Backside line: The ray traced launch trailer showcases a model of Half-Life with enriched visuals that add a brand new dimension of depth to the almost 25-year-old sport. Every part continues to be the identical at its core, it simply appears so much higher with the mod utilized.
The long-awaited unofficial ray tracing mod for Half-Life has landed.
A bit of over a yr in the past, modder Sultim “sultim_t” Tsyrendashiev shared a YouTube teaser for a brand new venture that provides real-time, {hardware} accelerated path tracing to Valve’s seminal first-person shooter. The mod, a reengineered model of an earlier effort, promised enhancements like reflections, world illumination, refractions and comfortable shadows.
sultim_t mentioned a playable construct and accompanying supply code can be launched on GitHub when it’s prepared. “This stuff, they take time,” the modder cautioned.
Quick-forward somewhat over a yr and sultim_t has delivered.
sultim_t is rapidly growing a strong repute within the modding group. Earlier tasks embody ray tracing mods for Critical Sam, Quake and Doom, and joins official mods like Quake II RTX from Nvidia and Bethesda. Digital Foundry described sultim_t’s Quake venture as much less of a mod and extra of a full-on ray tracing remaster.
Every part you could stand up and working with the Half-Life ray tracing mod (minus the sport itself) has been uploaded to GitHub, full with directions on the best way to set up it and an inventory of recognized points. sultim_t warns that some customers would possibly expertise incompatibility points with AMD GPUs and additional notes that the Hazard Course isn’t but supported.
You may want a replica of Half-Life, after all. sultim_t recommends the Steam model, which may at present be had for $9.99 through the digital distribution platform.
Half-Life has been the supply for a number of mods and remakes since its debut manner again in 1998. Among the many finest is Black Mesa, a fan-made reimagining of the unique that ultimately earned Valve’s blessing and launched on Steam in 2020. It’s priced at $19.99 and has greater than 85,000 evaluations, of which 95 % are optimistic.