Island Improvements (Part IV) + Enemy Dynamic Lighting

ISLANDIV_00

Hello!

Here’s a new round of Island area comparison shots showing the latest refinements (see gallery below).

Also, I’d like to show you how the dynamic lighting looks now on enemies with torches and crossbows, along with some extra improvements (see the video below).

A short explanation for those who are not following every post on this site:
This second remastering pass I’m doing on the Island section is mostly focused on lighting and effects adjustments. We learned how to make these kind of edits when I was remastering the last areas of the game, which is why I’ve gone back to previous areas to apply everything I learned. I’m also taking the opportunity to make some quick 3D / texture / shadow improvements.

All Village and Castle area lighting and effects have already been remastered.

Only a few Island areas remain and… we’ll be ready to prepare the next release 😉

EDIT: New comparison video below!

 

[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”160″ exclusions=”1912″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”120″ thumbnail_height=”90″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” template=”/home/content/p3pewpnas04pod08_data05/91/2963091/html/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/ngglegacy/view/gallery.php” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″] 

 

This entry was posted in Progress Updates and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

177 responses to “Island Improvements (Part IV) + Enemy Dynamic Lighting”

  1. NEGAARMAX says:

    Todos estos cambios de luces dinámicas realmente hacen que el juego se vea espectacular y ese cambio cambio de los enemigos aparecen de la nada y flotan me encanto, realmente era necesario ese cambio ya que si se veía medio raro, finalmente lo mas importante “we’ll be ready to prepare the next release” oh he estado esperando eso (Hype al máximo)

  2. Frank Nitty says:

    Thanks. You guys make my day whenever I get an update. Looking forward to the release

  3. DarkSteel says:

    Awesome work. Can’t wait to replay the game with this wonderful mod.

  4. Jeff R. says:

    Man, this is getting so exciting! Great work as always!

  5. warby says:

    *slowly nods in approval*

  6. Y.Z. says:

    https://www.re4hd.com/wp-content/gallery2/0145-island-iv/ISLANDIV_03.jpg

    I understand what you’ve written in regards to the huge lighting changes in this part of the room, but I’m thinking that maybe you should make the lights *just a bit* dimmer as a middle ground to the original room’s “improper” lighting and your more logical changes (just in case someone gets cranky again). Maybe even make the lights flicker a bit. But I’ll trust your judgement on this one.

    Also, I can see a *lot* of textures in your current WIP HD revision have noticeable loop points – mirroring, etc. You should probably change that as soon as possible.

    “I liked so much that audio accident in my penultimate video, so I decided to included on purpose another one of the Yamamoto’s DB Kai tracks in this new video. I’m a fan of his plagiarized songs! :P”

    I suppose this is gonna become a recurring joke with your video updates now, huh? Haha.

    To be fair though, “Tears Of Grief” (which you used here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KO4A_GVeGQ ) really kinda fits the Resident Evil series – kinda sounds like a song you’d hear in Outbreak, or maybe even Code Veronica or something. Dunno if the Yamamoto Kai track you’ve chosen for *this* video fits so much, but I’m guessing you likely chose it for semi-comedic purposes. For your next video update, may I suggest you use *this* Dragon Ball Z Budokai track by Yamamoto?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJAneYfu5zk

    It also kinda fits Resident Evil, I’d say.

    • deSeRt EaGlE .50c says:

      Agree with you about lighting (and *just a bit* dimmer) and “a *lot* of textures in your current WIP HD revision have noticeable loop points – mirroring, etc.” 🙂

      By the way amazing job! Good luck, guys! Can’t wait.

      • albert says:

        Thank you both for your comments! 😉
        I hope we can reach a good lighting balance

        • Luciano de Oliveira says:

          Will gonna have a way to play with the jacket along the game like in this video demonstration? (I hope so ?) and Leon havê details of muscle ? Because his arma looks like paper without details. ?

    • albert says:

      Thank you as always for the feedback!

      About the light intensity, I can try adjusting it a little. The original light sources were placed in random coordinates. Now that I’ve added those light bulbs I placed the light sources just in the exact point those bulbs are.
      So, I must be cautious because some other places that are not just below the bulbs in the room could be too dark if I decrease their intensity too much. But there are infinite posibilities and light configurations. So, I’m sure I can get the perfect balance 🙂

      About mirrored and “tile effect” textures: Yep, we’ll correct as much of them as possible before the final release.

      Music: I just this track because I like its “epicness”. It’s not that I think the video is epic or something haha I simply love this music 😛
      So you are right, the music choice wasn’t serious at all.
      I like this one in your link too! It has this plagiarism vibe all Yamamoto’s tracks have… haha

      • [ROLO] says:

        In the image I thought the same (that those lights were a little too intense), however, when looking at the video, I realized it’s pretty close to the original feel, you made an awesome job

  7. Max says:

    Hey albert i have a question
    1. in one of the image, do the clock moves in real-time
    2.is it actually easy for you to find the textures you want at google image?

    • Alvare says:

      1. Not the scope of the project.
      2. No, it isn’t. They subscribe to a lot of paid websites.

    • albert says:

      Hello!
      1. Nope. It’s a broken clock XD Unfortunatelly we can’t do this kind of animation edits.
      2. The textures we use are mostly from http://www.textures.com, the texture libraries Capcom used and my own pictures.

    • E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

      If you’re asking because you’re curious about this particular project, you have your answer, but if you’re looking to get into game development, as a master of developer and cheapness myself (I may have exaggerated at least one of those), it’s far more time-consuming and involves more of your own work, but you can do graphics without spending any money. You’ll have to spend more time in GIMP or photographing things, but it’s doable.

  8. Marius Johnsen says:

    I have something i’m curious about.
    How difficult would it be to disable the lightning effect during the parts with Ashley before the castle ?

    Fantastic update by the way.

