Today Microsoft and Remedy Entertainment released a new trailer of the upcoming Alan Wake Remastered.
The trailer showcases a comparison between the new graphics running on Xbox Series X with the original game running on Xbox 360.
You can watch it below, and read a summary of what was improved.
“So what’s new in Alan Wake Remastered? For starters, the game runs in 4K at 60fps on Xbox Series X, and in 1080p at 60fps on Series S. You can expect to see re-worked cutscenes with improved facial animations and lip-syncing, richer environments, and enhanced character models that have updated skin and hair shaders. Improvements have also been made to materials and textures in general, plus anti-aliasing, shadows, wind simulation, and increased draw distances.
Being such a story-focused game, Alan Wake Remastered’s cast of more than 30 characters is a huge part of the overall experience and was naturally an area we focused a lot of our time. A full team of character artists went back to the original reference materials to help make the characters look more like the actors they were based on. In the comparison trailer you should be able to spot the vast improvements to the characters themselves and the materials used in their costumes, adding even more realism and detail.
Aside from the character models, the animation teams transformed the game by making significant upgrades to facial animations, core gameplay movement, and more. This involved creating new rigs for the characters’ faces, entirely new motion capture for dialogue, and more than 600 additional poses being created to give greater expression to the performances. Look closely and you’ll spot loads of extra little details, like hand animations and idle movements. In addition, we also had a dedicated cinematics team updating every single scene in the game (for over an hour of footage in total), integrating everything from the new motion captures mentioned earlier, to more advanced post-production effects.
While the characters themselves are a central part of the game, the environment is equally important and demands as much care and attention as Alan himself. With that in mind, we had a dedicated sub-team working entirely on trees and foliage. The forest is a deeply complex environment. The team brought it to life by adding all new details like ferns, moss, fallen leaves, and other ground coverage, alongside improvements to animations like trees blowing in the wind.
The environment team worked closely with the programmers to upgrade the terrain itself, adding greater complexity and fidelity to different materials, from dirt and rocks, all the way to the mountains, and more urban materials like concrete and tarmac. A team of artists then set to work adding further detail to buildings, vehicles, and other objects to make sure that Bright Falls is as compelling and dramatic as it deserves to be.”
Alan Wake Remastered releases on Oct. 5 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and Xbox One. You can also check out a previous trailer.
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