BioWare used AI upscaling to remaster the original Mass Effect textures

BioWare is the latest studio to turn to AI to help revive a game based on old technology. The studio revealed to the media that it used AI to enhance all textures in the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition package. This is only a small part of the remastering process, but it helped the development team to create a solid foundation to work on.

“We knew we wanted to increase the resolution on all textures in the trilogy,” said environment and character director Kevin Meek during a press conference. “It means all the visual effects, the user interface, the art of the environment, the art of the character – each texture that we hit immediately with two main changes. First, we increased the limit that the engine places on texture sizes. And second, we performed all of the original uncompressed artwork through an AI update program along with some other custom batch tools. “

BioWare did this with each texture in the three games. This was a huge undertaking – although it was more automated than some of the later touch-up stages.

“So throughout the trilogy, we are talking about tens of thousands of textures with an increased resolution at least four times – if not 16 times,” said Meek.

This technique is not new, but it is finally succeeding with major publishers. Prior to that, Nvidia enhanced The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Nvidia Shield. And fans used AI tools to enhance features in PlayStation classics like Final Fantasy VII. And now, one of the biggest publishers is using the same concept to remaster a major franchise.