We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

DarkD3 mod darkens and sharpens, but should you be banned for tweaking Diablo 3’s visuals?

darkd3mod

No, say Blizzard. Players are unlikely to be banned for using the popular graphics-tweaking mod DarkD3, Blizzard game director Jay Wilson confirmed on Twitter. The ambience-enhancing mod runs alongside your Diablo 3 executable, dipping its binary fingers into the game’s code to tweak visuals on the fly. It darkens and it sharpens, desaturating the original colour palette to produce a more sinister and ‘mature’ looking game – because some people hate rainbows. And it seems that, for now, Blizzard don’t mind. Fill your boots! With grit.

The terms of service to which all users agree prohibits the use of any sort of game altering mods (of which DarkD3 is inarguably one) but that rule is in placeto combat and ban cheaters rather than punish those averse to primary colours, says Wilson. “I agree DarkD3 is not a cheat… yet,” continues Blizzard’s game director. “As long as it is not a cheat, no ban is likely.”

Of course, that’s anything but a cast-iron assurance that the fickle Blizzard hivemind won’t one day decide to stamp out this seemingly innocuous, yet crucially ToS-breaking mod. They would be within their over-extended rights to do just that, and it would be a simple matter too. Diablo 3’s always-online DRM grants Blizzard opportunity to peer over your virtual shoulder to ensure you haven’t modded the game code to turn the game’s goatmen into swaggering 3D penises. Afatal blowto themodding scene that can never be.
For the time being though, Blizzard don’t seem to mind you tinkering with their design choices using DarkD3. The mod’s website is snappy too, offering a neat preview of the range of visual tweaks available, before letting you download the exactly code you need. Even if you’d rather not run the risk of upsetting Mother Blizzard, you can play about with the settings on offer. What’s a grubbier dungeon worth to you?