We have an interesting story on a new Cyberpunk 2077 mod that raises questions about graphics in video games. Do you like your games to look real, or do you want them to look better than reality?
Now, the chase for realism in video games can take us to very strange places. A game like this year’s Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II achieves its hyperrealism by simulating some visual effects that we see in film and video. Since the game is an audiovisual depiction of a person with an unstable mental state, it’s hard to say that it’s realistic, except for all the times when it looks it.
At the polar opposite end of this spectrum, a game like Horizon: Forbidden West pushes the boundaries of technology, delivering graphics at a framerate and resolution that we don’t experience in real life. It may look impressive, but it’s very debatable if it looks “real”.
Enter DreamPunk. This mod has been around for some time, as it endeavors to make Cyberpunk 2077 look more realistic than CD Projekt RED has made it. DreamPunk’s latest update pushes the envelope on this to a degree that demands attention.
We’re going to take the description of this video by YouTuber NextGen Dream to give you a better idea of what DreamPunk’s developers have accomplished:
“Showcasing a hyper-realistic, brand new graphics mod that blurs the lines between video game and reality with advanced real time Path Tracing and dynamic color grading.
The goal of this video is not to achieve the highest possible resolution quality but rather to do whatever possible to make Cyberpunk 2077 look like real footage in real time without the use of any AI post processing.
To simulate actual bodycam footage FPS is locked low and resolution is downscaled in real time to provide visual effects similar to real bodycam footage.”
So, that’s a very interesting set of goals for these devs. They didn’t actually raise the resolution for the game, and they didn’t use AI post processing technology, which would include technology like upscalers.
As it turns out, color grading, path tracing, and other visual effects can simulate video from real life, such as bodycam footage. We suggest that you take your time to review the video we share here, as it may make you think twice about what performance metrics you are looking for in your video games.
Maybe there are situations where 60 FPS and above is the ideal, such as in action games. But DreamPunk doesn’t push Cyberpunk 2077 to run at a consistent 60 FPS. In fact, we assume that it’s running much lower. Like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, DreamPunk has to stay closer to 30 FPS, and even lower. That’ because it’s closer to the framerate at which the human eye sees the real world.
One could argue this mod disrupts the neon dreamlike atmosphere of Cyberpunk 2077. That’s fair, but of course, you should just stay away from this mod. In fact, DreamPunk updates are currently available on a Patreon, at a minimum of $ 7 a month. It’s not too expensive but you would have to want DreamPunk enough to pay for it before you can even try it.
What’s really interesting here is if we should get more games that use these visual effects at the onset. Of course, not all games look like Cyberpunk 2077 either and we have yet to see a big game come out with this aesthetic, from the likes of PlayStation, Microsoft Gaming, EA, Ubisoft, etc. We don’t think that game necessarily has to be a military shooter, or for that matter, a shooter.
But with all that said, you can peer into what a true ‘realistic’ video game experience is like, by checking out this DreamPunk update video below.
