Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project is a new community-made remaster of one of the highest-rated games of all time, Valve’s Half-Life 2. Half-Life 2 RTX is...
(Also, how in the hell do you install these things? I tried to play the RTX remix of NFS Underground 2, but gave up cause I couldn’t figure it out. There’s no installer, and it’s not as simple as just copying files over…)
Don’t worry, even with a beefy config it doesn’t run very well (talking i9 10th gen, 32gb ddr4 and 3080RTX) so I doubt even half life 2 will run decently.
Ok? It doesn’t have RTX though, so of course it’s gonna run fine. It’s source engine after all.
They were saying it would run badly if BM had RTX like Portal RTX, because Portal RTX is already very demanding.
The cool thing about raytracing is it doesn’t really matter how complex a scene is. The bad thing about raytracing is it doesn’t really matter how complex a scene is.
If your card can’t run remixed HL2, it also won’t be able to do HL1
They sort of announced HL3 in the post credit scene on HLAlyx, but of course we’ve been promised HL3 before so even if we get it it’ll be another 10 years probably. Alyx was so incredibly good though.
Alyx is a prequel to HL2, so it can’t be part of the episodic release. There were some cliffnotes a previous lead storyboarder had released on the loose plot of HL3 some years ago. It ended with Gman retiring freeman and employing Alyx if I recall correctly.
Yes and spoilers (since I don’t know how to cover a comment)
The post credit scene of Alyx shows you as Gordan at the end of HL2E2. Only Gman has now taken Alyx and you as Gordon are being handed Gordon’s crowbar and are told “come on Gordon, we have work to do”
I might be in the minority here, but I couldn’t help but think Half-Life 2 still looks really good for a game released in 2004. Obviously “RTX on” is nicer to look at, but all the small details like the magnifying glass that actually magnifies made me appreciate the old assets/graphics so much, what a milestone it was.
You have to use new assets for these old games if you really want to make the most out of ray tracing because PBR materials are necessary to better simulate the way light and reflections bounce off a surface.
I disagree that you really need to put much effort into updating the materials to get benefits from rtx. HL1 RTX looks pretty great with only the bare minimum PBR remasters, because PBR and RTX are 2 separate things that both improve a game’s look. PBR materials help rtx just as much as PBR materials help regular rendering, and rtx helps PBR materials only a little bit more than rtx helps regular materials. All of the effects used in PBR materials apply the same to regular rendering as with RTX.
that’s just part of RTX remix and somewhat the point of that tool. After all you need to get proper RTX materials in there and why not upres the assets as well while you are at it?
I’m not sure how easy that is with RTX Remix. IIRC the assets aren’t actually added to the game itself, but rather they get injected into the render-pipeline.
Remember the Quake 2 RTX version? Remember how no one played it? It’s just, not a good look, runs slow and just isn’t needed. This is all just to make more people buy Nvidia cards.
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Quake 2 RTX is my go-to recommendation if someone wants to see what raytracing is actually about. Not only are there some built in tools to fiddle with lighting but the end result makes such a huge difference that I can’t see myself playing Quake 2 again without raytracing. Out of all the RTX supported games Quake 2 was the one that blew me away the most. It makes bright areas bright and dark areas actually dark and you can see how light sources, in real time, change the look of the environment.
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Download link, please? I can’t find one anywhere.
(Also, how in the hell do you install these things? I tried to play the RTX remix of NFS Underground 2, but gave up cause I couldn’t figure it out. There’s no installer, and it’s not as simple as just copying files over…)
It’s not out yet, this is just an announcement
To be honest, the biggest takeaway of the trailer is how well the original HL2 aged.
So we’ll get another old game where everything looks oddly shiny instead of oddly dull?
Wish they’d do Hal-Life 1 with ray tracing because my video card might actually be able to run that one.
Good news then: https://github.com/sultim-t/xash-rt/releases
There is Black Mesa if you’re looking for a Half Life 1 remake. Not sure if there is raytracing in it though.
If it did have it, it’d almost certainly be too much for my RTX 3060. Portal RTX didn’t work too well.
Don’t worry, even with a beefy config it doesn’t run very well (talking i9 10th gen, 32gb ddr4 and 3080RTX) so I doubt even half life 2 will run decently.
Ha. What? My 2060 has zero issues with this, what are you talking about?
In another comment you mentioned not having tried Portal RTX yet.
I had zero issues with BM.
Ok? It doesn’t have RTX though, so of course it’s gonna run fine. It’s source engine after all.
They were saying it would run badly if BM had RTX like Portal RTX, because Portal RTX is already very demanding.
It’s not RTX but that was a fucking 10/10 experience. Xen knocked my socks off.
Black Mesa was so fucking good it’s ridiculous.
