Half-Life 2 with ray-tracing looks incredible, thanks to NVIDIA's newly open-source tool

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It's another win for the modding community

Half-Life 2 combat
(Image credit: Valve)

NVIDIA just made one of its most powerful creator tools open-source, meaning modders are now able to add ray-tracing to classic older games like Half-Life 2.

According to the announcement on the Nvidia News page, mod creators can now use the platform to "remaster classic DirectX 8 and 9 games with path tracing, NVIDIA DLSS, AI-enhanced textures, and user-created assets." 

This means some of the best classic PC games might be in for a modern facelift – starting with Half-Life 2, as shared by Twitter user LambdaGeneration. 

"Nvidia just open-sourced their Portal RTX Remix Runtime for the modding community to use. This allows modders to add ray tracing to existing Source games/mods without changes to runtime," they said. "Modder igorzdrowowicz has already got this working on Half-Life 2 and it looks stunning." Honestly? We have to agree.

Ray-tracing is something many of us take for granted in modern games, but you only need look at the screenshots shared in another tweet to see how this bit of tech has brought Half-Life 2 firmly into the 2020s. 

It's all down to how RTX Remix "allows modders to assign new assets and lights within their remastered scene," NVIDIA said in their announcement, "and use AI tools to rebuild the look of any asset." With all these extra light sources adding depth, tone, and temperature to a scene, this handful of screenshots shows how something as simple as ray-tracing can powerfully revamp some of the best FPS games from your PC back-catalog. Ray-traced F.E.A.R, anyone?

Check out some of the best PC games you can play right now, from Half-Life to Doom Eternal.

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Jasmine Gould-Wilson
Jasmine Gould-Wilson
Senior Staff Writer, GamesRadar+

Jasmine is a Senior Staff Writer at GamesRadar+. Raised in Hong Kong and having graduated with an English Literature degree from Queen Mary, University of London, she began her journalism career as a freelancer with TheGamer and TechRadar Gaming before joining GR+ full-time in 2023. She now focuses predominantly on features content for GamesRadar+, attending game previews, and key international conferences such as Gamescom and Digital Dragons in between regular interviews, opinion pieces, and the occasional stint with the news or guides teams. In her spare time, you'll likely find Jasmine challenging her friends to a Resident Evil 2 speedrun, purchasing another book she's unlikely to read, or complaining about the weather.