Command and Conquer will remake AI's original FMV cutscenes

The process of re-creating the original Command and Conquer live-action cutscenes was difficult.

EA posted about Command and Conquer Remake. The theme this time is entirely around the FMV cutscenes of the original game.

As you can imagine, the quality, resolution, and compression of the original videos make them complicated in remastering. Unlike game assets, developers cannot just re-shoot new footage. Producer Jim Vessella decided to track the original tapes to see if they could be pulled from an uncompressed source.

Unfortunately, EA couldn't find those tapes that are more than 20 years old and initially just thought that they had been destroyed. Fortunately, however, a cautious administrator intercepted them at the time and sent them to other locations for storage. The videos were eventually sold in EA LA's office.

Although efforts have been made to retrieve the tape and digitize it with Vessella and co. With modern computer. It was found that they did not actually include higher resolution original material, but merely another copy of what was already in the game.

Facing the impasse, Vessella and the team (with the help of some people in the community) decided to build an AI algorithm to increase the resolution of the material and increase the frame rate to 30fps. Then legendary composer Frank Klepacki reworked the audio to improve the overall quality of the presentation. This will eventually be used in the remake.

In the video above, Vessella tells the whole story and shows some front and back shots of the cutscenes. Even though it may seem that this project may not have the largest budget in the world, all this is fascinating.