Half-Life 2 has long been considered a masterpiece in the gaming world, seemingly untouchable in its perfection. However, Orbifold Studio’s visual remaster has changed the game for one dedicated player. After spending a day immersed in the revamped universe, they found themselves entirely captivated by the experience.
This unofficial remaster, known as Half-Life 2 RTX, is a fan-driven project built using Nvidia’s RTX Remix modding platform. Although Valve, the original creators, are aware of the endeavour, their role is limited to providing the foundational elements. The true magic lies in the hands of the Orbifold team, who have breathed new life into the classic game.
The upcoming two-hour demo, set to be available on March 18, promises an exciting exploration of two iconic levels: the eerie remnants of Ravenholm and the formidable Nova Prospekt. Players will once again step into the shoes of Gordon ‘glasses’ Freeman, experiencing familiar scenes with unprecedented visual fidelity. Bashing boxes and battling foes have never looked so stunning.
For fans of the original game, this remaster offers a fresh perspective while honouring the essence of Half-Life 2. As anticipation builds for the demo release, many are eager to see how passionate hands have transformed this beloved world.
In the eerie town of Ravenholm, floodlights pierce through the darkness, casting elongated shadows that dance across every surface. Even the most minor details, like power boxes or window ledges clinging to the factory walls, are etched in stark contrast. The old factories are shrouded in vines; their leaves meticulously reworked to cast individual shadows under Gordon’s flashlight’s beam.
The atmosphere is ripe with opportunities for action. With the Gravity Gun in hand, players can launch sharp objects at lurking threats. Each saw blade or cinder block hurled at a zombie creates an impressive shadow, adding to the immersive experience.
Ravenholm is home to Half-Life’s most infamous creatures, the head crabs. These spindly critters have undergone a dramatic transformation reminiscent of a ’90s TV makeover. Enhanced by a ray-traced subsurface scattering technique, their meaty legs now reveal a grotesque transparency. Nvidia dubs this effect RTX Skin, aptly named for its unsettling realism.
The introduction of this tool has transformed the once humble headcrab into a creature that eerily resembles a plucked chicken. It rides its human host in a manner reminiscent of a ghoulish version of Ratatouille. Despite this comical appearance, encountering one around a tight corner remains as unsettling as ever.
Nova Prospekt, however, steals the spotlight. Skipping over it in the demo would be a missed opportunity. The location truly shines, showcasing the enhancements made by the revamped path tracing renderer within the RTX Remix runtime.
The writer’s firsthand experiences with Ravenholm during various stages of its development, including an in-person preview at CES 2024, influenced this perspective. Yet, Nova Prospekt stands out, leaving a lasting impression with its visual prowess and atmosphere.
The automatic machine gun turrets flickered with vivid green and blue lights, their sensors locking onto targets with precision. As they unleashed a relentless barrage, each red-hot round tore through the air, sending clouds of dust billowing and strips of paint peeling from the prison walls. The chaotic scene unfolded amidst the ruins of a half-abandoned prison, where the Combine soldiers patrolled with an unsettling mix of authority and obliviousness. Their high-quality uniforms gave them an oddly human appearance, a stark contrast to their original design. Yet, their polished exterior did little to enhance their awareness when Gordon Freeman emerged unexpectedly from a random vent. With his trusty crowbar in hand, he swiftly dispatched the bewildered Combine, adding another victory to his relentless campaign.
A particularly memorable moment unfolded when Gordon wielded his crossbow. With a steady aim, he fired a super-heated, bright orange bolt. The projectile glowed intensely as it cut through the air, leaving a trail of incandescent light in its wake. The bolt’s trajectory was unerring, finding its mark in the torso of an unsuspecting Combine soldier. This singular event encapsulated the brilliance and chaos of the battle, a vivid highlight captured in the accompanying clip.
In the world of gaming, some textures still have that nostalgic old-school appearance, like the doors and floors reminiscent of bygone days. Yet, this charm aligns well with the game’s original tone, making for an impressive visual enhancement.
