NVIDIA RTX Remix: DLSS 3.5 With Ray Reconstruction Now Available To Further Enhance Fully Ray-Traced Mods

NVIDIA RTX Remix enables modders to reimagine classic games with full ray tracing, also known as path tracing, and to update models and textures with modern rendering features that work hand in hand with ray-traced effects to deliver the level of graphical fidelity seen in Portal with RTX, our ray-traced reimagining of Valve’s classic game. And with a few additional clicks, support for NVIDIA DLSS and NVIDIA Reflex can be introduced, accelerating performance and making gameplay even more responsive.

Following the launch of the RTX Remix Open Beta in January, we’re today introducing new features and optimizations, headlined by the addition of NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction, an AI model that creates higher quality ray-traced images for intensive ray-traced games and apps.

Additionally, we’re taking a look at some work in progress RTX Remix mods, and checking in with Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project, to demonstrate the toolkit’s capabilities.

Last month, we updated Portal with RTX to add support for NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction. This advanced AI-powered neural renderer improves upon previously available rendering techniques to heighten the fidelity, responsiveness and quality of ray-traced effects, giving all GeForce RTX gamers an even better experience.

Now, DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction has been added to the NVIDIA RTX Remix modding toolkit, opening the floodgates for many more classic titles with higher quality ray-traced images. With just a few clicks, RTX Remix mods can be updated to DLSS 3.5, enhancing ray tracing as in Portal with RTX.

DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction is especially helpful in a modding tool like RTX Remix, since it tackles a variety of content that would be normally challenging for traditional hand-tuned denoisers. Modders don’t need to worry about hand-tuning environments for different scenes and lighting conditions–the AI model powering Ray Reconstruction has been trained on a variety of scenarios already, and can adapt automatically.

Comparison from Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project

In addition to adding Ray Reconstruction to the Remix Open Beta, we’re introducing new Toolkit and Runtime enhancements that improve mod image quality, expand compatibility, and make the modding process easier. Five of these changes come from our GitHub community, who contributed new code that has now been incorporated into Remix:

• Mod developer “pixelcluster” improved how well RTX Remix mods run for Steam Deck and Linux AMD users, thanks to optimizations for RADV drivers
• Mod developer “mmdanggg2” made improvements to the consistency of distant lights, making them update properly when changing or reorienting them
• Mod developer “jdswebb” made improvements to how terrain baking and other features work with games that use a left-handed coordinate system
• Mod developer “xoxor4d” made several improvements that streamline the texture tagging process, which is essential to properly setting up a game with RTX Remix
• Mod developer “xoxor4d” also added an option to use AABBs to differentiate instances, and therefore track them better across frames. For gamers, that means less ghosting and flickering for animated objects and skinned meshes in motion. See the difference in the example from a test scenario below.

If you are a mod developer interested in collaborating with us to make RTX Remix even better, learn how to contribute code on our RTX Remix Open Source GitHub.

If you’re a modder with the RTX Remix beta, install the latest update by opening the NVIDIA Omniverse Launcher, and clicking the menu next to the “Launch” button. Updating the RTX Remix Application also gives you the latest RTX Remix Runtime that contains DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction, or you can download the latest release of the RTX Remix Runtime from GitHub.

Replace the old RTX Remix Runtime in your mod projects and give all of your players access to Ray Reconstruction by following the instructions here.

If you are interested in trying the RTX Remix beta for the first time, download and install the NVIDIA RTX Remix Open Beta for access to all of its features, including its generative AI tools that can enhance textures by increasing their resolution and adding PBR material properties. If you’re unsure what you need, or how to use RTX Remix, check out our complete Remix rundown here.

And for the full release notes for the new release, head here.

On ModDB and the RTX Remix Showcase Discord, modders are uploading and documenting their in-development RTX Remix projects. These range from rtx.conf files to activate ray tracing and DLSS in classic games, all the way up to full remasters such as Portal with RTX, Portal: Prelude RTX, and Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project. Let’s take a look at three work in progress RTX Remix mods below to see the community is leveraging its powerful toolkit.

A small team of modders under the banner of wiltOS Technologies have been working to update Ubisoft and Arkane Studios’ 2006 first-person action RPG set in the Might & Magic Fantasy universe.  

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To showcase their progress, wiltOS Technologies shared exclusive new Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Co-Op & RTX Remix Mod screenshots, featuring enhanced textures, remastered models, increased geometric detail, full ray tracing, and NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction. Using Ray Reconstruction, texture clarity is improved, ray tracing fidelity is enhanced, and transparency rendering is improved.

You can follow wiltOS Technologies’ progress on this fantastic-looking project on ModDB, Knockout!, YouTube, and the RTX Remix Showcase Discord.

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If you’re a modder and want to assist the wiltOS Technologies team, reach out to project lead and creator David Wiltos on Twitter or apply directly by going to their website. Also, if you have any feedback, the team would love to hear from you, so they can make an even better mod - reach out via the links above.

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Ion Storm’s Deus Ex is one of the highest-rated PC games of all time, but was previously incompatible with RTX Remix. That’s now changed with the release of the new Echelon Renderer from Onno Jongbloed, which adds a Remix-compatible fixed-function rendering pipeline, finally enabling gamers to enhance the much-loved classic game.

Though it’s early days for this work in progress mod, it’s already playable, select lights are now fully ray-traced, and DLSS Ray Reconstruction further improves the clarity of textures and fidelity of ray tracing.

To download and play on your GeForce RTX system, follow the instructions here, and download the newest version from Github. If you’re a modder and would like to collaborate with the developer on overcoming remaining challenges, head to the project’s RTX Remix Showcase Discord channel. 

Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project is being developed by four of Half-Life 2’s top mod teams, now working together as Orbifold Studios. Using the latest version of RTX Remix beta, the modders are rebuilding materials with PBR properties, adding extra geometric detail via Valve’s Hammer editor, and leveraging NVIDIA technologies including full ray tracing, DLSS 3.5, Reflex, and RTX IO to deliver a fantastic experience for GeForce RTX gamers.

In the time since our previous showcase, Orbifold Studios has been hard at work remastering the game with high-fidelity PBR assets, taking full advantage of the Remix runtime to integrate cutting-edge graphics into Half-Life 2. Utilizing Parallax Occlusion Mapping (POM), world materials like the metal walls texture seen above will have simulated depth and self-shadowing, whilst Remix's efficient polygon rendering allows for assets with polycounts many times that of the 2004 original models.

Find out more and sign up to help the team complete the mod on the Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project website.

If you want to make your own ray-traced mod for a classic game, the NVIDIA RTX Remix Beta is available to download now with Tutorial Videos to walk you through the process. Check out ModDB to find the latest RTX Remix mods and visit NVIDIA Studio to learn more about RTX-accelerated software, like Omniverse, Adobe Substance and Blender.

For news about future RTX Remix developments, stay tuned to GeForce.com.