    • albert says:

      It’s really easy to deactivate an effect once it’s located inside the EFF file
      Why do you want to deactivate it?

      Thanks! ;-D

      • Marius Johnsen says:

        Photosensitive epilepsy. I also have problems with tension headache and flashes intensify it 🙁

        • albert says:

          I understand. It should be really easy to deactivate (or make less intense, whatever you want) any effect of the game we want.
          I can prepare a special patch that would deactivate/decrease intensity of the annoying effects. So all people that suffer the same problem would benefit from it!

          Could you elaborate a list or something about any other effects that could be a potential problem? Or is it just the lightning?

          • Marius Johnsen says:

            Thank you so much. That means so much to me. Personally i mainly have issues with the areas of the game which have lightning in them so i would love to have a patch option to have the lightning completely disabled.

  9. Rafael says:

    What about HD NPC models and players?

  10. Pliskin says:

    It’s amazing how lighting can change the atmosphere so much, it looks great. I was wondering does the lighting effect affect grenades? Do incendiary grenades emit light like it does here?

    • albert says:

      Thank you!
      I think they already cast light (like the oil lamps when they fall onto the floor) but this is something I still need to check and see if it can be somehow improved.

  11. HHH207 says:

    In the very first image (https://www.re4hd.com/wp-content/gallery2/0145-island-iv/ISLANDIV_00.jpg) the sky and trees textures behind of the zombie knight is very low like vanilla; is it untouched or will be HD textures like others?

  12. Beto A.R.V. says:

    ¡Saludos! Es sorprendente y genial como consigues mejorar visualmente al juego, logrando aplicar iluminación dinámica en las antorchas y la ballesta, ¡es espectacular!
    Por otra parte, en la imagen “islandiv 17”, note que la textura del suelo, en la del HD project, Los escombros tienen sombra en cierta dirección y comparando con la dirección de las sombras de las jaulas, que tienen una dirección diferente a la de los escombros, parecen inconsistentes ¿Es posible que en esa habitación haya dos fuentes de luz diferentes?¿O la aplicación de la textura del juego está en mala posición?
    Buen día!!

    • albert says:

      Muchas gracias!
      Que buen ojo tienes hehe. Ni me había fijado en ese detalle.
      De hecho esta sombra está aplicada en la textura en sí. No está generada por el juego ni nada parecido.
      Para solucionarlo deberíamos rotar la textura 90 gradas en sentido opuesto a las agujas del reloj 🙂
      De momento lo dejaré tal como está porque es posible que esta textura se revise de nuevo (es algo borrosa ahora mismo) con lo que aprovecharíamos para solucionar este problema directamente sobre la imagen en lugar de alterar el mapping del modelo 3D. Así que de un modo u otro lo arreglaremos
      Saludos!!

      • iguanabeyourdog says:

        en mi opinion la sombra del suelo esta correcta porque no son piedras que sobresalen sino mas bien grietas y agujeros, por lo tanto la sombra recae en ese mismo lado.

        • albert says:

          Gracias por el comentario!
          Pero en realidad sí que son piedras que sobresalen, bueno, más bien trozos de baldosa rota y pequeñas piedrecitas. Así que en realidad sí que proyectan la sombra hacia el lado equivocado. Debe ser uno de esos casos de ilusiones ópticas que cada persona ve una cosa diferente hehe

  13. Alvare says:

    Amazing.. 🙂

  14. JimmyUso says:

    What’s the name of the song in this video? I like it.

  15. LunarD3ATH says:

    The lighting is a really nice change. Something so small, yet still significant.

  16. V I D A L says:

    Amazing attention to detail! Keep it up

  17. Lukas says:

    After you’re done with island lighting, I guess the characters and items next up right?

  18. BG says:

    Minor thing I noticed in “ISLANDIV_03” but the texture on the broken pillar is warped where the crack dips down.

  19. z says:

    The lighting additions are really cool but I feel like they might be too intense in some places.

    • albert says:

      Yep, we’ll adjust some of these edits a little bit. I’m sure it all will look much better in motion and it will make much more sense too!
      Thanks!

  20. LeonVendetta says:

    Ah! the pleasure of watching screenshots. Great Work as always but this time I want to add my humble opinion towards the lightning change on the character ( yeah I know you may say who asked for this ? but hey m a gamer too! 🙂 I think the fake lighting on the character (1st & 2nd original screenshots) is intentionally placed there to show detailed character appearance rather than blend with the environment. Just have a look how the character look too dark during gameplay ” ISLANDIV_01″. So i think to preserve character details u can maybe lower the intensities of the fake lights rather than totally remove them from the game. I hope maybe u guys consider this.

    • albert says:

      Hehe I was waiting for this 😛
      In my opinion, the developers made the characters to stand out that way on purpose because it was a SD console game and certain rooms are too dark. But this is something inconsistent throughout the game. Sometimes Leon has that constant lighting, some other times he hasn’t and he looks as dark as you can see here. I sincerelly think some lighting decisions are just a consequence of a rushed job by the developers…

      But now that the game reached the HD resolutions they don’t need to stand out that much. Also, the darker look of the character models makes the place’s source lights more obvious when you walk near one of them and I think this generates a more immersive experience.

      I replaced that “always-at-his-right” light source with 2 lower intensity light sources placed in opposite directions so Leon never gets completely dark. I can make those new sources more intense easily, but I want all of you to test by youselves all these lighting changes in motion first and maybe you’ll change your mind hehe (or not!)

      But there is always place for extra adjustments of course! As you know, we’ve changed a lot of things because of people’s feedback 🙂

      Thank you!

      • dreadfield says:

        hi , please dont ad lights on leon , i like what you made shutting down those fakes light around leon , i think leon in the dark its more realistic and scarier than before , and blend so much better with the enviroment look at deadpsace for example , the correct things ad lighting if it is one , i hate fake things to make things stand out more maybe a votation pole if you want to see feedback about this situation on leon character model lighting , i think your chages are perfect and realistic.

