shower, Hail, Misty & Rain Weathers
Slightly Increased Overall Image Contrast
Slightly Minimized Color Correction for All Weathers
Adjusted Weather Drying Speed (Now slightly faster, but still slower than vanilla)
Adjusted Ambient Shadow Color for Sunny & Highpressure Weathers (Slightly darker)
Restored Bloom Effect for Fog Weather (It was accidentally disabled)
Increased the Chances for Clear Weathers Occurring (Previous values favored cloudy conditions)
Increased Bloom Effect for All Weathers at Night
Many Other Tweaks & Improvements
Version 1.6
Completely Reworked Sunny Weather (New Clouds, Better Lighting, etc..)
Greatly Improved Sky Color for Highpressure Weather
Improved Light Bouncing Effect for Many Weathers
Improved Overall Lighting for Clouds Weather
Improved God-Rays Effect
Improved Cirrus Clouds for Highpressure & Sunny Weathers
Improved All Foggy Weathers (Fog, Misty, Hail & OvercastDark)
Improved Sandstorm Weather
Improved Snow & SnowLight Weathers
Improved Rain/Thunderstorm & Hurricane Weathers
Slightly Improved Performance at Dusk/Dawn
Increased Bloom Effect for Foggy Weathers
Improved Lantern Light (Warmer Appearance)
Adjusted Weather Drying Speed (Thanks to JackKiddArt for the Inspiration)
Adjusted Weather Cycles to Last 4x Longer Instead of 6x
Adjusted Color Correction for Some Weather Types
Adjusted Dust Density for Highpressure, Sunny & Clouds Weather
Minimized Gradient Effect (Basically Another Vignette-Style Effect)
Disabled Artificial Character Lighting
Fixed Motion-Blur Not Working Even When Enabled in the Graphics Settings
Fixed Excessive Water Foam Density
Miscellaneous Graphical Fixes
Completely Reworked Weather Transitions
Adjusted the Chances of Certain Weather Types Occuring
Many Other Tweaks & Improvements
Version 1.5 (10/31/2025)
Improved Nighttime Lighting for Overcast Weather
Slightly Improved Sandstorm Weather
Fixed a minor issue with Hurricane Weather
Adjusted Wind Speed for Clouds & Overcast Weathers
Adjusted Moon Disk Brightness for Sunny & Highpressure Weathers
Adjusted Sun Disk Size for All Weathers
Other Minor Tweaks
Version v1.5
Tweaks/Improvements/Fixes
Version v1.5
Added some missing values
Version 1.5
Greatly Improved Fog Visual Appearance Across Foggy Weathers (Basically All Weathers)
Fixed Blocky Fog Appearance Around Campfires at Night on Misty Weather
Mostly Fixed Light Flickering Issue (Also Present in Vanilla)
Improved Visual Appearance of Dust Effect
Improved Clouds for Shower Weather
Slightly Improved Performance at Night
Slightly Improved Nighttime Lighting for Rain Weather
Slightly Increased Heat Haze Effect for Highpressure & Sunny Weather
Merged Newest Version of Rain Particles Fix (10/26/2025)
Final Improvements to Weather Transitions
Many Other Tweaks & Improvements
Version 1.4
Completely Reworked Clouds Weather (New clouds, Better lighting, etc..)
Improved Sky Gradient Effect for Highpressure/Sunny/Clouds Weather
Improved Night-sky for Highpressure Weather
Improved Weather Transitions (Again)
Fixed Rainbow at night during Rain & Shower Weather
Fixed Some Minor Issues on Overcast Weather
Fixed Sky Over-Brightness on Fog/Misty Weather
Slightly Increased Sun Disk Size during Sunrise/Set
Adjusted the Chances of Certain Weather Types Occurring
Many Other Tweaks & Improvements
Version 1.3
Improved Overall Lighting Across Many Weathers
Slightly Improved Cirrus Clouds for Highpressure & Sunny Weather
Fixed some issues on Sandstorm/Fog/Misty Weathers
Fixed some Weather Transition Issues
Increased the chances of Sunny Weather occurring
Merged newest version of Rain Particles Fix (Final)
Many Other Tweaks & Improvements
Version 1.2b
Added some missing values
Version 1.2
Mostly fixed an issue that would cause a CPU Bottleneck for some users
Improved Weather Transitions (No more transitions from Rain to Sunny Weather or vice-versa)
Improved Sky color for Sunny & Highpressure Weather
Slightly Improved Night-sky for Sunny Weather
Fixed some issues on Hail Weather
Slightly decreased Color Correction
Slightly decreased Dust effect
Merged newest version of Rain Particles Fix (2.0p)
Many Other Tweaks & Improvements
Credits:
WhyStopNow
Download mod
| File | File size |
|---|---|
Renewal - Visual Overhaul-2-0
|
499 KB |
|
Renewal - (Vanilla Nights)-2-0
|
499 KB |
|
Renewal - Visual Overhaul-1-5
|
472 KB |
|
Renewal - (Vanilla Nights)-1-5
|
473 KB |
|
Renewal - Visual Overhaul-1-1
|
471 KB |
|
Renewal - (Vanilla Nights)-1-1
|
471 KB |
