There’s no higher honour than getting a shout out from the creators of the game you’ve modded

A brand new The Witcher 3 mod was just endorsed by CD Projekt Red themselves, and after taking a look at these screenshots… I can see why they’re impressed.

As revealed on the official @witchergame Twitter account, the final version of a much-awaited mod is at long last available to download that CD Projekt has described as “more detailed and realistic while still being faithful to the original vision and atmosphere.”

“The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project NextGen Edition” is a graphical update mod over on Nexus by mod author Halk Hogan, which aims to give a bunch of The Witcher 3’s original assets a beautiful “next gen” glow. It’s even got its own little trailer.

The mod author describes it as a “project created from the heart that improves and reworks a huge amount of game assets (textures, models, materials and more), and the number of these changes can be counted in thousands.”

Some of the comparison images on the mod page are absolutely incredible. Everything from the foliage to the brickwork has received a new lick of paint.

Even just some of the random one-off models have been completely reworked. Just look at those new apple models!

It seems Halk Hogan has also dedicated a bit of time to sprucing up some of the shaders and potentially even the lighting effects.

Whatever is going on in this comparison image of one of the statues is blowing my mind a little bit, because the difference between the two images honestly makes The Witcher 3 look comparable to a PlayStation 5 launch title.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the mod is that Halk Hogan promises that it “has only little impact on performance.”

I might have to see the mod in action before I believe that, considering how night and day some of these changes look.