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Resident Evil 4 HD Project - Progress Thread

I can assure you that the mod won't look just like the Ultimate HD edition. I've played it on PC, and the mod looks miles better (it's really in a league of its own)

He means the upcoming PS4 version will look just like the standard UHD edition, not this mod.

It would be nice if Capcom paid them for their work and shared the mod with PS4/One owners, but as others have pointed out that would probably be too complicated for Capcom to be interested. Fans are free to pull whatever resources they want from the internet for a mod, but a company selling a product has to be more careful about permissions. I wonder if it would cut some of the red tape to offer it as free, optional DLC without ever technically including it with the purchased product.
 
Awesome work! O:
This might be a dumb question...but how exactly does the HD texture restauration process work? Especially here...

010701.jpg


...the original texture of the lion is so pixelated that it almost unrecognizable. How do you get from that to the restaurated texture which is so clear and sharp?

Edit: Read more about it in the opening post. But it still seems crazy to me how it is even possible to find the exact same lion sculpture to retexture the statue. This must be like finding a needle in a haystack.
 
Awesome work! O:
This might be a dumb question...but how exactly does the HD texture restauration process work?

I'm sure Cris or Albert will explain it better, but if I understand your question, "restoration" doesn't mean that they're literally enhancing the original texture. It means that they've found the real-life sources for these objects and usually have used high-res photos as a basis for a completely new texture, just as Capcom originally used photos of architecture from Spain to create the textures in the original.

When they say "recreation," that means they're redrawing the texture themselves from scratch without using real-life assets. Either way, they're not using or enhancing the original textures files in any way, they're completely replacing them. I'm sure they look at the original texture files as a reference to be sure they're staying faithful, but that's it.
 
I know what you're saying, but I think it's a non-issue, and it's certainly not comparable with the N64 packs you're relating to. They've done a great job of altering the geometry so that it's not simple Gamecube era shapes. Some of their work is genuinely better modeled than RE6's often weak assets were. Ambient occlusion would be nice, sure, but they've often baked in better lighting or shadowing and it looks pretty incredible.

An OoT texture pack this ain't. I still can't believe they modeled every wine bottle:


I'm starting to wonder if Capcom themselves are eager to play through with this mod. I would hope they'd be touched to see what their fans have done for the game. If they had the time and resources, I'm sure they'd have loved to do a real remaster like this.

I regret that line about OoT texture packs, it was meant to serve as reference for the balance between textures vs. geometry I was talking about. I'm not saying it looks bad - I think it looks amazing, and the subtle geometry tweaks they're doing are great. Trust me, I've been following this thread since it was created, and I'm the biggest proponent for what the team is doing and their respect of the game's original textures and intended look. I'm in the Dolphin thread calling out shitty SSAO injection on GC/Wii era games, so I'd be a terrible hypocrite if I thought this mod looked bad :P
 
I'm starting to wonder if Capcom themselves are eager to play through with this mod. I would hope they'd be touched to see what their fans have done for the game. If they had the time and resources, I'm sure they'd have loved to do a real remaster like this.
Pretty sure a few pages back Al said that he was actually in contact with capcom but that he couldn't talk about it yet.
 
To clarify and manage expectations, the last time we heard from Capcom was over a year ago. :-/ There isn't a story that we are keeping quiet on or sitting on.

Ahh thanks for clearing that up then, I would be stunned if Capcom doesn't at least give you guys a shout out at the end of all this for the heart and soul you've poured into this project. If i was on the original dev team I would be beyond flattered with the dedication and hard work you guys have put in.

Either way, thanks again for doing this Cris, Albert, you guys are just as legendary as the true creators of the game in my book.
 
While we wait for the next update, I wanted to share something from another thread. It's a pretty effective SweetFX mod to correct the white point/ contrast issues in the game and restore the original visual quality.

Here's an example of the problem:
Dolphin screen
UHD screen

UHD is extremely muted with the white point ending up in the grays, and the fire is especially terrible looking.