The essence of the experience is as much about what has been retained as it is about what has been revamped. As one journeys through the levels of Half-Life 2 and its RTX counterpart, the sensation remains akin to playing the same beloved game. The familiar allure is preserved in the gritty red barrels, supply crates, and distinctly angular settings. The RTX version doesn’t alter these crucial elements; instead, it enhances them subtly. The game’s array of weapons, too, has been polished by Orbifold’s team to blend seamlessly into the environment, maintaining their original feel despite the visual upgrade. The quirks of HL2 gameplay remain charmingly intact.
But what exactly lies beneath the surface of this RTX transformation? At its core, it remains the classic Half-Life 2, its essence intact beneath the glossy new exterior. However, the original rendering engine has been entirely swapped out for a modern alternative. This transformation is achieved using a tool known as RTX Remix, which is compatible with numerous DirectX 8/9 games.
RTX Remix, which has been available in open beta for a year and tinkered with by enthusiastic modders even before that, celebrates its first official release today. It consists of several key components: the Runtime and the Creator Toolkit.
The Runtime captures the game’s original processes, translates them, and executes them within a new Physically Based Rendering engine capable of handling dazzling new assets and a revamped lighting system. This evolution paves the way for standardised file types and workflows across the industry, simplifying the creative process. Imagine it as breathing new life into an old car with a modern engine—the seats may still have that familiar bump, yet everything runs smoother than ever.
The Creator Toolkit serves as the key tool for interacting with the new renderer, enabling developers to swiftly create PBR-ready assets that can modify or replace existing ones. Moreover, it supports Nvidia’s features, such as RTX Neural Radiance Cache, which reportedly enhances lighting speed by 15%, along with RTX Direct Illumination, RTX Volumetrics, and the previously mentioned RTX Skin.
A group of modders and designers at Orbifold are employing RTX Remix to implement significant alterations to the assets, textures, and systems within Half-Life 2. This shift means they are no longer primarily working with the Source engine but are directly engaging with Remix. Previously, detailed articles have been written about RTX Remix, including conversations with some of the developers at Orbifold Studios. It’s a meticulous task to examine each game asset and craft new versions.
“Every asset is carefully crafted to ensure accuracy, which takes considerable time,” explained Chris Workman, founder of Orbifold, a year ago. “We have a queue of several thousand assets to complete for Half-Life 2.”
The Orbifold team is committed to handcrafting everything rather than relying on AI upscaling tools available in RTX Remix. According to Workman, this approach allows the team to inspect “every single pixel to ensure they capture the exact intent of the original designer.”
From observations of these two levels, all the effort to align with the original atmosphere and maintain consistency has paid off. The game exudes an eerie beauty.
In terms of gaming performance, the test machine—a formidable gaming PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, an MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Ventus 3X OC Plus graphics card, and 32 GB of RAM clocked at 6,400 MT/s—was put to the test. At a stunning 4K resolution with the Ultra preset and most RTX features activated, the demo yielded an average of only 16 frames per second, a rate that left much to be desired.
However, when DLSS was adjusted to Auto, selecting a higher performance preset, the frame rate improved significantly, climbing to around 40-50 fps. The fundamental transformation came with Frame Generation set to 4x mode, propelling the frame rate to a more comfortable 150 fps, finally rendering the experience playable. This experience suggests that those with older RTX graphics cards face some hurdles.
Lowering the game’s resolution or quality settings offered some respite. Adjustments could be made in the Half-Life 2 settings menu, but for more substantial modifications, pressing Alt + X accessed the RTX Remix menu. Within the General tab, players could swiftly modify DLSS and Frame Generation, while the Rendering tab allowed for a reduction from Ultra to High, Medium, or Low presets.
At a Low setting and a resolution of 1080p, the system achieved an average of 75 fps in Ravenholm’s opening scene. However, this figure could dip when the action intensifies on screen. These were figures without DLSS or frame generation enabled. With these adjustments and DLSS active, there was a glimmer of hope for older graphics cards; nonetheless, running everything at maximum settings remained a formidable task.
The ultimate goal was to play through all of Half-Life 2 RTX with settings cranked to the max. Unfortunately, the full version of the game or mod wasn’t available yet. For now, enthusiasts had to content themselves with a demo slated for release on March 18. To play, both Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2 RTX were required—the original game occupying just under 10 GB once installed, with Half-Life 2 RTX requiring an additional 41 GB.
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