        • albert says:

          Thanks!
          And this is what happens when it’s all a matter of taste hehe.

          I agree with you. As I said, it’s also a consistency problem. Some areas have this fake light and some other haven’t … for no apparent reason.
          So I try to stick to a natural and realistic look when possible (unless it is required some fake look because of playability reasons, of course)

          • Y.Z. says:

            If I may add my two cents:

            I’m glad that you replaced the strong light source embedded onto Leon with the 2 lower-intensity ones, but for some reason I feel that in certain, specific shots, Leon and Ashley look a bit… *too* dark?

            Don’t get me wrong: It’s *much* more consistent and realistic than before (and *most* of the screenshots you’ve posted look fine enough), but the thing is, light doesn’t just illuminate, it REFLECTS and BOUNCES OFF of other objects (walls, etc.). Specifically, *these* are the shots that feel off to me; *especially* the last link:

            https://www.re4hd.com/wp-content/gallery2/0145-island-iv/ISLANDIV_06.jpg
            https://www.re4hd.com/wp-content/gallery2/0145-island-iv/ISLANDIV_02.jpg

            Of course, I’m fully aware RE4’s engine is *far* from capable of global illumination (or global saturation), and I know that making minute changes like that would likely lead to a potential “never-ending spiral of perfectionism” scenario you’ve mentioned earlier in prior posts, but I think it’s still something to keep in mind.

            (For the last link in specific, I don’t think changes to Leon’s embedded light sources are required; just an additional, hidden light source, effecting *only* the character models, within the room itself.)

          • E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

            I’ve asked this before but to my knowledge never got an answer: what really goes into modding this game? Is it a lot of text files? Apart from texture swaps I mean. Like, changing item locations as such, is that all done via coördinates in a text document? This brings me to my next question, specific to these lights: is it possible for you to tell users what numbers to change in one of these text documents if we want the lights on the character models to be more or less intense?

            In my personal view, I like the change and don’t even see a problem with the lighting on the characters in the shots Y.Z. posted, but this really is a matter of taste, so being able to customise it on a per-user basis would be great if possible.

      • LeonVendetta says:

        Thanks! for considering my feedback guys….m skyhigh right now & can’t wait for this perfect release after a long time 😀 Tons of changes to experience from the last release. Cheers! champagne

  21. V says:

    Amazing work as always. Been following this project since you guys started it up, and even remember seeing albert on RE modding forums when I would lurk around, looking for mods for the old awful RE4 port. Anyways, I just had a question: with all the new stuff you’ve learned about the modding potential of RE4, you think it would be possible to implement a new difficulty setting with adjusted damage, drop rates, etc. and a more ambitious idea: re-adding the ink-ribbon mechanic to the game and placing ink ribbons around the environment, perhaps removing the trader and remixing where weapons are hidden while adding a bit more variety to the weapons you can find around. You get the idea, maybe ambitious, but you’re the best people to ask whether or not this could be a possibility in the future. Thanks!

    • E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

      I would imagine it’s possible, but I just don’t really think the game is designed for it. Same with fixed cameras. I’d love to see someone try to get the balance right, but I doubt it’s feasible. On the difficulty, they’d need to code different AI, as professional’s HP and attack damage are about as extreme as I think an enjoyable experience would go. Though, removing the merchant would in itself significantly raise the difficulty.

      Have you tried a knife run? That is really good fun.

    • albert says:

      Thank your for following us during so much time!!

      Unfortunatelly, to mod this game is a real pain…
      We can adjust what’s already there but we don’t have the knowledge to implement extra features like the ink ribbon idea or adding a new difficulty mode (there’s the possibility of edit a difficulty mode, but not adding a new one)

      But all this would deserve a separate project hehe
      I think there are some mods here that may interest you: http://residentevilmodding.boards.net

      • V says:

        Yea I figured, but the scope of your guys’ remaster really opens up the imagination to the kind of things modders could do with RE4. The idea of upgraded textures is a fairly standard type of mod that we see in nearly every game, but you guys take it to the next level by (truly) keeping up with the original art direction and colours, which I think is rare. But what’s even more impressive is the 3D edits and lighting edits, it seriously turns what used to be a simple texture replacement to a full facelift, a true remaster that doesn’t stray away from the gamefeel or muddle with the tone of the game at all. It’s a dream come true for anyone who loves RE4.

  22. E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

    I agree on the pillar and the mirrored textures, but everything else is jaw-dropping. Well, there is one other thing, but this was bound to happen with such drastic improvements: we’re starting to get a bit of an uncanny valley effect with this lighting on these comparatively plastic faces. But I’m assuming this will all be sorted out when you start work on the character models.

    Keep it up, lads. These updates make my day whenever they’re released. Thanks a million.

    • albert says:

      Thanks a billion to all of you for following us during all this time! 😛

      Hehe yes!! Those platic shape faces and bodies will be the next thing to remaster. I really have no idea how they will look with simple texture edits. But there is some interesting specular/bump map edits possibities I want to explore that may lead to eye candy results 🙂 (or not XD)

      • E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

        That’s always going to be a problem in games, unfortunately, and it’s at least as much to do with animations as it is textures and geometry, which means, you know, do your best, but it’s not likely within the scope of the project to get it looking perfect. But do bear in in mind that the eyes are a large part of selling this. (I like how I talk to you as if you don’t know how to do video game graphics. Sorry, I’ll just go over here and let you do your thing.)

        I noticed another thing I forgot to mention: the baked shadows on the papers on the notice board seem too pronounced, as if the papers were farther away from the board than they could realistically be. I’m not sure if you’re reüsing these models in other rooms, but the shadows should only be on two sides at most with the majority of probable light configurations.

        Haha, ‘thanks a billion’, I have somehow never heard anyone raise it to that. Seems so logical.

