NVIDIA's RTX Remix Brings New Life to Classic Games with AI-Powered Graphics Enhancements

You'll Be Able to Try Half-Life 2 RTX Remix Next Week

The Half-Life 2 RTX remix modernizes the 21-year-old game with better textures and lighting. 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. DLSS 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.

Gaming Goodness: NVIDIA Reveals Latest Neural Rendering and AI Advancements Supercharging Game Development at GDC 2025

New neural rendering tools, rapid NVIDIA DLSS 4 adoption, 'Half-Life 2 RTX' demo and digital human technology enhancements are among NVIDIA's announcements at the premier conference for game developers. AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements in neural rendering, NVIDIA RTX and digital human technologies equip game developers to take innovative leaps in their work. At this year's GDC conference, running March 17-21 in San Francisco, NVIDIA is revealing new AI tools and technologies to supercharge the next era of graphics in games. Key announcements include new neural rendering advancements with Unreal Engine 5 and Microsoft DirectX; NVIDIA DLSS 4 now available in over 100 games and apps, making it the most rapidly adopted NVIDIA game technology of all time; and a Half-Life 2 RTX demo coming Tuesday, March 18. Plus, the open-source NVIDIA RTX Remix modding platform has now been released, and NVIDIA ACE technology enhancements are bringing to life next-generation digital humans and AI agents for games. Neural Shaders Enable Photorealistic, Living Worlds With AI The next era of computer graphics will be based on NVIDIA RTX Neural Shaders, which allow the training and deployment of tiny neural networks from within shaders to generate textures, materials, lighting, volumes and more. This results in dramatic improvements in game performance, image quality and interactivity, delivering new levels of immersion for players. At the CES trade show earlier this year, NVIDIA introduced RTX Kit, a comprehensive suite of neural rendering technologies for building AI-enhanced, ray-traced games with massive geometric complexity and photorealistic characters. Now, at GDC, NVIDIA is expanding its powerful lineup of neural rendering technologies, including with Microsoft DirectX support and plug-ins for Unreal Engine 5. NVIDIA is partnering with Microsoft to bring neural shading support to the DirectX 12 Agility software development kit preview in April, providing game developers with access to RTX Tensor Cores to accelerate the performance of applications powered by RTX Neural Shaders. Plus, Unreal Engine developers will be able to get started with RTX Kit features such as RTX Mega Geometry and RTX Hair through the experimental NVIDIA RTX branch of Unreal Engine 5. These enable the rendering of assets with dramatic detail and fidelity, bringing cinematic-quality visuals to real-time experiences. Now available, NVIDIA's "Zorah" technology demo has been updated with new incredibly detailed scenes filled with millions of triangles, complex hair systems and cinematic lighting in real time -- all by tapping into the latest technologies powering neural rendering, including: And the first neural shader, Neural Radiance Cache, is now available in RTX Remix. Over 100 DLSS 4 Games and Apps Out Now DLSS 4 debuted with the release of GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs. Over 100 games and apps now feature support for DLSS 4. This milestone has been reached two years quicker than with DLSS 3, making DLSS 4 the most rapidly adopted NVIDIA game technology of all time. DLSS 4 introduced Multi Frame Generation, which uses AI to generate up to three additional frames per traditionally rendered frame, working with the complete suite of DLSS technologies to multiply frame rates by up to 8x over traditional brute-force rendering. This massive performance improvement on GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards and laptops enables gamers to max out visuals at the highest resolutions and play at incredible frame rates. In addition, Lost Soul Aside, Mecha BREAK, Phantom Blade Zero, Stellar Blade, Tides of Annihilation and Wild Assault will launch with DLSS 4, giving GeForce RTX gamers the definitive PC experience in each title. Learn more. Developers can get started with DLSS 4 through the DLSS 4 Unreal Engine plug-in. 'Half-Life 2 RTX' Demo Launch, RTX Remix Official Release Half-Life 2 RTX is a community-made remaster of the iconic first-person shooter Half-Life 2. A playable Half-Life 2 RTX demo will be available on Tuesday, March 18, for free download from Steam for Half-Life 2 owners. The demo showcases Orbifold Studios' work in the eerily sensational maps of Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt, with significantly improved assets and textures, full ray tracing, DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation and RTX neural rendering technologies. Half-Life 2 RTX was made possible by NVIDIA RTX Remix, an open-source platform officially released today for modders to create stunning RTX remasters of classic games. Use the platform now to join the 30,000+ modders who've experimented with enhancing hundreds of classic titles since its beta release last year, enabling over 1 million gamers to experience astonishing ray-traced mods. NVIDIA ACE Technologies Enhance Game Characters With AI The NVIDIA ACE suite of RTX-accelerated digital human technologies brings game characters to life with generative AI. NVIDIA ACE autonomous game characters add autonomous teammates, nonplayer characters (NPCs) and self-learning enemies to games, creating new narrative possibilities and enhancing player immersion. ACE autonomous game characters are debuting in two titles this month: In inZOI, "Smart Zoi" NPCs will respond more realistically and intelligently to their environment based on their personalities. The game launches with NVIDIA ACE-based characters on Friday, March 28. And in NARAKA: BLADEPOINT MOBILE PC VERSION, on-device NVIDIA ACE-powered teammates will help players battle enemies, hunt for loot and fight for victory starting Thursday, March 27.

