Fans are Praising This Stunning Twilight Princess HD Fan Project Over the Official Remaster

Update: We now have new screenshots for this project, which can be viewed here.

With the recent reveal of

Twilight Princess HD, fans have been formulating their opinions on how this upcoming remaster looks compared to the original. Some are dissatisfied with the way the game looks, and if you are one of those fans, you may want to check out a man by the name of Tomoya Hamasaki on YouTube.

Hamasaki has been busy creating his own

Twilight Princess HD remaster since before Nintendo’s announcement, and some are saying it’s giving Nintendo a run for their money. It’s a bit odd to be discussing an HD fan project now that an official remaster has been announced, but that just shows the quality of this specific project. We wouldn’t be talking about this if it was some mediocre work, and the attention it has been gaining at an alarming rate is fascinating. Tomoya stated that the project started out as an April Fools joke, until he met a graphics expert that caused him to realize his joke was feasible.

When asked why he chose

Twilight Princess, Tomoya stated:

“Twilight Princess was too ambitious for the hardware at the time. The game had vast landscapes with nothing to do in them, the difficulty was too easy for many, and the wolf form felt like a sequence rather than a mechanic that is important to the game – such as the transformation masks in Majora’s Mask. There are many other issues with the game, but those were the most important ones.”

Tomoya was also asked what software his team uses:

“Mainly the textures and graphical effects like screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), depth of field (DoF), crepuscular rays, motion blur, distant fog, and many upcoming effects like dynamic shadows, reflections, global illumination, and HD models (including map design). Gameplay and engine changes are done through C+ and Assembly. Texture work is done using Photoshop CS6 for environments and PaintTool SAI for characters. The upcoming HD models and animations are done through 3DS Max and Blender. Ishiiruka is the emulator that emulates the Twilight Princess GameCube ISO and provides the modern graphical enhancements.”

In regards to the possibility of Nintendo ordering the project be shut down, Tomoya made it clear that he will not stop development:

“I’m not concerned since this project is basically heavily modding the ISO and emulation. Our project is just going to be a huge patch that requires you to own the physical copy of the game (either GameCube or Wii). If we receive a C&D (cease and desist), let’s just say the project will finish one way or another.”

Hamaski also stated that simple graphic improvements are not all that is in store for the project, as new features are in the works. He wants to improve Hyrule Field, making it more vast and alive with new content. What other new features would you like to see implemented? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.

Source: Tomoya Hamasaki (via Nintendo Life)