      • cris&albert4ever says:

        Will you be able to increase the character’s polygon count, or would that break all the animations?

        • E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

          It definitely won’t break the animations, but there are almost definitely other limitations owing to both the engine and some hard-coded maximum values.

          I’ll leave it to the masters to explain the latter side of things, but increasing poly count has nothing to do with what controls the animations, which is the skeleton and which vertices are rigged to which bones. You technically animate that skeleton, which can then have any number of models rigged to it (and in most games, all humanoid models are rigged to the same humanoid skeleton). When you increase poly count on a model that’s already rigged, pretty much all the modelling software out there will calculate the correct rigging of any new vertices, unless you go really crazy, like adding tentacles or something, but you can always re-rig manually if absolutely necessary (which it shouldn’t be here).

  23. m4nu88 says:

    que buena pinta tiene yo creo que ya lo teneis casi hecho que ganas de poder probarlo luze muy bien vosotros que lo estais haciendo los requisitos seran lo mismo o se necesitara mas maquina

    • albert says:

      Gracias!
      En principio necesitará más VRAM por las texturas HD, por lo demás no hemos detectado grande (ni casi pequeño tampoco) impacto en el rendimiento del juego 🙂
      Aunque falta implementar todas las mejoras a personajes y enemigos para hacer las pruebas definitivas de impacto y requisitos necesarios.
      Saludos!

  24. m4nu88 says:

    con una tarjeta 750 ti 2 vram fx 8350 12 gigas ram esa es mi pc tendra de sobra no¿?

  25. Adam XT says:

    Does dynamic lighting include normal wall lights etc. as well?

  26. dropl3t says:

    Hey, guys! Amazing work, as usual.

    Just so you know, the project has been featured on PC Gamer in an article from half an hour ago.

    https://www.pcgamer.com/resident-evil-4-hd-project-mod-adds-dynamic-lighting-to-the-island-continues-to-impress/#comment-jump

  27. Vick S. Bateman says:

    Albert those last updates have been pure eye porn, thank you SO much!
    Here, though, i don’t really like lighting temperature. I think looks too cold when generated from flames.. sometimes literally appear pure white, giving the game a bit of a cheap appearance (usual contrast boosted mods) compared to the rest, hurting the atmosphere a bit as a result.
    I’m not sure if it’s a matter of intensity or temperature, but looked off in the video in a few instances imho.

    But if there’s something i’ve learn about you over this years, is that you really don’t like warmth at all. XD

    • dreadfield says:

      the problem is the original gamecube version had the tone tempeture right and it was cold , the warm color was aded as a result of a broken effect that was created when the game was port it, in a lazy capcom way ,we all know, so am zorry if you like it warm, but really wasnt the intention of the original creators.
      zory for my intrution , my intention was bring you info nothing else.

    • albert says:

      Oops I skipped your message by accident.
      Dreadfield response is more or less what I had said, too 😉
      About flames, there’s always ways of making them a little more yellow/red and keep the original cold look of the rest of the area.
      Thanks for the feedback!

  28. Somebody toucha ma spaghetti! says:

    Hello albert!
    I want to ask you something.
    What software do you use to edit stage?
    BTW Amazing as always!

    • albert says:

      Thanks!
      I use multiple tools created by Son of Persia, member of the RE modding boards in order to convert the RE4 native files to somthing else other software like 3Dsmax or Blender can read and edit. After this, these same tools reconvert the new files to the RE4 native format again

  29. CrisWithoutH says:

    I think that the area in the third screenshot looks way too bright. Those additional lamps really weren’t needed.

    • albert says:

      Yes, they were hehe. There’s absolutely no way the place can be so illuminated if there are at least some bulbs or 1 lamp.
      The cables were already there so this was the least intrusive way… 3 simple bulbs which are used all over the game. So it’s a recycled element that appear in other areas 🙂

      I included an extra comparison video in the post (the green light on the door is too intense… I know XD)

      https://youtu.be/wEC1DgWZvBg

      • Alvare says:

        I don’t think the green light is too intense. It’s weird though, that the wall illuminates more by the light than the characters.

      • Y.Z. says:

        …Okay yeah, this *definitely* makes more sense to me in action now. Scratch my previous comments on this, sorry.

      • Suckable_lemon says:

        I understand and appreciate why the lights have been added but it’s a shame that the room couldn’t be much darker. I don’t think the lights compliment the fight between the player and the iron maidens at all. They are some of the game’s creepiest enemies, and all of the other areas where you fight iron maidens/regenerators are quite cold and dark by comparison.

        • albert says:

          In fact, the characters and enemies look darker now than before. I’d say the only major change in the lighting is the central part of the room, specially the ceiling which looks much brighter than before.
          But I have an idea that will please eveyone I think 😉

      • CrisWithoutH says:

        I dunno, man. I mean, the lights really stick out like a sore thumb to me. I mean, if the area was slightly darker than in the original, it wouldn’t be as prominent as it being lighter AND having additional elements to it.

  30. Ascaron says:

    I’m so glad to hear about a new release. Very nice work here, too!

  31. mofail says:

    Watching the video made me think it would be cool if the enemy who spits fire hurt the other enemies when they get in the way of it, also react to bear traps. I always hated when enemies step on to the bear traps & nothing happens. Another nice update well done.

    • Pliskin says:

      Same it would be cool if there were friendly fire between the Ganados, or at least make them smart enough to move around the traps since they’re not brain dead like zombies and they set them up in the first place.

    • albert says:

      Hehe if that happens the enemies would seem even more dumb than they are now XD

      Thank you 🙂

  32. […] Todos os efeitos da Vila e Castelo já estão completos, e agora eles só irão retrabalhar algumas áreas da ilha. Para conferir uma galeria com todas as mudanças, acesse este link. […]

  33. Sam says:

    Hola Albert,

    Despues de leer todos los comentarios y ver el segundo video sigo pensando que las bombillas que has añadido son demasiado brillantes, lo que cambia completamente el ‘mood’ de la habitacion (cuando se mira a esa zona en concreto).

