Starfieldis a good-looking game, there’s no doubt about it. Though, everything can feel too bright at times. You’re exploring the most desolate, barren planet in the universe and everything is gleaming at you like tinfoil in the sun.
Well, an increasingly popular mod by Milkdrinker seeks to address this issue. ‘Shadowy Shadows’ is a collection of tweaks intended to “reduce fake lighting” on flora and the ground, while also amplifying the shadows cast by flora.
The result is a lot less unrealistic shininess emanating from every object. This is especially noticeable at night time where an immediate radius around the player is subject to fake lighting. With Shadowy Shadows, the darkness feels a lot more visceral.
As Milkdrinker puts it, “night is now dark, you will feel the sunsets and sunrises.” Shadowy Shadows adds a touch of realism to something Starfield already does very well. Since the mod is just tweaks to pre-existing ini files, the installation is very simple.
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Epic NPC Man and Women and a Child.
The mod creator uses his tweaked shadows mod in combination with fellow moddersSavrenXandSkurkboro’s retextures. While the comparisons can be subtle in some screenshots, the difference is glaringly obvious in others, such as the one below. There’s no question that these tweaks improve Starfield’s lighting significantly.
Anecdotally, these changes don’t seem to have caused any noticeable performance issues, though extensive testing may reveal otherwise.
If you’re currently playing through Bethesda’s “biggest launch ever” then why not check out ourcomplete guide and walkthrough? In our9/10 review of Starfield, we called it “an unforgettable story that continues to surprise you every step of the way.”
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Create your own story in Bethesda’s epic open-world (or open-galaxy) RPG. With factions to join, wars to fight, and over 1000 planets to explore, Starfield is the legendary RPG developer’s most ambitious game yet.
