Weapons & Mercenaries (Part I)

Here comes another update!

It’s time to apply all of the knowledge and edits we made in the main game stages to the Mercenaries areas. I’ll show you in the following video the first and second rooms. I recorded 2 complete walkthroughs because I really enjoy playing The Mercenaries with HUNK, and I got pretty decent results. 😛

But before that you’ll see before-and-after in-game weapon comparisons for some of the weapons. I’ve ported all of the “examine view” hi-poly models into the in-game view. In order to do this, I adapted the original low-poly model bones to the new mesh, and then I applied custom specular values to the resulting 3D file. For now we are using the original “examine view” textures which are already a lot better than the in-game weapon textures, but they will definitely be improved further. So, this is a work in progress. Fortunately now it’s just a matter of doing “simple” Photoshop work.

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You’ll probably notice some additional improvements here and there in the video: in-game item models, some sub-screen improvements, a new barrel model and texture, and so on.

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And there’s a small extra at the end of the video 🙂

That’s it! I hope you have a good weekend!

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85 responses to “Weapons & Mercenaries (Part I)”

  1. NEGAARMAX says:

    Veo que corregiste el error que yo tenia con la handgun excelente.
    Y por fin los mapas de mercenarios, gracias esperare con ansias a ver el siguiente update en especial el de la isla que a mi parecer es el que se ve mas feo.
    Saludos

    • albert says:

      Hehe gracias!
      Estoy de acuerdo, el “Waterworld” es bastante horrendo, recuerdo que era un escenario pobre incluso cuando lo jugaba en la Gamecube :/

      • shiva says:

        hi albert i’m shiva from india ..i want to share some error in resident evil 4..if u don’t mind..
        originally in game , both handcannon and killer 7 takes 8 boxes to fix in inventory.but both are not equal in size in leon hands when he holds..u can see this in game …..killer 7 should take 6 boxes to fix in inventory because it is smaller than handcannon and red 9,,and more ever this handcannon is very big in size in leon hands .can you make it little small in size so that it may be good to see. i have image to show you what exactly but i can’t send you here…can you please give your email id .so that i can send you those images which you can understand easily

        • albert says:

          Hello from Barcelona!
          Unfortunatelly there’s nothing we can do about the space the items need inside the inventory. Right now this is beyond our knowledge. And we can’t change weapons size because of 2 reasons:
          The red laser wouldn’t chnage it’s position and it would be misplaced and this would be a weapon design change which is out of the scope of this project.
          Thanks you anyway for your feedback!

      • Oscar dela Rous says:

        Tengo una duda, bueno como recién instalé el RE4 en mi PC (otra vez) me topé con los vídeos del MOD ultra realista, la duda es ¿si instalo el archivo más reciente del MOD, me actualiza todas las texturas que han mejorado ustedes, o tengo instalar cada archivo pasado uno por uno?
        Espero haberme explicado jeje saludos desde México.

        • albert says:

          Hola Oscar!

          Solo hay disponibles dos packs por el momento: El del Pueblo y el del Castillo
          https://www.re4hd.com/?page_id=4732

          El del pueblo está bastante desactualizado y le faltan un montón de mejoras que hemos estado mostrando en los últimos meses, pero no las hemos publicado aun para descargar
          El castillo está más finalizado, aunque también le falte alguna que otra mejora.

          El oren lógico sería instalar primero la parte del pueblo y después la del castillo. Utiliza Winrar para ello. Hemos detectado que algún archivo se corrompe al usar otro software de descompresión.
          Saludos!

  2. Cris Without H says:

    I’d say this looks pretty good, but the weapon textures need some tweaking, as they were never meant to be used in the in-game environment. Broken Butterfly, for example, completely changes its color and it’s almost black now.

  3. Steven says:

    I guess the extra something at the end of the video was the water? Looks like you made it look better than previous iterations. Some of the gun models seem a bit bigger than the originals, makes Leons model clip through them a bit more than the originals.

    • Steven says:

      I went back and rewatched the video to be more specific. Seems as though only the red-9 stock is bigger than the original, also a different shape than the original. Kinda jarring.

    • Cris says:

      In addition to the water, I enjoyed seeing the new typewriter in motion. 🙂

      • E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

        Just caught the new water now! How was that done? It looks amazing! We spoke for days about it back when there was another update and I was really convinced it would never look this good. It has so many textures panning in different directions. How was that able to happen?

