RTX Remix: Graphically Enhancing Older Games

This video is sponsored by Nvidia, who helped me learn the tools and answered the questions I had.
Resources to help you to learn RTX Remix:
RTX Remix HUB: www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/...
Remix tutorial videos: • Getting Started in NVI...
RTX Remix Discord channel: / discord
Download links to the Remix files:
Github link: github.com/NVIDIAGameWorks/rt...
DX8 to 9 converter (Helps with Morrowind): github.com/crosire/d3d8to9
Moddb's handy list of games / configs here: www.moddb.com/rtx
And follow the Half Life 2 RTX project here: www.hl2rtx.com/
0:00 - Intro
1:40 - RTX'ing an old game
2:53 - Fixing things up in-game
4:05 - Dabbling in RTX Remix
6:36 - Upscaling
7:56 - Texture replacements
8:30 - Model replacements

[@jes3d]

nvidia sponsor is insane, congrats philip

[@Isaax]

It's not the first time, lad

[@anyau]

Its happened 10s of times before you pleb

[@KingLich451]

​@@Isaaxvery nice

[@YoulookIncredible]

nah bro... they know exactly what they doin

[@glockel4308]

​@@Isaax thats great

[@Xareo999]

You missed the opportunity to show us Operation Flashpoint with RTX 🗿

[@Gadtkaz]

Jensen knew itd be too powerful.

[@mauromerconchini]

I second this idea. Operation Flashpoint Everon with RTX Remix enhancement vs ARMA Reforger. I know Reforger will have the higher asset quality, but it will still make for an interesting comparison.

[@da_mikkel7052]

Let him cook

[@MojoRisingTV]

@@da_mikkel7052 let the norms cook with there cook sayings instead. Hells Kitchen.

[@RoyBrown777]

They cover source engine games because RTX is basically worthless. 99% arent' going to be able to run good games with this only old games in dated engines.

[@toomuchstarbucks6787]

Cool how moddb has taken on this new form of modding. I was worried the website wouldn't really remain relevant

[@KingLich451]

Good games may die Modding games are eternal

[@kawafahra]

moddb is as relevant as github for their specific use case, why would that change ?

[@jorgereyes8071]

moddb will always be on top for real

[@GoldSrc_]

There's no reason to think that moddb would become irrelevant, even gamebanana is still around and going strong. Nexus wishes it was like moddb.

[@UnsuitableBachelor]

moddb is automatically a better alternative to nexusmods for not capping your download speed at 1.5mb/s

[@W00ge]

10:00 death stranding 2 looks great

[@BallinLikeMike23]

Finally I can play Garfield Kart with real time lighting 🙌🏻

[@CssHDmonster]

get that bag, mr.filip , cant wait for somebody to remix dark messiah of might and magic

[@wydua2049]

oh my god you are so right i have to play this game again

[@KingLich451]

I love dark messiah so so much! Gonna be sweet.

[@Verchiel_]

Only played through it for the first time half a year ago and i absolutely loved it.

[@palsimon_]

one of the best (Source 1) game ever

[@Verchiel_]

I bought the game on steam and no matter what i did, i couldn't launch the game or not have it crash within 5 minutes of playing at best. Sailed some seas and well, got to play the game with maybe 1-2 crashes the whole game. @@cepheus3d

[@unslept_em]

nice caboosing drop in this one

[@KingLich451]

Caboozle'd

[@jemandetwas1]

He put his whole cabussy into that one

[@nightowl_ap]

Baby caboose

[@zachariah74]

Everytime I watch his videos I wait for it and yet I still never expect it when it happens

[@nuc2726]

What is caboosing?

[@FLAIR__]

As much as I dislike NVIDIA for reasons, the technology they produce is always so fascinating and impressive. Nice video Philip

[@DemsW]

The fact that they greenlit something so niche and ambitious is something I can't explain from a business standpoint

[@jemandetwas1]

​@@DemsWFeatures are a big part of Nvidias marketing. Be it RTX or DLSS, they would rather use those to promote new graphics cards than raw power and "boring" numbers. And "remaster old games with the power of Rtx" is another feature that looks great in marketing

[@menezessilva3007]

saying to remix what is what everyone is training working for nvidia train artificial intelligence, to then sell !

[@cepheus3d]

I hate the corporate nature, but I adore the engineers working there. Some of the most talented people in the industry.

