HalfLife2 RTX Demo Is out!

[AusWolf]

Quite a bit behind when it should have happened, we finally got Fibre to the Premises in my suburb here in Perth Australia, and for the time being I am treating myself to 1000/50, it makes the biggest difference with game/update downloads for sure, I hope that sort of thing isn't too far away for you!

Yeah, it's weird when parts of town get fiber and other parts don't. I'm in the unlucky part, but I'm scheduled for fiber "sometime before the end of 2026". Things are definitely slow here. Fingers crossed.

You're missing the point, I'm not presenting AMD as anything, I'm saying there is a reason why the game runs badly on non NVIDIA hardware and pre RDNA4 hardware. It requires specialised hardware to run.

Ah, fair enough.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I voted "worth a try". As an AMD user, yes.

If looks and runs great, that's awesome, but if it doesn't, I'll just play the original, no problem.

Let's be honest, you have a 9070XT. You're gonna be fine with a few tweaks to your liking. Remember though, the original game came out when 1024x768 CRTs were still in common use. Don't be afraid to lower your resolution down to make the game playable, even(or especially?) with your ultrawide display.

 

[remekra]

It's not the same thing, though.

DLSS has always needed AI cores, that's why it's always been superior in image quality. FSR never did until now. Complaining that your 6700 XT doesn't run FSR 4 (ignoring the fact that it runs FSR 3) is like complaining that your 1070 Ti doesn't run DLSS.

If you want to present AMD as shady, then I'd say look at RDNA 3, and why the alleged "AI cores" can't run FSR 4. As far as I currently know (more reading is needed on this), it's missing some instructions that only RDNA 4 has and are needed for FSR 4. If it's true, then it begs the question whether RDNA 3's AI cores are true AI cores or not.

RDNA3 does not support FP8, and that is required for Transformer part of FSR4 and their hybrid model. Image first goes through CNN model, then Transformer. If AMD will continue to be "good guy AMD" then they can release FSR4 Lite, that simply skips the transformer model part of the algorithm, with worse quality yes but probably still better than FSR3.

https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/ipr2.12833

AMD FSR 4/Neural Supersampling and Denoising Tech Analysis

FSR 4 FSR 4 Performance Mode with Frame Generation Shown in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 (20:41) Yesterday, in AMD’s RX 9070 XT launch presentation, they briefly discussed the technological specs of FSR 4 and the nature of its machine learning model. Question: “Is FSR 4 a transformer model like...

docs.google.com

 

[AusWolf]

Let's be honest, you have a 9070XT. You're gonna be fine with a few tweaks to your liking. Remember though, the original game came out when 1024x768 CRTs were still in common use. Don't be afraid to lower your resolution down to make the game playable, even(or especially?) with your ultrawide display.

I'm more afraid of Linux than I am of my 9070 XT, to be fair. You don't want to see the visual artefacts I'm getting at 1 FPS in Portal RTX.

I've got the latest Mesa, which works great in most games, but more OS updates are needed for some others. We'll see.

 

[Denver]

No, you presented nonsense that was refuted before you posted it.

Feel free to add me as well then. I agree with Wolf.

Answering a few of the points made by other users(not quoting or naming names as I don't want to seem like it's an attack), remember folks, turning settings down and tweaking them is always an option. If you have a lower tier GPU, adjust your settings accordingly and to your satisfaction. Lowering your settings or even your resolution to get a playable framerate is a perfectly acceptable solution.

Nope, I didn’t troll anyone or call anyone anything. I simply used sarcasm to present performance metrics in 4K (high resolution for high-end GPUs). Then you came along and compared that to a 4060 running at 17 FPS in 1080p and 40 FPS in 540p, claiming it was the same thing. I don’t know if you just didn’t check properly or if you’re unintentionally spreading misinformation for no reason.


As for the artifacts and ghosting, those are caused by the temporal filter and can induce nausea:

My comment, sarcastic as it may be, doesn’t stop anyone from playing and enjoying the game—even though, logically, the hardware cost versus graphical quality is absurd.


