Natural & Realistic Lighting for Watch_Dogs

Discussion in 'Game Tweaks and Modifications' started by Danvsw, May 6, 2016.

  1. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    This is my custom patch which combines many mods by other modders as well as some of my own, and is based originally on TheWorse.

    Videos:
    youtube.com/watch?v=K9m82VfXYfA
    youtube.com/watch?v=1THZiv1jSfA
    youtube.com/watch?v=BRXo4YTYwy0

    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    More screenshots: https://www.flickr.com/photos/danvsw/albums/72157663962099260
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    4k screenshots: https://www.flickr.com/photos/danvsw/albums/72157672258458345

    How to install:

    Simply extract the folders in the .rar to your main Watch_Dogs folder.
    The data_win64 folder contains the 2 patch files with all the mods packed in it, and the bin folder contains my custom ReShade preset.
    The ReShade preset helps balance colors and reduce blue tint. You can toggle it with Scroll Lock. [example]

    Also, I highly recommend forcing Anisotropic Filtering 16x in your GPU's control panel to reduce texture blur. [example]

    Download links:

    - [Main Version] -

    Note: If your game doesn't start, it may be due to ReShade (bin folder).
    In order to fix that, try either renaming the dxgi.dll to d3d9.dll or d3d11.dll, or try closing any overlay software you have running, GPU/CPU monitoring or any other OSD software that may interfere with ReShade.
    Another possible reason is that ReShade requires DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) and will not work if you don't have that, get it here [link].

    - For Win7 users, I recommend using this SweetFX preset instead of ReShade: [link]

    *Alternative versions*:

    - [Wet Version] - The same as main version except it's always raining so the roads are always wet & reflective, even in clear weather.

    - [Slow Dry Version] - The same as main version except the roads remain wet for long periods after rain stops. Use this if you want wet roads without rain during clear weather (it must rain first, sleep in your hideout until it's cloudy & again until it's clear).

    - [Atmospheric Version] - The same as main version except it's always overcast & rainy (unless a mission changes it temporarily).

    - [Main Version LITE] - The same as main version except with most of the heavy (modded) textures removed. For users with low VRAM.

    *All versions updated to latest patch (thanks to txgt and KuroTenshi).

    IMPORTANT:

    There are 2 major factors that determine how the game looks at any given moment, the first being WEATHER (Storm/Clear) and the second being TIME OF DAY.
    IF you've installed the patch and my ReShade correctly, your game should look exactly like mine, so long as it's being compared to the same weather & time of day in a given scene.
    To change weather and time of day you can sleep in your hideout bed, or use Jim2Point0's Cheat Engine trainer, which allows changing the time of day at any point during gameplay.
    - [link to trainer thread] - [direct link to latest version] ("watch_dogs - latest.CT", open with Cheat Engine).
    Here's a short vid on how to use it:
    https://www.flickr.com/gp/danvsw/8oMK4j
    [​IMG]

    About weathers, there are essentially only 2, Storm and Clear. Storm is when the sky is cloudy and grayish and everything is foggy, Clear is when the sky is blue and there's little to no fog.
    The weather can only change in-game either by random chance or by sleeping in a hideout until it happens (unless using "Atmospheric Version", in which case it's locked to Storm).

    Known Issues & Complaints:
    - ReShade crashes the game for certain people. See the note under the main version links.
    - Cloudy weather is too dark, what I do is lower gamma from 1.2 to 1.0 in ReShade (Tonemap) whenever cloudy weather occurs.
    - Too much blur. Depth of field and motion blur can be disabled in the game's settings.
    - No clouds in clear weather (intended, for clear sky). If you wish to bring them back, use gibbed tools (link) to unpack patch.dat (drag it onto Gibbed.Disrupt.Unpack.exe), open the new patch_unpack folder, delete all the 1kb files in graphics\_textures\sky\plane + ring, repack patch_unpack folder by dragging it onto Gibbed.Disrupt.Pack.exe and rename patch_unpack.dat & fat to patch.dat & fat.
    - Not enough distance fog during clear weather. Install this (using gibbed tools) for increased fog: [link]

    Mods included:
    - Includes most features from the original TheWorse mod, such as depth of field, textures by MaLDo, headlight shadows etc., more info in the original mod page [link] (credits to kadzait24, TheWorse, VAAS and MaLDo)
    - Relief Mapping (similar to Parallax Occlusion Mapping) by The Silver [example]
    - E3 Focus by txgt
    - E3 White helicopter spotlight by txgt [example]
    - E3 Beretta 92FS by The Silver + improved specularity material
    - Biker outfit (replaces Cyberpunk outfit) by infiniium + helmet reflection fix for rainy weather
    - Increased steam/smoke by Essenthy
    - Reflective Cloud Gate by The Silver
    - Improved Vehicle Lighting by txgt
    - Dark blue night sky during clear weather by txgt
    - Disabled bloom by txgt
    My tweaks:
    - Clear sky during clear weather
    - Greatly reduced distance fog during clear weather
    - Improved weapon materials during rainy weather
    - Less obtrusive sun flare & glare
    - Less aggressive light adaptation during clear weather
    - Color correcting
    - More realistic sun & godrays colors
    - Modified almost all vegetation (colors/brightness) to better match the lighting [example] [more details]

    And many other tweaks.

