FAQ

We’re two guys who love Resident Evil 4 and want to help create the definitive graphical experience for the game. 🙂 Cris is from the midwest in the US, while Albert lives in Spain. Albert’s experience goes all the way back to the 2007 PC release of the game, for which he created one of the most complete and well-received texture packs, while this is Cris’ first effort.

During the time this project’s been on development, a lot of people helped us: Among them, “Son of Persia”, “nipkow” and “emoose” are the main coders that made possible a lot of the improvements included in this project.

It’s definitely NOT because we have an abundance of free time. Rather, it’s because we absolutely love Resident Evil 4 and feel that we should have the best visual experience of the game as possible.

With the release of the Ultimate HD version, we have confirmation that while some textures have been upgraded, the majority haven’t. It seems safe to say that an official 100% across-the-board HD revamp of the game isn’t coming anytime soon, so now is the time to do this.

Restoring the visuals using the original real world sources. In preparation for the original game, Capcom gathered texture assets by photographing a variety of real-world locations, primarily throughout Spain and Wales. For this project, Albert has gone to these same locations to gather higher resolution assets. The result is a visual experience that is as true to the original game as possible, presented in resolutions up to 16 times that of the original game.

Correcting texture mapping and 3D modeling issues. Texture mapping and 3D modeling errors that weren’t noticeable in the original game being played on a CRT television become more apparent when playing in HD resolutions. Examples include objects floating above the surface they should rest on, improperly placed shadow layers, seams appearing where textures are supposed to flow continuously. We are correct these issues throughout the game.

Enhancing flat objects to true 3D models. Due to limitations of the original hardware, objects like lamps, candle-holders, doors, decorative emblems, etc. were originally created as flat objects. In many instances we are able to revise these objects to be true 3D models, observable from any angle.

Remaining committed to the original visuals. Our intent throughout the project is to remain true to the original visuals and artistic intent. The best kind of feedback we receive is when people say that the game looks like what they *imagined* it to look like when they first played it 10 years ago. While we are not perfect, we continually refer back to the original texture assets to ensure we do not deviate in a significant manner.

Improving lighting, visual effects, collision inaccuracies and prerendered cutscenes. Thanks to Son of Persia and the tools he developed, we’ve been able to edit all this kind of stuff and raise this project to a new level of perfectionism. Also, Separate Ways prerendered videos and the very few videos in the main campaign have been remastered using all kind of methods: from automate AI upscaling to complete re-creation.

The HD project is compatible with the Steam PC port of Resident Evil 4.

Resident Evil 4 HD project (ver. 1.0) release date is 2.2.2022

The most likely scene is future patches that fix small details (based on people’s feedback) will be released.

Of course! The point of this project is for everyone to enjoy as good-looking a version of the game as possible (while still holding true to the original artistic intent and direction of the creators of the game).

Essentially to support this ongoing work and to offset the costs of the hardware / software / hosting / texture library subscriptions purchased for this project.

Definitely! Please comment on any post to give us feedback on our progress. In some cases it will help shape the end product!

No worries. Capcom is aware of the project and has allowed the project thread to be pinned on the Steam discussion forum for the game.

This is explained in detail (and with images) here. 🙂

We essentially took each texture, scaling it up to 8-16 times the original resolution (in most cases) and redrawing / remaking from there. Additionally, there are many instances where Albert has been able to find the original source materials used, which allows us to faithfully replicate the original intent at a much higher resolution.

Also, we finally got the needed tools to edit 3D models, lighting, visual effects, collision maps and much more!!

Just about every texture, including those for Separate Ways, Mercenaries and Assignment Ada. Also, we are improving the 3D models, lighting, effects, etc.

That is currently not in scope for the project. But we have faith in our coder colleagues. Maybe they can fix certain aspects of the audio in the future.

The greatest increase in hardware requirements would likely be increased VRAM due to the larger textures. We’ve seen VRAM usage of up to ~1500MB. A graphics card with 2GB of VRAM should be sufficient.

While we are not looking to add additional folks to the team, we certainly appreciate it when people follow the project updates and provide feedback. It’s definitely helpful to us!

Albert: In my case, it’s a side hobby. I work as layout designer for a scientific magazines publisher. I usually work with Adobe software (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator).
UPDATE: I no longer work as a layout designer, and I started a 2-year 3D animation and interactive applications course on September 2021.

Cris: This is a hobby for me as well. I work as a project manager for a bank. I’ve learned to use these tools on my own over the years. 🙂