This Cyberpunk 2077 graphics overhaul has managed to get me hyped for Project Orion

Project Orion, a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, is in development, but it’s a game that I try not to think about too often.

That’s largely due to the fact that its arrival is a long way off, and I’m trying to save myself some of the impatience I’ve experienced with the likes of Grand Theft Auto VI and The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel.

CD Projekt RED is hard at work developing The Witcher IV, which is due out in 2028. Project Orion is not set to become the studio’s main focus until following The Witcher IV’s launch.

Given the fact that developers won’t want to rush Project Orion and repeat Cyberpunk 2077’s mistakes, it places the game as potentially arriving in the mid 2030s.

You’re perhaps seeing my logic now for almost pretending the project doesn’t exist, but it was recently brought to the forefront of my attention thanks to an awesome new mod.

‘Atmos 2077’ is an incredible new graphical overhaul mod for Cyberpunk 2077 with results so impressive that I immediately started pondering what Project Orion might look like.

The mod has been dubbed ‘one of the best’ by Cyberpunk 2077 players

robindubronx via NexusMods

Created by NexusMods user robindubronx, ‘Atmos 2077’ is a very comprehensive offering, introducing new volumetric clouds to Cyberpunk 2077, as well as new rain and thunderstorm effects, including dynamic raindrops on your car’s windshield.

You should also expect rainbows, ballistic missile trails in the sky, and more. As you’ve likely gathered, it’s a weather-based mod, but one that hugely boosts the immersive experience of navigating Night City.

That’s no easy feat to pull off because Night City is arguably one of gaming’s most immersive open worlds anyway, but ‘Atmos 2077’ just manages to refine what it offers perfectly.

“Night City runs on neon, chrome, and rain. In the vanilla game, the rain is a flat curtain of streaks under a painted sky,” begins the mod’s creator.

“Atmos 2077 rewires the whole atmosphere: volumetric clouds you can read like a weather map, real rain that lands, glass that holds water, storms that light up from inside, and rainbows when the sun cuts back through.”

Everything within the mod is drawn inside the game’s own renderer via REDgraph, so no ReShade or overlay was used.

The mod’s storms are incredibly cozy, if that’s not a weird thing to say. There’s something quite mesmerising about driving Night City’s streets amid a biblical storm.

You can read a full breakdown of the mod’s features over on its NexusMods listing - and it goes without saying that you need to be a PC user to get this mod running.

Cyberpunk 2077 does have mod support on consoles, but this looks to be a PC-only offering for now.

READ MORE: Cyberpunk 2077 sequel appears to confirm addition of multiplayer

Plenty of fellow players are impressed with the offering, besides myself.

“AMAZING mod! The atmosphere is insane,” reads one comment.

“Appreciate the work, one of the best graphics overhaul mods for sure,” added another.

Need we say more?