How Video Game Remasters Are Made
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
- DX discusses video game remasters, why there are so many in the current gaming market and how developers actually create remastered versions of video games.
Support DX on Patreon: / dx
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Intro/Thumbnail/Title Card art by Azuma Yasuo: / azumayasuo96 & / azumaarts
00:00 - Intro
01:00 - What is a Remaster?
03:19 - What happened to Backwards Compatibility?
08:28 - How do developers choose remastering methods?
10:19 - Physically Based Rendering & Remasters
12:33 - Modern Engines & Remasters
14:15 - Super Remaster Bros.
15:13 - Publishers, Developers & Remasters
16:50 - Why do we care about Remasters?
17:53 - Credits - Hry
“I hope that for everyone, there’s a bigger and wiser person playing now than there was back then.”
This couldn’t be more touching when this video comes up at a time when I’m currently missing my simpler life between me and those games back at the time.
While I have very fond memories of your "Games I Fucking Hate" era (which reminded me of games I tried as a kid but disliked enough to barely play past the first hour like Clive Barker's Jericho and Velvet Assassin), dude, every video you've been putting out lately leaves me thinking a lot about the subjects discussed. Masterfully crafted content!
Thank you so much!
This better go crazy in the algorithm
Throwing in a comment on this really good video, to help the video out. Unfortunately, I can't contribute with a subscription, as I already have been for about 3 years.
@@midgarsoldier comment, like or maybe a share should always help for if you want a video to get more seen
160k subs and not even 5% watched the video..
something is off.
It just might have - idk why I got this recommendation lol
@@KrolKazprobably a bot
Underated channel... very informative and deserves more recognition
Thank you!
@@DXFromYT you dance like will smith?
That was a surprisingly good and well-made video. I hope your channel pops off even more because it is covering topics such as this one with an interesting perspective I haven't thought before.
Thank you!
Wow I did not expect to get a little misty eyed at the end of this.
Good stuff! It's interesting to see how remasters tend to come out when given the time to make things work. Even more so, in some ways, when they are rushed out the door and we can see where the process gets tricky.
the philosophical question sent a chill down my spine because of its accuracy. i want to experience the remaster :
1) as i have aged i have gained a lot of wisdom and maturity and it influences how i perceive the game and process the impact it is trying to deliver.
2) the "by-product" of remasters that is visuals have a profound effect on realism and relatability to the real life which connects the player on a deeper level.
3) nostalgia coarsing through the veins at every checkpoint/milestone. its just a never ending train.
this video is both informative and unsettling, i don't know why.
I've been waiting for this video, and it was even better than I expected!
So happy you liked it!
Dx glad u came back i miss ur uploads ❤
Praying for a rogue warrior remaster (with all the voicelines preserved ofc) 🙏🙏🙏
Dang son, you hit the nail on the head! There are a lot of points i was thinking in my head, and you addressed all of them! Love it!
Thank you!
Underrated channel. Amazing content
I really appreciate these deep dives keep it up bro
I've just stumbled on your channel based on the recommendations.
Watched a couple and I'm really impressed! Looking forward to more of your work!
Thank you!
Great video as always, keep up the great work.
I LOVE hearing you talk about Technology and the way games operate. And while im sort of getting the gist, you make it sound so cool and interesting! Keep up the diverse content. Been a fan 10 years and still here💖💖💖💖
Thank you so much!
Great video! Also, I just noticed I wasn't in the ending credits names but I've been subbed for months.
I'm so sorry! Can you reply to my Patreon message, would like to get this sorted out for you.
Great video DX, shout-out to Nightdive Studios for all of thier amazing remasters
Quality videos AND artwork?! Bravo!
i just looked up your channel after remembering how i used to watch (and rewatch) your "anime i f*cking hate" videos. i was kind of surprised that this video was uploaded somewhat recently, and i watched it immediately. this was such a great video! your commentary is just as informative and enjoyable as i remembered
Thank you so much!
Thank you for this mini-documentary!
Thanks for watching!
This is an excellent video. Amazing job with this!
Thank you!
ayy never thought I meet you here of all places
Great take on the remaster v remake discussion. 👏
Thanks!
