Say goodbye to ENB and hello to the future of graphical mods with GTA 5 Redux 1.3.
Some of you may remember the buzz around a mod named GTA 5 Redux, which was lauded as being the gold standard for graphical mods that PC users could apply to their game. The mod was released a good long time ago. However in the meantime its developer has continued working on improvements with further features, optimization and better visuals, releasing version 1.3 recently.
The newest version of the mod makes some significant changes to its framework, as it cuts out ENB entirely. ENB graphics mods were the typical go-to choices for years in the past and were often incorporated into other files, and Redux used it as a basis as well. But further proprietary developments allowed developer Josh Romito to cut out those files entirely.
The main feature improvement of 1.3 is additional polishing to the physics rigging of NPCs, making their animations, movements and ragdollization much more realistic. While video games have implemented ragdoll physics for the express purpose of making bodies collapse and fall realistically, it's usually precisely ragdoll rigging which produces the most uncanny or hilariously buggy results.
In-game weather and time cycles also got a major overhaul with a new weather system rebuilt from the ground up. It adds more variety, greater fidelity to weather effects and realistic transitions. Weather is often used by game devs to show off graphical prowess, as light rays piercing clouds, fog, rain and particle effects are all natural ways of showing off tech. So it's logical that a graphics mod would focus on these as well.
As can be expected, the update is also full of generic miscellaneous improvements such as lighting, reflections and the thing that absolutely always can be improved, textures.
An odd and possibly annoying addition is that of a GTA 5 Redux logo being added to the slideshow you see upon starting the game. While optimization work has also been done, that doesn't change the fact that you need a top-of-the-line rig to run GTA 5 Redux in a stable manner.
During initial release, GTA 5 Redux was involved in a controversy pointing to stolen and plagiarized content used in its development. Such plagiarism is condemnable, however the on-going updates seemingly worked to cycle out the stolen code with self-developed work over time, and this is reflected in 1.3's removal of ENB. This doesn't excuse the initial content theft, but is certainly preferable to the plagiarized code staying in the mod.
Further work is being done on the mod, with Romito already having announced an upcoming version 1.4 release. Modding GTA 5 has grown difficult over the years due to Rockstar's repeated attempts to prevent hacking on PC often affecting mods as an unintended side effect, but the game retains its large modding community who keep things alive.