Drop It Like It's Mod: Breathing New Life Into Classic Games With AI in NVIDIA RTX Remix

Now generally available today, RTX Remix delivers NVIDIA DLSS 4, NVIDIA RTX neural rendering and AI-powered texture tools to modders worldwide. PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods push graphics forward with each GPU generation, extend a game's lifespan with new content and attract new players. NVIDIA RTX Remix is a modding platform for RTX AI PCs that lets modders capture game assets, automatically enhance materials with generative AI tools and create stunning RTX remasters with full ray tracing. Today, RTX Remix exited beta and fully launched with new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series neural rendering technology and many community-requested upgrades. Since its initial beta release, RTX Remix has been experimented with by over 30,000 modders, bringing ray-traced mods of hundreds of classic titles to over 1 million gamers. RTX Remix supports a host of AI tools, including NVIDIA DLSS 4, RTX Neural Radiance Cache and the community-published AI model PBRFusion 3. Modders can build 4K physically based rendering (PBR) assets by hand or use generative AI to accelerate their workflows. And with a few additional clicks, RTX Remix mods support DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation. DLSS' new transformer model and the first neural shader, Neural Radiance Cache, provide enhanced neural rendering performance, meaning classic games look and play better than ever. Generative AI Texture Tools RTX Remix's built-in generative AI texture tools analyze low-resolution textures from classic games, generate physically accurate materials -- including normal and roughness maps -- and upscale the resolution by up to 4x. Many RTX Remix mods have been created incorporating generative AI. Earlier this month, RTX Remix modder NightRaven published PBRFusion 3 -- a new AI model that upscales textures and generates high-quality normal, roughness and height maps for physically-based materials. PBRFusion 3 consists of two custom-trained models: a PBR model and a diffusion-based upscaler. PBRFusion 3 can also use the RTX Remix application programming interface to connect with ComfyUI in an integrated flow. NightRaven has packaged all the relevant pieces to make it easy to get started. The PBRFusion3 page features a plug-and-play package that includes the relevant ComfyUI graphs and nodes. Once installed, remastering is easy. Select a number of textures in RTX Remix's Viewport and hit process in ComfyUI. This integrated flow enables extensive remasters of popular games to be completed by small hobbyist mod teams. RTX Remix and REST API RTX Remix Toolkit capabilities are accessible via REST API, allowing modders to livelink RTX Remix to digital content creation tools such as Blender, modding tools such as Hammer and generative AI apps such as ComfyUI. For example, through REST API integration, modders can seamlessly export all game textures captured in RTX Remix to ComfyUI and enhance them in one big batch before automatically bringing them back into the game. ComfyUI is RTX-accelerated and includes thousands of generative AI models to try, helping reduce the time to remaster a game scene and providing many ways to process textures. Modders have many super resolution and PBR models to choose from, including ones that feature metallic and height maps -- unlocking 8x or more resolution increases. Additionally, ComfyUI enables modders to use text prompts to generate new details in textures, or make grand stylistic departures by changing an entire scene's look with a single text prompt. 'Half-Life 2 RTX' Demo Half-Life 2 owners can download a free Half-Life 2 RTX demo from Steam, built with RTX Remix, starting March 18. The demo showcases Orbifold Studios' work in Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt ahead of the full game's release at a later date. Half-Life 2 RTX showcases the expansive capabilities of RTX Remix and NVIDIA's neural rendering technologies. DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation multiplies frame rates by up to 10x at 4K. Neural Radiance Cache further accelerates ray-traced lighting. RTX Skin enhances Father Grigori, headcrabs and zombies with one of the first implementations of subsurface scattering in ray-traced gaming. RTX Volumetrics add realistic smoke effects and fog. And everything interplays and interacts with the fully ray-traced lighting. What's Next in AI Starts Here From the keynote by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang on Tuesday, March 18, to over 1,000 inspiring sessions, 300+ exhibits, technical hands-on training and tons of unique networking events -- NVIDIA's own GTC is set to put a spotlight on AI and all its benefits. Experts from across the AI ecosystem will share insights on deploying AI locally, optimizing models and harnessing cutting-edge hardware and software to enhance AI workloads -- highlighting key advancements in RTX AI PCs and workstations. RTX AI Garage will be there to share highlights of the latest advancements coming to the RTX AI platform.

