Tuesday, August 22nd 2023
NVIDIA Announces Half-Life 2 RTX, an RTX Remix Community Project
NVIDIA RTX Remix Community is a group of game developers remastering popular games from the past. "Quake II RTX" and "Portal with RTX" were extremely well received, and the community now turned its sights to a cult classic—Half-Life 2. When it came out in 2004 (that's 19 years ago!), Half-Life 2 already set standards for realism, and invented several new gameplay mechanics. It is believed to have edged past "Doom 3" in art direction and production quality for the time; and now the RTX Remix Community is inviting game modders to join the effort at this page.
Four of HL2's top modding teams, known as Orbfold Studios, is leading the effort within the community, at remastering the entire game—an effort on a much larger scale than "Portal." The remaster will include full ray tracing effects, support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation, RTX-IO, and modernized assets (higher resolution textures, higher poly-count models, with support for modern surfaces and geometry. The teaser from NVIDIA includes a picture of the HEV Suit from the game, and a scene from the game showing just how much more advanced the game is shaping up to be! The company didn't announce any timeline to go with Half-Life 2 RTX, since it is still in development.
Four of HL2's top modding teams, known as Orbfold Studios, is leading the effort within the community, at remastering the entire game—an effort on a much larger scale than "Portal." The remaster will include full ray tracing effects, support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation, RTX-IO, and modernized assets (higher resolution textures, higher poly-count models, with support for modern surfaces and geometry. The teaser from NVIDIA includes a picture of the HEV Suit from the game, and a scene from the game showing just how much more advanced the game is shaping up to be! The company didn't announce any timeline to go with Half-Life 2 RTX, since it is still in development.
28 Comments on NVIDIA Announces Half-Life 2 RTX, an RTX Remix Community Project
These developers were modding before. They weren't writing new games.
And based on the quality of many new releases and IP, I'd say that bringing the best of these old franchises to a new audience is great. Not all new games are great. Did you enjoy Forspoken? Wo Long? Redfall? Gollum?
Shakespeare is still performed on stage. People still sit in concert halls to listen to Bach. Wagner Ring cycles take place every year at multiple venues across the globe. You can watch restored versions of Hitchcock movies, Casablanca, etc.
Heck, your comment is almost ironic since your TPU avatar features a video game character from 2001. Would you play a remastered version of Max Payne?
Remember that Max Payne doesn't run flawless on modern systems (hardware and software) as documented at PCGamingWiki:
www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Max_Payne
A remaster would clean up much of these issues and make it easier for newcomers to install and run the game without employing a bunch of workarounds.
And remember that people are playing on different hardware in 2023 than they did in 2001. A game like Max Payne was designed for CRT monitors at much lower resolutions, lower refresh rates, and limited color range. On a modern 4K LCD or OLED monitor, those textures look terrible and the low-polygon count models look very primitive.
Sound design has also progressed. Today's gaming gear features 3D spatial audio, something not widespread twenty years ago.
That grainy, blotchy VHS tape of Sir John Gielgud playing Hamlet simply doesn't cut for some today, including some who might have watched him live on stage.
You didn't see GTA remastered and how messed up those are? IMO those are quick cash grab which something I won't support. Instead of luring people into nostalgic, give a new game. I want GTA6, Half Life 3, or Episode 3, Elder Scroll 6, more quality single player campaign. Stop this remaster already. New audience didn't like the game of old, only people asking for remaster is the one who used to play it.