Anyway, welcome to my block list. I have no interest in dealing with people who resort to attacks or name-calling over a game.

 

[AusWolf]

RDNA3 does not support FP8, and that is required for Transformer part of FSR4 and their hybrid model. Image first goes through CNN model, then Transformer. If AMD will continue to be "good guy AMD" then they can release FSR4 Lite, that simply skips the transformer model part of the algorithm, with worse quality yes but probably still better than FSR3.
View attachment 390442

https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/ipr2.12833

AMD FSR 4/Neural Supersampling and Denoising Tech Analysis

FSR 4 FSR 4 Performance Mode with Frame Generation Shown in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 (20:41) Yesterday, in AMD’s RX 9070 XT launch presentation, they briefly discussed the technological specs of FSR 4 and the nature of its machine learning model. Question: “Is FSR 4 a transformer model like...

docs.google.com

That's what I heard, just not in so much detail. Thanks.

 

[Sithaer]

Gonna give it a try sometime later tomorrow when I have the time for it.
My 3060 Ti wont be happy about it thats for sure.
I will report back how that went. 'I actually like to tweak my in game settings so thats a non issue here'

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'm more afraid of Linux than I am of my 9070 XT, to be fair. You don't want to see the visual artefacts I'm getting at 1 FPS in Portal RTX.

I've got the latest Mesa, which works great in most games, but more OS updates are needed for some others. We'll see.

Wait you're not on Windows at all anymore? I thought you were dual booting? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Nope, I didn’t troll anyone or call anyone anything.

Um...

Are you inadvertently trolling?

Then what was this?

I have no interest in dealing with people who resort to attacks or name-calling over a game.

Ok. Let that sink in..

Anyway, welcome to my block list.

Sure thing. Thank You!

 

[AusWolf]

Wait you're not on Windows at all anymore? I thought you were dual booting? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Nah, I completely wiped my drive... Which I'm kind of regretting now because I'm also struggling to run some games I have from Epic in the Heroic Launcher.

 

[wolf]

Sure thing. Thank You!

Perfect outcome @lexluthermiester - I wonder if they'll ever reflect on their own actions, but I won't hold my breath.

1 hour till I can play.... gahhhhhh it's tough to have it there ready and just not be able to yet because of other commitments.

 

[remekra]

Played it a bit more and well like someone said now I just want Half Life 3 more.

The lighting is mighty impressive but that was also true for Portal RTX, it's the enhanced assets that go along with that lighting are what sets the graphics for me.

Portal was by nature limited art wise, here a simple can of paint looks like straight from Blender or some other 3d software render, not real time graphics.

Also since this came out I read that someone is making Painkiller RTX and It's released! Not fully as well but downloaded it and it also looks very good. Assets are not as good as here but still overall looks nice, and I played Painkiller to death back when I was a kid.

 

[AusWolf]

Played it a bit more and well like someone said now I just want Half Life 3 more.

The lighting is mighty impressive but that was also true for Portal RTX, it's the enhanced assets that go along with that lighting are what sets the graphics for me.

Portal was by nature limited art wise, here a simple can of paint looks like straight from Blender or some other 3d software render, not real time graphics.

Also since this came out I read that someone is making Painkiller RTX and It's released! Not fully as well but downloaded it and it also looks very good. Assets are not as good as here but still overall looks nice, and I played Painkiller to death back when I was a kid.

Lighting adds little to the visual experience, imo. Models, textures, physics and animations do a lot more.

 

[remekra]

Lighting adds little to the visual experience, imo. Models, textures, physics and animations do a lot more.

It's the mix of all those I would say. How light interacts with materials is key. Texture can be 16k in resolution but if the lighting is flat it will just look sharp.
Here we have lighting, textures, models all in top quality. Physics too, because we have not progressed much or regressed even when it comes to physics since HL2.
That is what that mod also reminded me, how fun it can be to toss barrels at high speeds into enemies.

