Doom 64 is, at least in my opinion, one of the best Doom games. And now, owners of high-end GPUs can enjoy it with real-time Path Tracing. However, there is a catch.
This real-time Path Tracing mod is for Doom 64: Retribution. This is a total conversion mod that brought Doom 64 into the GZDoom engine. In other words, it’s not for the PC version of Doom 64, which came out in March 2020.
The mod adds volumetric fog, ordinary-lamp light shafts, moonlight, clouds, and lightning. It brings stylized water with projected caustics. It also adds smoke, impact sparks and debris, projectile scorch effects, and exploding barrels.
And that’s not all. The mod adds blood splats that stay in the world, along with unique blood colors for each monster. It also adds a flashlight, an updated HUD mugshot, and act title cards. Furthermore, it includes some subtle PBR material work. These effects are kept light because the denoiser is not yet good enough and can cause visual artifacts.
All in all, this is a dream come true for all Doom 64 fans. However, you might experience some visual bugs and glitches here and there. The mod is not perfect yet, but it does let you play the entire game. And now I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.
Those interested can go ahead and download the mod from this link. On the first run, the launcher will ask you for a DOOM II IWAD you own, Doom 64: Retribution v1.5, and its OGG music pack. At the end of the article, you can also find a gameplay video. This will give you a glimpse of this real-time Path Tracing Mod.
If you want to play some other older games with Path Tracing, you can try the following mods. For instance, you can find Path Tracing mods for Black Mesa, Star Wars Republic Commando, Need for Speed Carbon, NFS: Underground, and Manhunt. You can also find more for BioShock, NFS: Underground 2, Star Wars Jedi Outcast, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
And that’s not all. Modders have released demos for their Path Tracing Mods for Deus Ex, Mirror’s Edge, and Tomb Raider. And then we have the RTX Remix Mods for Painkiller and Left 4 Dead 2. Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Gold have also gotten the path-traced treatment. Half-Life fans can also play the game with Full Ray Tracing/Path Tracing. A demo has also come out for a Path Tracing Mod for Duke Nukem 3D. Then we have the beta release of the Dark Souls 2 Path Tracing Mod. Lastly, you can download these amazing Path Tracing Mods for Doom, Doom 2, Quake, GTA 4, and Serious Sam. These last ones are among the best Path Tracing Mods you can find. So, don’t skip them.
Stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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