At Gamescom 2024, NVIDIA presented a new demo for Half-Life 2 RTX. So, below, you can find a video showcasing 50 minutes of brand new gameplay footage from it. So, if you are interested in it, I highly recommend watching it.
In this video, NVIDIA’s Jacob Freeman shows off the demo. Jacob has highlighted most of the new Path Tracing features. The video also packs some combat sequences. In short, it’s a must watch for all HL2 fans.
Half-Life 2 RTX will also support DLSS 3 Frame Generation and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction. By using Frame Generation, RTX40 series owners will be able to improve the game’s performance. Since it will be using full Path Tracing, you’re going to need it. And no, there is no word on whether it will support FSR 3.0. However, owners of older RTX GPUs will be able to use the “DLSS 3 to FSR 3.0” Mod. From what we’ve seen, this mod works fine in games that support Path Tracing.
Half-Life 2 RTX is being developed by four of Half-Life 2’s top mod teams, now known as Orbifold Studios. This remaster will also come with new assets. These assets will aim to come close to the original ones but also make the game look on par with most modern-day triple-A titles.
From what we know Orbifold Studios rebuilt materials with Physically Based Rendering (PBR) properties. Not only that but the team added extra geometric detail via Valve’s Hammer editor. In Half-Life 2 RTX, average world textures have 8X the pixels, and assets like the suit feature 20X the geometric detail of the original game.
Sadly, there is still no ETA on when it will come out. At this point, I can assume that we’re looking at a 2025 release date. And that’s me being optimistic.
Anyway, this looks amazing so be sure to check it out.
Enjoy and 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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"Physx", er no matey boi. HL2 used the Havock physics engine, talk about drinking your own kewl-aid.
They've added PhysX to some particles and objects via RTX Remix.
Fsair enough.
What a waste… I'd rather play the FakeFactory Cinematic Mod. At least that looks good without killing my FPS like this ray traced BS. Or better yet, play it in VR with the Half Life 2 VR mod.
The guy also talks like they are the first to make a high res texture pack for Half Life 2…
yep, ngreedia hype train in full effect..
Loser you talk about "greed" when this is a free mod made with tools that were open sourced by Nvidia.
If it was a regular person then I would concede your point, but it isnt. This was an employee doing this with permission from his employer. Was the corporate branding not obvious to you..?
This isnt the schoolyard, 1) its a well established fact that nVidia are deep into greed at this point. 2) it appeared to be an nVidia employee in that videi? So while the mod is indeed free, it dosent mean that Im wrong with my Hype comment. I may end up playing HL2 RTX, but only if it covered EP1/2.
FakeFactory is awful, it pisses on the art-style and the atmosphere, it even pisses on the lore by adding vegetation to City 17 and turning the coast into a fcking forest, the author is talented but is tasteless AF.
Just play HL2 Update and add a bunch of modded textures and models from Gamebanana rather then using this crap
Yeah, he also plastered d*cks all over the walls, which is about as tasteless as it gets. But the graphics enhancements he did make the game look considerably better, and I'd rather play that than some stupid ray tracing mod that tanks my FPS into unplayable territory.
As i said there’s the manual modding alternative through Gamebanana, the graphic enhancements of FakeFactory ruin the atmosphere so much that in the end it doesn’t worth it
There are a ton of mods to enhance and modernize Half Life 2. I'm fine with FakeFactory's work (except for the d*cks on the walls) though, and am happy to play that if I need a more modernized feeling Half Life 2. I'm also fine with the original Half Life 2, as it was an amazing game.
Boo hoo. Lol
Stop being a loser who complains about everything and hates on stuff for no reason. How miserable do you have to be in order to constantly project that out into the world?
This is a free mod from people working in their free time because they want to make it.
They are not upscaling the textures, they are re-making all the textures and materials will photoscan quality and PBR, POM, and they are remaking most of the assets and props by hand in very high poly cinematic quality.
You mean NVIDIA pushing their brand? You consider that "a free mod from people working in their free time"? This was literally from an NVIDIA presentation at a game convention. This thing is nothing more than a steaming pile of NVIDIA marketing hype (aka. bull sh*t). They are basically ruining an awesome game in order to pump their ray tracing garbage into it.
Granted this doesn't effect the original Half Life 2 for those who own it, so I can still enjoy that whenever I want (flatscreen or VR), but that doesn't mean I can't be annoyed by NVIDIA doing this sort of thing or that I can't express my frustration about it.
Looks and sounds great.
It feels like playing half life 2 for the first time again. Can't wait my ninjas
Looks clean, Nova Prospekt is a good benchmark for the lighting system and absolutely thrives with RT, the remastered assets are great too, hope the quality is consistent through all the levels, and i also hope the Episodes will get the same treatment after.
Looks good, I do hope I can disable some RT effects for fps gain, idk if my 3080 can handle it.
RTX Remix is path tracing, there aren't individual effects.
The best you can do is downgrading the quality of GI to use less samples and bounces, but that is going to look bad and defeat the purpose.
Anytime RTX is added to a game it's an exciting thing because that means any game that uses that engine could add RTX.
Looks decent. The lighting not so good. It's all over the place. Some areas look good. Some look basic. i remember the bullsht about raaaaaaay tracing. That you throw it in and just works! what a load of sht. Apparently you still need to tweak the fk out of it in order to obtain good lighting results!
They need to make a complete lighting re-balance.
As usual with every RTX mod, I don't see any significant improvement that would motivate me to use it.
The fact that the lighting looks more realistic in some places isn't enough, if the whole art direction is now messed up.
It looks… Ugly? And too much pitch black… I don't like it
I don't know who's more beta: streamers or their annoying beta fangays. big philosophical question of the 21st century
Really looking for to this! Looks beautiful!
Two decade old engine looks like sh*t no matter how many rays you throw at it.