Nvidia Unveils Half-Life 2 Graphics Update Project

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Half-Life 2 is being remade with new ray tracing features from Nvidia and graphics updates made by a talented team of modders. The game will celebrate its 20th birthday next year, and the new project is a celebration for fans as it brings major improvements and features powered by modern PC devices to the game.

Nvidia has revealed the Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix project, a new remaster developed by Orbifold Studios, a team made up of four teams of modders. The remaster will use the latest version of the same RTX Remix technology as the Portal RTX and Portal: Prelude projects. Orbifold Studios is rebuilding nearly all of Half-Life 2’s content in the remaster with proprietary PBR (physically based rendering), Valve’s Hammer editor, and some other Nvidia technology. As a result, fans can expect a number of features that did not appear in the original game, such as ray tracing, DLSS 3, Reflex, and RTX IO. Nvidia also released a trailer to show off the remaster’s improvements and many RTX-related features.
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According to Nvidia, the world and textures of the remaster will have almost eight times more pixels than the original game. Additionally, gamers may notice a significant increase in geometric detail when playing Half-Life 2 RTX. Ray tracing dramatically improves highlights and shadows. Half-Life 2 RTX is currently in early development, so Nvidia and Orbifold Studios have not announced a release date. However, the developer confirmed that they are still hiring modders and 3D artists for the project and more details will be revealed at a later date.

Thanks to the use of DLSS 3 and the latest RTX technology, the Half-Life 2 remaster will likely require players to own an RTX 40-series graphics card to support most features. The new features also require a CPU capable of “balancing” the latest PC games. Running Half-Life 2 RTX may require an expensive PC, but the upgrades and impressive graphical enhancements will delight longtime fans.
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