Resident Evil 4 HD Project Mod Finally Released For Steam

Image: Capcom Project / RE4 HD

Resident Evil 4, unquestionably one of the greatest games of all time, is now playable with full high-definition textures, improved 3D models and revamped lighting thanks to the Resident Evil 4 HD Project.

Nearly eight years in the making, Resident Evil 4 HD Project was a colossal undertaking that saw its developers scouring texture libraries and photo galleries for the original materials Capcom used to create the game’s textures in the early 2000s. When that failed, they traveled to locations in Spain and Wales where Capcom itself sourced textures to take its own shots. The result is a comprehensive mod that carefully retains the aesthetics and atmosphere of the original Resident Evil 4 while dramatically improving its visuals in every possible way.

Here’s a breakdown of everything Resident Evil 4 HD Project has to offer from the creators themselves:

Restoration of visuals using original real-world sources: In preparation for the original game, Capcom gathered textural elements by photographing various real-world locations, primarily in Spain and Wales. For this project, Albert traveled to these same locations to gather higher resolution assets. The result is a visual experience as faithful as possible to the original game, presented in resolutions up to 16 times higher than those of the original game.

Fixed texture mapping and 3D modeling issues: Texture mapping and 3D modeling errors that were not noticeable in the original game played on a CRT TV become more apparent when playing in HD resolution. Examples include objects floating above the surface they should be resting on, misplaced shadow layers, seams appearing where textures are supposed to flow continuously. We are fixing these issues throughout the game.

Improved flat objects into real 3D models: Due to the limitations of the original material, objects such as lamps, candle holders, doors, decorative emblems, etc. were originally created as flat objects. In many cases, we are able to revise these objects to make them real 3D models, observable from any angle.

Staying committed to the original visuals: Our intention throughout the project is to stay true to the original visuals and artistic intent. The best kind of feedback we get is when people say the game looks just like they imagined when they first played it 10 years ago. While we’re not perfect, we continually refer to the original texture assets to ensure we don’t deviate significantly.

Improved lighting, visual effects, collision inaccuracies and pre-rendered cutscenes: thanks to Son of Persia and the tools it developed, we were able to edit all that stuff and elevate this project to a new level of perfectionism. Additionally, the pre-rendered videos of Separate Ways and the very rare main campaign videos have been remastered using all sorts of methods: from automated AI upscaling to full re-creation.

Since 2014, the two main developers spent a total of 12,810 hours and over $15,000 (all of this salvaged, then some, thanks to community donations) preparing the Resident Evil 4 HD project for release. Luckily, Capcom never sent out a cease and desist letter and even promoted HD Project through the Resident Evil 4 forum on Steam.

Resident Evil 4 HD Project is currently available for download through its official site. For now, the mod only works with the Steam version of the game. The developers recommend a GPU with at least 2 GB of VRAM to handle the much larger textures and generally upgraded visuals, so it should work fine on almost all modern PCs.

We’ve seen around a million Resident Evil 4 ports over the past two decades, but never an upgrade to match that, so I’m excited to be back for one last playthrough or two (or three, or four, or …well, you have a point).