    La iluminacion que producen en el ambiente y los objetos de alrededor es demasiado intensa, pero sin embargo la iluminacion en los personajes cuando pasan cerca si parece adecuada.

    Creo que deberia bajarse bastante la intensidad de forma que visualmente esa zona quede mucho mas parecida a la original cuando se ve desde lejos, que es lo que mas resalta a la vista (segundo 19 del video), y aparte, añadir iluminacion que solo afecte a los personajes ya que probablemente se queden demasiado oscuros al pasar cerca.

    • albert says:

      Hehe gracias!
      Esa es exactamente la idea que tenia en mente 😀
      Cada bombilla tendrá 2 fuentes de luz: Una que afecte a los personajes tal cual ocurre ahora, con la misma intensidad; la otra afectará solo al escenario en menor intensidad. Es un truco que he hecho muchas veces y siempre funciona 🙂

  34. [ROLO] says:

    Awesome update, the dynamic lighting looks superb! also the removal of the persistent light over the characters gives it a more creepy and way better look (it kinda reminds me of the haunted house prototype of RE4). Only nitpick would be that in ISLANDIV_03 some cables are clipping through the girder

  35. dreadfield says:

    hi again , i love the new baked shadows in the last 2 pics, they look detailed now and hd, but in the last one to the right, seems the shadow from the chandelier , is too diffuse.. is any way to adjust this you still touching that? or is too complicated? XP

    now with the videos you updated , we can see how the characters like leon , and ashley, almost never react to lighting in realistic way , seems the developers decided to atach, this orbs invisible lights, to them .

    whatever they go, they are always lit the same, and it relly brakes depth of field on them, look so dull and plane , the characters models only reacts to lighting, in some esprecific moments , and scenarios, NOW with your adjustmens is like it should,s eriously, zory if I am very purtists, about art fundamentals, i know that are game design situations when characters, must to be visible , we dont know why developers just aded invisible orb lighing, attached to leon, maybe because the knew, the limitations of the engine, and didnt want to deal with , many lights cutting performance , you can correct this limitations within the game, making it, more beautifull and realistic.
    I want to see characters in complete black if enviroment allow it,(XP) like when he reach the village, again, in night storm, second backtracking , and ad if you can, some blue light to the flashy lightenings, that affect the village, i remember in gamecube, a very nice effect, of the lightening, that is missin,g from the lastest versions.
    and one last thing , would be posible to ad som real 3d trees, like very very low poly, or at least some 3d textrures, to replace the ones that are visible?, at far short distance like in the castle ?and horizon views? only and idea maybe brakes the game
    suggesting!
    so fun waiting for more! thx guys

    • albert says:

      No, it’s really easy 🙂 You are right. It’s too soft right now. just need to do a really simple edit to the new shadow texture.

      In this specific case I’d say it was more a rushed job problem than a hardware limitation problem (or a simple lack of inspiration)

      Is there a missing lightning effect?? I need to check it…

      About the trees… I’m afraid it would be too many polygons for most of the areas (specially the Village areas) Let’s see if we find a way of making some of them to look better!

  36. Ryu says:

    Nicely work!But i think the thing is…
    When will you release? I am so so tired of you guys keep”showing”to us not “sharing”with us. We don’t want to waste time “watching”your great work. No offence just want you guys to know we are out of patience.Most people are too shy to say that but not me.
    How much longer will you make the friends who love this game keep waiting?Another ten years?

    • albert says:

      In order to answer all this in a proper way I’d need to write during 2 hours and explain with detail our personal situation and lifes. But I think it’s not necessary…

      • [ROLO] says:

        Definitivamente no es necesario, Albert, sería una pérdida de tiempo.
        Saludos y gracias por el gran esfuerzo que ponen en este increíble proyecto.

    • Johaan says:

      Out of patients? look, no offense but you’re free to not waste your time checking their updates. They’re doing this out of their own free time and will upload this with no cost to you – the last thing they need is ungrateful people “demanding” that they’re being kept waiting and “out of patients”.

      check your privilege bud.

    • dreadfield says:

      why so salty ? you are insulting them with your arrogance and ignorance , i am very happy, because they r both, are using his free time to do this ,with no profit, with no capcom, and still they have to read ridiculous childysh people …

    • Hellboy. says:

      Do not include others in your ignorant comment. I am happy just to see the progress they are making in the photos and videos. Thanks, albert and Cris.

    • Alvare says:

      Aren’t you to young to play this game, kid?

    • E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

      Cris and Albert have the patience of a saint, the way they respond with such level-headed diplomacy to comments like these, which I am grateful to see are rare. Would I like the mod to be done to-morrow? Sure, sounds great, but can I wait and not complain as they toil away at no cost to me or anyone but themselves? That is the *least* we can do. Please, do us a favour and exercise some restraint. I’m not ‘too shy’ to say otherwise; I’m rational and mature enough to see things as they are. I hope you can see where I’m coming from here, or at least leave us out of your future comments, because you stand alone on this.

    • [ROLO] says:

      How much have you donated mate? If you don’t want to wait anymore then make your own patch. Cris and Albert are 2 normal guys with normal lives, if they can, then surely you can. Also don’t say “we”, speak for yourself.

    • LeonVendetta says:

      Hey you Ryu! whatz wid that rudeness? huh!…… Do you have any idea how modding works?… how the community works? ……..You can’t just poppin’ outta somewhere & say ” Nice work… blah ..blah but m tired of watching screenshots, m not shy, blah…Running outta patience!!!…goddammit!!
      This thread is for suggestions & reviewing the ongoing progress of their hard-work they put into this project, not for you guys to comment like a complete junk!
      And You know what! you ain’t employed these guy’s for this understand! So at least show some RESPECT! for their HardWork and Timeless Effort they put into this OR get ur ass off here!