    • albert says:

      Water, Fire and smoke and Typewriter animation 🙂

      The models are the same size than the originals. I made the hi-poly models to match exactly the volume the original models had to avoid clippng/position issues. But you are right the red 9 stock is a little taller. Easy to fix and good eye!!
      Don’t worry about the texture. As Cris said, they are placeholders. We are using the higher resolution textures from “examine view”.
      Thanks again!

  4. Suckable_Lemon says:

    It’s exciting to start to see the weapons re-textured. It’s a great improvement all round, the new punisher texture is probably my favorite. If I can summon a criticism, I think the Red9 stock could be better. It might just have been the way the light was reflecting on it, but it seems like it should be a darker red like in the attache case.

    Another thing that interests me is the barrel re-texture. Are all the barrels in the main game going to be given the new texture? I’ve always thought that the original boxes and barrel textures were too clean looking, especially compared to some of the environments they were placed in. That said, perhaps we can get a mix of the dirty barrels and cleaner ones? Perhaps taking the look of the area in the game into consideration?

    • kaludio says:

      I think the developers made the barrels and boxes the way they are so that they stand out so the player doesn’t miss them

      • sean says:

        once you’ve seen a barrel or crate and know they are destructible I think people can figure it out if some of them look slightly different. Games dont have to have big shiny signs saying “go here” all the time

    • albert says:

      Hehe thanks!
      No worries we’ll redo most of these textures. Theu are placeholders to show the improved models 🙂

      And yes, all barrels will be the same during al the game. In fact we found the way of using a single texture for ALL the game. Right now, every room has it’s own 2 barrel textures repeated one time and another….

      By “too clean”… Do you mean too bright? As kaludio said, maybe its was on purpose so you can see them easily. I also see it this way.

      • Suckable_Lemon says:

        Thanks for the reply. Regarding the barrels, sometimes when you walked into a worn-out dirty shack in the game, I thought the wood of the barrels and boxes looked “too clean” or “too bright” like you said. Compared to the other “dirty” wooden textures around them, they weren’t convincing as part of the environment.

        I do prefer the new barrel texture. I’m reminded of a small feature in Resident evil 5 I liked though. There were two different box and barrel designs depending on whether you were playing the shantytown levels or the later underground lab levels. The design changed to match the aesthetic of the area. Perhaps something similar could be achieved here. The island could have a different box/barrel texture? Similar to how the castle has mostly vases instead of boxes/barrels.

  5. sean says:

    This is exciting! The guns definitely need more work but its definitely a step up. Now it seems like leons hands and fingers are really ugly, so I hope you can improve those. I’ve seen remodeled gloves and entire leons before, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Cant wait to see an improved leon 🙂

    your work is the kind of attention to detail this game deserves, its like I cant even tell any differences from the original and yet its almost entirely redone! really cool

    • albert says:

      Hehe thanks! and you are right the hands look really ugly!. I’m not sure if we can give to them mode polygons because the files containing the weapons also contain thos hands and those files have a polygon limit I already reached in some weapons (I needed to reduce the polygon ammount a few times because the “examine view” model ammount of polygons was too much and the game crashed. So, the hand models improvements would be minimal. but theres no limitations with textures 🙂

      • Vic says:

        Hay un mod llamado Hi-Poly Leon en youtube (No encuentro el foro) y el mod The real ultimate ultra hd leon en REmodding, ¿Tienen algo en especial o simplemente no llegan al limite por no incluir las armas?

        • albert says:

          El límite de polígonos no es una suma global. Las armas van por un lado, los escenarios por otro, así que el modelo de Leon también debe tener su propio límite sin importar si las armas ya están mejoradas o no.
          En cuanto a texturas, no hay límites por suerte 😉

  6. braders1986 says:

    Can’t believe no one has picked up on it yet lol.

    You re-worked the locked 30fps animations. I just knew you would have a go at it 😉

    This is truly amazing. Thanks so much guys!

    • sean says:

      really? how are you sure

      • braders1986 says:

        Watch the fire clip at the very end. That effect does not look like it’s locked down at 30fps any more. It looks fluid with the rest of the image. Plus he’s holding the rifle, which had this problem during it’s epic reload animation. Not sure if he was just teasing, as I was expecting him to fire and reload it to show off lol.

        I’m either blind, or it’s fixed 🙂

    • albert says:

      Oops I didn’t do anything with animations yet.
      In fact. I always play at 30fps 😛

      • braders1986 says:

        Yep, I realised my error when I watched the video again today. It was 2am here in England and I just believed the video was in 60fps. Everything looked consistent so I jumped the gun a little.

        Still, amazing improvements you guys are making, and if you can tackle the animation problems for 60fps at some point then that would be even more awesome.

