Skip to content Skip to footer
Half-Life 2 RTX by NewHatMatt

Half-Life 2 RTX by NewHatMatt

15 Comments

  • Post Author
    olivierestsage
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 1:58 pm

    I know it's a bit silly to criticize something offered for free — I'm glad it's there for those who want it! — but I really feel like something of the original aesthetic has been lost in translation here. The before-and-afters aren't always flattering to the new version; everything is glowing orange. Darker atmospheres have become brighter.

  • Post Author
    whalesalad
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:02 pm

    Still nothing on ProtonDB about this – https://www.protondb.com/app/2477290

    Anyone got it working? I have an RX6600 in my Linux workstation but I have been thinking about upgrading to play some games here and there.

  • Post Author
    Retr0id
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:04 pm

    My main complaint with the original half life 2 was that the floors weren't shiny enough, so I'm glad to see this has finally been rectified.

  • Post Author
    feverzsj
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:15 pm

    I actually prefer old games. They are just crystal sharp with MSAA. Much easier on my eyes than modern game.

  • Post Author
    HelloUsername
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:15 pm

    The trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j31ISEd8xRM) actually shows the old lighting has much more mood and atmosphere.. RTX is far too bright. Ravenholm is supposed to be scary!

  • Post Author
    AdmiralAsshat
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:16 pm

    Does this require an NVIDIA GPU to run? Or is a comparable AMD GPU sufficient?

  • Post Author
    klaussilveira
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:20 pm

    It's funny how, in my opinion, whenever the RTX On/Off comparison shows up, the older has better mood, atmosphere and design. The "RTX On" almost feels like "Generic UE5 pseudo-realism On".

    Based on other comments, I'm not the only one. Is "RTX On" the "bloom/motionblur/green filter" of this generation?

  • Post Author
    bsimpson
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:46 pm

    I had Macs growing up and missed out on all the Half Lives until I finally got to play Alyx last year. I tried HL1 after that, but couldn't really get into it.

    That said, Valve released the Anniversary Update for Half Life 2 a few months back which includes a bunch of quality of life improvements for modern setups.

    There's also a VR mod for Half Life 2, which is supposed to make it one of the best games available in VR.

  • Post Author
    deadbabe
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:47 pm

    This seems like so much work, what motivates people to just give it all away for free? Are the devs independently wealthy or funded by a rich patron?

  • Post Author
    xattt
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 2:55 pm

    Funny to see this, given that HL2 was sold bundled with ATI cards in the early 2000s.

  • Post Author
    pferde
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 3:06 pm

    Anything to avoid changing that "2" at the end to "3", huh?

  • Post Author
    stuckinhell
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 3:15 pm

    This is all pretty amazing tech.
    Can we easily remaster old games with AI tech now ?

  • Post Author
    jnsie
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 3:21 pm

    By the time I got around to playing Half Life the graphics were so dated that I found it difficult to enjoy (that's obviously a personal preference thing…). I was excited, for a moment, at the possibility of finally enjoying what I'm told is one of the greatest games ever made…until I realized that I do not (and will not any time soon) own a 50xx series graphics card. I suppose a GeForce Now subscription is a possibility.

  • Post Author
    superxpro12
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 3:29 pm

    Does anyone have any details on how this was implemented? I thought that Source was a closed source engine. They rewrote the rendering pipeline using only the sdk?

    Maybe they relied on the source engine leaks from a decade ago?

    For some reason, I am very curious how this was pulled off.

  • Post Author
    CivBase
    Posted March 18, 2025 at 5:23 pm

    For those wondering about AMD performance, I did some very brief testing. I have an Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card and a Ryzen 7800X3D running Fedora 41 with Proton Experimental on a 1920×1200 display.

    I booted into the Ravenholm level and immediately got mid-50 FPS with no obvious stuttering. The framerate jumped over 70 once I got inside the first couple buildings. Those framerates are not ideal given the cost of my hardware, but I'd consider them to be perfectly playable. Or at least I would if not for the bigger problem…

    The image quality was extremely blurry such that I could not clearly see anything over 10ft/3m away. There were no obvious graphics options I could change to fix this. I don't know if this is a result of some upscaling tech not working with my AMD card, a weird Proton issue, an anti-aliasing or depth-of-field feature gone horribly wrong, or something else entirely. Regardless, I'd consider it to be unplayable until the blur issue is resolved.

Leave a comment

In the Shadows of Innovation”

© 2025 HackTech.info. All Rights Reserved.

Sign Up to Our Newsletter

Be the first to know the latest updates

Whoops, you're not connected to Mailchimp. You need to enter a valid Mailchimp API key.