Capcom has remade Resident Evil at least once, and I think there is another remake in the works. But what about the original PlayStation version of Directors Cut? What can be done with it? Apparently, A LOT. If you are using emulators, particularly, Duckstation.
Is This an Acceptable Use of AI?
For me, ethical use of AI is to do things people would rather not, or it is hard to find people to do. One might believe redrawing all the backgrounds, the textures, etc, for a 30-year-old PlayStation game might fit that bill. Glancing at Upwork and Fiverr, there is not exactly a lot of work, nor workers respectively, in this field now.
No matter where you fall on the AI use debate, you have to admit, this is impressive.
The game looks almost brand new, similar to what most of us with rose colored nostalgia glasses on would swear “it looked like this back in the day”.
Not Perfect But Still Amazing Looking
It is not perfect; there are some graphical errors that pop up at 8:14 for instance. Glaringly stand out errors but for the most part, they are rare. I am not sure if they were due to bad AI textures or if it was Duckstation making a mistake using the available textures. Either way, they are there.
Most of the backgrounds are simply fantastically detailed affairs now. Not that they were all that low res (on a tube television of the time) back when Directors Cut was first released. The textures on the characters are also improved.
This causes a bit of a disjointed feeling. Like the original releases, there is a slight disconnect between the overly detailed backgrounds and the polygon-based characters overlaid.
It is easy to ignore though and just immerse yourself in Resident Evil Directors Cut.
Grab the necessary files on JaunchoTex HD’s YouTube channel.