  37. Max says:

    hey Albert i have something to say
    1.thank for answering my question about the broken clock because i notice the hands move.
    2.is it stressful for you to reading through comments and working on the project at the same time?
    3.do you like DBZ

  38. GuitarPlayer says:

    @Ryu

    You’re a prick.

    Ahem… by the way awesome work with casted lights oO

    That’s one of a feature !!!!!!!

    Take all your necessary time dear Devs (I hope you can accept the appelation)

  39. GuitarPlayer says:

    Enemies are even more scarier with those casted lights !

  40. dreadfield says:

    hi devs
    i am sure you already guess it
    i was thinking about the gobal ilumination effect , and how replicate it…
    so maybe when there is a light of the enviroment afecting characters , like main character ,you just ad some STATIC invisible lights, in the oposite side, from main light spot, if there is a wall, for example , reflecting that light, this should bounce on the dark side of …leon for example , ( focus light from left invisible static light on right) but this static aded lights, should be put it ,only, when characters are in close rooms like a corridor , like capcom did but they broken and did it lazy.
    in the case like open areas, like village, maybe a dim light, very very soft , can be put again ,on the oposite side from main focus light, like sun , so this should mimic like a better golbal ilumination , zory if the explanation is silly but maybe people who dont know how global iluminations work is reading this
    in the case of the castle areas you can do the same trick ,deep blue soft effect to wash out the black shadows and relax the blacks.
    I know you are having fun with lights edits ,XP““

    • albert says:

      Yep, there are always some static lights “attached” to the characters. Otherwise they would look completely black at some point.
      To callibrate them and get the good balance is the hard part XD

  41. Alvare says:

    This is true. People still use that ‘directional light’ opposite of the sun trick. Even use complementary colour schemes (warm and cold) in 2018.

    • albert says:

      That’s a nice trick I can try in some specific areas. I’m not sure if it will look ok though… because of the limitations this game has. But I can give a try even if it’s just for fun 😛

      • Alvare says:

        It works on pretty much every form of art. So even with the limitations you’re dealing with, it should work. Don’t use too saturated colors and you should get nice results.

  42. Leon says:

    hello, dont forget to change Leon nad his clothes with better more realistic textures and and better hair 😀

    • dreafield says:

      oh my good remastering leon on this game must be the most dificult thing from the whole game getting his hear right in hd must be a nutshell, i dont know how albert and crhis will do that XP every single hair must be visible X0

  43. Mohsen86 says:

    I love the new dynamic lights! ♥ I really appreciate what you’re doing with dynamic lights… ?

    But about the emitted lights that mostly locked on the main character, I think there should be always a tiny light on the main character’s body, hair, arms and especially his/her weapon, even if they’re in complete dark! I think in this case there’s no need to much logic… I mean, they even do this in professional movies… For example all of us have seen a movie scene like with a protagonist alone with bare hands in a dark and rainy jungle (where that there’s no light source), but you can still see his every move… ??

    ?

    • LeonVendetta says:

      That’s exactly what I meant in my earlier post. Just Look at Leon (& specially his hair…..God! I love his hairstyle so much) in original screenshots and comparison videos(left one). You can find that Bouncy Fluffy hair shadow effect on the character’s head like its trimmed & has some volume in it & looks believable like a movie and the fake lights mimic illuminated effect from the body and then…… in right screens what we have is a 2007 version of lightning in RE4HD…bland- ghost like character without any illuminated lightning, It just looks horrible (can’t live with that… specially just look at Leon’s Hair). And For a MOD like this for RE4HD…. (where everything is perfect until now)…..This little change just breaks my immersion. So I just don’t want to ruin my hype for this please….please… PLEASE >KEEP THE CHARACTER LIGHTNING AS IT IS!!!

  44. Wesley Lima says:

    Vc pretende mudar a textura do Leon também assim como os ganados ? O mod ta .muito bom ?

  45. Leo Wong says:

    hello~
    I’m looking forward to the new releases.and when we can get the download?
    i can’t wait that!~~~~~ 😀

  46. ElTioRata says:

    Como le haces para tener la chaqueta de cuero en la parte del Castillo?

    • albert says:

      Uso un trainer, me facilita las cosas a la hora de elegir la sala en la que quiero estar para capturar imágenes, vídeos, etc…
      Y como empecé el juego diciéndole al trainer que me llevara a esa zona directamente, pues Leon aun tiene la chaqueta ;-P

  47. Nino Rey says:

    I’m really excited for this. Can’t wait for the release! Anyways, will you be touching the real-time cutscenes for the Separate Ways?

    • dreadfield says:

      he cant do that,and nobody can, because those scenes arent rendered in realtime , they are videos ported from ps2, so becasuse of this ,they are simple videos , and it does not exist, any way to touch those , capcom would have to create them from scratch, and that is imposible , you get that buddy?

    • albert says:

      Yep, again, as Dreadfield said, there’s no way of improving them. They are simple videos. And even if we could somehow recreate the cutscenes (in a parallel dimension xD) the game doesn’t allow videos higher than 512×336 px resolutions O.o …

      • Niño Rey says:

        That’s really unfortunate 🙁 Hope Capcom should’ve made the cutscenes realtime for separte ways. Anyways, thank you so much for your work. Looking forward for the release. I really can’t wait! ?

  48. NozomiTojo says:

    How did you get the EXACT same texture on ISLANDIV_17 image? ??

    • dreadfield says:

      zory for my intromition
      if i recall corectly…
      they explained in the past that some textures capcom used were from a web site ,and cris and albert have to rebuy those textures in high res ,and carry with the costs of that implies. Others and the majority like scenarios deco,was from, when capcom photography team flight to spain, and travelled to diferent states, to get amazing textures , sOo cris and albert did the same, with his own time and budget, ¿how they got to the same places that capcom went? , well i dont have that info. Some buhonero from capcom, told them where to go.