[@slyseal2091]

@@DemsW The flip-side of the finance department wanting to make everything incompatible with AMD is that anything actually useful is easy to get approval for, by simply pointing out that AMD won't have it. The bamboozle worked so well that apparantly the games themselves will still work with AMD, only developing requires their GPUs. The engineers are our friends.

[@SummonerArthur]

This is it. The best rtx remix explanation. I wish you made a series or something, just playing around with this things capabilities.

[@TheAdoringFan]

I’m so ready for Half Life 2 RTX

[@palmtree5489]

cant wait to see your shiny Blonde Hair in RTX

[@cube2fox]

Half-Life 2 has baked lighting, so I don't know whether RTX Remix can change the original lighting of the game.

[@slyseal2091]

@@cube2fox You won't believe what happens when you enter "Half Life 2 RTX" into the search bar on youtube.

[@TheAdoringFan]

@@cube2fox i think you may misunderstand how Remix works. It absolutely can improve the lighting and will make the biggest difference in how the lighting will interact with the environment in the gameplay. Even without the massive lighting improvements, the overhaul with handmade assets themselves will be huge in modernizing the experience.

[@ivanvenne]

​@cube2fox Look at the trailers for Half Life 2 RTX. It's been shown off already and yes, it does change the original lighting

[@politelyupset]

Nvidia: Okay, Philip, show us what you can do with our new modding tool. Philip: Look, a giant creepy doll with insect legs growing from it's stomach! Nvidia: ...

[@microsoftpowerpoint4731]

its so amazing that im living in the time where all this tech is being developed, this is how i imagine older modders/gamers reacted to similar jumps in redering/moding tech for games. it just feels like magic

[@ThisIsGlitch]

wow, the upscaler applying pbr to the textures is awesome

[@Kiyuja]

I find the whole premise of RTX Remix so awesome. When Nvidia started with AI, I always wondered why there isnt something like an "auto HD" feature that upscales textures when loaded into memory or something. THIS is beyond that and ironically this may help us get way better "definitive editions" of things like the GTA trilogy, that would be mostly fine with art style fitting modern lighting and HD textures...

[@DuckieMcduck]

i'll never understand the obsession with high fidelity assets because that isn't what makes a game good to look at at all if you spend more than 5 minutes looking at the game. Art direction does, and this RTX Remix thing does nothing for that.

[@Kiyuja]

@@DuckieMcduck high poly assets with high res textures and ESPECIALLY lighting is literally what makes games look good. Just compare any modern game to idk Doom or something and you will quickly realize how bland and boring it looks because it lacks decent lighting. Its what makes games look "right" and believable rather than exposing what games actually are: triangles stacked on top of each other. And in terms of art direction of course it helps. Lighting, espeically RT, will adapt to it, that's literally what it does. You are therefore wrong...

[@sweetypuss]

@@Kiyuja is this a bait comment? are you fucking joking? proper art direction is the only thing that truly helps a game look good. you're just one of those jackoffs that cares about realism and nothing else

[@creativecipher]

@@Kiyuja Did you just, honest to god, call the original Doom "bland and boring"? Is every game that doesn't have hyper-real lighting bland and boring? You don't even need dynamic lighting to make a game look good. RTX will only help with making games more look more realistic, but how interesting a game looks, still relies on the person that's creating it's artstyle and assets...

[@DuckieMcduck]

@@Kiyuja Almost there. High fidelity and shading are things to be used by the art direction, not the other way around. Just because you can take low-fidelity and morph them into high fidelity doesn't mean it will look better. Disco Elysium is one of the most visually striking games done in recent years because its art direction is off the rocker. Things look blurry on purpose and colors bleed and interact with each other, and this is tied to the narrative. You can't take that game and "RTX pass" with a "realistic" filter on its shaders and textures to make it look "better"; the art direction is not trying to tie together that message at all.

[@Todesnuss]

An enb/reshade type mod that actually does RT and can be adapted to anything is a massive deal tbh. So many trying to mimic RT with conventional post-processing are going to be obsolete.

[@Ezdine_G8261]

Finally, fucking tired of reshade presets flooding mod pages

[@Todesnuss]

Especially the type of stuff calling itself raytracing for seo or whatever.

[@ishiddddd4783]

hopefully, but it will still take a while before it gets as popular, doing remix on DX10 and forward is a nightmare

[@Todesnuss]

I'd imagine this is more work than your average reshade. On the user side it only takes one good implementation of rtx to float above thousands of "photorealistic" reshades and such in the charts.

[@flexarnn]

I wasn't really interested in upgrading to a new fangled fancy pants RTX card until I saw what Remix could do to the older games I love.

