Tarkov is about to look a lot better.
Escape From Tarkov is starting to show its age in the visual department but one simple change announced by Nikita is about to make it look a whole lot better.
In a post on X, game director Nikita Buyanov announced that fog on Escape From Tarkov maps will be reduced significantly in an upcoming update. This will likely make the game look a lot better and hopefully bring it to a more modern standard for visuals.
Almost every map in Escape From Tarkov has some level of fog in it, which is why in more open areas you struggle to see long distances. It can be easy to miss and after a few hours, you’ll certainly forget about it in most areas as it just becomes a part of the game. But it has given Tarkov a very specific look that is started to feel somewhat out dated.
When the fog is reduced you should be able to see further across each map and some of the dark and dingy areas of Tarkov should look a bit better. Some mods to Tarkov have removed the fog and when you see it for the first time the difference is shocking, although not necessarily better. With most maps designed with the fog in mind some textures on buildings look a bit strange with no fog, so they will likely need to be updated as well.
This will likely be the first stage of the visual rework that has been promised before Tarkov hits 1.0. In a recent interview with streamer Pestily, Buyanov said that the overhaul would be significant and would be tested before the final release. With a wipe expected soon, it will not be a surprise to see a lot of visual changes in the patch notes as the first parts of this overhaul start to appear.
There is also hope that removing fog could improve the overall performance of the game, which hasn’t been great for a while now. Tarkov has almost always required a fairly beefy PC to run smoothly and recent updates have only increased that requirement. With fog typically being fairly difficult for GPUs to render, there is some hope from fans that the fog reduction will improve performance on all maps.
We will likely have to wait for the next TarkovTV stream to get the full details of what the visual update will include, but the stream was initially set for this month so we might not have too long to wait.