RTX Remix Makes Your Old PC Games Look New Again

NVIDIA has officially released RTX Remix, which has been in beta for over a year. The platform lets you improve the graphics of classic PC games using AI and DLSS 4, making them look like they've been remastered. The official release includes several important updates. One major improvement is the addition of DLSS 4, which has Multi-Frame Generation and RTX Neural Shaders. DLSS 4 boosts performance by improving ray tracing and frame generation, which basically means it increases frame rates. In a demo with Half-Life, using DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Generation, a 10.2 times performance increase was achieved at 4K resolution in the Ultra settings. NVIDIA has also introduced a new feature called Neural Radiance Cache, a type of neural shader that helps improve how light is handled in gaming engines. This technology uses AI to calculate how indirect light looks in real time, making lighting more accurate and responsive. In the Half-Life demo, for instance, users have noticed up to a 15% boost in performance. Additionally, there have been improvements in the RTX Remix runtime that can also lead to a performance increase of up to 15%, depending on the game. There's also a new texture streaming system that manages video memory usage by adjusting the quality of textures on the fly. This system works alongside RTX IO to ensure that games load quickly while maintaining high visual quality. The updated RTX Remix offers better tools for modders. Now, you can change character models in games that support GPU skinning to make them look better. RTX Skin uses ray tracing to make characters and materials look more realistic by simulating how light moves through them. RTX Volumetrics allows for the creation of impressive lighting effects, like rays of light and atmospheric details such as fog and dust. One thing that not many people know about animating meshes is that an improperly rigged skeleton can ruin everything. It's an important step that can make bodyparts look disjointed and ruin immersion. The new Skeletal Remapper tool also helps match new character designs to the original skeletons so they animate correctly. The RTX Remix application has also been updated and includes a new Stage Manager feature. This tool makes managing and changing game elements like lights, 3D models, and materials easier. New guides and tutorials are also available to help modders make the most of the platform. During the beta for RTX Remix, over 30,000 modders have used it to improve hundreds of games. More than a million gamers have tried out the new mods, which is a win for the company. This move from beta also comes with improved performance for GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, including quicker frame generation and less VRAM usage. The new AI model in DLSS improves the image quality of ray tracing on all GeForce RTX GPUs. On March 18, a demo of Half-Life created by Orbifold Studios will be released on Steam to show everyone the improvements. This demo highlights what RTX Remix can do, featuring improved levels from Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt. A complete remaster of the game is expected to come out later. Orbifold Studios has worked on enhancing textures, models, and levels by adding more details and using fully ray-traced lighting. They've also updated the atmospheric effects, visuals, and audio. The demo takes advantage of all the new features in RTX Remix, including DLSS 4, Neural Radiance Cache, RTX Skin, and RTX Volumetrics. While it's recommended to have a GeForce RTX 50 series GPU for the best performance at the highest settings, that's not a hard rule. You can always adjust the settings to work with older graphics cards. Just keep in mind that improper use of the settings will cause your computer or laptop to run hot. You can download NVIDIA RTX Remix from the NVIDIA app or website. To create mods, you need a GeForce RTX graphics card, but the mods you create will work on any hardware that can run games using Vulkan with ray tracing. To find and share mods, it's a good idea to check out ModDB and the RTX Remix Showcase Discord server. Source: NVIDIA