    Thanks to all the modders mentioned above and special thanks to AlphaZ, Essenthy, infiniium and txgt for their helpful posts on how to mod this game.
    Thanks to CeeJay.dk and Boulotaur2024 for SweetFX & thanks to crosire for Reshade.
    Thanks to Rick for gibbed tools & thanks to Haoose for gibbed GUI.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2018
    Markie, hishamerrish, Valken and 5 others like this.
  2. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    Thanks mate. That'd be great.
    I saw your PM but I can't answer, says I need 15 posts. To answer your question; yes, menus are supposed to appear brownish red, it is a side effect of the color balancing with sweetfx.
     
    Last edited: May 6, 2016
  3. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    Hard to say at night time, but it doesn't look like it. If you could show something during midday cloudy weather I would know for sure.
     
  4. Nuk1e

    Nuk1e Guest

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    Looks really nice , the one thing that has always bothered me about the worse mod that it makes the game way too dark and after watching the video in your mod thats also the case.

    But game looks great and very nice video :)
     

  5. txgt

    txgt Guest

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    Looks interesting. I will check it out.
    Great video btw! I wish I had one for my mod...
     
  6. txgt

    txgt Guest

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    why 1080p is not enough?
     
  7. txgt

    txgt Guest

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    Thanks but I actually already in the process of making it by myself :). I started a week ago. I don't have the video editing skills like this guy but I'm happy with what I already did.

    @Danvsw
    After looking at your files I can say that your mod is missing the latest update files and is not compatible with Bad Blood. You should mention that in OP or make it compatible. To make it compatible you not only need to add missing updated files but also you'll need to repack your "lib" files with dlc xmls and add dlc-specific lighting to windycity.xml. I can upload latest clean "patch" if you want.
     
  8. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    @txgt Thanks man!
    I'd appreciate that. I had no idea since I haven't touched bad blood yet.

    Wouldn't hurt. I'm trying it now.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2016
  9. txgt

    txgt Guest

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    How exactly you did the smooth flying camera in your video?
     
  10. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    Panning/zooming in Sony Vegas
     

  11. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    @exacelt
    Here I tried to replicate the settings in reshade, let me know if this works:
    https://www.mediafire.com/?ooued8v03b3743k

    Just extract everything to your bin folder and run the game.

    Just noticed your post, thanks mate
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2016
  12. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    So the reshade worked? Again I can't tell with night time. By the way you can toggle it on and off with scroll lock.
     
  13. eGGroLLiO

    eGGroLLiO Master Guru

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    Does anyone here have Watch Dogs running on Windows 10? Google has failed me.
     
  14. eGGroLLiO

    eGGroLLiO Master Guru

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    I've tried everything and I get a procedure entry point d3d11.dll error and it hangs on the load screen.
     
  15. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    Great. Thanks mate.
     

  16. txgt

    txgt Guest

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    So it's always Raining in your mod?
    You made that on purpose or you just don't know how to change that?
     
  17. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    Yes I did that on purpose. Wet roads is one of my favorite graphical features in this game. I've prepared a normal non-rainy version that I was going to upload if anyone cared.

    What I don't know how to do though, is how to make the roads wet without it actually raining, like when it had just rained but the roads don't dry out. Do you know how?
     
  18. KuroTenshi

    KuroTenshi Guest

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    Nice ! I'll fix the Bad Blood issue for you ^^

    How to remove the always rain mod ?
     
  19. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    Not sure what you mean exactly, what do you like about the scene? If it's the clear sky, you could try copying the files in "patch\graphics\_textures\sky".

    That would be cool mate, thanks
    I'm adding a dry version to the OP now
    If you don't want to download the whole thing grab this https://www.mediafire.com/?8jyjvnt48hgi55l
    The difference is fRain="1" changed to 0 in the "Clear" EnvironmentSettingsContainer line.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2016
  20. Danvsw

    Danvsw Guest

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    Sorry I don't know.
     

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