Summary
- Half-Life 2 RTX project aims to update textures and add ray tracing to the game, breathing new life into the 20-year-old classic.
- Fan studio, Orbifold Studios, is behind the ambitious project, using Nvidia's modding tools and platform for support.
- The project's latest trailer showcases the updated visuals of the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm, comparing it to the original graphics from 20 years ago.
A new progress update has been shared for the community-made Half-Life 2 RTX project, which aims to breathe new life into the nearly 20-year old game with the addition of full ray tracing support and updated textures. While this project isn't unlike Nvidia's Portal RTX remaster which came out in 2022, this RTX overhaul for Half-Life 2 is the work of a fan studio known as Orbifold Studios, and has been made possible largely thanks to Nvidia's modding tools and platform.
Half-Life 2's graphics were vastly ahead of their time back when the game was released to critical acclaim in 2004, with the visuals made possible through Valve's Source engine widely regarded to stand the test of time almost 20 years later. With modders having provided the backbone of the Valve community since the original Half-Life games, it's not surprising that there have been countless community projects in the form of cinematic mods and graphical overhauls which have attempted to give Half-Life 2 more of a next-gen look, but perhaps none as ambitious as the Half-Life 2 RTX project that was first revealed in August of last year.
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While there's still no official release date for the project, the initial glimpse of this ray-traced overhaul showed plenty of promise. The reveal trailer used Dr. Kleiner's lab as a demo for the sharp new textures and simulated lighting that the mod will feature, complete with a look at Gordon's visually-remastered H.E.V suit - but the project's latest trailer, revealed via IGN, puts the spotlight on one of Half-Life 2's most iconic chapters. It shows various environments in the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm with updated visuals, including side-by-side comparisons with the game's original 20-year-old graphics.
Nvidia's RTX Remix modding platform has provided a gateway for many developers to bring ray-traced lighting to older titles, with the capabilities of these tools initially being demonstrated in the popular Portal RTX overhaul released last year. Even with Nvidia out of the picture, though, fans have been able to bring ray tracing to the original Half-Life and its expansions via mods of their own.
The Half-Life games have been showing up in headlines surprisingly often lately given their age, with the original Half-Life receiving a surprise update for its 25th anniversary back in November. This update was no small one either, not only making Half-Life: Uplink playable via the Steam version of the game but also introducing new multiplayer content, updating UI to better accommodate higher monitor resolutions, fixing a load of incredibly old bugs, and more.
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1998. HALF-LIFE sends a shock through the game industry with its combination of pounding action and continuous, immersive storytelling. Valve's debut title wins more than 50 game-of-the-year awards on its way to being named "Best PC Game Ever" by PC Gamer, and launches a franchise with more than eight million retail units sold worldwide.
NOW. By taking the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original, and adding startling new realism and responsiveness, Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player's presence affects everything around them, from the physical environment to the behaviors even the emotions of both friends and enemies.
The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people he cares about are counting on him.