    • albert says:

      It’s more or less as Dreadfield said but no one from Capcom told us where the textures came from. It all was a reaserch work during years 😀

      But this specific floor texture (the broken tiles I mean) it’s from RE5. The same texture at higher resolution is used in that game. I think this is the only texture “borrowed” from RE5. Anyway, it’s not HD enough and maybe Cris will re-create it from scratch at some point 😉

      • LeonVendetta says:

        You guys are sent directly from GOD himself to carry-on MODDING into this small world of RE4 :-O * :O

  49. LeonVendetta says:

    That’s exactly what I meant in my earlier post. Just Look at Leon (& specially his hair…..God! I love his hairstyle so much) in original screenshots and comparison videos(left one). You can find that Bouncy Fluffy hair shadow effect on the character’s head like its trimmed & has some volume in it & looks believable like a movie and the fake lights mimic illuminated effect from the body and then…… in right screens what we have is a 2007 version of lightning in RE4HD…bland- ghost like character without any illuminated lightning, It just looks horrible (can’t live with that… specially just look at Leon’s Hair). And For a MOD like this for RE4HD…. (where everything is perfect until now)…..This little change just breaks my immersion. So I just don’t want to ruin my hype for this please….please… PLEASE >KEEP THE CHARACTER LIGHTNING AS IT IS!!!

    • dreadfield says:

      They are still adjusting the right balance for lighting and reflection, i respect your opinion but i think you are exaggerating, about, (in right screens what we have is a 2007 version of lightning in RE4HD…bland- ghost like character without any illuminated lightning) comment ,from that i get that you really dont have a deep or knowledge idea of what bad lighting is and art fundamentals, the 2007 version was a capped version of ps2 so, was so much worse, than anything, i get what you said, about ambient lighting reaching leon , makes leon pop up more , this statement, must be apllied ONLY in some situations, that deserve it, the original ambient lighting is lazy , and bosses here will do what is best.

    • albert says:

      We revise lighting room by room. There are rooms with intense light, some other rooms are darker. It happened the same with the original version: All the darkest rooms in the game haven’t that intense lighting on the characters. So, it’s just a matter of consistency.
      And, as I said, there are other areas with more intense light. There’s no reason all the areas have heavily illuminated characters, specially when the area is really dark.
      I highly recommend to play and see by yourself in motion once we release the next pack.

      We can’t base our decissions on someone’s love for Leon’s hair hehe ;-P

      • LeonVendetta says:

        Okay! I’ll first play it (waiting desperately for that 😉 then decide it. You guys ROckK!!
        .
        .
        .
        No offense(I apologize if I went too far :P)! but don’t everybody love leon’s hair 😉

        • albert says:

          Haha no worries! I understand your concerns. Even I -before posting the images- thought: “Ugh… I’m sure some people will think the original looks better”. But then I went back and played the game and IMO it’s a great improvement in motion when you can turn the camera everywhere and the light position changes with the camera movements and that light matches the real light sources positions of the room 🙂
          Sometimes comparison pictures don’t make justice to the edits…

          FYI, I already did some adjustments and the final version will look slightly different compared to what you can see in the pictures and video but I didn’t posted it.

          We’ll put a lot of love when we re-create Leon’s hair! 😛
          Here’s a WIP I did… 4 years ago! XDD
          https://www.re4hd.com/?p=537

  50. dreadfield says:

    i have a question
    i know is too soon for this , but i always thinking of it
    the tshirt leon wears, is made of neoprene?, like suits from surfers? i always thought look like it, but i dont know, if developers wiant it to look like it, is very tricky to do in hd, neoprene tissue is very small, some sort of tiny thread must be visible i guess…
    i saw lots of mods in the past on his tshirt, non of them got it right, in the hd steam version, they did some leather texture on it , and is not working wellto my taste, feel unnatural, i think the best material he can wear is neoprene
    i will like to see in future, what albert prepare for this XP!

    • dreadfield says:

      guys i think in pic 14
      the floor metal tile i think should be reduced in size, to be more realistic, capcom made it to large (i am talking about the metal fplate floor below the truck)
      but i think is better more tiny , i think it doesnt exist such a huge metal like that
      would be more realistic to make like square plates witth remaches
      is a suggestion,dont know how it look reduced…
      regards

  51. Catbus says:

    What I love most about your work is that if you squint, or go by the thumbnails, you can hardly tell the two sides apart. That dedication to being faithful to the original textures and visual makeup of the game is astounding. You’ve set a new gold standard in how remasters should be handled. It makes me want to see other beloved games given this level of care by you guys. (Devil May Cry comes to mind, as every HD port of that game has been botched so far, and the art direction/texture work of that game seems like it’d have some slight overlap with RE4).

    I know this has been a massive, life consuming project for you guys but I sincerely hope you’ll find a new game to pour your passion into after RE4 is complete. It’s been wonderful following this blog over the years and it’ll leave a void in my life when you’re finished.

    • albert says:

      Thank you for your message! Reading it made my day 🙂
      This is exactly our goal!

      I’m sure something else will happen after this project is finished. I have no idea what will be… but we’ll need a vacations first XD
      And yes, a lot of textures from DMC are shared with REmake and RE4. It seems the last HD port suffered not only of poor/none texture improvement but also a lot of missing and worse effects. I can’t understand how these kind of things happen with the constant improvement of the videogame technology. There’s no excuse for them I guess

  52. undefinedObject says:

    I usually don’t really care about dynamic lighting or other similar effect in gaming and would rather turn it off if possible to save some resources of my machine as it’s either too fancy or hardly to be noticed, but it surprisingly works great in this game and I think it’s because of the cold tone and dark environment the game has making the bland light stands out.

