blizzard Diablo 2 Fan Remaster / Upscale Project

[Starym 3,801]

 

As we've recently found out that an official Diablo 2 Remaster is very unlikely/almost impossible, this fan-made project is all the more relevant, despite the very early stages of development. Redditor zomprd has taken several steps in the long road to remastering the classic, with some impressive images and animations so far.

Zomprd isn't going too far off to the 4 and 8K crazyness territories and is sticking to 1080p HD for now, which is ambitious enough, seeing as he has to rebuild the entire game from scratch, using several AI upscaling techniques. First off we have some Rogue Encampment and Arreat screenshots, that look pretty impressive in their HD treatment.

That last one is particularly impressive, really bringing out the details in both the pillars and the background. You can check out a few more images from the Rogue Encampment in the full gallery.

But he's not stopping at just stills, as he's also upgrading the animations for some  models, which you can check out here (NSFW warning - Andariel features prominently). Here's a still of the models, but definitely check out the ones in motion above (the different columns represent different options of rendering the models):

And here the full quote from the man himself in the reddit posts:

Quote

Greeting, stranger. Stay awhile and listen!

As I've stated in this previous post, I'm working on a web application - a Diablo 2 prototype with upscaled textures.

Last time I used ESRGAN with Manga model to upscale Rogue Encampment, this time I've extracted some animations and used several different models to upscale them.

Here are the results: https://quiet-springs-45295.herokuapp.com

Question for you: which model do you like the best?

Some notes:

• The larger the display the better, at least fullHD (for extra enjoyment press F11!)
• It can take a few seconds to load, the size of the animations is about 10MB
• Right now you can zoom in, the final app won't be zoomable (it will resize automatically to fullscreen)
• Every animation was upscaled by a factor of 2 (2x larger width & height, totally 4x larger area)
• Don't forget about the zombies at the bottom

Future plans:

• Rescaling some UI elements and items
• Working on the application itself
• As stated, the final resolution will be fullHD. It is possible to make a 4K version, but the result is a web app - 4K textures would take too much space. And I also don't have a 4K screen to test it on
• Working on it several hours a day. Next report will be in a few days, when there will be something new to show to you

Which model do you like the best?

The comments under this post will be taken into consideration when I'll be choosing a single model for these and all other animations.

Your opinion matters!

...

The plan in the following few days is to upscale also some characters, monsters, items and other textures, and create a web application -- a prototype, a Diablo 2 demo -- which uses these upscaled textures.

Stay tuned for more.

...

Just please keep in mind that the demo will feel a little different from the original game, since I'm basically building a new game from scratch (only using the upscaled textures and music from D2).

Source: r/diablo.

 

Related articles:

• Diablo 2 Remaster Unlikely - Code and Assets Were Lost According to Creators

• Why Diablo 2 Still Holds Up After 20 Years - Book Excerpt

• Diablo 2 Intro Upscaled to 8K

• Diablo 2 E3 Trailer and LoD Intro Upscaled to 4K and 8K

• Diablo 2 LoD Final Cinematic 8K Remaster

[CaperfinWoW 24]

all hail zomprd our saviour!

[Draketh 86]

Now this is definitely something I'll be keeping an eye on. Very excited!

[PatrickHenry 293]

i love these upscales and remakes.

[mouacyk 0]

The clarity is impressive and well worth it.