At the end of this March, one of the memorable Czech titles will celebrate its twentieth anniversary, which is still remembered by not only Czech and Slovak players. Vietcong from Pterodon and Illusion Softworks studios less than a year after Mafia made another hole in the world, where it also impressed with its infrequent treatment of the Vietnam War. In our country, the peculiar Czech dubbing is often remembered, but in general, the tunnels and the impenetrable green jungle are etched in the memory of the players. Already in 2003, not only was the processing of the vegetation impressive, but the ravages of time had of course taken their toll on the game. Its impact decided to reverse Tomáš Florian, who embarked on a fan remaster.
We briefly presented Tomáš’s work here at the end of the year, when he started the whole project. At that time, it was in connection with a demo of the game called Dietcong, which was created by Jiří Matyskiewicz alias Shigor Birdman, one of the original developers of the game. Project Vietcong HD Remaster introduced himself at the very beginning with a demonstration in the form of an introductory cutscene, a briefing and a short tour of the Nui Pek camp. An illustrative comparison between its remastered form and the original was also on display. Tomáš Florian gradually threw himself into editing all the textures in the game and, as he himself admitted, at first he thought it would be a quick affair. “Like modding Mafia – just take the textures, upscale them and put them back into the game,” he reasoned in his original plan. However, an examination of the files revealed that it would not be that easy, but there was no giving up.
“I don’t want to go into technical details, but the game files are scattered in dozens of folders, often duplicated,” described on the Moddb modding forum, where he presented the project to the world in more detail in January. Just converting the files and sorting them should have taken so much time that it it hurt, which he confirmed by mentioning sleep deprivation. Ultimately, this effort resulted in the sample we mentioned here in December. It took a few weeks and evening work here and there, but it worked. But it was just the beginning, and by continuing to work, he gradually learned to work faster and more efficiently. In addition to the upscaling of textures, some were replaced with completely new ones, but there were also new and more realistic sounds of weapons and the inclusion of post-processing. This can also be noticed in the newer gameplay demo, which also includes a shootout. However, those who do not like the overall post-processing can simply be turned off during the game, in addition, it is also possible to get rid of new sounds if any of the players need it.
Already in mid-January, Tomáš Florian had reworked the majority of the game and began to focus on sub-parts and textures that he still didn’t like and deserved to be fixed. There was also further upscaling or color adjustments. However, it still remained to focus attention on the textures of smaller and less important objects in the game, to which it was also necessary to pay attention, and to complete the textures in the Fist Alpha data disk, which will also be part of the remaster. However, I learn that the Red Dawn datadisc, or rather the cut mission that was released separately in 2005, will probably be omitted due to lack of interest. In any case, the mod does not prevent playing multiplayer. A crucial milestone was then finding out how to improve the rendering distance of vegetation, which he strangely came up with in some ancient forum post. I have to admit that although I didn’t think so much from the first pictures or videos, I am excited to find that the game has really improved significantly while playing.
According to the author, the mod is now almost ready for release after several hundred hours of work, which is appropriate. After all, what better occasion for its release than the 20th anniversary of the game itself? That falls on March 26th, at least in America to be exact. He should be at this momentous event mod Vietcong HD Remaster publicly released and available to all players, as installers for all language versions will also be available to make the mod convenient for fans and players from all over the world.
And how about the remake?
Let us remind you that a remake of the game’s tutorial, which we presented here already in the summer, is also in development. On the project Vietcong – Training Remake student Jakub Hutěčka is working on it, who started with it as a cloistered project, but now it is being created as a graduation project. In addition, his act reached the original developers of the game, including Jarek Kolář, who is currently completing the star-studded title Crime Boss: Rockay City at InGame Studios in Brno with many Vietcong veterans. But let’s get back to the remake of the training with the unforgettable drill sergeant, because this effort is definitely worth watching. The work should not stop even after graduation, so we can look forward to a whole range of improvements. And who knows where this hard work will eventually stop…
I haven’t given any major update on the Vietcong for a long time. I had quite a lot of tasks in January, so I’m in a bit of a slump, but despite that, I played a little with the visuals and it looks really brutal to me 😍 pic.twitter.com/MVzDhPNorZ
— Jakub Hutěčka (@hutecka_jakub) February 3, 2023