        • albert says:

          Hehe no problem! I thinks most people record their RE4 videos at 60fps after all. So, I can understand the confusiin 😛
          Maybe we’ll be able to fix it in the future! Who knows! :))
          Thanks for following us!

  7. metroidguy says:

    Amazing update, hope you can up some poly’s on the guns as well.

    • albert says:

      Thank you!
      Hummm I’m not sure I understood you. The weapons are already hi-poly now.

      Maybe I lost something in translation… my English is somewhat clumsy sometimes 😛

      • E.P.D. Gaffney. says:

        He just meant maybe you could raise the poly count on the guns, as in, add more geometry to make them look more realistic. Unfortunately, as I’ve read in another comment of yours, there’s a poly limit that’s already giving you trouble with this particular area. Shame but at least we know the textures are going to be fantastic.

  8. Marius Johnsen says:

    Very nice. The guns looked really good. Really liked seeing the Red 9 with allot higher detail. Also liked getting a look at the HD typewriter screen in motion.

    Was surprised at 8:33 in the video when i saw an old texture next to the new texture work.
    I’m guessing that’s an area that will be modeled out ?

    • albert says:

      Haha good attention to the surroundings XD Im’ sure you’d pass the famous gorilla test 😉

      Yes! In fact, this texture appears again later in the game and it was already fully re-created. It was a pain to do it btw…
      Thanks!

  9. deSeRt EaGlE says:

    Awesome. I follow and look forward to every update. You are the best in your business! Do you plan to change the original sounds of weapons and anything else (for example, steps) to more detailed ones? At the moment, some pistols sound like plastic toys 😀

    And another question: do you plan to change sprites (fire from shots, holes from bullets, maybe blood on surfaces)?

    • albert says:

      Thank you!
      I’m not weapon expert so I can’t do anything about this because I don’t have the needed knowledge. But I’d say this kind of edist is out of the scope odf this project. I think someone did some weapon sound mod in the resident evil modding forums…

      About sprites, yes, that’s the plan. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to find good replacements or we simply will recreate them manually.

  10. abi008 says:

    Finally the update we all were waiting for. Will you retexture weapons based on the real life references or just improve on the same design? Thanks.

    • albert says:

      My idea is to use the real life references and then apply all RE4 weapon design deviations to the real textures. So, the result is the same RE4 weapon but with ore realistic/HD textures
      Greetings!

  11. Johann Paris says:

    Hummm i was thinking…..Albert or Chris….If you know why…..the game cant’ reach 3860×2160 picxels in terms of résulotion? Limitation of the game or something else? You guess right i tsay that because i have a 4k monitor and it look like the game can’t go further 2560×1440 in résolutions… (a bit like the hd remaster Resident evil 0 and 1 by the way and Révélations 1).

    So i was wondering if it could if it may possible to tweak that? Just wondering if it’ will be possible?

    Well i assume the fact that for some very old games it’s possible when you take them to a certain way (by some….shaders and others stuff)

    Well….. otherwise very goodjob again guys ! Really impress.

    I lookked some gamespeeed yesterday…in 720p ….i have tyo say that the original game gettiong really old by these times.

    Not that i refuse to play old games no no….Just indeed it’s pretty much pleasant to the eyes

    I am going to wait that my…limit to my cb (bank card) was left for make you some donation. You REALLY derserved it for sure.

    By all means i have not paid much for the game to the origine so……we’ll say it’s will be paid for the Ultra really true hd version. (isn’t it Capcom?)

    When i see all of your work…i really think Capcom should give you

    So what’s next after that? You are planning going to make the two left areas for the Mercenaries and after that…… Séparate ways or other with Ada?

    Or you would prefer to concentrate to the….mains ennemis/ characters?

    Ah yes ! tell me…..hummm your patch there(i mean the Village and the Castle) are really completed? it applied like a patch to applied to the Steam game or? No need to launch Re4 to the desktop? (like for some modded games i mean by example Skyrim modded NEED and MSUT to be launch with SKSE…not the original launcher Steam) not anymore).

    To this rate….i ask myself if everything in big part won’t be finish well…to Christmas? haha ^^

    • Cris says:

      Hi Johann! Thanks for the words of encouragement! To answer your questions: Unfortunately we don’t currently have the ability to increase the maximum resolution of the game. Of course, this may change in the future, but as of now I don’t believe that’s possible. As for what’s next, the general order is 1) Environmental Textures, 2) Items and Weapons, 3) Enemies, NPCs, Playable Characters, Misc., and 4) Mercenaries, Separate Ways, and anything not already covered (this info comes from the Progress Summary page). As you’ve noticed, however, Albert has already been making improvements to the Mercenaries section of the game, so this order isn’t set in stone. As for the downloads already available, the Village download is from a while ago and only includes texture improvements, while the Castle download also includes 3D modeling, texture mapping, and visual effect corrections. In that sense, the Castle download should be considered nearly complete. It comes with an installer that replaces the applicable files with our files. You start the game as usual via Steam. I hope that helps and thanks again!