Thank you for the most heartwarming message at the end 🥹🫶🏻
I love your YT videos because you are able to put into words what I, and so many others, love so deeply about this art form.
Thank you for that
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the video :)
Been waiting for this to drop
This was very informative as I hoped. Thank you.
I wish we'd get more remasters.
It is also important to note that sometimes the source code doesnt exist anymore which forces the developers to create the same game from nothing, maybe AI translate it from a rip. The infamous Silent Hill 2 & 3 HD-Remaster is an example off it, but also the reecent CronoCross rerelease. In the late 90s and early 2000 space on an HDD seemed to be so expansive, that devs wilingly choose to delete their master data. Espacially the PS1 games are a victim of this and the reason, why we have so little ports or (true) remaster (not remakes masked as remaster) of that time. And when we get a remaster, it is either a recretion like Silent Hill, where the devs choose comic sans for the city signs and forgot to imitate the limitations of the hardware back than, which resultet in no fog, or you get an AI interpretation of a rip of a final pressed copy of the game like with CronoCross, where the non native, compressed assets are upscaled, which results in a blurry and unfitting picture quality.
Forgive me as I don't know much about code and games development. Could game code be read, hacked, and reverse engineered even without the master code? I was just suggesting as it has to be read or interpreted by the systems themselves, and the assets like sprites or FMV video are all there on disks or carts (albeit maybe compressed to save space).
@@skycloud4802A really good question. One that I'd like to know the answer to, as well.
Thank you so much. I find game remastering fascinating. Its been hit or miss, imo.
Thanks for the video. I was suggested this video of course by the machines, but this was truly a delight! 😀
Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing your excellent video on this topic! Another facet of remastering has been the jump to 4K in modern displays. The higher the resolution of the display, the worse most of the old, blocky (or N64 blurry) low-res textures look. While there is definitely an argument for preserving games *in amber* as-they-were-back-in-the-day, there are obvious technical issues with displaying low-res textures at such extreme scaling differences. (e.g. 240/320/480i up to 4K). Personally, I am glad that most (but certainly not all ::coughRockstarcough::) companies are making remasters a priority because it makes a huge step toward at least preserving games for the future. Games are a modern art form, and developers & publishers need to be thinking about game preservation and archiving. I’d rather have a great, or even good, remaster so I can revisit past games on 4K displays, versus not being able to play the game at all.
I just discoverd you. You are well informed, polite and your video has a great quality. You earned a new subscriber.
Thank you!
What a fantastic video! I'm working on a remaster of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness with the Definitive Edition, and this video is so well made and really teaches me a lot about remasters as a whole. Thank you!
I am quite literally working on a video about The Angel of Darkness and Tomb Raider as a whole right now. Haha. I played the PS2 version and now I'm making my way through the Definitive Edition on PC which has an absolutely tremendous looking visual overhaul. Small world!
Beautiful ending.
Thank you!
Nightdive constantly proving why they're the best.
Nightdive, Nixxes, and PH3 are consistently high quality when it comes to their remasters and ports.
@@civilwarfare101Remedy have already announced, that they're remaking Max payne 1 and 2 in their Northlight engine, so I don't think that there is a chance of a remasters for these games.
@@gaborsalamon3629 I trust they'll be faithful remakes. I hope they surpass the originals.
@@HAWKEYESOLO They're the original dev studio. I'd hope they'd be faithful.
To be fair. It's the original creators and writers who's heading the remake project. @@civilwarfare101
This just gave me a new frame of mind regarding remastering (not just in video games, though). I didn't think it would be possible when I first pressed play; now I'm glad I did.
Great video! No idea why its struggling view-wise, unfortunately the people who most need to hear this don't seem to be getting reached. Praying for an algorithm upswing soon!
Such an informative video, thanks for this
Thank you for watching!
Nice video, your points on the point!
Hi DX,
I absolutely loved your video, high quality and full of passion. To answer your last question from my perspective, I don't replay games or re-watch movies and tv shows because I have already seen them and I would much rather spend my time on a new experience, this is me and my way of doing things and I am not saying this is how it should be, people who like to re-watch and replay can do whatever they want.
