Death Stranding on PC gets a fresh look thanks to the Complete RT reshade mod, which adds ray-traced lighting effects and improved visuals at 8K resolution. While Death Stranding 2 is headed to PS5 soon, this mod lets players revisit the original game with a visual boost that’s quite impressive.
Beyond Dreams created this mod setup using Complete RT, which adds ray-traced Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion. The mod also enhances volumetric fog and color grading and applies a filmic Depth of Field effect. Shadows on the grass are sharper, too, improving the overall atmosphere.
Complete RT is known for its current screen-space ray tracing shaders. It can simulate effects like GI, AO, matte and glossy reflections, plus dynamic depth of field and camera effects. It’s important to remember that this ray tracing isn’t the same as the hardware ray tracing built into some games. It uses only the information on your screen, so it’s less precise, but it still makes the game look nicer.
You can download Complete RT for free from its Discord server. Once installed, you can achieve effects similar to those in the video shared by Beyond Dreams. The mod can also be used on other games, which is cool if you enjoy tweaking visuals.
This mod won’t make Death Stranding look like the upcoming sequel, which launches on PS5. However, it does give the original game a fresh coat of paint that many PC players might appreciate. There’s a good chance Death Stranding 2 will arrive on PC sometime in 2025, following the pattern from the first game’s release.
The PC version of Death Stranding was well-optimized and ran smoothly on various hardware. That bodes well for the sequel’s PC release, whenever that happens. It’s nice to see the community still finding ways to improve the first game visually, though. I wonder if you’ve tried reshade mods before? They can be a bit fiddly, but sometimes the results are worth it.
Enjoy the visuals, and stay tuned for more updates!
Watch the Complete RT mod in action at 8K here:
