Nvidia RTX Remix 1.5 brings AI agents to game modding, slashes file sizes by up to 37%

Nvidia releases RTX Remix 1.5 with new RTX IO compression reducing mod file sizes by up to 37% -- update also adds Smooth Normals and 'RTX Remix Skills' Agents

Nvidia has just released a new update for RTX Remix, its modding platform designed to retrofit old games with modern lighting and materials. RTX Remix 1.5 brings a bunch of improvements, but the highlight feature is the improved RTX IO storage compression that can cut down on the size of modded games. The update also adds agentic AI in the form of RTX Remix Skills, along with Smooth Normals for more natural-looking geometry. Let's start with RTX IO, which is by no means a new technology -- it was introduced back in 2020 with the RTX 30 series -- but it's now integrated in RTX Remix. Upgrading old games with fully ray-traced lighting, along with sharper textures, skyrockets their sizes. The original assets aren't replaced either since RTX Remix intercepts the game at runtime and simply injects the new assets on top while suppressing the older ones. Now, thanks to new compression options in the packaging workflow, RTX IO can help reduce those ballooning file sizes considerably. Currently, Portal with RTX, Portal: Prelude RTX, and Half-Life 2 RTX demo support this feature. As such, the Half-Life 2 RTX demo has shrunk down from 80GB to just 50GB, constituting a 37.5% decrease, while Portal with RTX is now only 17GB instead of the 27GB it was previously. RTX Remix 1.5 also brings a highly requested community feature called "Smooth Normals." Basically, once older geometry was upgraded with modern lighting, some elements would look blocky, almost as if anti-aliasing was turned off. Smooth Normals fixes this by making those assets look smoother and more lifelike. Traditionally, this is a manual process, but the new update now generates smooth normals automatically. Lastly, RTX Remix Skills is now available in the modding platform, where you can use agents to help you accelerate your workflow. Nvidia pitches this as a lower barrier to entry for modding, even without coding skills or experience, and for remastering modern games that don't have fixed-function pipelines. Apparently, Dark Souls, Dragon Age: Origins, and Titanfall 2 are already in the process of being upgraded thanks to "this streamlined approach." Today, RTX Remix is publicly available and open source, so you don't even need an Nvidia GPU to enjoy these modded games, and there's actually a pretty solid selection of them over at ModDB. You definitely, however, need an Nvidia GPU to develop/make the mods; you can grab RTX Remix right from the Nvidia App. The Remix agent instruction files for your preferred coding agent are available on GitHub. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

'Half-Life 2 RTX has shrunk from 80 GB to 50 GB': RTX Remix 1.5 update shrinks file sizes, and also starts letting in AI agents

If you're on a budget, now is really not the time to upgrade your gaming rig's storage. The memory supply crisis is driving up the price of SSDs, meaning many will have to make do with what they've already got for as long as possible. Even older games can still have large file sizes, especially if they're enjoying a fresh lick of path-traced lighting. Thankfully though, RTX Remix 1.5 may make juggling your backlog a little easier. Just in case you've not ventured out from under your cool mossy rock since 2004, RTX Remix is Nvidia's attempt to refine the dated visuals of yesteryears' games. The open-source modding platform allows users to update the look of their favourite games with generative AI tools, neural rendering tech, and ray tracing. Unfortunately, all of that fresh tech tends to expand the file size of a 20 year old game. The latest update addresses that file size creep. RTX IO is Nvidia's high-performance storage tech, which introduces a number of improvements including cutting down game file sizes. The company says, "Thanks to [the RTX Remix 1.5] update, file sizes have dropped significantly: Portal with RTX has been reduced from 25 GB to 17 GB, while Half-Life 2 RTX has shrunk from 80 GB to 50 GB." This compression is now available inside the RTX Remix packaging workflow. On top of whittling down game file sizes, RTX IO also reduces CPU overhead and speeds up loads. The 1.5 update introduced a number of other improvements, including 'smooth normals' so that lower poly geometry looks less obvious with a path-traced lighting mod. Speaking of lighting, modders will also enjoy easier to use viewport light controls. Apparently, "existing light manipulators are easier to manage through a unified viewport lights menu, with persistent toggles for manipulator visibility and intensity controls." Now, RTX Remix wouldn't be an Nvidia product without at least one more look-in from AI integration (in case you're still living in 2004, the data centre segment of Nvidia's business made $75.2 billion last quarter alone). The company writes, "Because [the modding] pipeline relies heavily on defined, manual steps, it is perfect for an AI agent to lend a hand." Specifically, Nvidia published a selection of "text-based instruction files that provide specific functional context to AI coding agents" called 'RTX Remix Skills'. The argument is that letting an AI agent handle some of the technical heavy lifting lowers the barrier to entry for human wannabe modders who are not well-versed in either C++ or Python code languages. I'm all for making the technical more accessible...but I'm also incredibly wary of AI agents sticking their metaphorical foot in modders' work.

NVIDIA's RTX Remix Skills lets modders without coding skills use AI agents to help remaster classic PC games

NVIDIA's RTX Remix continues to evolve and expand as more modders use it to breathe new life into classic PC games thanks to its ability to remake and rebuild games with modern path-traced lighting, remastered assets, and more. This week NVIDIA is releasing RTX Remix 1.5, which is available now via GitHub or through the NVIDIA App, and it brings several notable updates. The first of which, and one that the RTX Remix community has heavily requested, is called Smooth Normals. Basically, this takes the blocky, polygonal look of classic PC games and lets modders make environments and objects look less blocky and more modern with path tracing. The second notable update is the arrival of RTX IO support to speed up loading times, stream high-quality assets, and reduce overall mod install sizes. RTX IO leverages your GeForce RTX GPU for decompression, freeing up the CPU for other tasks, and it works with Microsoft's DirectStorage API. NVIDIA notes that notable RTX Remix projects on Steam, like Portal with RTX, Portal: Prelude RTX, and the Half-Life 2 RTX demo, all feature RTX IO. And with that, Portal with RTX has seen its file size drop from 25GB to 17GB, while the Half-Life 2 RTX demo's file size has dropped from 80GB to 50GB. But that's not all, as NVIDIA is introducing a new and powerful RTX Remix Skills feature that's a text-based set of instructions that deliver proper context to AI coding agents. "By making coding agents smarter, modders can accelerate the remastering process," NVIDIA explains. "This significantly lowers the barrier to entry: even without prior C++ or Python experience, users can act as creative directors, guiding AI agents to build meaningful upgrades within RTX Remix." Very cool stuff, as it opens the door for more modders to remaster classic PC games. And with that, NVIDIA notes that, with RTX Remix Skills, modders have begun remastering iconic titles such as Dark Souls, Dragon Age: Origins, and Titanfall 2.