Half-Life: ReSrced (HD Graphics Mod)

Half-Life: ReSrced is a mod for Half-Life, Opposing Force and Blue Shift that gives the game HD textures upscaled from the original low-res textures. This is accomplished by using state-of-the-art neural networks to upscale the game’s graphics. Combined with detail textures and support for a variety of HD model packs for Half-Life and its expansion packs, ReSrced makes the classic game look sharp and modern while keeping true to the original aesthetic.

To make this possible Half-Life: ReSrced runs on the open-source Xash3D FWGS engine. While it's not as plug-and-play as a regular mod for the Steam version of Half-Life, I have made a step-by-step installation instruction that will make the process quite easy. You can find this further down this article.

Features

Half-Life: ReSrced is full of interesting features, that I'll explain below.

Support

Half-Life: ReSrced supports both the original Half-Life, as well as its expansion packs Opposing Force and Blue Shift. I have played through all three games just to be sure that they could be finished in this new engine. Half-Life plays perfectly and there only a few minor issues with Blue Shift/Opposing Force.

HD Textures

ReSrced completely revamps the textures of Half-Life and its expansions. All of the textures now have 4 times the resolution of the original version.

Almost all of the thousands of textures have been upscaled. The exceptions are transparent textures (railings, grates, etc.), a few small animated textures that didn't look good when upscaled.

HD Skyboxes

All Black Mesa skyboxes have been upscaled as well, giving the distant mesas of New Mexico more detail than before.

The nebulous skyboxes of Xen haven't been changed, as those looked better when not upscaled.

Detail Textures

Detail textures are textures that add high-resolution detail to other textures. This helps the game world to look detailed even when viewed up close.

HD Model Textures

ReSrced supports HD model textures for three types of models:

• the original models
• Valve's 2001 High Definition Pack
• High Definition 2 Pack (aka Super Definition Pack)

This last one might not be familiar to you. This is a fan-made compilation mostly sourced from the PS2 version of Half-Life. This what is shown in the trailer and screenshots of this mod.

So how did I do it?

The magic behind Half-Life: ReSrced was made possible with the AI upscaling tool AI Gigapixel. Using state of the art AI neural networks, this upscaling program tries to emulate the detail the original renders would have had. This helps the new visuals to come as close to a higher resolution re-rendering of the original as possible with current technology.

You can find out more about this tool here.

Download link

Click on this link to go to the download page.

Screenshots

Head over to the screenshots page for some more screenshots to show off the mod.

Installation help/FAQ

To make this possible Half-Life: ReSrced runs on the open-source Xash3D FWGS engine. While it's not as plug-and-play as a regular mod for the Steam version of Half-Life, I have made a step-by-step installation instruction that will make the process quite easy. I recommend everyone use it.

Note: in the readme file included with the mod file I included the wrong name and URL for High Definition 2 Pack. Use this link. It is correct in the online install guide.

If you have questions other than about installation, please see the FAQ page.

Credits

• Valve and Gearbox for the original assets this mod is based on
• Topaz Labs for the AI Gigapixel upscaling software this mod relies on to make low-res images into high-res ones
• The team behind Xash3D and Xash3D FWGS, the latter which this mod redistributed under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE 3

What do you think?

Once you've got a chance to play Half-Life: ReSrced, I'd be interested in hearing what you think. Please leave a comment below, with your thoughts about the mod.