'The only piece of art we actually reused, 1:1, were Tyrael's wings,' lead artist Chris Amaral said. I thinnnk the remaster's on the right.Īnd with dear old archangel Tyrael, they're straight reusing parts of the original model. For example, because the original Succubus enemies reused the body mesh of the Assassin (a sensibly efficient game dev practice with a frustratingly controversial public image, thanks to Internet loudmouths), they too reused their new Assassin's body mesh for their new Succubus. They also followed some of the techniques Blizzard used in the first game.

I admire that technique in remasters - it's part of why the Resident Evil 4 HD Project mod is so impressive, hunting down the buildings that Capcom had photographed as foundations for textures. This led to some nice discoveries like finding the source files for mural textures in the Act II tombs, which they could then reuse for the remade tombs. During the panel, Blizzardeers explained that they made an effort to gather original concept art, 3D models, code, renders, and such to understand the original intent behind art and better inform the art teams' creative decisions as they remade parts. While the original Diablo 2 is 2D with sprites (created from 3D models), Resurrected is rebuilding the entire game in 3D. My favourite titbit: the new Tyrael reuses the angelic wings from the actual 3D model used to create his 2D sprite in the original game.

Watching a panel at BlizzCon today, I was delighted to hear about how they dug up ancient Blizzard assets to recreate and even reuse in the remaster. While Diablo II: Resurrected isn't trying to precisely duplicate the original's look, the newly-announced remaster is making an impressive effort to match some parts.

Diablo 2 hd remakes