Valve’s traditional Portal was not too long ago re-released on Steam with some very fancy new visuals, together with ray-tracing and DLSS help. That was nice information for Portal followers, but it surely’s additionally nice information for followers of all types of previous PC video games.
Earlier than we go any additional, I’ll clarify the tech we’re speaking about. RTX is the identify given to a set of applied sciences utilized by graphics card firm Nvidia that makes use of “ray tracing and AI applied sciences” to, very merely, make PC video games look unimaginable. Right here’s a trailer for Portal With RTX, the re-release of the sport made with this tech, exhibiting the enhancements made to a recreation that the majority of us bear in mind trying very 2007:
Now, the factor with RTX is that whereas on this case (and with Quake and Minecraft) it needed to be put into the sport by builders, Nvidia are additionally releasing a model of the tech with modders in thoughts. It’s known as RTX Remix:
With RTX Remix, the sport runs within the background and we exchange the previous rendering APIs and techniques with RTX Remix’s 64-bit Vulkan renderer. This allows the addition of ray-tracing to traditional video games and all of it updates in real-time as lights and objects transfer. Mild will be forged from behind the participant, or from one other room, and in Portal with RTX, mild even travels via portals. Glass refracts mild, surfaces mirror element based mostly on their glossiness, reflections will be forged into the scene from behind the participant, objects can self-reflect, and oblique mild from off-screen illuminates and impacts what you see.
In comparison with Quake II RTX and Minecraft with RTX, the path-traced ray tracing launched by RTX Remix is much more superior, bouncing mild 4 instances as an alternative of as soon as, enhancing high quality, immersion, and the simulation of real-world mild. Moreover, we’ve additionally launched a number of new ray tracing strategies that additional enhance high quality whereas additionally being extra performant.
Nvidia says that RTX Remix is “a modding platform” that may enable “modders of all skill ranges to convey ray tracing and NVIDIA applied sciences to traditional video games”. Given it’s not out till 2023 I used to be anticipating we have been nonetheless months away from seeing what advantages it may convey to older video games, however nope!
Modders like LordVulcan have discovered you’ll be able to add RTX juice to some traditional titles, proper now, and normally it’s accomplished simply by…dropping some recordsdata from one folder to a different in your exhausting drive and enabling some developer stuff within the console. That’s it. And it’s engaged on video games like SWAT 4 and the unique Max Payne.
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Whereas the outcomes aren’t good, a minimum of in comparison with the skilled jobs accomplished over months on video games like Minecraft, they nonetheless look improbable! Right here’s Max Payne, for instance, courtesy of Alex Coulter:
That lighting. These shadows. That is magic.
Right here’s some footage of SWAT 4 taken by EiermannTelevision, which was launched in 2005 and most positively didn’t appear to be this on the time:
And right here’s Half-Life 1, together with a bit of explainer on the way it was accomplished:
None of these examples are good, but it surely’s unimaginable they work this nicely given how fast their implementation was. That is going to be so good when the precise RTX Remix is launched in 2023, however till then it’s going to be cool seeing what different traditional titles this slapdash workaround is suitable with!