        • Cris says:

          Thanks — I may be misreading, but I don’t think that mod / fix allows you to go beyond 1440 for the vertical resolution, which is what Johann seems to be going for.

          • sean says:

            Oh I see, I still figure its better than 1080 though right?? Personally I think Ultra-Widescreen is pretty cool for gaming, I mean you have to have a pretty big screen for 4K to be make a big difference anyway

          • Johann Paris says:

            My mistake sir ! In fact i have looked and it seems that Capcom have made an update because i can reach indeed 3840×2160 (on the Steam version)

            And i have tested your HD version Albert and Cris…Wow what a change ! An yet it’s not the completed finish Village section.

            Ah by the way i was wondering…for the Isle there….it’s soon finish or? Because i have saw much posts about this section but the Progress summary say it’s still…well in W.I.P.

  12. Gabbernator says:

    Hi! Can you add a merchenaries and sepasrate ways to progress summary page? I like to follow that page. Awesome work! Sorry for my bad English. Hello from Russia!

  13. Frank Nitty says:

    Thanks guys. U are def doing this remaster justice

  14. Anonim says:

    Hello, thank you Albert for your work of improving re4 game and making it enjoyable once again. Your work will make re4 great again.

  15. Anonim says:

    Regarding guns will it be possible to add more lighting and detail at gyn firing being it more realistic to real life gun firing effects.

    • Cris says:

      I don’t believe that’s possible with what is known currently, but of course things can change. Thanks!

  16. Vini says:

    Albert great job I loved the new models. But I have some observations to make:
    1) Will red9 be this way? Not the gun itself, but the butt I think it was very wide (thick) and the wood tone very light outside the original model.
    2) It may be just my impression, but I think some pistols were left with the top very clear I loved their textures, but I noticed that.
    3) I would recommend with regard to Killer7 that I believe to be a magnum just like the broken butterfly you are based on the desert eagle which I believe is the closest weapon in real life to the Killer7 model. But the strange thing is that the noise of Killer7 resembles a revolver like a broken butterfly with only a slight change. The sound of the two is almost the same.Again great job I’m impressed.

    • albert says:

      Thank you for your feedback and comments!
      1) For now, We are using default “examine item” textures which are better than the original ingame ones. But we’ll recreate and adjust them. And yes, the Red9 stock model is somewhat off. It’s already in the “things to fix” list 🙂
      2) That’s probably because of using the “examine item” texture. It’s more contrasted and light parts are lighter and dark parts are darker. We’ll adjust all these deviations when we re-create the textures.
      3) About Killer 7, I’ll see later which real life is based on (I have a list) but editing the sounds is out of the scope of this project right now.

      Greetings!

      • Carcharocles says:

        The Killer7 is a Colt M1911 with an AMT Hardballer laser sight, according to International Movie Firearms Database. Even without going by that sight, it’s very clearly some variant of M1911 on the model alone, using the Hardballer sight from The Terminator (which in that movie was actually an AMT Hardballer Longslide, which itself is an M1911 clone with a 7-inch barrel; the Killer7 has the standard 5.25 inch barrel.)

        One thing I should point out is IMFDB claims it’s a .45 Winchester Magnum, but the Magnum Ammo in-game has a texture indicating that it is simple .45 ACP (which isn’t a magnum round at all, and not really much more powerful than a 9mm round.) Although the Schoffield/Peacemaker hybrid the game calls the Broken Butterfly wouldn’t be chambered in .45 ACP anyway, so it’s a moot point.

        http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_4#Killer7_.28Colt_M1911_with_AMT_Hardballer-styled_laser_sight.29

  17. Jeffrey says:

    Hello. I think We need better more realistic hair textures for Leon.

  18. Cris Without H says:

    Now I wonder: Will the bullets that Leon uses when reloading be remade as well? They look pretty bad when he reloads Red 9, not only because they’re low poly but also because they seem to glow like gold. Shooting golden bullets would be fun, but meh in actual combat.

