Mod for Onimusha: Way of the Sword includes RTGI and RTAO
Onimusha: Way of the Sword has drawn criticism for its visuals despite running on the RE Engine, in part because its implementation of ray tracing is limited and the result can appear flat. A new fan-made Graphics Enhancement Mod aims to address that by enabling ray-traced global illumination (RTGI) and ray-traced ambient occlusion (RTAO).
The Graphics Enhancement Mod unlocks RTGI and RTAO; the unmodded game uses ray tracing only for reflections. Beyond adding those features, the mod exposes several settings that go past the in-game menu, including ray tracing resolution and bloom quality, and gives players more detailed control over shadows, screen effects, and denoising.
The modder shared multiple "before" and "after" comparison images showing original frames on the left and the ray-traced versions on the right. Although RTGI and RTAO are unofficial additions, they noticeably improve image quality by producing more natural, realistic lighting in many scenes.
Some scenes, however, become noticeably darker when RTGI and RTAO are enabled. The modder explains this is because Capcom’s titles that ship with official RTGI support often include extra light sources per scene, giving the global illumination more information to reflect and producing the intended look. Onimusha: Way of the Sword was not designed with RTGI in mind, and Capcom probably knew this feature would not be enabled; consequently, certain areas contain very little lighting when RTGI is applied.
Addressing that requires manually reworking levels to add light sources — an approach used by the modder in previous projects such as the Onimusha Enhanced Light demo and RE4R RE. JoHien, the modder behind the current enhancement, says he has not yet decided whether to perform the same comprehensive scene rework for Way of the Sword, noting it would take a lot of time to do everything properly.
For now, the Graphics Enhancement Mod delivers a substantial visual upgrade and offers numerous options for fine-tuning the experience.