In the early 2000s, after the launch of Grand Theft Auto III video game developers began to explore the possibilities of open worlds, so that the panorama was filled with titles that at that time earned the nickname of GTA clone”.
Some of these clones include titles like The Getaway, Mafia and True crime and they were objects of varied reception; However, there was one that gained the appreciation of specialized critics and the public for the way in which it relied on the mechanics of GTA to propose something that will speak to a more general and familiar audience with what is perhaps the most popular animated series of all history.
That game was The Simpsons: Hit & Run, released in 2003, developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games, companies that no longer exist.
The game put users in the shoes of Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Apu in various missions through Springfield, giving them the opportunity to roam freely and meet other iconic characters from the series.
The Simpsons: Hit & Run was one of the GTA clones that enjoyed the best ratings at the time and now, thanks to the efforts of the modder Reubs, comes back to life with a graphical quality superior to what we saw almost 20 years ago on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and PC.
Reubs used graphics engines Unreal Engine 4 and 5 and tested the technologies that are included in them, as well as an external artificial intelligence system to improve textures.
The modder posted a video in which he explained that what he did basically was a remake which began to take shape when he had access to the game map through third-party software. Later he realized that the original textures were of reduced quality, so he decided to use artificial intelligence to scale them.
What followed was to gather diverse software to incorporate Homer and other elements of interaction throughout the map. He also used physics tools and went into code to make your creation functional.
The project is not finished, but it is possible to play it through the modder’s Patreon and if you want to see the improved look it got, just see this video: