Summary
- Horizon Zero Dawn's remaster enhances graphics through improved foliage and NPC presence on the PS5.
- Over 10 hours of new motion-capture data was recorded for livelier conversations between Aloy and NPCs.
- In-game lighting, character models, and environmental reactions have been revamped for a more immersive experience.
The development team behind the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn remaster is going over the changes and improvements being brought to the new version. Back in September, it was confirmed that 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn was being remastered for PlayStation 5 and PC during a Sony State of Play livestream, with this update launching on October 31. Players who already purchased the original Horizon Zero Dawn for PS4 will be able to upgrade to the digital version of the new PS5 edition for a reduced price.
The news of a Horizon Zero Dawn remaster has garnered a mixed response from gamers who feel that a rerelease of such a recent title might not be necessary, though others look forward to replaying Aloy’s original adventure with updated graphics and other improvements. The announcement that a PlayStation Network account would be required to play Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam hasn’t exactly won the skeptics over, but footage of the game’s updated graphics and the ability to transfer the PS4 version’s save data to the PS5 remaster have generated some excitement.
Horizon Zero Dawn Makes Big Change Ahead of Remastered Release
Shortly after being delisted from Epic Games Store, Horizon Zero Dawn makes another big change in preparation for its upcoming remaster's release.
In a lengthy post on PlayStation’s website, Nixxes Communications Manager Julian Huijbregts recently detailed some of the ways that Horizon Zero Dawn’s upcoming remaster enhances the original through more powerful graphics. This includes improved foliage on par with 2022’s Horizon Forbidden West, which Senior Environment Artist Patrick Blankenzee says was made through enhanced shaders, textures, and geometry for hundreds of plants, bushes, flowers, and trees. Senior Technical Game Designer Brian van Nunen adds that the PS5's increased memory has allowed for more NPCs in villages and outposts, as well as new character animations, to make the world of Horizon feel more alive.
Horizon Zero Dawn’s Remaster Feels More Alive on PS5
Nixxes’s Tech Art team has also been working to improve Horizon Zero Dawn’s in-game terrain by replacing elements with their Horizon Forbidden West counterparts, reworking materials and other assets to match the first game’s visual aesthetics. The team also incorporated deformable snow and sand into the base Horizon Zero Dawn, as these features were originally introduced in the later Frozen Wilds DLC expansion. “Building Blocks,” or individual assets used to make buildings and other scenery, also received new high-resolution geometry through new custom tools that the developers created, resulting in more detailed geometry.
Over 10 hours of new motion-capture data were recorded at Guerrilla Games’ studio in Amsterdam, which the developers used to craft more lively conversations between Aloy and NPCs throughout Horizon Zero Dawn. Since the original had nearly 300 conversations and over 3,100 dialog options, the team at Nixxes created a tool to process the recorded mocap files for replacing the old animations, as well as a pipeline for the animation team to easily edit and re-export the improved facial and body mocap files. Other tools were made to allow the staff an easier time adjusting animations to properly fit the in-game environment.
Guerrilla and Nixxes Lighting artists divided work on Horizon Zero Dawn’s in-game lighting, with Guerrilla’s Atmospherics team creating sweeping cloudscapes using Forbidden West’s Nubis cloud system and Nixxes rebalancing and re-lighting parts of the world to retain the mood of the original game. Lastly, character models have been given more detail, such as reacting to environmental elements like weather. All of these changes are meant to provide a more immersive experience when Horizon Zero Dawn’s remaster launches later this month.
Horizon: Zero Dawn
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 94%
- Released
- February 28, 2017
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Mild Sexual Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Guerrilla Games
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Engine
- Decima
- Franchise
- Horizon
WHERE TO PLAY
Earth is ours no more. In an era where Machines roam the land and mankind is no longer the dominant species, a young hunter named Aloy embarks on a journey to discover her destiny. In a lush, post-apocalyptic world where nature has reclaimed the ruins of a forgotten civilization, pockets of humanity live on in primitive hunter-gatherer tribes. Their dominion over the new wilderness has been usurped by the Machines – fearsome mechanical creatures of unknown origin.
Explore a vibrant landscape rich with the beauty of nature. Travel through stunningly detailed forests, imposing mountains and the atmospheric ruins of a bygone civilization, all brought together in a world that is alive with changing weather systems and a full day/night cycle.
