Any modders who are particularly interested in visual upgrades will be pleased to know that Nvidia recently made its RTX Remix platform available for download, and it's been used to make Half-Life 2 look pretty spectacular. Considered by many to be one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time, the follow-up to Valve's equally iconic Half-Life still holds up today, thanks to its impeccable combat, fantastic sci-fi story, and graphics that were ahead of its time back in 2004.
Of course, over the years the legendary FPS has aged, but that's where a visual boost can really give an older release a bit of a shiny makeover. There are many games that utilize Nvidia's RTX technology, an algorithmic-based AI that enhances lighting and shadow effects. While most would expect titles such as Far Cry 6, Doom Eternal, or Cyberpunk 2077 to make use of such ray tracing features, it can also be used on older or less graphically advanced games, such as Minecraft.
Now, thanks to RTX Remix being released, fans can expect to see classic video games be given a visual boost. One example has been spotted by DSO Gaming, which shows Half-Life 2 through the Nvidia toolkit, specifically utilizing Path Tracing. The technology works similarly to ray tracing, in that it's used to give a much more modern appearance by improving lighting and reflections within a scene. The uploaded screenshots really do the nearly 20-year-old game justice. Anyone interested can download the RTX Remix from GitHub, and a report from PC Gamer links to a Discord server for getting started on a modding project.
It's becoming more common for bygone titles to be run through modern technologies to make them look shinier. A recent example is Portal RTX which was released at the end of 2022. Similar to the Path Tracing mod for Half-Life 2, the original Portal looks stunning with its more advanced lighting and shadow effects. It's certainly going to be interesting to see what other classic video games get given the Path Tracing treatment.
With Valve not really known for making threequels, hopes of a third Half-Life game have all but dwindled. While Alyx was well-received, the fact that it was a VR game and didn't feature Gordon Freeman left some feeling that it wasn't a true Half-Life follow-up. Whether a new entry in the series will ever emerge cannot be said, but for now, at least there are ways to make the older releases look prettier.
Half-Life 2 launched in 2004 and is available on Mobile, PC, PS3, Xbox, and Xbox 360.
Source: DSO Gaming, PC Gamer, GitHub, Discord