I am however very much into remasters and remakes, not for the reason to replay a game I have already played but to play a game that was too old for me to play in the first place.
There are so many games from 3 or 4 generations ago with amazing story buy janky mechanics, bad graphics and so on, but a remaster fixes those issues and lets me enjoy a game that I wouldn't have played or even considered otherwise.
Same goes for movies, I think that there is a finite amount of original and good ideas for movies and we have pretty much exhausted all of it, I have reached a point where any movie I watch I'll already know where the plot is going and how it will eventually end because after watching as much movies as I have, everything becomes predictable. Superhero movies, action, horror, thriller and the many other genres that there are all have a formula that you will eventually learn. The only exception is movies that are based on true stories or documentary type movies, I still enjoy every one of those.
There are however movies from the 90's, 80s and before that I most likely would watch and think that are original but won't because they are too old and I would never even search for a movie from that era.
I hope I was able to get my point across and hope to see others that share the same view.
One studio to keep an eye out for regarding remasters is Nightdive studios. Recent example being Quake. Their biggest project so far is the remake of System Shock. Which was really good, it's been one i've been waiting for. If you enjoy Immersive Sims, give it a try. I do like how they really stuck to it's origina's gameplay elements.
They've been bought out by Atari. Whether that remains to be good or bad remains to be seen. Currently waiting for the enhanced edition of System Shock 2. I also hope they end up also remastering titles like Deus Ex or Thief.
I'm praying they eventually get their hands on Unreal and No One Lives Forever (which they've tried to in the past), just to see those remastered.
This was way more informative than I expected
Thanks so much!
The art for my intro, this video's thumbnail and title card was done by artist Azuma Yasuo. They have a Patreon as well, and you can check them out here! twitter.com/AzumaYasuo96 & www.patreon.com/azumaarts
Sorry I don't have discord anymore due to family drama
Wow i saw only 95k views i was expecting millions! This was a perfectly done video and you said everything that people need to know! personally i think that games are a work of art and needs to be preserved... is always a blessing when developers do a well done job.. but sometimes the community do even better (like mass effect and pinnacle station). And when publisher doesnt care there are the heroes that develop emulators!
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed!
Two months and 97k :(
@@YurikoSakuma it'll get to 100k someday 🤣🤣🤣
Hooray a new DX video
Awesome video, good work
The problem I have with the term 'remaster' when it comes to games, is that games already look the way they're supposed to whereas home video releases have usually been comprimised because of the technology at the time.
A good home video should look as much as possible as the original theatrical release, whereas for instance Super Mario Bros. for Famicom is the original release.
Usually good video game developers are aware of the hardware limitations and design the game play and graphics around them. Mario's original character design in Donkey Kong is one example and the other is the fog in Silent Hill 1.
Great video man !
Thank you!
This is a fun watch. Extremely informative. Ive studied game dev practically my entire life, ontop of being friends with many in the industry. Id imagine the points made in this video would be considered accurate if they watched it.
Good to see you still make videos. And the quality of the content is still good. I hope you bring back the anime you fucking hate because they were so entertaining
Good stuff, DX, as always. Keep it up, buddy!👍
15:15 love that background soundtrack
Video is doing great. Congrats
Beautiful video
Rockstar should watch this and realize that people are upset for a reason in regards to their remasters or ports or whatever u call what they doing.
Dropping an early comment to help the algorithm. Great video man!
clicked for chloe, watched for dx 🙏🙏🙏
Hehe, thank you!
Very well done!
Thank you!
Love the way you can make this content appealing for non-gamers.
To answer your final question, remasters give us an opportunity to self reflect on how far we've come. They give us a chance to transport ourselves into the younger versions of ourselves and do things differently. Whether it be playing in a better way or playing for fun rather than to get the game over and done with, they make us appreciate the art more. And they are a good way for newcomers to experience beloved franchises.
yes and yes! wow what a great comment.
the best intro ever wowwwww
What a great video. ❤
Thank you!
