In 2017, the modification developer for NaturalVision released a new update with lots of new visual enhancements made to the game. It was a major step ahead from what the vanilla game visuals are offering. Jamal (also known as Razed), the founder of the project continues to push the game boundaries even further with NaturalVision Evolved with a newly formed team of two developers.
After two years prior to the release of the previous instalment, the NatrualVision team released a new trailer that has recently hit over a million views on YouTube. The audience is introduced with absolutely stunning visuals throughout the entire trailer. The mod trailer also mentions global illumination support, parallax mapping amongst many other new features for the mod.
The next addition to NaturalVision has now hit the Early Access stage. The project is now available for download by pledging $10 on Jarmal’s Patreon page. We tried the mod and we’re absolutely stunned with the mod features. It is set to come to GTA-5mods for free when the mod is finished.
Jarmal has introduced two new people to his team to help assist with the project. Mihail Grotov (also known as Robin) and Hayassam Keyilany (also known as Iceglance). Each of the three has different roles for the mod.
A fraction of the mod is inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2 and Need for Speed. Some features from Red Dead Redemption 2 such as the moonlight reflecting on objects with the fog during the night is featured with the mod. Furthermore, Jarmal has made efforts to increase the campfire intensity.
The rainy weather conditions during the night is a tremendous upgrade. Not talking about puddles, but the volumetric lighting on streetlamps like seen in Need for Speed is a truly stunning upgrade by the team.
Moreover, for the first time ever the mod supports global illumination that essentially adds further realistic lighting to the game world. Similarly, this rendering feature is often used in ray-tracing supported titles. Obviously global illumination is a very intensive rendering feature that will impact game performance on most PC rigs.
Another rendering feature that NatrualVision Evolved has added into the game that screen-space reflections have been implemented into the mod as well that also enables for better water reflections on the world surfaces such as puddles and the ocean.
Of course, the weather conditions have received the biggest upgrade yet that has been completely rewritten from scratch. Jarmal has implemented a series of stunning sunrises and sunsets during the evening and morning periods. These weather conditions feel really close to what Red Dead Redemption 2 offers with its weather effects too. It’s truly remarkable results.
The next key feature that NatrualVision Evolved aims to modernize Los Santos with a new set of texturing and modelling work. Mihail Grotov has made enormous upgrades to Los Santos. One of these upgrades is that the Grave Yard located in Los Santos has received a new upgrade with new parallax mapping on the walkway, emissive lighting and improved window reflections on the Los Santos skyscrapers.
