Dust 2 of the legendary Counter-Strike gets a graphical makeover with new technology

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Dust 2 . Map as iconic as Counter-Strike itself, serving as inspiration for other games, as well as a model for maps in Minecraft. By even those who have never played Counter-Strike, or CS:GO can still recognize this familiar desert from the first sight.

Dust 2 is so closely related to Counter-Strike itself that Valve added a “classic” version of the map above to CS:GO earlier this summer to celebrate Counter-Strike’s 20th anniversary. But a modder wants the Dust 2 version to even “stick” to the original map than Valve’s version. This modder used AI to upgrade and replace the original Dust 2 texture in the custom version of the map that you can find in the section Steam workshop by CS:GO.

Modder “3kliksphilip” posted a video on YouTube, explaining the process of upgrading old textures. You can watch the video below:
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Some textures definitely have better graphics than the old version. While it’s technically possible for a computer to edit more accurately in texture reconstruction than a human, 3kliksphilip still shows some weird dependencies in the video.

The wood and stone textures appear to be simply edited through Photoshop’s “sharpen” filter, although the process is, in fact, a bit more complicated. The AI ​​tends to highlight high-contrast areas from low-resolution maps, resulting in a noticeable difference in the new version.
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3kliksphilip continues to explain that the highlight of the upgrade process lies in the background environment called skybox. Upgrading with AI turns the mountains and clouds far behind Dust 2 from a hazy mess to a more artistic one. This is an easier to understand example of Counter-Strike’s original map texture before being redesigned to accommodate devices from 1999.
If players want to experience the “closest” version of Dust 2 to the “source” documentation, download the mod on the Steam workshop.​