    • albert says:

      They’ve been improved slightly but we must be cautious with the ammount of polygons we apply to the new weapon models. They are already at the limit of crashing the game. That’s why I didn’t make them ultra 3D detailed.
      I have no idea about actual bullets colours or if they can be of different colours depending of the bullet’s manufacturer but most of them look like gold when I search in Google.

      • Cris Without H says:

        Oh, they look dark gold, but they don’t glow, really, even when in bright light. They’re not very reflective. Red9 bullets look especially bright despite the fact that Leon is in a rather dark area.

        • Cris Without H says:

          While the actual bullet IS reflective, the shell is not, so while some of them look bright in photographs, but when actually seen, they appear more brownish-yellow.

        • abi008 says:

          I agree.

      • sean says:

        its too bad the game will crash if you add too many polygons 🙁 is there no way to up improve that ?

  19. Anas Khalil says:

    Hey Guys :*
    Will you enhance the weapons models?

  20. Rafael says:

    Hello, Could make recorded a video with improve the texture?

  21. Adam XT says:

    I know this is not a graphical improvement, but it would be good if there was an option for more Gamecube style control options. So say on an Xbox 360 controller Y would be inventory, B Ashley follow you, A as before, and X shoot with and option for the trigger control scheme as well.

    • sean says:

      What I want is for the onscreen ingame button prompts that appear during QTEs to have the gamecube buttons instead (like the big green A and little red B) the re4 modding forums have ps2 buttons but not gamecube which doesnt make any sense, re4 sucked on ps2 lol

      • Adam XT says:

        I won’t say Resident Evil 4 sucked on PS2 lol, but yeah the Gamecube version is much better. I even noticed the sound effects on PS2 seemed to be compressed or something.

        Is it possible to play it though with the Gamecube controller on PC? Otherwise I wouldn’t see the point in that personally as it would not match the controller. As I would imagine most people use the Xbox 360 controller given that is what it was made to work with it.

        Would be cool to play it with a Gamecube controller and have vibration function work with correct screen prompts on PC though!

        • sean says:

          I purchased a Mayflassh Gamecube adaptor for my PC last year. I use it with Dolphin and it works just fine. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get it working with RE4uHD for some reason. However, according to the re4modding forums, it is possible to get a gamecube controller working (I think I just have the wrong drivers installed) I will try to see if I can get it working again soon, just haven’t had a reason to as their are no gamecube icons in-game

        • sean says:

          IMO the ps2 port of RE4 is not good for multiple reasons, but specifically it has a reduced difficulty compared to the gamecube

          The ps2 version is unable to display as many enemies on screen at one time, when compared to the gamecube. The rooms with the most ganados were reduced, and the biggest example is the infamous water room with the cranks. I believe the gamecube version could display around 40 ganados at one time, while the ps2 version was only capable of displaying 30. In order to compensate they changed the balance of how much damage is done per attack, thus effectively changing the game in a bad way.

          Also In My Opinion, the ps2 controller was not as smooth or fluid as the gamecubes, and the graphics were way worse. Also, the creator of RE4 quit capcom because he was so unhappy about the fact that capcom ported the game to the ps2 against the creators wishes. Thats why later sequels in the RE series have been crap, because the original creator went on to a different company to make the games he wanted (like Vanquish, and the Evil Within). And that is one reason why I dislike the ps2 port of RE4 so much 🙂

          The best versions of re4 are:
          – the UHD version (with this HD mod)
          – the Wii version (for its motion controls)
          – the original played on a Dolphin emulator, with 4k upscaling and the official gamecube controller
          – Xbox1/ps4 versions are decent but not great
          – the original PC port can be fun for all the mods it has, but it is quite broken 🙂

          • Adam XT says:

            Yes I know about all that, it’s a shame Shinji Mikami and others left because of them porting it to PS2. Makes me think how much better RE5 would have been. It was a good game in its own right but a major disappointment after how good RE4 was.

            The PS2 version was good as it was never going to be on par in the first place being a port, not being built from the ground up like on Gamecube and the fact the PS2 is inferior anyway. The first PC port is the worst version in my opinion as it was actually the PS2 version they ported and it was unplayable if you wanted to play with keyboard and mouse.

            Why would you say the Xbox1/ps4 versions are only decent it’s the uHD version but on console. The only versions I haven’t played are the Wii, PS3 and PS4 versions. But the PS3 and PS4 are basically the same as the Xbox versions so just the Wii version!

    • Cris says:

      That’s a bit beyond the scope of this project, but it sounds like something I would hope could come from someone at the RE Mod Board. 🙂

  22. mono says:

    Hunk is the best love his kick straight to the head !