This SweetFX mod delivers this result:
Wii in Dolphin:
27933415244_d66b136a4f_o.png

UHD+this mod:
28472447321_6aab44b599_o.png

UHD default:
28266335580_7427afa2b6_o.jpg

It's not perfect- it's a little greenish and the blacks are crushing- but it's a world of improvement over the default visuals, which for whatever reason are very weak in the UHD edition. I've never used SweetFX, but hopefully there's room to get even closer to the original visuals.

I think this should definitely be used when the final texture pack is released. I haven't done a full playthrough with it yet, but it seems to generally fix the image quality and make the whites genuinely white again.
 
While we wait for the next update, I wanted to share something from another thread. It's a pretty effective SweetFX mod to correct the white point/ contrast issues in the game and restore the original visual quality.

Here's an example of the problem:
Dolphin screen
UHD screen

UHD is extremely muted with the white point ending up in the grays, and the fire is especially terrible looking.

This SweetFX mod delivers this result:


It's not perfect- it's a little greenish and the blacks are crushing- but it's a world of improvement over the default visuals, which for whatever reason are very weak in the UHD edition. I've never used SweetFX, but hopefully there's room to get even closer to the original visuals.

I think this should definitely be used when the final texture pack is released. I haven't done a full playthrough with it yet, but it seems to generally fix the image quality and make the whites genuinely white again.

If all you want is to adjust the whites curve then that sweetfx is doing way more than necessary. It's adding FXAA, using the expensive HDR shader (expensive in a relative sense, any modern GPU will probably still run the game perfectly fine with it), levels, vibrance, sharpening, and tonemapping.

Also I compared to a screenshot from a later section taken out of this thread and the low, washed whites look isn't present through the entire game.

 
Also I compared to a screenshot from a later section taken out of this thread and the low, washed whites look isn't present through the entire game.

It's present enough that I'd much rather not play through with the default visuals again. I really just want to get the visuals to display with the same vibrance as the original GC/Wii version... beyond that, I don't care about the other stuff in that mod.

Regardless, I find it pretty odd that Capcom presented the game like this in their "ultimate HD" release. Did they deliberately think it looked good this way, or was the frequent blandness just an oversight that never got addressed?
 
Awesome update. Are you guys planning to go back and make prism-shaped object more round during the review processes? Like this pipe:

Goddamn, awesome update! To answer your question, AFAIK each room has a polygon limit and it actually looks like he added some polygons anyways.
 
Yes, this port suffer of several issues (they are minimal if you don't compare and if you are not really used to the gamecube/wii versions) but its modding potential compensates to some degree.

It'll compensate by a hell of a lot when this mod is done :)

I played through UHD for the first time recently and didn't think it was bad looking, but it was uncomfortable to look at for very long and I didn't know why until I discovered this issue. I think it strains the eye to have such reduced contrast.
 
Awesome update. Are you guys planning to go back and make prism-shaped object more round during the review processes? Like this pipe:

We already did it for those models that looked really blocky. Maybe we'll do it for some extra objects in the final revision stage.

The polygon limit is not per room, it's a limitation per 3D file. (I never reached a limit per room so I don't know if that limitation exists)

Every room has it's own 3D file estructure. For example, this 31d room is a complete chaos. It's split into 203 files!! While other rooms are just 10-20 3D *.bin files.
So, the more files the room is divided into, the more polygons we can add.
Anyway I only reached that limit 2 or 3 times.

It'll compensate by a hell of a lot when this mod is done :)

I played through UHD for the first time recently and didn't think it was bad looking, but it was uncomfortable to look at for very long and I didn't know why until I discovered this issue. I think it strains the eye to have such reduced contrast.

That sweetfix does a good job with those dull uncontrasted areas. Unforlunately, there's no fix for crushed ultracontrasted whites.
 
We already did it for those models that looked really blocky. Maybe we'll do it for some extra objects in the final revision stage.

The polygon limit is not per room, it's a limitation per 3D file. (I never reached a limit per room so I don't know if that limitation exists)

Every room has it's own 3D file estructure. For example, this 31d room is a complete chaos. It's split into 203 files!! While other rooms are just 10-20 3D *.bin files.
So, the more files the room is divided into, the more polygons we can add.
Anyway I only reached that limit 2 or 3 times.



