Aloy standing in knee-deep water with her bow and arrow in front of some ruins.
The upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered promises significant enhancements over the original, and a recent PlayStation blog post provides details on how Guerrilla Games and Nixxes Software are bringing the game’s world to life. One key improvement focuses on enhancing the population and behavior of Non-Player Characters (NPCs).
Enhanced NPC Population and Behavior
Nixxes leveraged the PS5’s increased processing power and memory to significantly increase the number of NPCs in settlements and the surrounding world. This allows for a denser, more believable environment, echoing the bustling activity seen in Horizon Forbidden West. Senior Technical Game Designer Brian van Nunen explains that these added NPCs occupy a wider variety of locations, engaging in more diverse actions and routines. This not only adds visual richness but also contributes to a more immersive and dynamic game world.
“Building the game for PS5 allowed us to leverage the increased amount of memory available, enabling us to significantly boost the number of non-player characters,” van Nunen stated. The team implemented more locations for NPCs to interact with, giving them more varied schedules to enhance movement and liveliness. They also made creative use of existing animations to maximize the impact of the increased NPC count.
Visual Upgrades to NPCs
Beyond population increases, the remaster also benefits from visual upgrades applied to NPCs, including enhanced skin tones, improved hair quality, and more detailed outfits. These enhancements, borrowed from Forbidden West, contribute to a more visually appealing and realistic presentation of the characters inhabiting the world, including Aloy herself.
New Dialogue and Mo-cap Enhancements
A significant effort was invested in recording over 10 hours of new motion capture (mo-cap) data, resulting in approximately 2,500 new files for Nixxes to integrate. This added dialogue and animation aims to enrich the narrative experience and provide players with more engaging interactions within the game world. Nixxes developed custom Python tools to efficiently process and implement this extensive amount of new mo-cap data.
Technical Challenges and Solutions
Integrating the new mo-cap data presented several technical challenges. Senior Technical Artist Mark Bazelmans discussed the process of utilizing these new files, explaining how the team developed tools to streamline the integration of dialogue audio, allowing animators to better time character movements and refine camera work. Animator Alexander Georgiev highlighted the challenges in ensuring seamless integration with the existing environment and preventing clipping issues, particularly with character models and their surroundings.
Environmental Improvements
The blog post further details numerous environmental enhancements, covering upgrades to textures, foliage, lighting, and terrain. These improvements contribute to a more visually impressive and immersive experience, showcasing the power of the PS5 hardware.
Release Information
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered releases on PS5 and PC on October 31st. Players can look forward to a richer, more detailed, and engaging world thanks to the combined efforts of Guerrilla Games and Nixxes Software.
