Realistic Ballistics – Advanced Projectile Simulation V1.0

Realistic Ballistics replaces Red Dead Redemption 2’s instantaneous firearm hits with fully simulated physical projectiles.

Every projectile carries its velocity, energy, stability, deformation state and complete physical history through the world.
Its trajectory and terminal behaviour are continuously resolved by a high-fidelity ballistic simulation modelling gravity, aerodynamic drag, atmospheric density, temperature, humidity, altitude, precipitation, wind, velocity decay, yaw and stability loss. Every impact is then processed by a custom material solver that reconstructs the ballistic properties, thickness and local geometry of the struck surface to analytically resolve penetration, deflection, ricochet, deformation, retained mass and residual energy, while a data-driven anatomical reconstruction system calculates the projectile’s exact path through biological bodies, continuously integrates the resistance and energy deposition encountered along that path, and determines retained velocity, evolving deformation, exit behaviour, secondary penetration and resulting terminal effects in real time,
with absolutely ZERO noticeable performance impact.

Realistic Ballistics follows RDR2’s existing naming and presentation. Weapons and ammunition keep familiar names such as Semi Auto Pistol, Mauser Pistol, Regular and High Velocity instead of being replaced with exact historical designations.

Each firearm is still modelled after its original historical counterpart. The Cattleman follows the Colt Single Action Army, the Lancaster follows the Winchester Model 1866 and the Mauser Pistol follows the Mauser C96.

Not every historical counterpart has equally complete or consistent ballistic documentation. Where surviving records are incomplete, I use the most plausible values I can establish from period cartridge specifications, projectile designs, powder charges, barrel lengths and documented performance, then apply only very light tuning where necessary to keep the complete arsenal coherent in gameplay.

The Navy Revolver is a good example. Period .36 Navy ammunition used both an approximately 80 grain round ball and a documented 140 grain conical projectile over the same nominal 20 grain powder charge. Realistic Ballistics uses the heavier conical projectile as its Regular baseline because it gives the weapon the momentum, penetration and retained performance expected from that ammunition without turning it into a full cartridge revolver. Its exact period muzzle velocity is not consistently documented, so the mod uses a conservative, carefully researched estimate of 225 m/s (738 ft/s) for the Navy Revolver.

THE CORE SIMULATION

◆ TRUE PROJECTILE FLIGHT
Projectiles inherit the velocity of Arthur, an NPC, a horse, a wagon or another firing platform. Gravity, aerodynamic drag, wind, altitude, temperature, humidity, rain and snow influence their trajectory. Supersonic, transonic and subsonic flight do not behave identically.

Slow cartridges show visible travel time and increasingly curved trajectories. Fast rifle rounds fly flatter, retain velocity better and give moving targets less time to escape the shot.

◆ ONE CONTINUOUS PHYSICAL HISTORY
Mass, velocity, energy, spin, yaw, deformation and stability persist after every collision. A damaged projectile can become unstable, generate more drag and reach its next target in a different physical condition.

◆ MATERIALS, DEPTH AND PENETRATION
Wood, glass, cloth, vegetation, metal, stone, terrain, vehicles and water do not behave as interchangeable surfaces.

The simulation resolves local material depth, impact angle and layered structures. Projectile construction, sectional density, velocity, deformation, material condition and effective thickness determine whether the bullet stops, penetrates, ricochets or fragments.

Bottles, glass, ropes, locks and supported breakable vehicle elements respond to the actual projectile path.

◆ LIVE ANATOMICAL COLLISION
Humans and animals are resolved through a data based custom live pose aware anatomical geometry system.

The exact path through clothing, flesh and harder anatomy determines the internal distance travelled, energy lost, possible deflection and whether the bullet stops or exits.

◆ PENETRATION IS NOT DAMAGE
Penetration describes whether the projectile can continue. Damage depends on how much energy it deposits along the wound path.

A fast penetrator may pass completely through a target while retaining much of its energy. A slower expanding or unstable projectile may penetrate less deeply while transferring more energy into the first target.

◆ RICOCHETS, WATER AND FRAGMENTS
Shallow impacts against hard materials can produce physical ricochets with retained velocity, altered spin and a new trajectory.

Water can be entered, skipped from, travelled through or exited again depending on angle, velocity, projectile construction and stability. Extreme impacts can produce a limited number of independently simulated fragments.

◆ PHYSICAL PROJECTILE COLLISIONS
Bullets, shotgun pellets, birdshot carriers and fragments can collide during flight. Relative energy, direction and impact angle determine whether they deflect, fragment or destroy one another.

These collisions are extremely rare during normal play. Controlled slow motion scenarios are available through the dashboard.