That sweetfix does a good job with those dull uncontrasted areas. Unforlunately, there's no fix for crushed ultracontrasted whites.

Thanks for the clarification!
 
how long until completion? I've held off from paying RE4 until this is done!

The environments are almost done, then the weapons/items/characters come next, then the extra modes come last. They're working on the Krauser area now, and after that there's just the large helicopter assault area, a few connecting rooms, the last big gunfight area, and then the final chapter with the labs and boss area. Given their pace, I'd estimate that they could wrap those up by October-November, but they may want to do one last polishing pass on everything and that could push it into next year. The other textures should come much quicker; I can't imagine the weapons taking longer than a week or two.
 
The environments are almost done, then the weapons/items/characters come next, then the extra modes come last. They're working on the Krauser area now, and after that there's just the large helicopter assault area, a few connecting rooms, the last big gunfight area, and then the final chapter with the labs and boss area. Given their pace, I'd estimate that they could wrap those up by October-November, but they may want to do one last polishing pass on everything and that could push it into next year. The other textures should come much quicker; I can't imagine the weapons taking longer than a week or two.

I'm predicting February-March. But no pressure or anything. Just a guess.
 
This looks absolutely stellar. I haven't replayed RE4 in years, not since 2009, so I'm eagerly anticipating this.
Steam achievements and all that will still work right?
 
I'll wait.

I can wait for this.

Pretty much. Been waiting for this for a while and while I would love to play through again with it looking so much better, I can wait. It's a fantastic game and they are doing some mind blowing work with effort that seems much greater than Capcom's own in house porting (this borders on remake territory at times). I have patience for this. When it's done it will be glorious.
 
Excited to replay the PS4 release next month while I continue waiting for this. I went through the UHD a few years ago, but keeping up with this mod has continually kept RE4 on my mind over the last few years and I'm in the mood to go through it again, this time for some Trophies.
 
Imagine this mod turns about to be just a big troll and that all these images are just photoshoped! Would be so funny.

Yes I know they released the village portion already.
 
That sweetfix does a good job with those dull uncontrasted areas. Unforlunately, there's no fix for crushed ultracontrasted whites.

Yeah, there are a lot of issues varying from room to room and SweetFX won't be able to provide one consistent adjustment that will make everything look right.
That said, I tried tweaking the values and did get rid of the greenish tint, fix the blacks/blown out contrast, and generally get closer to the original visuals; in some shots, it's as close as I can imagine getting:

1:
UHD
UHD+mod
UHD+adjusted mod
Wii
EDIT- Bonus adjusted SFX with this mod included :)

2:
UHD
UHD+adjusted mod
Wii


3.
UHD
UHD+adjusted mod
Wii


For the most part it works really well. But with the way some rooms are presented in the UHD version, there's just no way to match all the time. Take the farm, for instance:
UHD+mod
UHD+adjusted mod
Wii

It's beyond the scope of what SweetFX can do. But the important thing is that the game does seem to be accurate most of the time. I'll have to test it out next time I play to see if it still holds up in the castle/island areas. If anyone wants to use it, I can put the adjusted pack up on mega.
 
Here's the SweetFX fix shown above: https://mega.nz/#!rJEWUarI!0OXHAsQPu_cM1FtgLSC47tIKpJNeP1ycPFGpXfxxnnM

While messing around with the texture pack for the first time I also noticed one small issue:

The hanging roof boards on the house in the dyanmiter area at the end of chapter one (the house with multiple enemies in it) have some visible junk lines around the edges. Nothing major, but it was enough to notice. Seems like it would be a quick fix. Looks really great otherwise!
 
Here's the SweetFX fix shown above: https://mega.nz/#!mclBnYhZ!WTIRg-HjEwwnK3TwCooCo61_zOZF1kYvFE4kxGWgX6M

While messing around with the texture pack for the first time I also noticed one small issue:


The hanging roof boards on the house in the dyanmiter area at the end of chapter one (the house with multiple enemies in it) have some visible junk lines around the edges. Nothing major, but it was enough to notice. Seems like it would be a quick fix. Looks really great otherwise!

Thanks, it looks a lot better.

