The legendary classic game Half Life 2 gets a new ray tracing guise – in collaboration with Nvidia.
While the entire gaming community has been waiting for an official successor to Half Life 2 for almost 20 years now, Nvidia has announced what is perhaps the next best thing to it at Gamescom: “Half Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project”.
In a (blog entry) Nvidia announces that the Half Life community has started to create a new Half Life 2 version, which should bring ray tracing among other things. With the necessary know-how, you should also be able to participate yourself.
Half Life 2 in new splendour
The modders are using the latest graphics technology to give the aging classic a modern makeover.
Using the RTX Remix modding platform, modders rebuild materials using PBR (Physically Based Rendering) to ensure that surfaces are rendered as physically correct as possible.
They also use Valve’s Hammer Editor to add additional geometric data. Hammer has played a role in the modding community since Half Life 1 and was known as Worldcraft back then.
In typical Nvidia fashion, their hobbyhorses Ray Tracing, DLSS 3, Reflex and RTX IO are not to be missed. What is all this, you ask? Here’s the info at a glance:
- Ray Tracing is an advanced technique in computer graphics where rays are shot from the camera into the scene to simulate realistic light interactions such as reflections, refractions and shadows.
- DLSS 3 is an AI technology from Nvidia that uses artificial intelligence and neural networks to provide high-quality anti-aliasing and upscaling in real time. Optimally, this provides a better picture and more FPS (frames per second). AMD’s FSR and Intel’s XeSS are similar technologies used by the competition.
- NVIDIA Reflex is a technology that provides faster response and less lag in games. It is designed to optimise communication between your mouse, keyboard or controller and the screen.
- RTX IO is a technology from NVIDIA that aims to make game loading faster and more efficient. It harnesses the power of modern RTX series graphics cards to load games faster from the hard drive or SSD into memory.
Go to the introduction video:
By the community, for the community
Who is the “community”? Nvidia talks about four of the largest modding teams in the Half Life 2 community being involved in development. According to the announcement, they have joined forces to work together on the project.
Can I be part of the project? All the way! The Half Life 2 RTX team wants to get the entire modding community involved. Nvidia encourages everyone who has a desire to be involved in the project to (get involved).
When will the game be released? No date has been announced yet. Nvidia repeatedly points out that development has just begun
What do you think about the project? Would you like to take part? Drop us a line in the comments below
