Driving through Night City during a downpour could become a much more atmospheric experience in Cyberpunk 2077. A new PC mod called Torrent changes how rain interacts with vehicles, artificial lighting and the urban environment.
Created by modder CyanideX, Torrent replaces conventional rain effects with individual three-dimensional droplets. Moreover, it adds lightning and realistic water spray from moving vehicles.
The community-made project debuted on November 8, 2026, and has already surpassed 22,000 unique downloads. Its latest version, 1.3.0, arrived on November 11.
Cyberpunk 2077 gets rain that reacts to its surroundings
Night City’s neon-lit streets give Cyberpunk 2077 a striking setting for a different approach to weather effects. Instead of displaying rain through flat layers of streaks, Torrent introduces individual raindrops with actual depth.
These droplets appear immediately in front of the camera and extend beyond 100 meters. Additionally, their size influences how quickly they fall.
Perhaps the most interesting improvement concerns artificial lighting. Street lamps, neon signs and vehicle headlights illuminate nearby droplets, while rain remains dark in poorly lit areas.
According to the official Torrent mod page on Nexus Mods, the project also considers movement, wind and environmental shelter.
As a result, standing beneath a roof offers protection from falling rain. However, strong winds can still carry droplets underneath exposed edges.
Driving through Night City becomes a more atmospheric experience
Vehicles are another important part of this weather overhaul. At higher speeds, droplets rush towards the windshield, while changing winds influence their direction.
Furthermore, tyres travelling across wet roads generate droplets, fine spray and lingering mist. This effect also applies to the six nearest moving vehicles.
These additions could be particularly appealing to players who enjoy exploring Night City without following a specific mission.
The main features of Torrent include:
- Three-dimensional rainfall: individual droplets with different sizes, speeds and distances.
- Environmental lighting: rain responds to neon signs, street lamps and vehicle headlights.
- Dynamic wind: gusts influence the movement and direction of falling water.
- Environmental shelter: buildings and roofs provide protection against rainfall.
- Surface splashes: droplets create visible impacts on streets and rooftops.
- Realistic tyre spray: moving vehicles produce water droplets and trails of mist.
- Atmospheric haze: heavy rain builds a haze in the distance.
- Time integration: rainfall reacts to slow motion and stops when gameplay is paused.
Lightning and thunder make Cyberpunk 2077 storms more convincing
Torrent goes beyond ordinary rainfall. Combined with Nova City 2, it introduces storm conditions featuring drifting mist, wind-driven spray and lightning.
Lightning appears as branching bolts several kilometers away. Each strike flickers before disappearing, while multiple strikes can occasionally occur in quick succession.
Players can adjust lightning frequency on a scale from one to ten. By default, this setting is configured at three.
Meanwhile, installing AudioXL enables directional thunder with a distance-based delay. Its sound also becomes muffled when the player is inside a vehicle.
There is even an option to assign a key for manually triggering lightning during rainy weather.
Importantly, CyanideX warns that these effects produce bright flashes. The Reduce Flashes setting lowers brightness, replaces flickering with a single slow glow and halves the number of strikes.
Alternatively, players can disable lightning entirely.
Torrent offers several ways to balance visuals and performance
More elaborate weather effects naturally raise questions about performance. However, CyanideX reports relatively modest rendering costs for this overhaul.
According to the creator, heavy rainfall on Ultra settings adds approximately 0.15 to 0.5 milliseconds per frame. Tyre spray can reach around 0.4 milliseconds.
Additionally, the mod avoids running simulations on the CPU. Its performance impact is described as negligible when rain is absent.
Through Mod Settings, players can choose between Low, Medium, High and Ultra quality presets. Rain intensity, visibility, storm mist and lightning are also configurable.
Three shelter modes are available as well: Simple, Auto and Full. These options control how rainfall behaves around covered areas.
This flexibility helps players balance atmosphere and performance in Cyberpunk 2077.
Installing Torrent on PC requires several additional mods
Torrent is an unofficial community project rather than a weather update developed by CD Projekt RED.
Installing it in Cyberpunk 2077 requires several dependencies. Other modifications remain optional, depending on which weather features players want to activate.
- RED4ext: mandatory dependency.
- redscript: mandatory dependency.
- Codeware: mandatory dependency.
- Mod Settings: optional, enables customization through the settings menu.
- Nova City 2: optional, provides rainy weather conditions, storm mist and storm lightning.
- AudioXL: optional, enables thunder effects.
Installation is possible through Vortex or MO2. Alternatively, players can place the mod archive directly into the game directory.
Another advantage is that Torrent does not store information in save files. Consequently, players can install or remove it at any point.
If the modification encounters a failure, the original rainfall system returns.
Meanwhile, CD Projekt RED has made headlines with Geralt’s AI-assisted voice restoration. The Witcher 4 is also the subject of recent release window rumors.
For Cyberpunk 2077 players, however, Torrent offers a different reason to revisit familiar locations. Sometimes, changing how a city feels is just as interesting as changing how it looks.
A Fortnite player since the very first storm: I jump off the Battle Bus with a plan (that rarely survives the landing), build faster than I think and never miss a live event on the island. Here I bring you every new season, collab and secret before the storm closes in.
