Path tracing mods for Deus Ex, Dark Messiah, and Half-Life 2 show stunning progress

Something to look forward to: Nvidia and numerous independent modders have been updating iconic PC gaming classics with next-generation path-traced lighting for the last few years. With the company's new RTX Remix framework, modders are making steady progress in refreshing hits like Deus Ex, Dark Messiah, Half-Life 2, and more.

Modders working with Nvidia's RTX Remix toolset can now utilize DLSS 3.5 ray reconstruction when adding path tracing to older games. The company used the announcement to show its effects on some in-development projects.

RTX Remix entered public beta in January. The framework adds full ray tracing, also known as path tracing, to DirectX 8 and 9 games that use fixed-function pipelines. Tinkerers have shown that it fundamentally alters the lighting in games from around 20 years ago, often producing more natural and dynamic shading. Ray reconstruction further improves graphics by using machine learning to drive the denoising process that is crucial to ray tracing.

Nvidia's showcase highlights the significant changes RTX Remix and ray reconstruction have made to Arkane's 2006 fantasy action game Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Comparison screenshots show dramatic improvements to lighting, textures, model detail, reflections, and shadows.

Meanwhile, modders have spent around a year testing the effects of path tracing on Ion Storm's seminal Deus Ex. While work is still in its early stages, a new renderer from modder Onno Jongbloed recently yielded the best results yet. Interested parties can track the mod's progress on GitHub.

The biggest RTX Remix project currently in progress seeks to provide a fan-made remaster of Half-Life 2. A group of modders at Orbifold Studios are rebuilding the game's materials, textures, models, and other assets to fully utilize path tracing, similar to Nvidia's work on Portal.

Contributors collaborating on GitHub, Moddb, Discord, and Nvidia Omniverse have also made other improvements to make using RTX Remix easier. Mods should now run better on the Steam Deck and other AMD-powered Linux systems. Extra areas receiving enhancements include distant lighting, terrain baking, ghosting, flickering, and more.

Other retro titles to receive path tracing makeovers, some without Nvidia's toolchain, include Max Payne, Doom, Quake, Descent, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Tomb Raider. Modders also recently discovered a hidden but incomplete path-tracing renderer in Capcom's latest AAA release, Dragon's Dogma 2. Another current-generation title showcasing the technology is Black Myth: Wukong, which ships on August 20.