Great video, an interesting type of remaster is what destiny 2 is doing with its destiny 1 content getting conpletely remade and added in for free with updates to make it challenging in the new game
After viewing the video and now noticing the pints you made me have a sort of sense of clarity into how some of the games we get have good remasters/being remakes for a current generation of gamers alongside the ones That have played them and who are older wanna see them through a new lens in terms of how THEY saw them as a kid and now what they are seeing now with the new guys…which now after that I came to the reality that for one there are GOOD remasters and there are ones that never should have been made or ones that were made poorly (I.e last of us 2 remastered and GTA trilogy the definitive edition into which that’s a heavy example considering the fact that was made using a mobile ports coding and etc) now that I can see it and it really makes me think of truly filtering out the bad stuff from the ones that truly deserve the best kind of attention.
Well... the closest to a remaster would be something like a port, taking the source, tweaking small bits of it to work using different (usually better) APIs, and recompiling it from that. It's like how a lot of recent source code leaks and decomps allow us to do things like Mario 64 PC, taking the original, tweaking it to run under something else, and recompiling it.
Yep, that would be the closest thing we have in games.
@@DXFromYT Yeah. Also I'm (glad? disappointed?) that you didn't touch on Half-Life Source as an example, it's perfect.
What a nice and deep video!
Thank you!
It's a dream come true to remaster our favorite game
When It Comes To Remasters, The Upgrade From The Original Is Much More Than Ports And It Needs To Be Done Right.
(and yes backwards compatibility is also great too)
Even Retro Revivals Have Alot And Upcoming Remasters On The Way, And They Look Amazing!
Personaly im fine with remasters as long as theyre visual updates... The refreshing feeling of seeing things becoming realistic back when things are pixelated due to hardware limitations.
But nowadays it isnt about hardware limitations but more about milking the fanbase of that specific games instead of bringing out the quality products and entice new and old markets.
I'm a huge fan of Life is Strange, but I'm happy with the original games.
The original looks better to me. It feels like with the remaster it got all its soul stripped away to look more gritty and some scenes objectively look worse.
@@youlooklikeagoodjoeyoulooklone I agree, but on the other hand I'm also a kind of a purist, so I value the original and 1st edition stuff more. If there's a drastic re-master of something favorite, for example from PS1 to PS5 and it looks totally different, yes, I'll try it.
9:30
Original - appropriate font on the sign
Remaster - Comic Sans
It feels like quite often developers of highly successful games, which came out way back in the day, always wished they had more time, like they want to shape it to their current vision and make it "perfect". I'm sure many people roll their eyes at the cash grab remasters (who's laughing now), but I don't dislike remasters in general. When done right they bring classics to new eyes in a smoother and overall better looking experience, with less jank and maybe a little quality of life jammed in. I get to play some old games I really liked, and it feels like playing it for the first time again.
Maybe you could talk about remakes next. Subbed.
Ayyy caught it in the nick of time
I love that aloy is in the intro
Was expecting more about how studios come up with the idea to remaster and why is they do it and how things go wrong from an insider's perspective.
Still making fire videos after all these years
Thank you!
I want Remasters so I can continue playing my favorite titles when I no longer have the console they launched on.
Also in half of the comparisons the Remaster has dimmer lighting. I get that it's the new lighting effects, but it looks odd that they would be darker than the more vibrant original.
9:30 I will never get over that comic sans'd "remastered" sign
Remasters is a good option because like you said, a lot of companies don’t have backwards compatibility as their features. It runs smoother if you want to experience for the first time like for example, I really wanted to get into the Uncharted series on the PS4 and my only option is buy the remasters. But In my opinion Backwards Compatibility shouldn’t be abandoned like that, I’m glad that Microsoft still has it on the Xbox is a breath of fresh air. If it wasn’t for that feature maybe I wouldn’t play Fallout New Vegas and the Mass Effect trilogy back in 2021. Plus putting it on the Series X is quite an upgrade. Seeing Red Dead Redemption on the Switch is downright horrible, where it charge you money for a game is 10+ years old. You could play that game on Series X with better visuals without charge. I’m not a fan of remasters because of small changes on visuals but if that’s the business strategy for game companies for people getting hooked on nostalgia then they’re doing it very well.