    What really impress me is that it’s not some pure eye candy. It not only enhance the overall atmosphere, but also add tension to the fight. Works best when a villager attacks you with a torch and you dodge, you can roughly tell how close the flame is from you by glanced at the light reached Leon.

    As for the light from fire arrow, it seems a bit too intense. And when the enemy reloads and ignites the arrow, the light just pop in as if a bulb is turned on. It would be perfect if the light could appear gradually.

    • albert says:

      Hi!
      Thank you for the feedback! I tried to make that light to appear gradually with no luck. Maybe I find a way at some point. About the intensity… it’s hard to tell. Because of the different light coniguration every room has, sometimes it looks more intense. But I agree in general it looks a little too much…

  53. kisamee says:

    hi awesome work do you aware of moder razor http://residentevilmodding.boards.net/thread/8709/ultimate-trainer-companion-resident-evil what do you think for it ?

      • albert says:

        I see serious overexposition issues in the video in the first link. Specially in the water room.
        For those who want to try their own reshade tweaks, the game brightness configuration should be set to the MAX (which is the right value) before adding filters, etc
        In the video, the brightness is set to the default values and the “white burned” parts (see Leon’s arm and the walls and floor around candles in water area 1:35) become white toned down to grey.

        • Sean says:

          cool thanks!

          I personally play games with my brightness turned down, especially in RE i like it dark lol, but I can see why some people might prefer the opposite 🙂

          • Alvare says:

            It’s not a matter of preference. It’s real unnatural when 100% whites are toned down to grey’s. Basically what happens when you alter the brightness of an overexposed jpeg photograph. xD

          • albert says:

            Good analogy XD

          • albert says:

            Anyway, it’s easy to generate a gradient filter that makes everything darker while you keep the white as 100% white. The “colour filter 1” included in the Castle pack does something similar 🙂
            I’ll probably generate a few custom gradient files at the end so people can choose what they prefer the most

    • albert says:

      Yep, I’m aware of it and I’ve been testing it.
      It’s a great addition for those who want to mod the game!

  54. Daniel Rodrigues says:

    When will the next update come?

    • albert says:

      Hello! I guess I’ll have the time to post something this week. I’ve been doing a lot of boring and time consuming file optimization work. But it deserved the time! 🙂

      • Alvare says:

        Ah, some great ‘under the hood’ optimisation. 🙂
        Further reduction in file size by re-using the same assets from within one file instead of duplications is much better.

      • Daniel Rodrigues says:

        Thank you for the answer,can’t wait to see the next update 🙂

  55. kisamee says:

    Dynamic Lighting will be awesome for dragon ball mod

  56. Lazaro Martinez says:

    ¡Hola, Albert!
    He tratado de ponerme en contaco con vosotros a través del formulario de la web, pero no sé si será la vía correcta.
    Aunque ya te he comentado un par de cosillas en el pasado (como lo de Haunting Ground y la casa Batlló, LOL) tambien formo parte de Gamuza, la asociación cultural manchega del videojuego. Aparte de los eventos que organizamos, tenemos una web en la que subimos articulitos de forma regular.
    Estaría muy interesado en hacerte una entrevista respecto a RE4 HD. ¿Sería posible? ¿De qué manera nos podríamos organizar, para, por ejemplo, poder entrevistarte por Hangouts?

    • albert says:

      Hola! Y gracias por la propuesta
      Lo tengo pendiente de respuesta ^_^” Este fin de semana te respondo en condiciones por email 🙂 He andado algo liado estos días…
      Hasta luego y un saludo!!

  57. isaac pavon says:

    hey guys I’m gay but I can’t wait to see this mod finished. I hope capcom includes it in the steam version.

  58. Lázaro Martínez says:

    ¡Gracias por vuestralabor y por contestar! ¡Esperando ese emial con ansia!

    • Lázaro Martínez says:

      Parece que me haya dado un ictus… pero es que estaba respondiendo desde el móvil. ¡Ha sonado como si respondiese un ganado!

  59. Felipe De Freitas Fernandes says:

    Hi!
    Will you add self shadowing effect to the characters and objects and make them cast shadows to the ground and to the walls (the walls can cast shadows too)?
    I mean real time high quality and high detailed shadows!

    I like your job, its really great and well done, I’m waiting for a full patch here from Brazil!

    • albert says:

      Hello from Barcelona!
      Unfortunately, it’s impossible to add self shadowing to anything. I know some cutscenes have it but it only works when there are very few models on screen and it doesn’t look OK ingame becasuse the shadows don’t match the stage models (it matches another hidden and much more simple geometry) And it only works for characters, stage models can’t cast shadows at all.
      I hope someday this game is ported to a newer engine and the lighting and effect get completelly renewed!

      Thanks for the message and for following us!

  60. Daniel says:

    These updates are always sexy!
    I have a question though.
    Could something like ambient occlusion be possible or no?

    Either way this game has been made godly.
    Sincerest thanks for all the effort you do.

  61. Wolf says:

    Normally, most mods look too different from the original work of the developers, but I have to say, this is quite faithful to the developer’s original art design. Not bad at all. It truly looks like an upgrade. You turned so many low resolution and blurry textures into clear and more detailed textures. I can see you understand the direction of light when there is an actual light source. It’s puzzling to me why CAPCOM relied so much on lighting in some areas that do not have a light a source at all. It could have been to cut back on development time, but that is just a guess. Maybe some areas of the environment were meant to be much less important to the player than the actual survival horror experience. Perhaps some of those environments are just meant to contribute to the age, look, and feel of environment.
    Either way. Nice job! There is one thing I would like to know though. Is this for the HD version of RE4, or is it for the original PC version?

    • albert says:

      Thanks a lot for your message! I’m really glad you like the results that much 😀
      This is for the HD version, yes. (the PC port released on 2014 ;))