Whereas the likes of Quake and Portal have confirmed to be spectacular showcases for Nvidia RTX Remix, the duty put earlier than the Half-Life 2 RTX growth workforce is on one other stage. Taking a second away from the mod’s growth, Chris Workman, founding father of Orbifold studios shared some perception on the degrees of care and a spotlight it takes to deliver path tracing and extra to a basic PC sport.
20 years on from its launch in 2004, Half-Life 2 is ready to push the perfect graphics playing cards to their limits as soon as once more because of Nvidia RTX Remix. Whereas there’s no phrase but on official system necessities for the mod simply but, efficiency on older pixel pushers may show extra horrifying than navigating Ravenholm.
“We’ve a backlog of a number of thousand belongings to be achieved for Half-Life 2,” Workman shares in an interview with PC Gamer. “Each asset we’re taking the time to ensure we get proper and that’s time consuming.” If this didn’t already sound like a mountainous activity for the workforce, Workman goes on step additional by saying, “I’d even enterprise so far as to say in all probability one of many largest modding initiatives, contemplating how lengthy Half-Life 2 itself took to develop.”
One of many instruments that may very well be use to hurry up growth of Half-Life 2 RTX is AI upscaling, which Nvidia RTX Remix gives proper out of the field. Nonetheless, Workman highlights that Orbifold Studios gained’t be utilizing AI. As a substitute, the workforce is “basically scrutinising each single pixel to ensure we’re hitting the very same notes that the unique designer meant on sure belongings and sure supplies.”
As Workman succinctly places it, “everyone remembers [Half-Life 2] in their very own method,” so staying as true to the unique intent as doable via handcrafted belongings is a great if time-consuming transfer. Personally, I’m glad that such a treasured PC sport seems to be in such caring palms as Orbifold Studios.
As we’ve seen from different examples of RTX Remix mods, like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Want for Pace: Underground 2, the instruments its gives are highly effective however are not at all plug and play. One of many members of the NFS: Underground 2 modding workforce speaks to this within the PC Gamer interview, highlighting the distinctive challenges that every sport presents and their feedback are nicely value a learn.
For extra on RTX Remix, take a look at our protection of the Half-Life 2 RTX announcement whereas we look forward to Orbifold Studios to share a launch date. You can too comply with the workforce on their official X account @HL2RTXOfficial, the place you possibly can see new belongings created for the mod, like Father Grigori (as featured on this story) crafted by brilliantly proficient artists like Sebastian Ignacio Roman (@thelenoax / lenoax).
Don’t neglect that you simply’ll want a robust graphics card at your disposal to run it, so give our GeForce RTX 4070 Tremendous assessment a learn if you happen to want an improve.
