Nvidia’s no stranger when it comes to modding, as a supporter of countless breathtaking PC case mods and the owner of a library of PC tinkering tutorials. But now the GeForce graphics card maker is turning its attention to digital tweaking with the free Vault 1080 (of course) for Fallout 4—the first gaming mod ever released by Nvidia.
Vault 1080 adds over an hour of new gameplay as you descend beneath an ominous church to find the titular vault. Nvidia says Vault 1080’s roughly the same size as the other vaults you’ll find in the game, and it’s inhabited by a mad congregation whose entire way of life may be built on lies.
The mod was made by Nvidia’s Lightspeed studios, which was formed to remaster classic PC games for Nvidia’s cutting-edge Shield TV console ($300 and up on Amazon). Vault 1080 also taps into the deep Nvidia GameWorks support that Bethesda baked into Fallout 4. Watching the video above, the mod seems to lean liberally on volumetric lighting “god rays,” which Bethesda added to FO4 with Nvidia’s help. Nvidia’s HBAO+ ambient occlusion technology enhances Vault 1080’s murky shadows, while Nvidia FleX powers the mod’s weapon debris. A fog-shrouded decrepit church attached to one of Fallout’s iconic vaults seems like an ideal setting to show off all those fancy features.
The mod won’t go live until PAX Prime kicks off on September 2. When it does, you’ll be able to download Vault 1080 on Bethesda’s website.
The impact on you at home: Sure, this is a pseudo-ad for Nvidia’s GameWorks tech. But it’s still a lengthy, atmospheric add-on for one of the best PC games of 2015, and Fallout 4 ($30 on Amazon) earned that status thanks to its robust mod support, appropriately enough. Take this as an opportunity to journey back into the Commonwealth, dip your toes into the fantastic Fallout 4 modding scene, and bask in some delicious eye candy—especially if you have an Nvidia graphics card.