Better Ambient Occlusion - Shadows

📌 Description 📝

This mod overhauls Mafia III’s ambient occlusion, reflections, and sun shadows by tuning the engine’s hidden rendering parameters.

The goal is simple: stronger depth, clearer contrast, sharper shadows, and cleaner reflections — without introducing flicker, noise, or instability.

You get deeper contact shadows, richer interiors, sharper sunlight, and crisper reflections across the entire game world.

Performance impact is moderate and depends on your GPU, but the default 1. 0 preset is tuned to avoid the common issues caused by extreme values.

📁 Installation ⚙️

• []Download the ZIP

  []Drop the included render_config.xml into:

  Mafia III/edit/config/[]Replace the existing renderer_config.xml

  []Launch the game

Optional: Clear shader cache (NVIDIA/AMD) for a fresh compile.

✨ Features 🌟

Improved Ambient Occlusion 🌫️

• []Rebalanced SSAO layers for more natural contact shadows

  []Enhanced HBAO with wider radius and cleaner falloff

  []Reduced AO noise and shadow acne

Sharper Sun Shadows ☀️

• []Adjusted depth bias and slope scaling

  []More stable PSSM/CSM cascade distribution

  []Crisper edges without floating shadows

Better Reflections 💧

• []Higher-quality SSR with expanded range

  []Denser sampling and improved temporal smoothing

  []Less flicker and more accurate wet surfaces

  Balanced PBR Response 🔍

  • []Slightly tighter roughness limits

    []Cleaner specular highlights and stronger surface definition

  Safe, non-Breaking Tweaks 🛡️
  • []No extreme values

    []No incompatible edits

    []No crashes or flickering shadows common in other XML mods

  🎮 Compatibility 🔧
  • []Works with vanilla Mafia III

    []Works with Definitive Edition

    []Compatible with Luma, ReShade, and DXVK

    []Safe with texture mods

  Does not overwrite any lighting configs except renderer_config.xml.

  📝 Changelog 📅

  Version 1. 0 – Balanced Preset 🎚️

  • []Tuned SSAO across all presets

    []Enhanced HBAO radius & intensity

    []Improved SSR sample quality

    []Rebalanced reflection blending

    []Adjusted PSSM/CSM/POSM cascade distribution

    []Sharper sun shadows with safe bias

    []Minor water wave improvements

    []Cleaned roughness model for sharper highlights

  Version 1. 1 – Experimental Max Quality Preset 🚀

  • []Pushed SSR to full resolution “ultra”: higher step count, longer trace distance, finer stride, and stronger temporal weighting for cleaner, more stable reflections

    []Increased reflection intensity and Fresnel response; relaxed PBR roughness clamps for sharper, punchier specular highlights on wet and metallic surfaces

    []Re-tuned Master SSAO preset with a fourth, large-radius AO layer for deeper contact shadows while keeping smaller layers tight around geometry

    []Boosted HBAO small- and large-scale contribution for added depth in corners, foliage, and street clutter

    []Extended PSSM / CSM / POSM shadow distances and slightly reduced sun shadow bias to sharpen distant shadows without heavy acne

    []Adjusted sun shadow blur to keep edges crisp while avoiding harsh stair-stepping on geometry

    []Enhanced water surface detail: higher small-wave amplitudes, slightly shorter wavelengths and faster motion for more dynamic ripples and wind-driven waves

    []Kept compatibility with existing lighting mods and frameworks (Luma, ReShade, DXVK); only renderer_config.xml is changed

    []⚠️ Intended for high-end GPUs – significantly higher GPU cost compared to the default 1. 0 tuned XML

    💡 Recommended ⭐

    • []Luma Framework for additional lighting control and superior anti-aliasing (DLSS-like quality) on NVIDIA GPUs

    • Shadow and reflection settings in-game set to “High”

    👌 Notes 🖼️

    This mod doesn't try to make Mafia III photorealistic — it enhances what’s already there, tightening the engine’s rendering profile so the art direction shines through with more depth and clarity.