I just went back to Ravenholm in Half-Life 2 RTX -- Nvidia's new RTX remix tech makes it 10x more terrifying

Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs are making quite a splash regarding the incredible capabilities of DLSS 4, all of the neural rendering techniques, and AI, which is now used to achieve some bonkers frame rates in PC games. One of the more exciting things for me to reminisce about my gaming heyday has been seeing that RTX Remix is finally launching after a couple of years of teasing. This is an AI-driven modding platform that developers can use to overhaul the textures and lighting. They can even add DLSS and full ray/path tracing to their games. The main demo we've seen over the past year has been Half-Life 2 RTX -- a fantastic-looking upgrade to my favorite game of all time. But trailers are one thing. How well does it perform? Well, to see what RTX Remix can do, the demo for Half-Life 2 RTX is now available on Steam (for free to owners of the original game), and I got to return to Ravenholm over the weekend. And the result is pure nightmare fuel (in a good way). Let me explain. For transparency -- with these settings, I hit an average of 94 frames per second. I will be testing the game this week on an RTX 50-series gaming PC -- to really see the full suite of DLSS 4 features like frame generation, full ray-tracing and RTX neural rendering techniques like RTX Skin in full effect. But on the system I currently have, I definitely felt some kind of way coming out of this, and that "way" is a little nervous to go to sleep at night. Remixing the horror From the word "go," I was immediately immersed -- the minimal lighting volumetrically and atmospherically bringing the world of this terrifying town to life. The gameplay remains untouched, which is great for me as it still has one of the best physics engines to date (fight me on this one). But the real star of the show in working my way through Ravenholm was how all of Nvidia's new graphical tech comes together to really enhance the experience and amp up the scares. DLSS 4 on the new transformer model improves frame rate and virtually eliminates any ghosting around fast-moving objects -- really highlighting the remastered textures. The Neural Radiance Cache brings a new sense of realism to direct and indirect lighting with full ray tracing. This tech uses AI neural networks to calculate all the beams of light from real-time game data, to figure out what should be lit up. The end result for me is that those normally kinda scary zombies now form a terrifying silhouette in front of a burning car. RTX Volumetrics combines with this by making calculations on realistic fog, particle and atmospheric effects. This brought a whole lot more moodiness to each scene and made the fast zombie jump scares all the more impactful. And when you get up close in combat, RTX Skin takes center stage by making the enemies look all the more disgustingly biological. Ray-traced surfaces across the skin are calculated on a per-pixel basis and even offer subsurface scattering of lighting. Put it all together (along with those performance bumps thanks to reducing texture sizes by 10% and RTX Remix Runtime giving an up to 15% uplift in FPS), and Orbifold Studios has done an incredible job faithfully remastering Half-Life 2. This is a new level of terror. Outlook I've always had one belief when it comes to gaming -- graphics don't make a game great. You can have the most basic-looking title that's still addictive purely because of the stylism and gameplay. But there's no doubt about it that RTX Remix and the wealth of new technologies afforded to Half-Life 2 here breathes entirely new life into it, and brings one of my personal favorite games of all time even better. The combination of updated textures, vastly upgraded lighting, volumetric fog and smoke makes Ravenholm so much more terrifying, and now I just want to see so many more games get the RTX Remix treatment. Setting up a prayer circle for Bioshock as we speak... More from Tom's Guide

Nvidia unveils 50 Series upgrades like RTX Remix inside Half-Life 2 RTX demo ahead of GDC

