Revealing details of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered’s improvements on non-playable character behavior and more

As the release date for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered approaches later this month, with an update on the PlayStation Blog, developer Nixxes Software has revealed new technical details about some of the ways they have tried to enhance and update the game that was originally released in 2017.

The studio says that players can expect denser vegetation and foliage throughout the game world. This was of course a key feature of the map in the original Horizon Zero Dawn, but it seems that Nixxes Software has attempted to bring the game up to the same level of quality we saw in the game’s 2022 sequel, Horizon Forbidden West.

Lead Environment Artist Patrick Blankenship said:

“To make the foliage in the remaster on par with that in Horizon Forbidden West, we improved the shading, texture, geometry, and interaction of the foliage.” “We evaluated all the foliage assets in Horizon Zero Dawn and updated them with these new features. We did this for hundreds of plants, bushes, flowers, and trees.

We looked at the biomes in the original game and compared them to the concept art. We found areas where we could improve and make them closer to the original goal, and the rainforest biome was a good example of that. Using powerful procedural techniques, we injected new tree foliage and elevated its quality and density to new heights. We also upgraded the riverbanks with more biological diversity to make them closer to the original vision as seen in the art concept.

Senior Environment Artist Julian Hofmann added:

“Working with the original Guerrilla team, we were able to pose questions and compare their latest work in Horizon Forbidden West directly with the work we were doing for the remaster. This gave us some very specific goals to work on, such as the next-generation algae you can now see in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.”

For me, the changes in the foliage make the game look more vibrant and elevate it to very high standards for Horizon games. The result is a cohesive world that can be replayed or experienced for the first time.”

Among other areas that Nixxes Software has improved is the non-playable characters and their behavior. In short, players can expect towns, cities, and settlements to look more dense while non-playable characters will now behave in more natural and diverse ways, making the world seem more lively.

Technical Lead Game Designers Brian Van Noonin said:

“We revisited all the villages, settlements, and cities, and identified areas that looked empty or that we could enhance the realism and immersion in.” “Building the game on the PS5 allowed us to take advantage of increased available memory size, enabling us to significantly increase the number of non-playable characters. We added more places for non-playable characters to stand, sit, work, and meet their needs. We gave them more varied schedules to increase movement and vitality in different areas. We also innovatively utilized existing animations.”

Similar to the foliage and vegetation cover, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered also aims to elevate to the same quality level as Horizon Forbidden West with the assets used for the terrain, objects, buildings, and the like.

Senior Technical Art Directors Sander Brunkhorst said:

“We started by replacing all terrain materials from Horizon Zero Dawn with their new counterparts in Horizon Forbidden West.” “This was just the first step, as the terrain materials in the sequel did not always align with the original aesthetics. To address that, we meticulously adjusted and refined each individual terrain material to closely match the look of the original game, while maintaining the visual fidelity of the terrain materials in Horizon Forbidden West.”

“In addition to updating all the terrain materials and textures, we integrated features like deformable snow and sand. Deformable snow was introduced for the first time in the Frozen Wilds expansion, but in the reissued version, you will find this feature outside that region as well.”

Furthermore, the enhanced version will also feature over 10 hours of new motion-captured animations for its conversations, in addition to improved lighting. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered will be released on PS5 and PC on October 31.