So, you’ve probably spent the last few hours cracking a whip and punching Nazis in the face. It’s fun. MachineGames really nailed the vibe. But if you’re playing on PC, there’s this nagging feeling that the game could give you just a little bit more. Maybe you want it to look more like a 1930s film reel, or maybe your frame rate is chugging like an old biplane in a sandstorm.
That’s where the community comes in. Honestly, the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle mods scene started moving before the game was even technically "out" for everyone. People were digging into the files during the early access period, trying to figure out how to bypass the VRAM limits and get Indy into a proper third-person view.
It’s not quite Skyrim levels of "I can turn the dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine" yet. Not even close. But if you want to fix the annoyances or make the graphics look like a Technicolor dream, you’ve got options.
The Performance Fixes Nobody Tells You About
Let's be real: this game is a hog. It eats VRAM for breakfast. If you’re rocking an 8GB card, you’ve likely seen those blurry textures that look like they were smeared with Vaseline. It's frustrating.
Basically, the game uses a "Texture Pool" system that is incredibly aggressive. If it thinks you’re running out of memory, it just gives up on loading high-res assets. You’ll find mods on Nexus like Optimization Essentials or simple config tweaks that force the game to handle its memory better.
One of the most popular "mods" isn't even a file you download—it’s a console command. By hitting the tilde key (~) and messing with r_lodscale, you can actually stop the aggressive pop-in that happens when you're running through the markets of Giza. A lot of the early performance mods are just automated scripts that do this for you so you don't have to type it in every time you launch the game.
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The "Real" Third Person Mod (Kinda)
This is the big one. Everyone wants to see the fedora. MachineGames made a very specific choice to keep the game in first-person to make it feel "intimate," but let’s face it, we want to see Indy’s leather jacket in action.
Right now, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle mods for third-person are a bit of a mixed bag. Because the game wasn't built for it, the animations can look a little... janky. Like, Indy’s legs might move a bit weird when he’s turning around.
The most successful implementation so far comes from the Otis_Inf Photomode Mod. While it’s technically for taking cool screenshots, it has a "free-cam" and "player head" toggle. You can essentially pin the camera behind Indy’s shoulder. It’s not a perfect "press V to switch" gameplay mechanic like in Starfield, but it’s the closest we have to playing the whole game like a traditional action-adventure title.
Why people are obsessed with the Reshades
The game looks great, sure. But it looks "modern" great. Some players think it’s a bit too clean. If you head over to the Reshade forums, you'll find "Raiders" presets.
These mods do a few specific things:
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- They crank up the film grain (subtly, not like a broken TV).
- They shift the color palette to those warm, dusty oranges and deep blues from the 80s movies.
- They add a slight vignette to the edges of the screen.
It sounds simple, but playing through the Vatican levels with a 1981 film filter makes a massive difference in how the game feels. It stops being a "video game" and starts feeling like a lost VHS tape.
The VR Mod: For the Truly Brave
If you have a VR headset and a stomach made of iron, the LukeRoss REAL VR Mod is already out there. MachineGames uses the id Tech engine (specifically a modified version for The Great Circle), which LukeRoss is basically a wizard at modding.
Is it official? No. Is it buggy? Sometimes. But swinging across a chasm using your actual arms (well, your motion controllers) is something else. Just a heads up: the "forced" third-person segments like climbing can be a bit dizzying in VR. You’ve been warned.
How to Actually Install This Stuff
Most of these mods live on Nexus Mods. If you’ve never modded a Bethesda-published game before, it’s pretty straightforward.
- Locate your install folder: Usually under SteamApps or the Xbox App’s "Content" folder.
- The Config Path: A lot of the performance tweaks happen in
C:\Users\[You]\Saved Games\MachineGames\TheGreatCircle. - The +r_allowBlackListedLayers 1 Trick: If you’re using Reshade or any tool that hooks into the graphics, you often need to add this to your Steam launch options. Without it, the game’s security layers might just block the mod from loading.
What’s next for the modding scene?
We’re still in the early days. Usually, it takes a few months for the "script extenders" to get really stable. Once that happens, we’ll start seeing the "Game Overhaul" mods. I’m talking about mods that make the stealth more forgiving or allow you to use the revolver more often without alerting every Nazi within a five-mile radius.
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The AI is another area people are looking at. Right now, the guards are either geniuses or total idiots. Modders are already looking into the behavior trees to see if they can find a middle ground where the stealth feels a bit more like Splinter Cell and less like a coin toss.
If you’re looking to get started right now, the best move is to grab an Optimization Preset and a Raiders Reshade. It fixes the biggest issues—performance and "modern" looks—without breaking the game's core feel. Just keep an eye on your VRAM; that's the one thing no mod can truly fix if your hardware isn't up to the task.
Start with the performance tweaks first. There's no point in a fancy third-person camera if the game is running at 15 frames per second. Once you've got it stable, then go for the visual flair.
You'll find that once the film grain is just right and the textures are actually loading, the game becomes a lot harder to put down. Just don't blame me when you've spent four hours trying to get the perfect shade of "desert tan" for your Reshade instead of actually finding the artifacts.