Jason Paul, vice president of the GeForce Platform Technology at Nvidia, said that demand is off the charts for the 50 series graphics processing units (GPUs). In the first five weeks of sales, the 50 Series shipped twice as many units as the first five weeks of the 40 Series years ago. And players are using the cards the way they were meant to be, as 92% are turning on DLSS4 and 96% are using Reflex and 90% are using ray tracing. Nvidia announced enhancements across its neural rendering and RTX technology suite, including that neural shaders are coming to Microsoft DirectX in April, and RTX Remix is officially releasing out of beta alongside a new playable Half-Life 2 RTX demo. Nvidia also said RTX Kit is receiving major updates with Unreal Engine 5 support for RTX Mega Geometry and RTX Hair, and Nvidia ACE autonomous game characters are debuting in two titles. Half-Live 2 RTX -- Remastered with Nvidia RTX Remix You can relive the critically acclaimed and award-winning Half-Life 2, reimagined with full ray tracing, remastered assets, the groundbreaking AI-accelerated performance of Nvidia DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, and the best responsiveness with Nvidia Reflex. The Half-Life 2 RTX demo exemplifies the incredible power of the new GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards, and the capabilities of the Nvidia RTX Remix modding platform, Paul said. Every frame of gameplay is upgraded with stunning full ray tracing, new hand-crafted hi-res physically-based textures, and new enhanced high-poly models evocative of the originals. Built by Orbifold Studios, a community mod team, performance is accelerated with Nvidia DLSS 4 and system latency is minimized using Nvidia Reflex. The Half-Life 2 RTX demo features a Ravenholm chapter and a Nova Prospekt chapter-use "New Game" to choose the Ravenholm chapter. Upon completing it and returning to the menu, select "New Game" to choose the Nova Prospekt chapter. There are more than 100 titles available that support DLSS4, including Spider-Man 2, Enlisted, Monster Hunter Wilds and FragPunk. That's not bad for 1.5 months, as it's the fastest ramp of a new gaming technology for Nvidia -- 16 times faster than DLSS3, Paul said. "Given this great adoption of RTX technology by our gamers, we're obviously working really hard to get the tech into more and more games," Paul said. "And GDC is the place where we really work on this. The focus at GDC this year is on AI-powered gaming. This includes our DLSS 4 neural shaders that allow programmable shaders to access the Tensor cores, and ACE generative AI models that lock and unlock new gaming experiences based off of DLSS." Seven new games are getting DLSS4 as well, including Stellar Blade, a high-rated action-adventure RPG. It was the best-selling game in North America when it launched on PlayStation last year, and it is coming to PC with DLSS 4 in June. The martial arts combat game Phantom Blade Zero is also coming to DLSS4, as is the RPG Lost Soul Aside. Paul said the difference between performance and quality mode is about a 20% to 25% boost in FPS, while still maintaining DLSS3 quality. Nvidia and Microsoft are announcing at GDC that neural shading support is coming to DirectX via an SDK preview in April. Nvidia released RTX Remix in beta last year, and over 30,000 modders have tried it and published over 100 mods. Hundreds more are in development. One mod that released was Painkiller, a remaster of the classic game by the same name. Now RTX Remix is officially releasing as a tool for modders to make unforgettable characters and worlds. Now it has a featured called character replacement, which remasters characters. The RTX Remix beta runtime, available today, can get about 125 frames per second (FPS) with frame generation at 4K max. Paul also talked about the ACE technology used to make AI avatars, game characters and companions. Inzoi, a life simulation like The Sims, is the coming from Krafton later this month. The city's NPCs (non-player characters) are called Zois and they smart companions. ACE is powered by a half-billion parameter small language model. Inzoi releases on March 28. "It enables players to customize their family, home, and game world to create unique stories and unique gaming experiences," Paul said. Another title using the tech is Battle Royale Naraka BladePoint.

