Revealing The Future

After I released version 1.0 of Remako Mod, I told you all that I had another project in mind. It took me a little longer than I was expecting, but I am finally ready to tell you what project I have been working on... and that project is Half-Life: ReSrced.

Comparison of ReSrced and original Half-Life graphics
Click to view before/after with slider

What Is Half-Life: ReSrced?

ReSrced is an upscale mod for the original Half-Life. As you have come to expect from me it will feature AI-enhanced HD textures, upscaled 4 times from the original resolution. Other graphical tricks like high-res detail textures make the game world look even better. I will also include improved models sourced from later ports of Half-Life, as you can see with the hologram model in the screenshot above, which is based on the PS2-exclusive Half-Life: Decay.

To make this happen, I will bundle the mod with Xash3D. This is a fan-made engine that emulates and expands on the GoldSrc engine that powers Half-Life. It, for example, allows me to combine both high-res 24-bit textures and high-res detail textures. This is not possible in the original Half-Life engine. I would also like to see if the Half-Life expansion Opposing Force and Blue Shift are also possible to do. These are not as compatible with Xash3D as normal Half-Life. Time will tell, but first I will work on Half-Life.

More on what to expect in ReSrced in a future blogpost.

Why Upscale Half-Life?

So why did I end up choosing Half-Life? I did some experiments in Half-Life: Source in early 2019 as a way to free up my mind when I had worked on Remako a little bit too much. If you don't know what Half-Life: Source is, it is a straightforward port of Half-Life to the more advanced Source engine. I continued with it after Remako 1.0 launched, but in the end, I was not happy with the results. The port just does not feel as good as the original Half-Life, so it felt like putting lipstick on a pig.

My experience with the Source engine made me look into Half-Life 2 as the next project. While it is not as ancient as Half-Life or Final Fantasy VII, it still has pretty blurry textures. Later Source games showed that there was a lot of graphical potential though, so I hoped to turn that 2004 game into a 2019-looking one. The problem with this project was that it was too big. To make as big a difference as Remako graphically, I would have had to pull out all the stops. This would prove to be too much, at least at that moment. When I posted this, I had not yet realized that. In the future, I would like to revisit this game though.

All this time, I thought that the original Half-Life itself would be off-limits. The GoldSrc has several limits when it comes to HD graphics where I will not go into. Then in early September, I stumbled upon Xash3D. This turned out to be what I needed. As explained above, this engine allows me to greatly improve the graphics of the original Half-Life without straying too far from the late 90s look of the game.

If you ask yourself why I would do a mod of Half-Life when you have such a great modern-day remake as Black Mesa, then my answer is the same as for FFF7 and its Remake: they are two different games. There is something unique about the original Half-Life, that can't be replicated. So I'm going to try and make it look as good now as you imagined it looked back in the late 90s.

What About Remako?

You all probably got to know me through my first endeavour: the Remako Mod for Final Fantasy VII. So I wouldn't want to leave you without any news on that front. Remako 1.1 is also in the works. I am alternating work on that with my work on Half-Life: ReSrced.


What will it include? The biggest highlights included upscaled magic effect textures and a completely redrawn UI. You can see an example of that in the READY sign that you see when you start the G-Bike minigame.

More on what to expect in Remako 1.1 in a future blogpost.

When?

You are probably asking yourself, when can I expect all this goodness. While I don't have a definitive date yet, I can predict that both Half-Life: ReSrced and Remako 1.1 will come before the end of 2019. As mentioned above, you will also get a few dev diaries showing off the mods. But first I'm going to release a new tutorial for Gigapixel AI. I have been getting a lot of requests to make something like that, so that'll be coming this week.

Comments

Unknown said…
I haven't checked this blog since may but now knowing you are working on a HL1 mod it's even more happy. Thanks for you amazing work on FF7 as well!
Anonymous said…
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Anonymous said…
Ooh. Thanks! Will be keeping eye on the project.
GoronMegaZord said…
Nice UI example! I still haven't played Remako, but it is on my backlog. Maybe 1.1 will be the right time. Also, good luck with Half-Life!
Tec said…
Hi there!
I understood how you manage the upscaling of video however; I do not get how do you upgrade a 3d meshes, that are moving in a 3d world. Do you unpack the ressources and upscale them?
How do you proceed to upscale a game (not video or pre-calculated render)
Thanks!
CaptRobau said…
Hi Tec, the 3d models are from the PS2 version of Half-Life. This has much higher resolution models than the original PC version of Half-Life.
Sweety80 said…
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