Van der Linde's Vision - A Visual Overhaul (VDLV)

"Real", Oh how I detest that word. So devoid of imagination! - Dutch van der Linde

This visual mod reworks the game’s overall look with a strong focus on grounded, true-to-life visuals. It does not preserve the vanilla stylization or chase cinematic screenshots. The main goal is to create one of the most realism-focused visual overhauls for RDR2, built around realistic weather, lighting, atmosphere, and respects gameplay. It is not strict realism for every single value, but every weather scenario is tuned to feel natural, plausible, and visually accurate.

Some major changes include:

Complete overhaul of lighting and shadows: Direct sun and moon light have been adjusted drastically to be more realistic, sun casts brighter light and sharper shadows, while moonlight has dimmer, cooler light and softer shadows (vanilla has very exaggerated moonlight). Weather conditions also determine the intensity of direct light for both the sun and moon. Overall ground lighting has been improved for more natural looking light, along with enhanced ambient lighting, light scattering and improved global illumination.

Realistic cloud depictions: I've done extensive research to get every weather to have meteorologically accurate cloud appearances and characteristics. Each cloud type has different lighting and heights, some cloud types thrive more depending on the location and time of day. Precipitation entirely depends on the cloud type and its density, more mature and dense clouds produce heavier winds and precip (this can also vary on time of day and weather). Cloud shadows have also been reworked to be realistic, intensity and darkness of the shadows depend solely on the cloud type and angle of the sun/moon(no more bright direct light from the sun that is behind 3 layers of clouds).

Improved weather transitions and probability: Weather probability now heavily depends on the region you're in with some only occuring in specific regions, I've utilized basically all weathers in the game(unlike vanilla where many weathers never even occur in the game at all). Weather transitions have been adjusted to be more slower (so that you aren't going from clear skies to thunderstorms in 40 seconds) and weather durations to be more persistent (so that weathers aren't switching every minute). The overall flow of weathers have been improved so that they aren't erratic and chaotic anymore.

Revamped Night Sky: The entire appearance of night and night sky has been revamped for a more realistic and quieter feeling, night times are less colorful but with more realistic skies like more stars and a more prominent milky way.

Custom weathers: In this mod I've introduced 2 new custom weathers, each with their own characteristics, tuned to be realistic like all other weathers:

-Stormy weather: Mainly clear skies with localized thunderstorms, the appearances of the storms dynamically change throughout day and night to reflect their real life behavior, sunrises and sunsets offer stunning views.

-Heavy Fog: A silent-hill inspired weather, no sunlight, very low visiblity and very eerie. Realism was still kept in mind when making this weather so it's not too cintematic but not boring. A rarer weather that can occur in only specific regions, nighttime and later hours will usually require lanterns.

Other misc and QoL changes:

[]Adjusted and improved twilight colors and durations[/]

[]Realistic wind speeds for all weathers[/]

[]Fixed vanilla issues (things like zombie interior lighting, sky banding, etc.)[/]

[]Redone precipitation rates and particles[/]

[]Improved TAA[/]

[]Improved water reflections and puddles[/]

[*]Adjusted precipitation accumulation (for clothes, vehicles, etc.)[/