BTW

I ran Portal RTX on my 7900XTX when I had it so it's not like those mods are only working on Nvidia, you don't get error that your hardware is not supported.
Yeah it ran not very good, but I suspect on RDNA4 it should be better. Main gripe was that it not supported FSR and FSR FG and those demos are hard to run without at least normal FG.
But of course when it comes to AMD there was a mod for a mod!

Portal RTX AMD Mod

A Portal RTX Patch and Graphics mod for AMD Hardware

www.nexusmods.com

It really improved expierence on AMD GPU and Added FSR. Probably something similar will be released for this one.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Nah, I completely wiped my drive... Which I'm kind of regretting now because I'm also struggling to run some games I have from Epic in the Heroic Launcher.

Try a second drive and dual boot like I suggested over in the Linux thread. It's what I do. My T3500 has 3 total boot drives, an SSD for XP, an SSD for Mint and an SSD for Win11. Boot it up hold F12 and pick which one I want to run. Couldn't be easier!

1 hour till I can play.... gahhhhhh it's tough to have it there ready and just not be able to yet because of other commitments.

Cool.

A thought has hit me, will this apply to the extra episodes as well?

 

[AusWolf]

Try a second drive and dual boot like I suggested over in the Linux thread. It's what I do. My T3500 has 3 total boot drives, an SSD for XP, an SSD for Mint and an SSD for Win11. Boot it up hold F12 and pick which one I want to run. Couldn't be easier!

That's what I'm gonna do I think.

At least until Fedora 42 comes out, hopefully with all the updates I need for the 9070 XT.

 

[A Computer Guy]

90 GB? Holy f!

That'll take 3 years to download on my medieval English DSL connection. Anyway, I'll have a go and report back. I hope I can get it running on Linux. I'm still missing some key files for Portal RTX to work properly, so fingers crossed.

It's too bad they couldn't do things like borrow blocks of bytes from other files typically in a system to reduce download times however now that I think about it the metadata for that would probably be bigger than the actual download.

 

[Visible Noise]

Only for nvidia? They can keep it.

Only for people that read the OP before posting

 

[Arkz]

You're thanking NVIDIA for AMD being too slow and with outdated priorities in hardware prior to RDNA4? Should progress stop and stoop to lowest common demoninator?

Game looks nice and framerates are fine too.

Wasn't that basically just upscaling they were outdated and crappy with? FSR 1-3 is poor next to DLSS, but RT wasn't as bad as people suggest, each card just seemed to be about 20-30% worse than the equivalent in raster NV card. It's only now that games are becoming more and more RT inclusive that they're taking it seriously, which is fine as I think the older gens are rubbish with RT in most games anyway, I very rarely use it in anything on my 3080 as it's so demanding, and I'd rather have high framerates and res over some shiny water. Doom Eternal is the only game I've seen that runs it well while still getting 4k and high frames/
These "RTX" games being bad on AMD could be on purpose since they're not just the old games with RT added, they're specifically old games with RTX Remix being used to add RT and other updated assets. Afaik Portal RTX now works on AMD cards fine, just gotta lower the light bounces like you do on NV cards so it doesn't run painfully slow, and render in lower res. I'd imagine this too could run on a decent AMD card too, but clearly with the settings and res cranked up it runs like crap on Nvidia flagships, still needing to use upscaling and lower settings.

 

[dgianstefani]

Played it a bit more and well like someone said now I just want Half Life 3 more.

The lighting is mighty impressive but that was also true for Portal RTX, it's the enhanced assets that go along with that lighting are what sets the graphics for me.

Portal was by nature limited art wise, here a simple can of paint looks like straight from Blender or some other 3d software render, not real time graphics.

Also since this came out I read that someone is making Painkiller RTX and It's released! Not fully as well but downloaded it and it also looks very good. Assets are not as good as here but still overall looks nice, and I played Painkiller to death back when I was a kid.

