AC-HD Texture Bench

HD textures that stay end-of-retail compatible. Custom dat files lock players into one server; this pack changes only textures, so every end-of-retail server still sees a normal retail client. Install once, play anywhere, nothing for server admins to do.

Download HD Textures v1

819 MB zip. Close the game, extract, and run Install HD Textures.bat. Switch back to retail any time with Use Retail Textures.bat. Client-only, so it works on any end-of-retail server. source and docs

In game: the starting room

Every texture in the new-character starting dungeon (landblock 7F03), the NPCs and objects placed there, and the character's starter clothes, upscaled with the detailed model and packed into the client at 2×. Same spot, same camera. Drag across the image to wipe between them.

Textures
536
Model
realesrgan-x4plus → 2×
GPU time
~0.2 s/texture (RTX 3090 + RTX A4500)
Client memory
~520 MB → ~589 MB
Rendering errors
none seen
Starting room with upscaled textures Starting room with original retail textures
Retail2× detailed
Close-ups: map, rug, floor, bookcase, wall trim Before and after close-ups of the framed map, rug, stone floor, bookcase and wall trim

In game: outdoors, with terrain

The full pack: every texture on 3D models at 2×, plus the ground. Ground textures are blended on the CPU at a fixed tile size, so they needed uncompressed 2× textures, 2× blend masks and a 2048 px terrain tile. Daytime, 17.4N 63.2E, same camera.

Textures
9,465 + 24 blend masks
Terrain tile
1024 → 2048 px
Address space here
1,171 MB → 1,564 MB of 4,096
Dat sizes
portal 1.65 GB, highres 0.48 GB
Outdoors with upscaled textures and terrain Outdoors with original retail textures
Retail2× + terrain
Close-ups: grass near and far, houses, timber building Before and after close-ups of grass, distant houses and a timber building

In game: desert town

Same full pack in a busier spot: an NPC in chain armor, the Salvaging Forge, adobe buildings and a fountain. Colors stay true to retail in daylight; the gains are sharper armor, stonework and plaster. Daytime, 21.5S 1.7W, same camera.

Address space here
1,546 MB of 4,096
Pack
v1.0
Desert town with upscaled textures and terrain Desert town with original retail textures
Retail2× + terrain
Close-ups: Pathwarden and forge, fountain, adobe buildings, ground Before and after close-ups of an armored NPC and forge, a fountain, adobe buildings and the ground

Texture by texture

40 textures from the end-of-retail client_portal.dat and client_highres.dat, each shown as the original pixels next to two Real-ESRGAN upscales at 2×. The release uses the detailed model.

Format
View
Zoom
Backdrop

Zoom is relative to the 2× output, so 1× shows each upscaled pixel at screen size. Drag any panel to pan; the others follow. ← → step through textures.