RTX Remix exits beta, optimizations, DLSS 4, and RTX Neural Shaders added

TL;DR: At GDC 2025, NVIDIA announced the official release of RTX Remix, a toolkit for remastering classic games with RTX technologies. It enables modders to enhance graphics, replace objects, and improve lighting using AI and ray tracing. The release includes features like RTX Neural Shaders and RTX Skin, optimizing performance and supporting projects like the Half-Life 2 RTX Demo. At GDC 2025, NVIDIA announced that RTX Remix had exited beta and been officially released. RTX Remix is a toolkit developed by NVIDIA that leverages its expertise in AI and rendering alongside the power of the NVIDIA Omniverse to make it easier to remaster and mod classic games with RTX technologies. Naturally, this means Full Ray Tracing or Path Tracing in iconic titles like Portal, Half-Life 2, and more. RTX Remix is out of Beta and officially released with enhancements, optimizations, and cutting-edge neural rendering features. To non-developers, it works like magic. Modders can open compatible titles with fixed-function graphics pipelines (going back to DirectX 8) and then press a hotkey to capture a scene, making everything in there ready for enhancement. RTX Remix allows modders to replace objects, transform materials, replace animation, use AI to upscale textures, and tweak the lighting with cutting-edge modern ray-tracing effects. A single button then compiles everything into a playable mod with Full Ray Tracing and DLSS 4 technologies including Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and Multi Frame Generation. RTX Remix also allows modders to play with cutting-edge RTX Neural Shaders to deliver stunning transformations, with several optimizations and improvements added to the full release. Character Replacement has been overhauled to make swapping out low-poly models with high-poly models seamless, with animation and everything else kept intact. As requested by modders, Stage Manager is a new feature that gives a complete list of every asset in a scene, mesh, and material to help speed up the development and modding process. The RTX Community is already vibrant with tens of thousands of modders and over 350+ projects in development. There's also support for RTX Neural Radiance Cache. This AI neural network runs on your GPU to improve ray-traced lighting quality by allowing the AI model to use the current scene to perform and infer ray calculations and bounces with only a partially traced ray. The result boosts the performance of GeForce RTX hardware, which is fantastic because path tracing is incredibly demanding for GPU hardware. The full release of RTX Remix also includes support for RTX Skin, a new technology that allows for ray-traced translucent skin and subsurface scattering. The full release also includes performance optimizations for things like texture streaming and the runtime, which further boost performance for developers and playing the mods. These RTX technologies will be available in the Half-Life 2 RTX Demo that launches next week, one of the most highly anticipated RTX Remix projects currently in development. With a team of 100 modders at Orbifold Studios working on the mod, with engineering support from NVIDIA, it essentially looks like a full-blown remake of one of the most influential and beloved games ever.

Half-Life 2 RTX demo drops March 18 with two hours of stunning full ray tracing gameplay

TL;DR: Half-Life 2 RTX, a remaster by Orbifold Studios using NVIDIA's RTX Remix toolkit, reimagines the classic game with ray-traced visuals, new models, and advanced technologies like RTX Neural Shaders. A demo featuring Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt chapters releases on March 18, supporting DLSS 4 and the new GeForce RTX 50 Series' Multi Frame Generation. It's one of the most celebrated and acclaimed PC games ever made, and in 2025, Valve's Half-Life 2 is still a stone-cold classic. Half-Life 2 RTX, from Orbifold Studios, is one of the most ambitious and impressive mod projects for a PC gamer we've ever seen. The 100+ strong team of talented developers at Orbifold are using NVIDIA's groundbreaking RTX Remix toolkit to transform the iconic release. And a playable demo is dropping, next week, on March 18. RTX Remix, a modding tool that allows older titles to be remastered (or remixed) with new art, models, and full ray-traced visuals, is a game changer for the modding community. The result is Half-Life 2 reimagined with fully ray-traced visuals, groundbreaking RTX Neural Shaders, physically-based textures, new high-poly models of characters, enemies, and objects, and a whole lot more. Technically it's a remaster, but it looks like a built-from-the-ground-up remake. The demo includes the survival-horror-like Ravenholm chapter from the game alongside the action-packed Nova Prospekt chapter. The build will fully support DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation and NVIDIA Reflex, and the GeForce RTX 5090 delivers 265.7 FPS and the GeForce RTX 5080 delivers 163 FPS in 4K with DLSS 4. At 1440p, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti delivers 200.1 FPS and the GeForce RTX 5070 delivers 154.7 FPS with DLSS 4. Half-Life 2 RTX is a free DLC for all Half-Life 2 owners on Steam. Half-Life 2 RTX is designed to run well on all GeForce RTX 50 Series models, with NVIDIA confirming that RTX 40 Series and RTX 30 Series gamers can also play and enjoy the demo. It also features brand-new technology never seen in a game: RTX Neural Shaders and other technologies which will usher in a new era of PC gaming. RTX Direct Illumination (RTXDI) is a technology that allows millions, yes millions, of dynamic lights to be added to a game without impacting performance or straining system resources. RTX Neural Radiance Cache is a neural shader that improves lighting quality while improving performance. It's a neural network that runs as you play, analyzing a scene to calculate lighting with the power of AI - and the result is more accurate and responsive lighting and up to a 15% boost to performance in Half-Life 2 RTX. RTX Volumetrics is a new technology that delivers realistic ray-traced fog effects. With this technology, ray-traced light beams now realistically scatter through air, fog, and smoke to add more realism and immersion to a scene. RTX Skin, is precisely as it sounds, it accurately simulates how light passes through skin and other surfaces to capture the "translucent quality of real skin" and "the subtle glow of light passing through flesh." In Half-Life 2 RTX, the headcrab zombies in Ravenholm will be much creepier thanks to RTX Skin. As a demo, there will be some bugs and areas that haven't been appropriately remixed. We're keen to jump in after watching Half-Life 2's progress and even briefly going hands-on and hands-off with live demos. Stay tuned for our impressions, including footage captured on a GeForce RTX 5090.

