Vanilla Plus Tonemapper
🟠 Updated over a year ago⚠️ Install Order · 5 steps
Install in this order, then this mod last — most mods fail to load without their framework and dependencies in place.
Preview
🔍 Analysis
- 👍 0.2% endorsement rate
- 🏆 #13 of 131 Visuals and Graphics mods in this game by downloads
📋 About This Mod
Thank you, Inthegrave, for making sure I actually finish this.
Description
Vanilla+ Tonemapper is a lightweight shader replacer that adds a proper tonemapping curve to Fallout New Vegas, fixing the worst cases of blown out whites, while keeping true to the vanilla aesthetic.
Tonemapping is a technique in HDR rendering which makes sure that what the colors that gets displayed to the user are in a proper range, avoiding clipping and potentialy other issues. Fallout New Vegas can, in fact, render in HDR, but instead of applying such a curve it just clips the values. It leads to this weird situation where certain parts of the screen are clearly blown out - full white - killing all detail and being generally hard to look at. To a certain degree, wonky lighting is a part of the visual identity of FNV. However, the lack of tonemapping in particular can lead to very obvious problems with the image.
Technicalities aside, this concept is best explained not in words, but in pictures. In the Images section, you will find a selection of screenshots showcasing vanilla and two modded weathers (Weathers Revised and Desert Natural Weathers), with and without the tonemapper active, and also with the tonemapper and an optional sky brightness tweak that compensates for the tonemapper (relevant primarily for DNW).
To complement the tonemapping, using fixed assets with properly toned normal maps is paramount. For a vanilla friendly variant, I recommend MAC-TEN for meshes and LENT for tweaked normal maps.
Optional Component
As several users noticed, the tonemapper resulted in the sky with DNW to be quite dull. I have added a scriptrunner tweak that patches all weather IMODs used during the day (not night) to compensate for this with increased brightness. See the effect in Images.
Requirements
-
[]Shader Loader - NVSE
[]JIP LN NVSE
Installation
Install as normal. Load order does not matter.Source Code
- GitHub
Looking for more? Here are my other mods:
Cartographer
Parallax Shaders - Objects
Parallax Shaders - Terrain
Energy Visuals Plus 2. 1
Sandy Roads - Patch Collection
Animated Fans - Base Object Swapper
Physically Based Plasma Rifles - TTW
Vanilla+ Tonemapper is a lightweight visual mod that fixes the vanilla tonemapping, reducing white blown-out highlights while preserving the original aesthetic. With 2,466 endorsements and 1.3M downloads, it's a popular choice for players seeking a subtle visual improvement without altering the game's look.
✨ Key Features
📊 Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Huge community trust with 2,466 endorsements and 1.3M downloads.
- Does exactly what it says: fixes blown-out whites without changing the game's feel.
- Lightweight means no performance hit, perfect for low-end rigs.
⚠️ Cons
- Last updated March 2025 — may not be compatible with future game patches.
- Only addresses tonemapping; if you want more dramatic visual overhauls, this isn't it.
For players who love the vanilla look but are annoyed by blown-out highlights. If you're a purist who wants a subtle fix without changing the game's atmosphere, this is for you. Skip if you want a full visual overhaul or ENB-style effects.
💡 Beginner Tips
- Since it's a lightweight mod, you can drop it into your mod manager without worrying about load order conflicts.
- If you're using other visual mods, test this one last to see if it conflicts with their tonemapping changes.
- Check the mod page for any optional files or patches that might be needed for specific game versions.
📊 Mod Details
- Game
- New Vegas Mods
- Author
- Pr0bability
- Version
- 1.1.2
- Downloads
- 1,260,348
- Endorsements
- 2,466
- Category
- Visuals and Graphics
- Created
- 3/22/2025
- Updated
- 3/25/2025
🧩 Commonly Used Together
Users add these mods to the same collections — a real compatibility signal, not an AI guess.
🔧 How to Install New Vegas Mods
Download from Nexus.
📖 Full step-by-step install guide for New Vegas →
Visit the official mod page for specific installation instructions for this mod.
🎮 Need cheat codes or console commands? Check ur gaming wiki for New Vegas commands, item IDs, and more.
Keep browsing — more New Vegas mods await