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/the-half-life-ray-traced-mod-has-been-released/
Quake 2 RTX can bring my 3090 to its knees. You could do HL2 but I bet it’d be about similar to Portal 2.
What? Am I missing something? Several comments here about 3000 series not being able to handle what was easy for my 2060 to handle.
Probably at different resolutions. My 3080 has to drop to 25% minimum resolution and/or sub 60 fps when using the dynamic resolution option.
That’s 25% resolution from 4k, which I’m not sure is 1080p or 540p because it certainly looks blurrier than 1080p at lowest res.
Portal RTX was “easy” for your 2060? I remember having to set DLSS to ultra performance at 1080p to get it above 30fps on a 2060s.
That’s 640x360 internal render resolution. Around 1/10 pixels of 1080p
Portal is one I haven’t tried, but my working assumption until now was that I would have no issues.
I believe its because the RTX remix games are path traced which is alot harder to do
Quake 2 doesn’t use RTX Remix. Or at least wasn’t advertised as that being the underlying tech.
Edit: I think I misunderstood what you were saying. Performance with Portal RTX Remix was significantly worse than with Quake 2 RTX.
Q2RTX is fully path traced, it was the path tracing tech demo before Portal RTX was.
The cool thing about raytracing is it doesn’t really matter how complex a scene is. The bad thing about raytracing is it doesn’t really matter how complex a scene is.
If your card can’t run remixed HL2, it also won’t be able to do HL1
I’ll be the one to be overly excited: GIVE IT TO ME!
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Portal RTX runs pretty well on last gen cards with a little tweaking, I’m guessing we can expect the same for HL2.
Now they have to do HL3 right….right?
They sort of announced HL3 in the post credit scene on HLAlyx, but of course we’ve been promised HL3 before so even if we get it it’ll be another 10 years probably. Alyx was so incredibly good though.
Wait I thought we all agreed HLA is HL3 in spirit
Alyx is a prequel to HL2, so it can’t be part of the episodic release. There were some cliffnotes a previous lead storyboarder had released on the loose plot of HL3 some years ago. It ended with Gman retiring freeman and employing Alyx if I recall correctly.
Yes and spoilers (since I don’t know how to cover a comment)
The post credit scene of Alyx shows you as Gordan at the end of HL2E2. Only Gman has now taken Alyx and you as Gordon are being handed Gordon’s crowbar and are told “come on Gordon, we have work to do”
I know it’s not the latest and greatest but I’m so happy I’ve got a 3090 to play this on. Can not wait.
What ever happened to Project Borealis?
You son of a bitch, I’m in!
Well, cool project but let me see something outside of that room!
Yeah, that was not really a good room to show off RT features. Most of the shown effects can be convincingly faked with modern shader techniques.
I might be in the minority here, but I couldn’t help but think Half-Life 2 still looks really good for a game released in 2004. Obviously “RTX on” is nicer to look at, but all the small details like the magnifying glass that actually magnifies made me appreciate the old assets/graphics so much, what a milestone it was.
The art direction is impeccable and it still shines for it.
Two thirds of graphics is art direction, the other third is tech. Source: a rule I just made up
And those 2/3s shine through, the last big engine update for HL2 was in 2007. It still looks great.
RTX On/Off feels really dishonest here given the assets swap as well.
You have to use new assets for these old games if you really want to make the most out of ray tracing because PBR materials are necessary to better simulate the way light and reflections bounce off a surface.
I disagree that you really need to put much effort into updating the materials to get benefits from rtx. HL1 RTX looks pretty great with only the bare minimum PBR remasters, because PBR and RTX are 2 separate things that both improve a game’s look. PBR materials help rtx just as much as PBR materials help regular rendering, and rtx helps PBR materials only a little bit more than rtx helps regular materials. All of the effects used in PBR materials apply the same to regular rendering as with RTX.
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that’s just part of RTX remix and somewhat the point of that tool. After all you need to get proper RTX materials in there and why not upres the assets as well while you are at it?
Then id like to see the same better assets with rtx and without. Those alone would make an incredible difference.
I’m not sure how easy that is with RTX Remix. IIRC the assets aren’t actually added to the game itself, but rather they get injected into the render-pipeline.
Remember the Quake 2 RTX version? Remember how no one played it? It’s just, not a good look, runs slow and just isn’t needed. This is all just to make more people buy Nvidia cards.
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Quake 2 RTX is my go-to recommendation if someone wants to see what raytracing is actually about. Not only are there some built in tools to fiddle with lighting but the end result makes such a huge difference that I can’t see myself playing Quake 2 again without raytracing. Out of all the RTX supported games Quake 2 was the one that blew me away the most. It makes bright areas bright and dark areas actually dark and you can see how light sources, in real time, change the look of the environment.
Awesome, really looking forward to this!