Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was basically abandoned by its creators just around six months after it launched back in 2017, but fans are attempting to give the crossover a new shot at life.
A new project aptly being called MvC Infinite & Beyond is in the works attempting to completely overhaul the game’s graphics and more though some aspects may need more work than just shaders, colors and lighting.
The ridiculously talented Ryn has been continuing to post updates with the help of major streamer / content creator Maximilian Dood that are looking even better than what we previously got to see like a week ago.
Beyond mostly Ryu and Spider-Man, a handful of other characters like Venom, Jedah and Zero have been receiving work to move them over to the cel-shaded graphics, which then need to be manually fine tuned and detailed.
Although there’s still a ton of work that needs to be done and figured out, WistfulHopes has really been able to capture more of the comic book aesthetic that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 became iconic for, and the mod development team has apparently expanded as well to bring more people on to assist with the project.
all of those dozens of changes i made to ryu’s face and hair today paid off pic.twitter.com/2fmWoQi9jP
— Ryn (@WistfulHopes) May 4, 2024
screenshots without motion blur look great pic.twitter.com/Ke4icMoByD
— Ryn (@WistfulHopes) May 7, 2024
jedah pic.twitter.com/i0z4tUY01i
— Ryn (@WistfulHopes) May 6, 2024
Here’s a more comparable shot of where we landed with Venom. Lot’s more work to be done, but from a base level, this is our costume 1. pic.twitter.com/IuIKxBou3F
— Maximilian Dood (@maximilian_) May 7, 2024
There has been at least one roadblock, however, that seems like it’ll need more than just a new paint job to fix.
Ryn was attempting to move on to work on Dante, but notes that his face is really, really bad with the hair also requiring a remodel.
the face is really, *really* bad, and the hair would require complete remodeling
— Ryn (@WistfulHopes) May 6, 2024
This isn’t too surprising considering fans were shocked by Dante’s dead, soulless eyes and weird face back when Infinite came out.
It’ll likely be solved by importing an adjusted or completely new / custom model for Dante into MvCI, which also likely means some others are going to pose a similar problem too.
Fighters like Chris Redfield, Spencer, Captain America and more just did not look like they had good models in that game, especially next to brand new additions to the roster like Jedah and Sigma, though they at least updated Chun-Li before launch.
While this means some of the cast may end up more of a headache to the fan developers, it’ll hopefully lead to a much more enticing version of those characters like we should have probably gotten seven years ago to begin with.
This Beyond project has also sparked other modders to pick up Marvel Infinite too and attempt adding new tools like making custom stages.
Custom MVCI stages made directly in Unreal Engine 4 (this was not a thing before)
We can go crazy with custom lighting, actors, etc. I made a floating triangle as a quick test!
New stage mods for MVCI are going to be NEXT LEVEL. pic.twitter.com/PQkyXlzCuH
— Koenji (@koenjideck) May 7, 2024
From the thousands of hours of hard work the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 team has dedicated to that game, we’ve seen what’s possible when enough / the right people care.
So hopefully more of that continues to rub off on Infinite’s growing interest into a crossover that can someday reach its full potential in the hands of fans.