WEAPONS, AMMUNITION AND ECONOMY

Revolvers, pistols, repeaters, rifles, sniper rifles, the Varmint Rifle, the Elephant Rifle, all shotguns, Gatling guns and Maxim guns are fully integrated.

The goal is not to make every gun equally powerful.

A Volcanic Pistol and a Carcano Rifle are not cosmetic variations of the same weapon. Their historical advantages and limitations remain visible in velocity, trajectory, recoil, cycle time, precision, energy and penetration.

◆ COMPONENTS HAVE PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES
Barrel length changes muzzle velocity and handling. Rifling stabilises applicable projectiles. Improved sights affect precision and settlement. Scopes affect visibility rather than making a weapon perfectly accurate.

◆ CONDITION AND CARTRIDGE VARIATION
Weapon condition affects consistency, settlement and a small amount of ballistic performance. Individual cartridges also carry subtle physical variation of approximately ±1% muzzle energy.

◆ A REBUILT ECONOMY
Weapons and ammunition have been individually repriced around performance, construction, rarity and intended role.

Weapon capacities have been corrected where appropriate. Reserve ammunition limits and equipment upgrades have been rebalanced so the player cannot carry excessive amounts of ammunition.

Regular ammunition remains the cheapest and most plentiful option. Split Point can be purchased or crafted ten rounds at a time from ten Regular cartridges. Birdshot is sold by gunsmiths and general stores. Explosive ammunition remains a limited specialist load.

Every ammunition type is a physical tradeoff, not a simple damage upgrade.

THE VANILLA WEAPON UI, REBUILT

Realistic Ballistics replaces the abstract vanilla stat presentation with detailed custom panels designed to look native to RDR2.

◆ WEAPON WHEEL PANEL
The highlighted firearm receives a compact live profile with physical ballistic and handling values. Ammunition, condition and installed components update immediately, while every bar remains comparable across the complete supported arsenal.

◆ CUSTOM CATALOGUE PANELS
Catalogue gun entries receive custom panels showing the data for pristine stock firearms with Regular ammunition for direct comparison before purchase.

◆ GUNSMITH INSPECTION AND CUSTOMIZATION
The individual gunsmith weapon view receives its own live physical profile. During customization, hovering barrel length, rifling, sight and scope options updates the panel immediately from the actual firearm displayed on the counter, allowing every component change to be evaluated before purchase.

DEAD EYE, REBUILT FOR PHYSICAL BULLETS

Vanilla Dead Eye assumes that a marked shot arrives immediately. Physical bullets do not, so Realistic Ballistics solves a live intercept for every marked discharge.

The calculation accounts for:

The exact marked anatomical region and real muzzle position
The selected weapon, ammunition and predicted flight time
Gravity, aerodynamic drag and wind
Arthur’s movement and inherited horse, wagon or vehicle velocity
The target’s current motion and movement state

Faster ammunition reaches the intercept sooner. Slower rounds require more lead and give the target more time to change direction.

Dead Eye predicts the shot. The projectile receives no guidance after leaving the muzzle and can still miss.

ACCURACY AND FIREARM HANDLING

The custom accuracy ring represents the physical cone in which the projectile can leave the muzzle.

Accuracy continuously responds to the firearm, ammunition, stance, movement, recoil, camera motion, weapon condition, components, action type, dual wielding and horseback instability.

Lever, bolt, pump and hammer operation disturb the weapon and require time to settle again. Recoil affects the next shot rather than disappearing the moment the firing animation ends. Scoped rifles retain a small physical dispersion instead of becoming perfect mathematical lines.

Holding T while aiming gradually enters Precision Focus, providing weapon and scope size specific magnification and slightly improved settlement. The benefit is weaker while moving or mounted and doesn’t affect recoil or physical shotgun pellet spread.

A subtle muzzle indicator warns when the camera can see a target but the real barrel is obstructed by nearby cover, a vehicle, an animal or another person.

SHOTGUNS AND HUNTING

Buckshot fires nine independently simulated pellets. Every pellet has its own flight, collision, energy, wound path and terminal result.

Birdshot replaces the vanilla incendiary buckshot slot with a physical No. 4 birdshot load representing 135 pellets. It complements the Varmint Rifle when hunting birds and small animals.

A suitable pellet concentration can preserve carcass quality. Too few pellets may fail to produce a clean kill, while excessive pellet damage can ruin the animal. The Varmint Rifle remains the more precise option when careful placement matters.

Slugs use one heavy physical projectile with dedicated velocity, recoil, drag and penetration.

Explosive shells use physical slug flight and direct impact before producing the explosion.