Technically remasters aren’t needed for better game performance. And backwards compatibility should be enough to make a game perform like remaster.
But Sony and Xbox put limitations on backwards compatibility so that the new hardware doesn’t change the game’s performance.
If I’m lying… than why is any computer company able to release a new graphics card or cpu and instantly make older games look a lot better.
Consoles are computers. They use the same logic, so they should do the same thing.
I personally love remasters and crave for more from games I yearn in hope to have remastered.
It's frustrating and depressing how so many great games get left out without a remaster, sequel, remake, or reboot.
This guy talks so professionally and then you see big anime coconuts.
🤭
do you have a list of films/video games used in this video? i'd love to know what i am looking at exactly
Nice of you showing the OG The Last of Us so much, I couldnt play this game in 2013 and only managed to get it running on RPCS3 emulator 2 years ago. It ran good beacuse the community constantly works on the emulator, but was actually more hardware- hungry than the new PC Remake :)
The new 2023 game looks way better but in my opinion its only a Remaster rather than a Remake, since it plays exacly the same, levels are the exact same, not alot of innovation happened. NaughtyDog choose this direction to make it " safer" for them, but many players wanted more...
They do have the money to produce quality products. Their only focus is getting more money...ours. I will say that some remastered titles are worth it. Thank you, DX.
Very interesting video, Im so excited for the tomb raider remasters 🥰
meanwhile: PCs are practically backwards compatible starting...around Direct3D/OpenGL-era.
even that, you'll still gonna faced compatibility issues; especially on newer hardward/software. (see: Max Payne 1 requiring a workaround inorder to make it run on AMD Zen 2/3-based CPUs, amongst other stufffs)
This is why I favor remakes like resident evil 2-4 and mafia, those are prime examples to experience classic games with modern tech
The 3 remake was awful, look up "resident evil 4 soul vs soulless" as well to see why the 4 remake fails at every level to capture the old game's environments (everything else about the 4 remake is pretty good tho)
Sometimes a graphical update of a great game is enough. But I hope Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP gets more than just a new coat of paint.
Yo been awhile DX
interesting video
Honestly, now i wonder how Perfect Dark's xbox 360 remaster was made. Mainly because from a visual standpoint, the updated the models and textures, but didn't really update the rendering tech. Although thinking about it, maybe it was so they could hit 60 FPS.
Hey DX, what happened to your video on DanMachi? It isn't in your AIFH playlist.
I genuinely don't remember.
Interesting
I know these two games are full remakes and not remasters, but the Destroy all humans! 1 and 2 are just incredibly well crafted. It took an old franchise and made it look better visually and mechanically with new installments of game play that enhanced the experience. Every time I replay them, really feels like I’m replaying the original. Over all this video was great to see the how and the whys of remasters. Very well done!
Good vid
Thank you!
16:56 for me it’s Get to re-experience a game i enjoy + trophies 🏆
in my opinion when a studio publish a remaster some gamers have certain standards that they see or want to see in the remastered version in some ways certain games getting remastered by studios that actually put their heart and soul into it means something but when a studio does not put much effort into a remaster to a game that has a cult following people go after the original studio for giving the green light to another studio to smear the name of an amazing game that they created
Mark Cerny confirmed the PlayStation 4 could have had full native backwards compatibility by having the Emotion Engine / CELL Processor built into itthough would added a significant amount to the manifacturing cost as such was not a priority due to the amount of data SIE gathered from players that it was a feature not many used despite claiming otherwise
So not about power but more about relaunching an entire new system built around the developers
Remastered games may be more prevalent now, but they have been around for decades. The quality varies, of course, because there will always be some fan base who will object to the modifications (if any) in a remaster. In other cases, some remasters don't even try. I hear people complain about the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (the SNES version from 1995, not the 3D trilogy) for good reason. That "remaster" from Tecmo retains the NES graphics on a 16-bit console, but it changes the music and the color of the health bar. Seriously, those are the only changes to the trilogy. That, to me, is a profound disappointment.
What's the song playing at 6:27, please?
Gusty Garden Galaxy