Half-Life 2 RTX - Here's 40 Minutes of the Iconic FPS with Full Ray Tracing

TL;DR: Half-Life 2 RTX is a remaster by Orbifold Studios using NVIDIA's RTX Remix, transforming the classic game with modern PBR objects and ray-tracing. The demo, available for GeForce RTX owners, showcases enhanced visuals while retaining the original's essence. New RTX technologies improve lighting and detail, offering a groundbreaking experience. Half-Life 2 RTX is a remaster and remake project from Orbifold Studios, a team of 100 modders, built with NVIDIA's impressive RTX Remix platform. In a nutshell, RTX Remix takes every scene and location from Valve's original Half-Life 2, transforms every material and surface into modern physically-based rendered (PBR) objects, and adds a suite of RTX technologies and AI tools to draw from, with the result being a fully ray-traced or path-traced version of a classic game that is now twenty years old. Half-Life 2 RTX is a project we've been following closely for a few years, with early looks showcasing stunning and transformative results. With a fully playable demo now available for all GeForce RTX owners that includes two fully playable chapters from the game (Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt), we were given early access to the demo to get our first proper hands-on look at Half-Life 2 RTX. Running on the GeForce RTX 5080, it's as impressive as we hoped it would be. Like all the best remasters and remakes that aim to stay faithful to the source material, Half-Life 2 RTX is like your fondest memories of the game brought to life with some of the most cutting-edge visuals ever seen in an interactive experience. It's like how you remember Half-Life 2 but with new assets and stunning ray-traced effects that only amplify and enhance what is still an all-timer. The magic trick here is that Orbifold Studios has taken just about everything you see in the Half-Life 2 RTX demo (some assets and effects have yet to be upgraded) has been painstakingly recreated with modern levels of detail without changing the look and feel of the source. Take a closer look at a barrel or canister or one of Grigori's traps in Ravenholm, and you'll notice so many new little details upon closer inspection that it's mind-blowing how things look the same while being completely different. The team has painstakingly updated all textures, objects, and even characters while retaining the original art direction from Valve. In a way, this is standard remaster or remake stuff. But, once you add ray-tracing, RTX Neural Shaders, DLSS, and Multi Frame Generation, Half-Life 2 RTX delivers one of the most technically advanced and accomplished slices of gameplay you'll likely experience in 2025. Playing through the Ravenholm chapter and the previously creepy survival horror section from the original Half-Life 2 becomes genuinely unsettling as you see shadows react and move realistically - from headcrabs creeping towards you from behind or around a corner to a dim alleyway with crawling zombies looking like something from a horror film. Realistic and cinematic lighting, like what's on display here, is genuinely next-level stuff and one of the reasons you need a powerful GeForce RTX 40 or 50 Series GPU to run it all with a playable frame-rate. Half-Life 2 RTX also includes brand-new RTX tech that we haven't seen in a game before. RTX Neural Radiance Cache is an AI neural shader that runs as you play the game. It not only improves performance but it leverages AI to simulate ray bounces to dramatically improve lighting, shadows, and other details you see. RTX Volumetrics delivers an endless stream of "wow" moments in Ravenholm because it allows for light to be accurately rendered in things like smoke and fog while creating accurate volumetric shadows. RTX Skin simulates how light penetrates the skin, which means you can see the translucent aspects of the many headcrab zombies you encounter, not to mention how things like veins and other soft stuff behave while basking in the glow of a nearby spotlight or fire. Yeah, it's kind of gross. Now, you could chalk up a lot of this as being a tech demo for RTX Remix and cutting-edge future tech that, right now, is only possible to achieve on the latest GeForce RTX hardware. However, as we're talking about a faithful recreation of Half-Life 2, with all of the same physics-based gameplay, sound, and music from the original, Half-Life 2 RTX is, first and foremost, a groundbreaking remake of one of the most beloved and acclaimed games ever made. One that remains remarkably faithful to the source material. With that, we loved every minute of the two hours or so of gameplay we experienced with the Half-Life 2 RTX demo and cannot wait to replay the game in its entirety when the full mod/remake/remaster is released.

