Most video game mods add new content to an existing game, although some are certainly meant as parody or joke content. One newly-released mod for Fallout New Vegas, however, is somewhere in between. Simply titled, “DeepStyle Retexture,” the mod features a complete re-texture of the game after the game’s original textures were run through the DeepStyle neural network. The result? A surreal and distorted dreamscape.
Fallout New Vegas Mod: DeepStyle Retexture
The DeepStyle Retexture Fallout New Vegas mod recently became available on NexusMods; the work of a modder who goes by Jam2go. “This is a retexture for Fallout: New Vegas where the original textures have been run through the DeepStyle neural network,” they explain; “which transfers the styles of various paintings.”
DeepStyle is an open-source branch of DeepDream, a computer vision program developed by a Google engineer. DeepDream uses a complex neural network to; “find and enhance patterns in images via algorithmic pareidolia.” Put more simply, it gives images a strange, dream-like reworking. This particular mod was born by feeding a wide array of random source art into DeepStyle. After that, jam2go ran the Fallout New Vegas textures through the network. Not only that, but he also distorted the music and swapped around all of the game’s sound effects and dialogue; as if the visuals weren’t surreal enough. This latter effect was achieved via a script which is available here.
Jam2go subsequently showcased the mod in a 30 minute gameplay video, which shows just how bizarre everything has become. Exactly why you’d want to play the game like this more than once is unclear, but it’s certainly a unique experience. Jam2go gives his own playthrough a rather fitting lore explanation; the protagonist begins the game by being shot in the head, after all. As such, it’s no great leap to assume that the bizarre appearance is the result of brain damage.