Modder ‘Darko P’ has been working on an RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod for Max Payne 2 for a while now. And yesterday, the modder shared a new video, showcasing over 8 minutes of gameplay footage from it.
While this mod is not 100% complete yet, it will soon come out on ModDB. As the modder noted, though, there will be some visual issues here and there.
For instance, some bathroom mirrors will look weird/spherical due to compatibility issues with post-processing. As such, the modder did not replace them. There will also be some minor culling problems (geometry disappearing under a certain angle or going into a different part of the map).
Now, as you will see in the video, the game can look a bit “plastic” at times. Take, for example, Mona’s ponytail. From behind, she looks like a plastic doll.
The reason I’m raising this is so that you can temper your expectations. This is a free mod that adds Path Tracing. It’s not as polished as an official path-traced game. It’s also a WIP mod. Things could get better in the future. But, right now, this is what we have.
Darko P is most likely the same guy who used to be called “Digital Floundry” (UPDATE: Apparently, it’s not him). He also used to go by the name “Digital Clowntree”. Right now, that YT channel has been taken down. This doesn’t really surprise me. So, let’s hope that the modder will now stick with this YT channel.
I’ll be sure to share its download link once it becomes available. Until then, you can go ahead and watch the video.
These past few weeks, we’ve shared a lot of RTX Remix Mods. So, you can find mods for Black Mesa, Star Wars Republic Commando, NFS: Underground, and Manhunt. You can also find some for BioShock, Morrowind, NFS: Underground 2, Star Wars Jedi Outcast, Max Payne, Unreal, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
In January 2024, we shared several RTX Remix Mods that are in the works. As such, you can take a look at screenshots and videos for Tomb Raider 2, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Manhunt, and Garfield Kart RTX Remix. Then, in February 2024, we shared videos for Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, and Midnight Club 2. Be sure to also check out some early RTX Remix videos and screenshots for Fallout: New Vegas, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, COD 2, and Half-Life.
Speaking of Path Tracing Mods for older titles, you might also want to check out the following ones. Modders released demos for their Path Tracing Mods for Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, and Call of Duty 4. Do note that the COD4 Mod is a “proof of concept” demo, and it does not look that great. Let’s also not forget the RTX Remix for COD: WoW. And then we have the RTX Remix Mods for Painkiller and Left 4 Dead 2. Oh, and don’t forget to try this RTX Remix for Unreal Tournament 2004. Lastly, you can download these amazing Path Tracing Mods for Doom, Doom 2, Quake, and Serious Sam.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!
UPDATE:
You can download the mod from this link.
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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I'm playing Alan Wake 2 right now, turned off all that ray tracing nonsense. Looks and plays way better.
Sounds like someone bought a Radeon..
The funny thing is that AW2 is one of the best ray traced and path traced optimized games for Radeon, so your comment doesn't really work here. He's only half right though, it will objectively play better due to higher FPS but will look worse because of less realistic lighting, reflections and shadows.
“The funny thing is that AW2 is one of the best ray traced and path traced optimized games for Radeon, so your comment doesn’t really work here”
Hmmm…
Does it run better with Nvidia or Radeon hardware?
Does it look better with Nvidia or Radeon hardware?
(The answer to both is Nvidia)
The 9070 XT runs AW2 better than the 5070 Ti when not using ray tracing (9070 XT is within 2-3 fps away from the 5080), on par with the 5070 Ti with ray tracing (both can do almost 60fps at 1440p, but are at a barely playable 31-32fps at 4k), and falls behind the 5070 Ti when using path tracing (5070 Ti close to 70fps at 1080p, 9070 XT close to 60 at 1080p, then borderline playable 47fps at 1440p for the 5070 Ti, 38fps for the 9070XT and unplayable 23fps for the 5070 Ti and 18fps for the 9070 XT).
So if you’re not using ray tracing, it plays a little better on the 9070 XT, equal when using ray tracing, and the 5070 Ti plays somewhat better when using path tracing, but with path tracing you’ve sacrificed a bit too much performance so then it becomes a matter of preference (i.e. better visuals or better fps).
Are you trying to give me a headache, If you turn down the settings and don’t want the best visuals then Radeon is your choice?
Isn’t that what the market has been saying since the R9 290?
Nagger, you’ll be giving yourself a headache if you try playing at max settings as not even a 5090 can get anywhere close to 60fps in AW2, nevermind all the other games with path tracing.
I don’t remember it being that bad on my old, but still used, 4090 TUF but then I just use a 1440p panel.
Cope lmao
It looks like how I remember it in my mind
It does not look like how I remember it. I remember it how it was. Lol
It certainly doesn't look vastly different to me.
I'm fine with the original game.
This actually looks amazing! The lighting is right, with GI and bounce lighting + reflections on surfaces
Hey John, this is a different modder who's been working on this mod for a few years now. This is why I gave up on my version, as his mod was going to be completed far before mine and was already looking much better.
Speaking of my Digital Floundry YT channel.. yeah I guess parody is lost on most, including YT's algorithm as I got flagged as violating "Impersonation" policy and got insta permaban.. but I'll be starting a new channel and uploading footage of my Solider of Fortune mod later tonight.. I'll shoot you an email with the link.
Looking forward to Remedy's remakes of Max Payne 1 & 2.
Pretty sure they're going to cancel that sh*t
Everything looks wet and oily at the same time, so disgusting to look at.
Looks pretty neat but I`ll wait for offical remake.
What a waste.
Looking great.
I don't know, I really don't see a huge difference with the original, which still looks great imho.🤔
Secondly, more realistic doesn't mean more beautiful or even interesting to look at.
RTX is one of these modern technologies that makes ALL games look the exact same. In fact, I'd even argue it's one of the TOP reasons so many games look the same now.
Max Payne 2 doesn't look "better" in this video. It looks a bit more realistic, that's all.
It's Payne!! Get him!!!
Wish these mods would showcase what an impact it makes on gamplay as opposed to have the character just stop and stare at light sources.
The mod is on moddb now and just played a bit of it to check out how it compared to the version I was doing and well.. he did a great job getting the materials to have accurate PBR surfaces but it seems like he did this on dated hardware as most textures appear to have only been up-scaled to 1080p or lower, taking away from all the hard work when things look so inconsistent (reminds me of the FF7 remake's random lowres textures) and used some older AI models that did a terrible job with text (though I do see he manually edited some textures to type out higher res words).
When I do a remix mod, I aim to at least upscale to 4k and use the latest topaz AI models to ensure text doesn't just look like hallucination squiggles..