Baldur’s Gate “True HD Edition” Remaster - How Feasible Would It Be Today?
Zorutar
Member Posts: 55
Hi everyone,
I’ve been thinking about how realistic it would be to create what I would call a “True HD Edition Remaster” of Baldur’s Gate 1 / 2 Enhanced Editions.
By “True HD Remaster”, I do not mean a remake or redesign. The idea would be to preserve the original Infinity Engine experience, maps, proportions, gameplay and overall art direction as closely as possible, while bringing the visual presentation to a level that looks genuinely sharp and consistent on modern 1440p / 4K displays.
There is also an interesting new context for this discussion. Recent reports suggest that Wizards of the Coast is working on a remake of Baldur’s Gate II, with original BG2 co-lead designer Kevin Martens reportedly involved, and that Baldur’s Gate I may receive similar treatment:
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/a-baldurs-gate-2-remake-is-apparently-in-development-with-the-original-co-lead-designer-returning/
These projects have not yet been officially unveiled in detail, so we do not know what engine, ruleset or design approach they may use. But if they are full remakes, they could potentially involve rebuilt environments, new rendering technology, redesigned presentation, and perhaps gameplay or UI changes.
That raises the opposite question:
“What would the original Baldur’s Gate look like if the Infinity Engine version finally received the true HD treatment it never had?”
The aim would therefore not be to compete with a potential official remake, but to retain the original games while restoring, reconstructing or recreating their visual assets at much higher fidelity.
The obvious platform would be the existing Enhanced Edition, potentially extended through EEex and projects such as InfinityEngine-Enhancer. However, GemRB may also be relevant as a longer-term alternative. As an open-source reimplementation of the Infinity Engine, it can potentially be modified at the engine level for high-resolution assets, rendering, shaders, UI scaling and other modern features.
This is especially interesting because Project IE 4K is already experimenting with exactly this broader approach:
https://github.com/Goddard/Project-IE-4k
Rather than only upscaling backgrounds, it attempts to create a wider 2K/4K Infinity Engine asset pipeline, including graphics, BAM animations, UI assets, paperdolls, world maps, area geometry, cinematics and coordinate-dependent data, together with modifications to GemRB so the engine itself understands the increased scale.
That matters because a real 4x conversion is not simply a matter of making textures larger. It can also affect coordinates, movement and projectile speeds, selection circles, doors, triggers, UI positions and other engine-level assumptions.
So there appear to be two broad technical directions worth discussing:
Enhanced Edition + EEex / InfinityEngine-Enhancer: maximum compatibility with the existing games and mod ecosystem while extending the current engine to support higher-resolution assets.
GemRB / Project IE 4K-type approach: a more flexible open-source foundation capable of scaling both graphical assets and underlying engine systems.
Several existing projects already address different pieces of the problem:
One of Beamdog’s major limitations was that much of the original high-resolution/source artwork and the original 3D models used to create the prerendered assets had been lost. Beamdog therefore largely had the final game assets rather than the original production sources.
Today, however, we also have much better super-resolution, image-to-image reconstruction, digital repainting, modern 3D tools, and more flexible engine-level technologies.
A rough definition of a “True HD Edition” could include:
The biggest remaining question may be character and monster animations.
Since the original 3D models are mostly gone, would the best approach be to:
And that leads to the main questions:
How large would such a project actually be?
Could a small, experienced team of perhaps 3–5 people create a convincing HD remaster over a few years by building on existing work, or would it realistically require a much larger effort?
Where should the line be drawn between restoration, reconstruction and recreation?
Could projects such as InfinityEngine-Enhancer + BGEE Graphics Enhanced, BGGO, Infinity Project IE 4K and Infinity UI++ eventually converge into something approaching a genuine Baldur’s Gate HD Edition, even without the original BioWare source assets?
And would the existing Enhanced Edition + EEex / InfinityEngine-Enhancer route remain the most practical foundation, or could GemRB / Project IE 4K eventually provide a better long-term platform?
Would be very interested to hear your thoughts.
I’ve been thinking about how realistic it would be to create what I would call a “True HD Edition Remaster” of Baldur’s Gate 1 / 2 Enhanced Editions.
By “True HD Remaster”, I do not mean a remake or redesign. The idea would be to preserve the original Infinity Engine experience, maps, proportions, gameplay and overall art direction as closely as possible, while bringing the visual presentation to a level that looks genuinely sharp and consistent on modern 1440p / 4K displays.
