The modder tweaked the game's lighting engine to achieve the result.
A Dark Souls 2 fan Ganaboy released a graphics mod for the game that overhauls its lighting. It seems like they rewrote its lighting engine to achieve what some call "the best graphic mod for DS2."
Ganaboy added volumetric fog and updated lighting fall to Realistic, ambient occlusion algorithm to high-quality GTAO, and the shading model to a new technique for better shine.
The creator set up pre-configured presets for each zone, but the zones are detected based on the original lighting data from DS2.
This is an alpha version of the mod, so expect more awesome things to come. Meanwhile, download it from Nexus Mods and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.