Nvidia to show off powerful video game remix capabilities in Half-life 2 RTX demo

Now out of beta, RTX Remix allows modders to upgrade classic games with cutting-edge graphics. Ahead of GDC 2025, Nvidia has today announced a batch of new advances in neural rendering and RTX technology. Neural shaders are coming to Microsoft DirectX preview, there are major RTX Kit updates for Unreal Engine 5 (see our guide to the best game development software), and we have the full release of game-changing (literally) RTX Remix with a Half-Life 2 RTX demo on the way. We already got a glimpse of Half-Life 2 RTX at Gamescom last year and a subsequent tease in the 20th anniversary tribute video. Over 100 contributors worked on the project as Orbifold Studios made use of Nvidia's RTX Remix generative AI abilities to update the game more quickly than could have been possible before. The last video had us excited, showing a game that looks familiar but totally contemporary too. Nvidia RTX Remix was built to allow developers and modders to update classic games with cutting-edge ray tracing, allowing fans to relive old favourites in stunning detail while also introducing a new players to era-defining titles. To witness the tech's capabilities in action, Half-Life 2 owners will be able to download a free Half-Life 2 RTX demo from Steam from next Tuesday (18 March). Showcasing Orbifold Studios' work in Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt, the demo comes ahead of a planned full release in the future. RTX Remix was released in beta last year. It differs from other modding tools in that it opens up a vast catalogue of hundreds of classic games to be graphically remastered with enhanced visuals while preserving core gameplay. Now exiting beta, the full release comes with new capabilities, including DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation, RTX neural rendering tech and community-requested changes that enable modders to improve remasters, increase image quality, and accelerate performance. Textures, models, lighting, effects and more can be captured, categorised and reassembled into an editable scene, and a relatively simple interface allows modders to drag and drop lights, move objects and copy-paste existing assets. Users can convert lights to be fully ray-traced, use AI to enhance textures and add DLSS to improve image quality and accelerate performance. Community mod teams can even rebuild every asset with AAA-fidelity using PBR-based workflows to make highly detailed meshes with realistic material properties in place of the low resolution, low poly originals. And since RTX Remix runs on the flexible OpenUSD file format, mod artists can use virtually any of the best 3D modelling software, including Blender, Adobe Substance 3D Painter and Autodesk Maya to modify or rebuild assets. Exported mods are packaged with the RTX Remix Runtime. Players just need to launch the original game, and the Runtime will replace the original renderer with a modern Vulkan one, replacing each original asset and light with the remastered version live. The GPU giant says that already over 30,000 modders have experimented with hundreds of titles, and over 1 million gamers have played RTX Remix mods. Nvidia has announced that over 100 games and apps now support DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, and more are coming soon, including Lost Soul Aside, Mecha BREAK, Phantom Blade Zero, Stellar Blade, Tides of Annihilation and Wild Assault. DLSS 4 was introduced with the release of GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs (see our Nvidia GeForce 5090 FE review). Multi Frame Generation uses AI to generate up to three additional frames per traditionally rendered frame, working with the suite of DLSS technologies to multiply frame rates by up to 8X over traditional brute-force rendering, enabling gamers to max out visuals at the highest resolutions. Other announcements from Nvidia today include the addition of neural shading support for Microsoft DirectX preview in April, unlocking the power of AI Tensor Cores in GeForce RTX GPUs inside of graphics shaders used to programme video games. Nvidia has also released Unreal Engine 5 support for RTX Mega Geometry and RTX Hair through the RTX Branch of Unreal Engine.