Quake 2 RTX-new-5

NVIDIA has created a gaming studio to remaster classic PC games with Ray Tracing effects

It appears that Quake 2 RTX will not be the only remaster for which NVIDIA will be adding real-time ray tracing effects. According to a job listing, the green team has created a studio that will specialize on adding Ray Tracing effects to remasters of even more classic PC games.

As the description for this job listing reads, NVIDIA has kicked off an exciting new game remastering program.

“We’re cherry-picking some of the greatest titles from the past decades and bringing them into the ray tracing age. Thus, we’ll be giving them state-of-the-art visuals while keeping the gameplay that made them great. The NVIDIA Lightspeed Studios team is picking up the challenge starting with a title that you know and love but we can’t talk about here.”

We should note that NVIDIA created this job listing 17 days ago. In other words, this is after the release of Quake 2 RTX. So yeah, that title that we all “know and love” is not Quake 2.

Two games that could really benefit from Ray Tracing effects are Unreal and Doom 3. Doom 3 had cutting edge technology with stencil shadows and fully dynamic lighting, so it could possibly look amazing with Ray Tracing. On the other hand, Unreal was one of the first games that pushed the envelope of FPS visuals, so it would be cool to see it with some RT effects.

Unfortunately, though, we don’t have any additional details about these upcoming remasters of the classic PC games that will have Ray Tracing. Here is hoping that NVIDIA will reveal more details about its next gaming RT remaster project sooner rather than later.

68 thoughts on “NVIDIA has created a gaming studio to remaster classic PC games with Ray Tracing effects”

  1. I always wondered why nVidia never used their considerable manpower and resources to create (hopefully non-exclusive) games as well, maybe this is the first step…could be cool. Q2 RTX is amazing thing to behold.

          1. Quake 2 RTX used a texture pack that was previously created by modders, they are far more high resolution than the vanilla game.

          2. Exactly. Nvidia can easily start by running a few through AI upscaler. Those are getting really good at it nowadays

  2. “The NVIDIA Lightspeed Studios” stopped reading there.
    Those fellas done RE5 port on Nvidia Shield and it;s total garbage, everything is cut in half, so it looks bad and still runs like trash.
    Amazing studio award for them.

  3. DOOM 3 also has its source code released, just like Quake 2, so it would be possible. Not sure about Unreal.

    1. Pretty sure Nvidia can make deals with any company to internally receive the source code to update the game.

      The game doesn’t have to have it’s source code public.

    1. I was also thinking max payne. if the water effects are anything like minecraft + RTX
      that would be amazing for max payne.

          1. Nah. I actually love female protagonists. Lara Croft, Zoey from Left 4 Dead, Female Boss from Saints Row, Ciri from The Witcher, Claire Redfield, etc. What i don’t like is character that are dull, boring, and look like a tranny.

          2. Most AAA games, yes. But still, there are so many games out there that would deserve a remake. Half-Life 2 for exemple. Legacy Of Kain, Max Payne 1-2, GTA Vice City, Bully…

          3. Eh, maybe not masturbate, but not ugly enough to make someone’s di*k die. You wouldn’t have to worry about that, though.

  4. “We’re cherry-picking some of the greatest titles from the past decades”

    Daikatana RTX Remastered FTW! /s

  5. Does Quake 2 RTX even have sound yet? Do people really want old games remastered with ray-traced lighting and effects? I think it suits Minecraft but some games just don’t really need it. And are these games actually look good with RTX? Quake 2 RTX has glossy surfaces where they don’t need to exist and the implemented ray-traced lighting ruined some parts of the game as they’re too dark. The baked-in lighting that the developers originally implemented is how the game was supposed to look. If the Lightspeed team don’t put more effort into the lighting on a per-game basis rather than implementing RTX and making the textures reflective. They really need to implement PBR that actually reflects what the game would look like if it was in the real world rather than just making surfaces reflective for the sake of showcasing RTX.

    Edit: Can’t wait to see how much AMDs RT tech out-performs Nvidia’s hardware in their own games.

    1. I agree, I don’t really care about playing old games with ray-tracing. I want to see the technology applies to modern games, and that’s going to be a while. The soonest we can hope for us likely Cyberpunk, but to me it’s still not worth upgrading my 1080ti.

      1. The best use for ray-tracing in old games (and new ones for that matter) is for positional audio. Most PC games between the early to mid 2000s had hardware-accelerated positional audio but it just started getting phased out for some reason. Playing Halo: Combat Evolved with headphones, CMSS-3D and EAX-enhanced audio is a great experience.

    2. Quake 2 RTX always had sound, It just had no music in the initial release, but the first patch fixed that.

    1. Deus Ex
      But Tomb Raider and would benefit massively, like millions of old games that had a VERY FLAT lighting.

    1. gaytracing is still very new tech. Its incredible how much power it takes to put accurate shadows on the crotch and buttocks region of male characters in order for it not to be homophobic.

  6. Actually classic games that would benefit from full raytracing the most are Thief and Thief 2. I mean – light and shadows are at the very core of its gameplay and there’s a source code available. It would’ve been like the ultimate showcase of a full-on real-time raytracing that would actually be playable with current- and next-gen GPUs.

    1. I better not get a repeat of Project Offset, awesome looking game with potential to get canned at the last minute

  7. RTX in its current form, seems to mimic VR in its current form. They’re both great for running games from well over a decade ago.

  8. Older titles, titles that have simplified geometry, maybe the only thing that Nvidia’s 20 series is good for. Even then, we are still looking at less than 60FPS/1080p.

    BTW. Daggerfall Unity is very good.

  9. Hmmm…this could turn out to be very interesting, but that completely depends on which classic titles they plan on remastering with real-time Ray Tracing. That being said, it will very likely only work on Nvidia RTX GPUs so mgiht suck!

    In any case, let’s see what are some good first candidates:
    Thief 1 & 2
    Unreal 1
    System Shock 2
    Deus Ex
    FEAR

    1. Thief serie would be a perfect game for the RTX technology. Being a game that revolves around the concept of darkness and light.

  10. I’ll be onboard the hype train if these remasters are not just exclusively for graphical effects will also include refreshing the controls to modern standards.

  11. In summation: Well no modern games work very well, so lets revamp decades old games in attempt to sell our tech.

    1. All games with RTX allow the RTX rendering to happen through the DXR API (DirectX Raytracing) which is a part of DirectX.

      GPUs can use that pipeline regardless of vendor. It’s how the Nvidia 10 series (1060/1070 and so on) can run RTX, even if very slowly. Though Nvidia first had to enable it in the respective drivers.

      If AMD finally implements that feature in their drivers their GPUs can RTX too.

      And if they implement their own dedicated Raytracing hardware onto their cards it shouldn’t run any slower than on Nvidia RTX cards either.

      1. Soo, time exclusivity?
        But yeah you’re right. AMD will be able to run these (even now). It’s just a matter of how well.

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