Shotgun spread is physical, visible through the accuracy system and different for every shotgun and barrel configuration.

THE SIMULATION IS NOT RESERVED FOR THE PLAYER

NPCs use the exact same projectile system as the player.

Their shots are shaped by weapon type, personal skill, visibility, movement, recoil, settlement, suppression, darkness, fog, wind and imperfect target prediction.

They can miss naturally, lead moving targets imperfectly, fire from horseback, penetrate cover, ricochet and strike unintended scenery, animals or people. A missed shot does not disappear because it failed its original aim. It remains active until the projectile physically terminates.

Accidental discharges produced while NPCs fall, ragdoll or die are retained.

Gatling and Maxim guns are fully supported for player and NPC operators with physical cartridges, mechanical cadence and heat dependent dispersion.

A shady nighttime dealer west of Saint Denis also makes a player owned Maxim wagon available in free roam without cheats.

LIVE DASHBOARD & BALLISTICS ASSISTANT

Press F8 to open the dashboard. It allows you to view current ballistic conditions and change session settings without editing the INI.

The Ballistics Reference Table lets you browse every weapon, component and ammunition configuration and compare their exact values.

The Last Shot Inspector records and reconstructs the complete physical history of the latest player shot, including impacts, penetration, deposited energy, deflection and the final reason the projectile stopped.

Player and NPC trajectories can be visualised, while controlled projectile collision scenarios can be reproduced in slow motion.

An optional experimental Bullet Camera follows the exact physical projectile until it terminates. Press Space to return to Arthur.
Become the bullet.

Press F2 to enable the Ballistics Assistant.
It will then automatically be active during precision focus mode.
It displays range, predicted flight time, drop, wind drift, impact energy and dispersion.
There are 2 modes: Basic and Full. Basic provides you with the information needed to figure out where to aim to hit the target at the intended point.
Full mode also evaluates target motion and the predicted anatomical path of the current solution. It does not aim the weapon or fire for you, but shows where the projectile is currently predicted to pass relative to the target.

The intention of this feature is to provide the player with the tools needed to learn and understand the system as it is significantly harder to consistently hit your shots compared to the vanilla system, especially over distance.

CONFIGURATION

Realistic Ballistics works immediately with carefully calibrated defaults. Configuration is optional.

Dashboard changes apply to the current session. Persistent preferences are stored in the generated INI file.

PUBLIC CONFIGURATION CATEGORIES

General
Enable or disable the mod
NPC physical ballistics

Controls
Dashboard key
Ballistics Assistant key

Ballistics
Global muzzle velocity
Wind
Wind strength
Gravity
Air resistance
Ricochets
Penetration
Water ballistics
Rotational ballistics

Damage
Global damage
Damage to the player
Damage to NPCs
Damage to animals
Damage to the player’s horse

Accuracy
Recoil
Movement penalties
Mounted penalties
Precision Focus sensitivity reduction
NPC dispersion
Controller ballistic aim assistance

Visuals
Physical projectile models
Projectile glow
Projectile aura
Accuracy ring
Muzzle indicator
Projectile-collision effects
Spent physical projectiles

Trajectory display
Master toggle
Player projectiles
NPC projectiles
Shotgun pellets
Birdshot carriers
Fragments
Sample interval
Point lifetime
Maximum displayed points

Dashboard
Automatic or text-only background
Screen-corner anchor
Horizontal offset
Vertical offset

Experimental
Default Bullet Camera state

Weapon muzzle velocity
Individual Regular-ammunition baselines for every supported handheld firearm
Dedicated Gatling and Maxim muzzle velocities

Logging
Off
Basic
Advanced

REQUIREMENTS AND OPTIONAL ASSETS

Required

ScriptHookRDR2
Lenny’s Mod Loader

Optional additional weapons

LITE Multiplayer Asset Enabler

LITE is only required for access to the Navy Revolver, LeMat Revolver, Elephant Rifle and custom revolvers that use multiplayer assets. They are all supported.

INSTALLATION

Install the listed requirements.
Download and unzip the current Realistic Ballistics main file.
Move the supplied files into the RDR2 game folder while preserving the folder structure.

The configuration and log files are created automatically when the game launches.

Updating

Replace the old mod files with the new version. Check the update notes before keeping an older INI, as default values may change between major versions.

Uninstalling

Remove the Realistic Ballistics ASI and its corresponding Lenny’s Mod Loader folder. The generated INI and log can also be removed.

COMPATIBILITY

Story Mode and missions

Story Mode only. Red Dead Online and RedM are not supported.

Realistic Ballistics is designed for Story Mode and remains active during free roam and missions. No confirmed mission-specific incompatibilities are currently known.
If any are found I will do my best to fix them as fast as humanly possible.