The assets can go through an upscaling model with RTX Remix, can even add depth/3D to a 2D texture etc. Was shown off two years ago.

 

[wolf]

Cool.

A thought has hit me, will this apply to the extra episodes as well?

Man this looks fantastic rendered in real time.

2160P output, DLSS Transformer Performance mode, RTX settings set to high preset instead of Ultra. 55-70fps, and 100-120 with FG 2x, and interestingly, it feels smoother and better with FG, not just looks better. I will gladly do a full playthrough again when the full version releases, having only just done one on my retro XP box last year lol.

I'd imagine with EP1 and EP2, they might want to do it eventually but clearly this love letter to the original takes a lot of time to get such good results. The lighting is fantastic but man the assets are jaw dropping.

 

[InfaRedd]

*Cries in AMD*

 

[Visible Noise]

Lighting adds little to the visual experience, imo. Models, textures, physics and animations do a lot more.

Go turn off all your lights. How’s that “visual experience“ now?

Light is what we see, nothing else. Game textures are literally fake substitutions for light.

 

[wolf]

Go turn off all your lights. How’s that “visual experience“ now?

I think they're both necessary, you can't really enjoy one without the other. The thing I've found with RT titles that have excellent RT effects like GI, fully dynamic shadows, reflections and so on, is that it appears so natural to your eyes that it might not come across as impressive, it's reacting much more like the way your brain expects light to work. Where super detailed characters and assets, ultra dense geometry, super high res texturing and so on, is a more obvious and apparent improvement to ones brain. When you appreciate what is happening with well executed RT it's extremely impressive that it can be done in real time, but I think for the biggest wow factor and jaw dropping visuals, it needs to incorporate advanced lighting and the other things I mentioned - just like HL2 RTX is doing actually.

 

[Fouquin]

Graphics settings exist, if 20 and 30 series owners expect ultra settings path tracing, they're always going to be disappointed.

The graphics settings in HL2 RTX are 'low' and 'high', TAA-U, NIS, or native res and that's about the extent of it. You can disable the updated/upscaled meshes and surfaces, or enable some traditional post processing options, but the RTX features are pretty sparse. Low creates a boiling, irradiated image. TAA-U vastly improves light quality while vastly destroying image quality, and NIS strikes a balance but increases the number of denoising artifacts in a given scene. The default ray bounce settings are 0-2 bounces, which is the minimum. If your card cannot run that, you are quite frankly not going to be able to tune it any farther.

I'd be disappointed if my RTX branded graphics card struggled to run RTX branded games, personally. NVIDIA has a reputation as the plug-and-play option; that's not very plug-and-play of them.

Again. FREE GAME.

You seem to be under the impression that being free means it's also free from scrutiny. This is false. Counter Strike 2 is a free game and is heavily scrutinized when and where issues arise.

"NVIDIA specific code" i.e. the DX12 Ultimate featureset.

RTX is a superset of DX12U, OptiX, and Vulkan. It contains a feature set greater than the sum of its parts. The AI denoising in particular I already expressed has a rough equivalency in Intel's hardware; it could be made to work a lot better than it does if things were not so closed. Architecturally it can do the same thing but since the specific optimizations are locked away in NVIDIA's walled garden, they can't possibly begin to try.

---------------------

Some fun comparisons at 720p for the Arc A770. Why 720p? Because that's the highest 'playable' resolution to compare to.

Ray bounces is set to 0-2 (default). Light and denoise quality is set to High. Scenes are given 5-10 seconds for denoising before capture.

Half Life 2 RTX - Native, New Assets


Half Life 2 RTX - TAA-U Full Screen, New Assets


Half Life 2 RTX - NIS Full Screen, New Assets


Half Life 2 (Nov. 26 2024 Update) - Max Settings 720P



Side by side of Scene 4 with maximum RT and denoising but with original assets. Image 1 is native, current version Half Life 2. Once again stills taken after a few seconds to let the denoising to catch up.

 

[Visible Noise]

OMG this is so good. Makes modern games feel like a slug.