If you’re like me, you still hear the squeaking noise from the Half-Life 2 pheropods in your sleep. The game’s famed Nova Prospekt level, involving you conducting the best prison break of all time, is returning and will look better than ever. Next week, PC gamers can grab and play a demo of the RTX Remix version of levels from Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt with all-new textures, lighting, and ray tracing support.
In a blog post, Nvidia said the demo should be available on March 18, and anybody who owns Half-Life 2 should be able to download and play it immediately. You can nab the demo on Steam. The mod should allow players to use more of the capabilities of Nvidia’s most recent GPUs, including multi-frame gen that uses AI to insert multiple frames between generated frames. At 4x frame gen, you may get over 200 fps with ray tracing on.
The video implies you could go from 30 to 260 fps, but don’t let that fool you. Nvidia has said time and time again that you need at least around 60 fps to get a smooth experience from frame generation. Without that, you’ll experience more odd visual artifacts and latency issues.
The RTX remix version of Half-Life 2 is being developed by Orbifold Studios, a group of modders and developers who previously worked on projects like Half-Life 2: VR and Project 17. The project goes beyond other similar mods by rebuilding every asset in the original game from 2004. It will also incorporate lighting and ray tracing found in modern games. The addition of Nvidia’s neural shader layer should also enhance the depth of textures from indirect lighting without impacting performance. The new RTX Skin layer also makes skin seem more translucent as it interacts with nearby lighting sources.
© Nvidia / Orbifold StudiosDLSS 4 ray reconstruction and transformer model upscaling are supported on all RTX cards. You can only use multi-frame gen on the more recent 50-series. Nvidia has been promoting RTX Remix since 2022. Since then, we have kept seeing glimpses of the Half-Life 2 RTX mod coming up in Nvidia’s press conferences and press notes, but this is the first time players can experience it for themselves. Unfortunately, we’ll still have to wait longer for the full mod.
With the demo, Nvidia is releasing its RTX Remix tools outside of beta. Nvidia has said that the tool is a way of backporting older games into the modern age. RTX Remix categorizes all the textures, models, lighting, and other data into a software suite that lets modders add, modify, or remove elements. The update will also include the capabilities of DLSS 4. These tools allow developers to use the transformer model upscaler, transformer ray reconstruction, and the oft-touted multi-frame gen.
If you haven’t played Half-Life 2, I don’t know what to tell you to finally convince you to try it. It’s one of the major landmark games of the 21st century. It was the most graphically intensive title to hit the scene at the time, but it’s been so long that you can run the game on a reasonably powerful smartphone. There are already a dizzying number of Half-Life 2 graphics mods, so many add visual effects, updated textures, and generally improve the game’s look. RTX Remix is still one of the most intensive projects since it uses Nvidia’s tools to add ray tracing and other visual effects that were not possible back in 2004.
Beyond Half-Life, Nvidia is also launching its first instances of its ACE AI NPCs, which were first shown at CES earlier this year. We weren’t nearly as impressed as Nvidia thought we would be by its attempts to shove large language models into games, particularly with the Sims-like inZOI NPCS that use AI to guide behavior. A new trailer for FPS Black Vultures: Prey of Greed implies each player will have their own AI as a companion to warn players of enemies or offer advice. The trailer didn’t show any actual gameplay, and knowing AI, it will likely not be fast enough to respond immediately to players’ whims. The only thing I want from AI is its ability to shout, “We’re screwed,” as we are about to get wiped out.
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