We’ve been writing about the NaturalVision mod for years, almost as long as Grand Theft Auto V has been out on PC, and each time we revisit the project it continues to amaze.
Originally a mod designed to tweak the game’s graphics a little for more discerning PC users, NaturalVision was overhauled back in 2017 to become NaturalVision Remastered, and development has continued—and made huge advances—ever since.
Back then I was impressed enough by the cars having more detail and some fancier lighting. Now...now my socks are blown clean off. This trailer released earlier today isn’t just a fantastic showcase of everything the mod now offers, but helpfully stops at a few points and makes direct comparisons with the vanilla game, to show you just far and deep some of these modifications run.
The sparkling visuals are of course the first and biggest thing on show here, from the lighting effects to increased texture sizes, it’s all absolutely incredible. But I’m also loving some of the stuff that might not be immediately noticeable while playing, but which is still a really nice touch. Like parallax interiors for buildings, meaning that as you walk past or fly over a building, if you can see inside its windows those interiors will shift their perspective to match yours.
The fully-animated signs really make the game come alive, too, especially at night, while changes have also been made to the game’s weather, ambient colour palette, ground textures and vegetation, “in order to blur the line between fantasy and reality.”
If you want to download the Early Access version of the mod as it currently stands, you can get it at the Patreon page of Razed, the leader of the mod’s development. Also, credit where it’s due to Denis ‘IceVip’ Sitarski, who put that very stylish trailer together.