PDO Reloaded

PDO Reloaded is strongly recommended, but its default firearm damage multipliers are not calibrated for Realistic Ballistics and can reduce the final damage calculated by the physical wound solver.

Use the supplied Realistic Ballistics PDO compatibility INI, which restores supported firearms and all Realistic Ballistics proxy weapon entries to 100% damage delivery.

The Chicago Typewriter — Tommygun

I already have a working merge of following mods working internally as one patch:

The Chicago Typewriter — Tommygun
Tommy Gun Tweaks
Tommy Gun Audio Overhaul – LeBakou

The .asi of this mod (v1.0.1+) will automatically recognize if you have the merge installed and correctly replace the Springfield rifle internally.
I am currently waiting for permission by all 3 authors to publish the merge.

Weapon YMT replacements

Any mod that replaces one or more of the following files is incompatible:

weapon_pistol_m1899.ymt
weapon_repeater_evans.ymt
weapon_revolver_doubleaction_gambler.ymt
weapon_revolver_lemat.ymt
weapon_revolver_navy.ymt
weapon_rifle_elephant.ymt
weapons.ymt
catalog_sp.ymt

Realistic Ballistics depends on heavily modified versions of these files. Compatibility requires a deliberate merge built around the Realistic Ballistics versions; ordinary load order cannot combine two replacements.

Load order does not make two replacements compatible. Whichever file loads last simply replaces the other one.

Visual, audio, clothing, world and unrelated script mods are generally compatible.

Left under the vanilla system

Bows, thrown weapons, melee weapons, tools, lassos, cannons, detached weapon fire and unsupported custom firearms remain vanilla.

HOW THIS COMPARES

Other firearm overhauls pursue different goals. 1899 Firearms focuses on historical weapon identities, exact cartridges and altered inventory rules. Munitions builds a much larger arsenal through an extensive collection of additional mandatory weapon mods. 1899 Ballistics also introduces physical projectile flight, but with a considerably smaller and more experimental simulation.

Realistic Ballistics operates at a fundamentally greater level of technical depth. It continuously simulates every projectile through external ballistics, materials, water, live anatomical geometry, penetration, energy transfer, ricochets, deformation, fragmentation and subsequent impacts. The same unified system supports the player, NPCs, shotguns, Dead Eye and mounted weapons.

This depth does not come at the cost of accessibility. The core mod requires only ScriptHookRDR2 and Lenny’s Mod Loader, installs as one cohesive package and preserves RDR2’s familiar weapon names, ammunition structure, interface and overall design.

The alternatives have also seen limited recent development. At the time of release, 1899 Firearms has not been updated since April 2023, 1899 Ballistics since March 2025 and Munitions since July 2025.

So this mod offers: Much more advanced simulation. Minimal prerequisites. Native integration. Deeper gunplay.

RECOMMENDED MODS

PDO Reloaded Dying states, injury reactions, bleeding and a much deeper combat aftermath.
Banks of the West My other mod. Functional banks, complete bank robberies and a broader money consequence system.
Smoking Complete One of the best additions for grounded everyday immersion.
Disable Horse Holstering Keeps weapon management from fighting the player during mounted travel.
LAW A stronger and more believable law response alongside the deadlier firearm system.
Ambient Gang More armed encounters and activity across the world.

TROUBLESHOOTING AND BUG REPORTS

Before reporting a problem

Confirm that ScriptHookRDR2 and Lenny’s Mod Loader are current.
Confirm that no other mod replaces the listed weapon or catalogue YMT files.
Use the supplied files without renaming or flattening their folder structure.
Test with the default INI when the issue may be configuration related.

How to report a bug properly

Set logging to Basic or Advanced and reproduce the issue.
Attach the complete Realistic Ballistics log file.
State the weapon, ammunition, components, shooter and target.
Describe the approximate range, surface, location or mission and what happened immediately before the issue.
List other combat, weapon, ammunition and YMT mods.

Include the complete log and reliable reproduction steps. Reports without either are usually impossible to investigate.

KNOWN ISSUES

When you first equip a longarm and then equip a sidearm such that your character is still holding the longarm in the left hand: Theres a chance that the sidearm shoots longarm ammunition for as long as the longarm is held in the second hand. Will fix in 1.1
UI issues around the catalogue. Will fix in 1.1
Ultrawide resolutions make the UI look wonky. Will fix in 1.1
Theres a bug with shotgun collisions with material on short distances. Biological targets work as intended but pellets seem to pass through objects at short distances in certain situations. Will fix in 1.1

Credits:

tripleXdemN