In June 2022, we informed you about a Path Tracing Mod from Dihara Wijetunga, AMD’s Senior Graphics R&D Engineer, for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. And today, we are happy to share its first gameplay video.
Similarly to Quake Path Tracing, Doom Path Tracing, Half-Life PT and Serious Sam Path Tracing, this mod will introduce full real-time path tracing effects to the game.
Now before continuing, we should note that this is still a WIP project. As such, this gameplay video does not represent the quality of its final version.
For example, the path-traced version has some really sharp shadows right now, and the reason behind this is quite simple. According to Dihara, the mod does not currently have any indirect lighting (there is only direct diffuse and specular lighting). Dihara is still working on the GI denoiser, meaning that the mod will look way better.
Regardless of that, you can easily see the visual improvements that path-tracing can bring to the table. Thanks to these path tracing effects, Return to Castle Wolfenstein can look truly amazing. In a way, this mod reminds me of the first time I saw the Tenebrae Mod for Quake. Oh man, what an amazing experience that was back in 2002.
We should also note that this mod won’t be using NVIDIA’s RTX Remix. Instead, Dihara will implement native path tracing effects in the game. Basically, this will be identical to the mods that we’ve already gotten for the aforementioned classic first-person shooters.
For those wondering, there is still no ETA on when this Path Tracing Mod for Return to Castle Wolfenstein will come out. As always, though, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
Enjoy!
A short clip of Wolf PT in action. The emissives have to be tweaked but it's coming together pretty well. pic.twitter.com/pEA47ypNw6
— Dihara Wijetunga (@diharaw94) July 9, 2023
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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Twitter video… yuck.
Looks liks it’s turned down, some timethe lighting was creting more light in that room, and objects were casting more shadows.
by the time the video cleared up the pixels, it was all over.
upload videos on twitter need to be a warcrime.
One of my favourite PC games and by far the best Wolfenstein game. Would be awesome if this project was completed someday so we all could experience this wonderful game like this.
Agreed on the game, but imho, this project doesnt look that great.
“a Path Tracing Mod from Dihara Wijetunga, AMD’s Senior Graphics R&D Engineer”
I wish, i ‘want’ to extrapolate that this could mean some progress in RT/PT performance/tech for AMD, like he’s learning and testing stuff… But honestly i don’t believe so 😢 I want competition!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVTqT9jKBio
Those colorful item drops make it an instant no for me.
thicc doomguy
Why does the original lighting look better?
Because if was made by people who knew artistic design. How to create a horror mood. Even without normal mapping and all the goodies we have today, RTWC still looks amazing.
It’s been so many years since I last played it. I think I need to see if I was smart enough to make a disk image, because the odds of finding my old CD are about 0%, and I want to play it now.
At the moment the video looks the same as runningg it With reshade RTX
A Twitter link? ew, I am not registering just to see a 5 second clip.
Masterpiece of carefully crafted art design ruined. Check! Uploads to Twitter. Check! Looks like sht. Check!
Those Raytracing/Pathtracing attempt to remaster are killing the vibe of these old games. They look best on a CRT screen with high framerate thats it.