At Gamescom today Nvidia announced Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project, a visually remastered version of Valve’s 2004 FPS in development by the newly formed Orbifold Studios, a collective of designers and modders with serious Half-Life chops. The teaser trailer shows the new version of Kleiner’s Lab, sliding between the original look and the remaster, and featuring high-resolution remakes of assets.
As well as ray tracing, Half-Life 2 RTX will also incorporate Nvidia’s DLSS 3, Reflex, and RTX IO technologies. The project is based on Nvidia’s RTX Remix modding platform, which is yet to be released to the public but will be free when it is, which is designed for modders to more easily create RTX mods for older titles that utilise all of Nvidia’s sprucing-up tech. The first example of this platform’s potential was another Valve game, Portal, which Nvidia handled itself, before giving the tools to modders who did the same with Portal: Prelude.
Nvidia’s website has a page dedicated to the game with various images which you can slide back-and-forth to see the OG game and the RTX version. It says Orbifold Studios is “rebuilding materials with Physically Based Rendering (PBR) properties, adding extra geometric detail via Valve’s Hammer editor, and leveraging NVIDIA technologies including full ray tracing, DLSS 3, Reflex, and RTX IO to deliver a fantastic experience for GeForce RTX gamers.”
Every asset in the game is being “reconstructed in high fidelity” and Nvidia reckons the average texture will have eight times more pixels than the original game, while assets like Gordon’s HEV suit will have 20X the geometric detail. “You can now see the fabric weavings around the joints of the suit, and the interplay of plastics and metals that compose the chest, leg, and arm pieces,” Nvidia breathlessly promises, as I reach out to turn on the cold shower.
The claim that this makes Kleiner’s Lab “feel like a real place” may be a bit much, but there’s no getting away from it: this thing looks stunning. I always feel a little shallow when a game’s visuals make my jaw drop but to see this world brought to life in such a new way almost has a deeper level to it, like seeing a memory that never-was come true. Something like the magnification lens on Kleiner’s desk, “which used shaders in 2004 to depict a low resolution reflection of the world. Now, the magnifying glass contains a curved lens that realistically refracts light and bends every reflection, heightening immersion.”
Nvidia: Gimme. Sadly we may have to wait a while, as it says the project is “early in development” and makes a call for any modders with relevant experience to apply to work on the project. Nvidia does however say that it’s going to release a newer version of Portal with RTX this fall.