By the way, do you still have your film grain effect turned on? Personally, I think the game looks a lot better without it. I'm usually all for keeping any sort of filters on as originally intended, but such effects in older games simply do not make the transition to HD very well. Here's a mod that gets rid of the film grain and cleans up the screen nicely (download the bottom link from the original post.)

http://residentevilmodding.boards.net/thread/964/remove-film-grain-effect
 
Here's the SweetFX fix shown above: https://mega.nz/#!mclBnYhZ!WTIRg-HjEwwnK3TwCooCo61_zOZF1kYvFE4kxGWgX6M

While messing around with the texture pack for the first time I also noticed one small issue:


The hanging roof boards on the house in the dyanmiter area at the end of chapter one (the house with multiple enemies in it) have some visible junk lines around the edges. Nothing major, but it was enough to notice. Seems like it would be a quick fix. Looks really great otherwise!
This has to do with how the game displays textures with alpha channels, and not an issue with how clean the alpha channel is (that particular texture's alpha channel is one I worked on for a long time to refine and reduce the edge halo / junk lines) :-). There are ways to correct this based on which models are loaded in what order for a given scene, but it's a bit tricky (at least for me -- Albert has practiced more with the technique).

The good news? That roof has been remodeled to have 3D wood debris. :)
 
The good news? That roof has been remodeled to have 3D wood debris. :)

Ha, your commitment never ceases to impress. I'm glad you revisited the village... it was good enough already, but you've found a surprising amount of room for improvement on top of that. It's not just the extra 3D editing ability, I also think you guys are noticeably better at this now than you were when you started. Keep up the good work.

By the way, do you still have your film grain effect turned on? Personally, I think the game looks a lot better without it. I'm usually all for keeping any sort of filters on as originally intended, but such effects in older games simply do not make the transition to HD very well.

I actually liked the film grain a lot in the GC/Wii version; it added to the surreal horror feel of the game, almost like you've been running without any sleep for days. I notice that it's a lot more pronounced in the UHD version though, to the point where it gets oppressive in a few specific areas. I wouldn't mind reducing it, but I'd rather keep it on than off altogether. I wouldn't be surprised if there's also a mod out there that does that
 
Ha, your commitment never ceases to impress. I'm glad you revisited the village... it was good enough already, but you've found a surprising amount of room for improvement on top of that. It's not just the extra 3D editing ability, I also think you guys are noticeably better at this now than you were when you started. Keep up the good work.
Credit on the Village 3D improvements goes to Albert. :-)
 
Thanks, it looks a lot better.

I'm glad you like it, but after using Mercenaries and Assignment Ada to test the castle and island areas I found that the blue was way out of whack, so I had to reduce it and then retweak everything again. I think I ended up even closer as a result, though. I replaced the file if you want to redownload: https://mega.nz/#!rJEWUarI!0OXHAsQPu_cM1FtgLSC47tIKpJNeP1ycPFGpXfxxnnM


May be a dumb question, but are Wii and the original Cube version identical?

As far as I know, yes. It may have a few small differences, like the ability to display in 16:9 without bars, but for the most part it's a pretty direct port. It's actually the only version out of the numerous ones there have been in which the original GC effects are intact.
 
Tonight's update is from the room that has taken me the longest to get through: the room with the mining operation right before the 2 El Gigantes. Just about every beam structure, object, and piece of machinery in this room needed some correction.

There are a total of 31 comparison shots up at the site: re4hd.com - here is a sample:


Enjoy!
 
Ive got a question about this: how did the original developers didnt see the obvious texturing problems we are seeing in this screenshots? How did they let them pass as good?
 
Ive got a question about this: how did the original developers didnt see the obvious texturing problems we are seeing in this screenshots? How did they let them pass as good?

Deadlines and budget I guess, it limits how much polish they can add to stuff like that when time is running out.
 
Ive got a question about this: how did the original developers didnt see the obvious texturing problems we are seeing in this screenshots? How did they let them pass as good?

Deadlines and budget I guess, it limits how much polish they can add to stuff like that when time is running out.

To add on that, you have to consider that it took them a long time to get to this version of the game. They had already scrapped at least one version that was pretty far along. There is only so much time and money a company can put into a game. It has to be enough at some point.
 
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