How modders rebuilt Resident Evil 4’s graphics from scratch

Albert Marin took a very specific vacation. In Wales he visited Raglan Castle to take photos of its stone wall. At the Palau Güell in Barcelona, ​​he took meticulous photos, not of the building itself, but of the marble floor and its unique veins.

Its travels followed in the footsteps of Capcom, who put fragments of real-world architecture found across Europe in Resident Evil 4, which was originally released over 16 years ago. “I’ve gathered a lot of locations that the game developers are using as source material,” Marin said. The edge.

Fast forward to 2021, and Marin is now seven years into a project to remaster Resident Evil 4The blurry graphics of the GameCube era in crisp HD, in part using high-resolution photos he took of everything from surfaces and doors to the general architecture that seemed to have made their way into the original game . Even though Capcom released their own PC remaster in 2014, it wasn’t Marin’s idea of ​​a true HD version of the game, so he and a small team scoured the game’s files to faithfully update each. texture.

In some cases, they work with what Capcom has done before, improving image sharpness with a mix of standard apps and custom tools. Other times, Marin creates handcrafted textures based on high-resolution photos or images he has taken himself. If you own the Ultimate HD version of the game on Steam, you can actually test a running version of the texture pack right now. Finally, every rock, wall, button and dial will have been touched up by this small team of modders.

The fan-funded Resident Evil 4 HD Project is almost at the finish line and should be finished later in 2021. Marin says he’s amassed over 4,500 Photoshop files and worked over 9,000 hours (from him alone) to get there. point.

I spoke with Marin via email about his experience battling a project of this magnitude, balancing the expectations of fans who are equally passionate about the game, how the team was able to deconstruct the game files, and more.

How exactly do you remaster the visuals? Are you redrawing textures from scratch or do you have a specialized way to increase the resolution of the original without degrading the quality?

Most textures are recreated from scratch using some images from the texture library as a base. The original textures should be analyzed multiple times to ensure that the new source images match in terms of color, lighting, and even material.

For example, a rock texture: this might seem like an easy challenge, and it is, if you don’t have an original texture you have to be faithful. You can’t imagine how complicated it can be to find a rock surface that matches the original among the hundreds of different rock types that nature has to offer!

What types of applications and technologies are you using to achieve your goals with this project?

A talented modder and coder, “Son of Persia”, has helped us a lot: he has developed most of the tools I use to edit 3D models, lights, effects, collision data, and more. I found out how some files work, but needed to edit them manually in a hex editor. This means that a single effect / light would take hours to edit.

“Son of Persia” took all of my findings from these files and generated automated tools that would make it work. path Easier. And it also deciphered how the other files in the game work and what they do, and it also generated the tools to edit these types of files.

We also use Photoshop, 3ds Max, and dozens of custom tools provided by “Son of Persia” and other modders. These tools decompress and convert all files in the game into editable data (mostly understandable .txt files and 3D files that can be opened with most 3D editors). Once the data is edited, it can be repackaged again with the same tools. But I have to admit that sometimes I manually edit a few things in a hex editor.

Is it intimidating to make certain adjustments to a game that has such a passionate fan base, or are you confident in your changes?

We’re on the safe side because one of the main goals of this project is to be true to the original. And this is where subjectivity plays a big role: low resolution textures leave a lot to the imagination, and you know … every person’s imagination is different!

Sometimes we get complaints even when we are using the exact same texture but in HD resolutions because the low res textures looked dirtier or muddy or something like that. But the HD recreation looked too clean in comparison, based on what the person interpreted when viewing the surface in low resolution.

And then we have all the lighting and effects changes that I made. Most of them are well received, but I’m aware that my personal taste plays a role to some extent so I’m always open to comments and that’s why I post all of these comparison videos and pictures. .

I changed a parcel things because of the feedback we get!

What are the biggest and smallest changes your team has made RE4 during this project?

The biggest change by far is an entire area created from scratch in the Separate Ways minigame. The transition from one room to another made no sense. I combined the 3D structure of the connection areas and found that part of the path was missing.

The smallest changes are a little texture and a little 3D improvement made here and there. In fact, there are hundreds of little tweaks that I’m sure most people will never notice.

As an example, I remember some design changes in some ammo boxes. This PC port has an HD textures option. HD textures are 95% improved and filtered version of the original [GameCube] textures, but some textures are redone or slightly adjusted.

Image: Albert Marin

In the image (above) you can see how they changed the design of the TMP ammo box. The “J” and the wolf design on the side are different. So, while I was scaling this texture, I took the opportunity to restore the original design from previous versions of the game.

What were your favorite sections of the game to improve textures?

The castle district from afar, as I have used a lot of the photos that I myself have taken on my trips to Spain and Wales. It was really satisfying to identify and improve all these architectural surfaces!

Which section (s) of the game took the most work to remaster?

The island’s lab and factory areas are probably the most time consuming in terms of texture and 3D retouching, as there are tons of weird and fuzzy control panels, medical and military devices, and cables. Any small imprecision becomes really apparent, unlike the organic textures of the village or the old architectural surfaces of the castle.

Is your HD project strictly visual-oriented, or has there been work on the sound quality and other parts of the game?

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough sound knowledge to remaster the audio in the game. Although I fixed a few bugs, mostly related to bad sounds played at the wrong time or poor quality sounds during the Separate Ways campaign (shipped as part of the PS2 port and all ports after it).

I also fixed a few scene collision issues here and there.

Image: Albert Marin

You are currently accepting donations to help fund RE4 HD project, but do you plan to sell the finished project once it comes out?

No, it will be free. Modding and remastering this game is also a game for me.

How did you receive this project and who do you hope to reach with it?

It is beyond anything I had imagined. I guess some people, sites, and communities have spread its existence. But after all resident Evil has a huge fan base, so I guess it’s totally understandable that a few thousand of those fans are interested in the process of remastering one of the best games in history.

About our target audience, I would say, anyone who enjoys remasters for visual enjoyment; or play their favorite game you love without a hint of blur, or just people who like that kind of fan project but don’t like the game at all!

Because this project is more about the journey than the end result. After all, it can’t compete with any next-gen game in terms of graphics, no matter how crisp the textures or how round the models are.

Image: Albert Marin

Did you work in any capacity with Capcom (or any of its current or former employees) on this project?

No. We were in contact with them at the beginning. Someone at Capcom was interested in our project, and took the time to send a planning document, but I guess the other people at Capcom in Japan weren’t interested because the communication ended there. Other than that, there was no help doing the project.

Since Capcom recently released the RE3 redo, it is likely that a RE4 the remake is in development. Is your team worried that Capcom will end up stealing your thunder, so to speak, with an upgraded version of the game?

No, remakes are really different games. Even now the original Resident Evil 2 and 3 receive their own mods and visual enhancements (Resident Evil 2 and 3 HD Seamless Project) These are different and complementary experiences. Think of any Hollywood remake. Most of them don’t detract from the original film, and they’re alternate visions of the old title.