There is also an interesting new context for this discussion. Recent reports suggest that Wizards of the Coast is working on a remake of Baldur’s Gate II, with original BG2 co-lead designer Kevin Martens reportedly involved, and that Baldur’s Gate I may receive similar treatment:
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/a-baldurs-gate-2-remake-is-apparently-in-development-with-the-original-co-lead-designer-returning/
These projects have not yet been officially unveiled in detail, so we do not know what engine, ruleset or design approach they may use. But if they are full remakes, they could potentially involve rebuilt environments, new rendering technology, redesigned presentation, and perhaps gameplay or UI changes.
That raises the opposite question:
“What would the original Baldur’s Gate look like if the Infinity Engine version finally received the true HD treatment it never had?”
The aim would therefore not be to compete with a potential official remake, but to retain the original games while restoring, reconstructing or recreating their visual assets at much higher fidelity.
The obvious platform would be the existing Enhanced Edition, potentially extended through EEex and projects such as InfinityEngine-Enhancer. However, GemRB may also be relevant as a longer-term alternative. As an open-source reimplementation of the Infinity Engine, it can potentially be modified at the engine level for high-resolution assets, rendering, shaders, UI scaling and other modern features.
This is especially interesting because Project IE 4K is already experimenting with exactly this broader approach:
https://github.com/Goddard/Project-IE-4k
Rather than only upscaling backgrounds, it attempts to create a wider 2K/4K Infinity Engine asset pipeline, including graphics, BAM animations, UI assets, paperdolls, world maps, area geometry, cinematics and coordinate-dependent data, together with modifications to GemRB so the engine itself understands the increased scale.
That matters because a real 4x conversion is not simply a matter of making textures larger. It can also affect coordinates, movement and projectile speeds, selection circles, doors, triggers, UI positions and other engine-level assumptions.
So there appear to be two broad technical directions worth discussing:
Enhanced Edition + EEex / InfinityEngine-Enhancer: maximum compatibility with the existing games and mod ecosystem while extending the current engine to support higher-resolution assets.
GemRB / Project IE 4K-type approach: a more flexible open-source foundation capable of scaling both graphical assets and underlying engine systems.
Several existing projects already address different pieces of the problem:
- InfinityEngine-Enhancer + BGEE Graphics Enhanced
https://github.com/TheForgotten69/InfinityEngine-Enhancer
https://github.com/TheForgotten69/BGEE-Graphics-Enhanced
Coupled projects providing engine-level support for higher-resolution TIS/PVRZ tiles and the corresponding upscaled BGEE area graphics. - Baldur’s Gate Graphical Overhaul
https://github.com/Spellhold-Studios/Baldurs-Gate-Graphical-Overhaul
Area restoration and enhancement, including night maps, lighting, environmental animations and graphical fixes. - Project IE 4K
https://github.com/Goddard/Project-IE-4k
Experiments with a much broader 2K/4K asset conversion pipeline together with the necessary GemRB engine-side scaling. - Infinity UI++
Demonstrates how extensively the Enhanced Edition UI, layouts, assets and presentation can be modified.
One of Beamdog’s major limitations was that much of the original high-resolution/source artwork and the original 3D models used to create the prerendered assets had been lost. Beamdog therefore largely had the final game assets rather than the original production sources.
Today, however, we also have much better super-resolution, image-to-image reconstruction, digital repainting, modern 3D tools, and more flexible engine-level technologies.
A rough definition of a “True HD Edition” could include:
- 4x or similar high-quality reconstruction/upscaling of area backgrounds
- manual cleanup of reconstruction artifacts
- HD night maps, lighting and environmental effects
- higher-resolution UI assets
- HD portraits and paperdolls
- improved spell and visual effects
- improved world maps and cinematics
- higher-resolution character and monster sprites
- compatibility with BGEE, BG2EE, and ideally EET
The biggest remaining question may be character and monster animations.
Since the original 3D models are mostly gone, would the best approach be to:
- pscale the existing BAM sprites,
- reconstruct them using AI-assisted workflows,
- recreate the original animation sets with new 3D models and render them back into Infinity Engine-style sprites,
- combine several of these methods,
- or approach the problem differently at the engine level?
And that leads to the main questions:
How large would such a project actually be?
Could a small, experienced team of perhaps 3–5 people create a convincing HD remaster over a few years by building on existing work, or would it realistically require a much larger effort?
Where should the line be drawn between restoration, reconstruction and recreation?
Could projects such as InfinityEngine-Enhancer + BGEE Graphics Enhanced, BGGO, Infinity Project IE 4K and Infinity UI++ eventually converge into something approaching a genuine Baldur’s Gate HD Edition, even without the original BioWare source assets?
And would the existing Enhanced Edition + EEex / InfinityEngine-Enhancer route remain the most practical foundation, or could GemRB / Project IE 4K eventually provide a better long-term platform?
Would be very interested to hear your thoughts.
Post edited by Zorutar on
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