Unreal Tournament and the original Unreal receive RTX path tracing mods

Daniel Sims

Daniel Sims

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Forward-looking: Several classic PC games have received path tracing refreshes through RTX Remix and other mods, allowing fans to revisit them with a new feel and enhanced with more realistic lighting. Early Unreal Engine titles have remained largely untouched until now, but renderer modifications might offer a preview of what's to come.

Unreal and Unreal Tournament are the latest classic games to become playable with advanced path-traced lighting through RTX Remix. Although the mod that enables the effect remains a work in progress, screenshots and videos from an early version show the two titles with dramatically altered aesthetics.

Applying RTX Remix to Unreal and Unreal Tournament required additional workarounds compared to some other games. Nvidia started the RTX Remix open beta in January, allowing modders to add path tracing to DirectX 8 and DirectX 9 titles that utilize fixed-function pipelines. The technology has been transformative for classics like Tomb Raider, Max Payne, and Portal.

Modder "mmdanggg2" achieved a similar effect in the Unreal games by modifying an earlier DirectX 9 renderer designed to facilitate playing Unreal Engine 1 titles like Unreal Tournament and the original Deus Ex on modern PCs.

Installing the mod requires OldUnreal Unreal Tournament version 469d and RTX Remix Runtime version 0.4 or later. First, extract the files from mmdanggg2's GitHub page into the game directory, then open the config file "UnrealTournament.ini" and add the lines "GameRenderDevice=D3D9DrvRTX.D3D9RenderDevice" and "Render=D3D9DrvRTX.D3D9Render" underneath "[Engine.Engine]."

Loading maps into the UT engine allows users to play the original Unreal with the RTX Remix-enhanced DirectX 9 renderer. Further texture work is required to take full advantage of the new lighting effects, but a video clip shows how dramatically the mod alters Unreal's famously atmospheric intro level.

Despite Unreal's role in introducing the now-dominant Unreal Engine, it has never received an official re-release or remaster. Furthermore, the series isn't currently available on any digital storefronts.

The CEO of Nightdive Studios, which specializes in classic FPS remasters like the recently re-released Star Wars: Dark Forces, expressed interest in porting Unreal, but Epic Games doesn't seem eager about the idea thus far.

The original Deus Ex is another fan-favorite Unreal Engine 1 title that some RTX Remix users have started tinkering with. RTX Remix mods are also in development for Unreal Tournament 2004, Need for Speed: Underground, and other games. Nvidia is promoting a collaborative effort between modders to rebuild Half-Life 2 using the company's modding tools, too.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/102101-unreal-tournament-unreal-1-receive-rtx-path-tracing.html

 
Raytracing is cool and everything, but its been around for 5 years now and we are yet to be able to actually use it practically. And good for the people who spent $2000 on a 4090, raytracing is pretty much useless. Pretty much everyone I talk to use it for a couple of hours and then turn it off in favor of higher frame rates.
 
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yRaz said:
Raytracing is cool and everything, but its been around for 5 years now and we are yet to be able to actually use it practically. And good for the people who spent $2000 on a 4090, raytracing is pretty much useless. Pretty much everyone I talk to use it for a couple of hours and then turn it off in favor of higher frame rates.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the Nvidia RTX path tracing marketing that's being used as nothing more than a lump of meat to hype up expensive GPUs, I agree.

There are a number of titles even on console that apply it subtly well to specific effects, and it works without destroying performance. Doom Eternal and Spiderman 1/2 to name a few..
 
McMurdeR said:
If you're talking about the Nvidia RTX path tracing marketing that's being used as nothing more than a lump of meat to hype up expensive GPUs, I agree.

There are a number of titles even on console that apply it subtly well to specific effects, and it works without destroying performance. Doom Eternal and Spiderman 1/2 to name a few..
Click to expand...
Its been my experience that few games go full RT with most of the RT just being shadows. The only 2 games that I know of, I'm sure there are more, that have 100% raytracing features are Cyberpunk and Alan wake 2. Aside from that, most games I know of that have ray tracing are still 80% raster and 20% raytracing.

But the majority of graphics cards sold are in the $300-400 range so until we get 60 fps in 100% raytraced games it is a gimmick. Even for the people I know with 7900XTXs or 4080s they jump between raster and RT. For basically, do I want 50-60fps RT or do I want 120fps in raster? The answer isn't black and white. Many people don't pick just one, they frequently switch between the 2. A couple hours of RT then they play using raster for a couple hours, then switch back to RT and then switch back to raster. et cetera
 
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