Quickly you’ll be capable to don Gordon Freeman’s HEV swimsuit in full ray-traced glory, smashing your trusty crowbar into headcrabs with sensible shadows and reflections, as Nvidia has simply introduced {that a} playable Half-Life 2 RTX demo will probably be obtainable to obtain in March 2025. Not solely that, however should you already personal Half-Life 2 (and type that out should you don’t), the demo will probably be a free obtain.
The launch comes as Nvidia publicizes that RTX Remix is now formally out of open beta, with a bunch of latest neural rendering options on the platform. In response to Nvidia, you’ll get round two hours of gameplay within the new Half-Life 2 demo, which won’t solely carry ray tracing to the traditional FPS, but in addition a bunch of latest options, together with RTX Pores and skin, neural radiance cache, and DLSS 4. I had an opportunity to play with a few of these Half-Life 2 RTX neural rendering options at CES, the place Nvidia was exhibiting off the sport, and I got here away actually impressed by them.
At a media briefing to announce the launch, Nvidia RTX mission supervisor Nyle Usmani gave us some particulars on the brand new demo. In response to Usmani, it “comprises nearly all of Ravenholm, which individuals are going to be very enthusiastic about. They’ve lots of nostalgia for going by that very spooky locale.” That’s not the one map going into the demo, although.
“We even have a good portion of a a lot later map from the sport,” says Usmani, “which is the Nova Prospekt chapter, which at that time within the sport you might have each weapon, so it is a nice demo for attending to see how all of those weapons have been remade with lovely RTX results in thoughts.” Usmani added that “you get into lots of frenetic firefights with Mix troopers and gigantic insect aliens, and it’s only a blast.”
Usmani says the demo will characteristic full ray tracing, in addition to “a bunch of remade belongings that look beautiful.” As I discussed earlier, although, we’re not simply speaking about merely including ray tracing right here, but in addition some neat neural rendering options. Certainly one of these is neural radiance cache, which makes use of AI to calculate mild extra effectively to enhance body charges, whereas additionally making the lighting extra correct. I had a play with this tech at CES, and you’ll see on the paving picture above that the shadows are extra sensible with neural radiance cache (on the fitting), with way more depth.
RTX Pores and skin will even be supported, which makes use of AI to course of the way in which mild bounces off surfaces equivalent to pores and skin, leading to sensible translucency results. As you’ll be able to see within the picture under, the headcrab just isn’t solely realistically-lit, nevertheless it additionally glows pink the place the daylight shines by it, making the veins seen.
Usmani additionally prompt that Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 and a pair of may get the RTX Remix remedy. “As of now their [Orbifold Studios] plan is to deal with finishing the unique sport in full constancy… That mentioned, Episode 1 and a pair of share a major share of the identical belongings. ..Speculating right here… however I wouldn’t be stunned if some portion of them went on to finish the 10-20% of belongings left for Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 and a pair of.” Nevertheless, Usmani clarified that “as of now, the plan is simply to launch the unique sport.”
Half-Life 2 RTX demo launch date
The Half-Life 2 RTX demo launch date is Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at 6am (PST).
For extra details about DLSS 4, take a look at our full RTX 5090 overview, the place we check out multi body gen and the brand new transformer mannequin for upscaling. If all this speak of Half-Life 2 with ray tracing is making you desire a GPU improve, then be sure you additionally learn our full information to the most effective graphics card, the place we run you thru all our suggestions to swimsuit a spread of budgets,
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