[@bingusshmimpo4565]

phew, almost thought caboosing wasnt going to make an appearance!

[@yeagmatic]

It would be great if someone could figure out a way to bake the path traced lighting into the level geometry. Then you could use regular ray tracing for the player/car model and other dynamic objects. Everyone could reap the rewards of RTX remix without the perception of "I have to get an RTX card !!!1!1!!!!!"

[@Vicy5Modapk]

NVIDIA would hate this, so hopefully somebody does actually does do this.

[@olnnn]

Or even just modify it to be able use all the features of modern rendering without the ray tracing bits for 90% of the graphical uplift with 5 times the performance.

[@nileshzagade2092]

Remix games arent limited to RTX cards only

[@Steam_VR]

It is already a thing (on source engine games). All the ambient oclussion is already baked, and on Source 2 and stuff it's everything baked, ie, global illumination etc

[@bshap495]

Many games do that already. HL2, and even older games like Quake 1, pre-calculated lighting using a form of ray-tracing. I'm not sure how it would work if you only ray-traced dynamic objects. The rays still have to bounce around the world and off of objects in order to make a proper, clear reflection. I don't think it would save you anything.

[@johnclark926]

While being able to inject path tracing into games is neat, I hope the underlying technology can be used in spin-off purposes as well. The games being rerendered in a different graphic engine opens up a lot more possibilities beyond expensive lighting, shadows, and reflections. For example, the new graphics engine opens up the ability to disable culling (opening up fixes for long-standing widescreen hack issues) and injecting specific frame interpolators (for games that break when editing framerates). More interestingly, rerendering also opens up potential for a true stereoscopic view (two cameras) and moving the camera with your head, theoretically allowing for generic VR injection for certain games. RTX Remix currently doesn’t support two cameras as the focus is path tracing, so implementing VR support would be ill suited as the combined performance toll would be abominable. That being said, if they were to make a path tracingless spin off of Remix I think they could reasonably put the extra capabilities of rerendering games into focus (maybe even solidify it by naming it VR Remix).

[@EER0000]

Amazing dive into remix, exactly answering what I was wondering after the trailers dropped last year! Now I wonder about DX + HDTP + Remix

[@vvuuppee]

Great video Philip. I hope we get the chance to see more of your explorations with this in the future.

[@Harrison.13]

Thank you for publishing this video after you let it process first!

[@Veptis]

The USD export seems really interesting for filmmaking

[@Rock48100]

Exactly what I was thinking

[@SneedFeedAndSeed]

2:39 Finally I can wax old weathered sewer wood!

[@kabbablabba4073]

cob on the log

[@123four...]

6:25 combine pigeon

[@Randarrradara]

Just like in real life, government agents.

[@QUISSul]

Messing about with rtx in older games is probably the only reason I would have to finally upgrade from my 1080ti, and with every video you make on this stuff I'm getting closer and closer to doing it 💸

[@wausjackbauer128]

That's pretty old now, what games do you play?

[@QUISSul]

@@wausjackbauer128 it is quite old but I honestly haven't seen it struggle yet with any game (from my ever-expanding backlog of older games to 2023 releases) maxed out on 2k. It is still holding strong after all these years

[@wausjackbauer128]

@@QUISSul Maxed out settings at 2k resolution? I'm assuming you're definitely using the performance DLSS because otherwise that's impossible. I haven't actually used DLSS (I've got an AMD card) but I heard it's pretty good to keep old cards going.

[@adamb89]

I thought my 1080ti was invincible until I got VR lol. Early on it could keep up, but once you start modding the hell out of Skyrim or Fallout, especially in VR, it adds up. Even my 3090 was barely able to keep up. In fact it ran so hot it was prone to shutting down, until I gave everything a deep clean and just left the side panel off to vent heat better. In the winter I literally don't need to turn the heat on when using it lol

[@QUISSul]

@@wausjackbauer128 Never touched dlss although I'm aware of what it does thanks to Philip's videos

[@keatonwastaken]

Enjoyed the very little RTX Remix I got to play with, most games I wanted to work with are not yet supported (DX 9.0c golden era) but the tech is so amazing considering how it does things in real time.

[@igorthelight]

DXVK may help you a lot with that! ;-) That's not a person but a wrapper that converts DX9-11 to Vulkan calls.

[@keatonwastaken]

@@igorthelight Pretty sure Remix only works with DirectX and not Vulkan Besides that, the issue with 9.0c is the use of shaders which Remix does not support due to how complex it is.

[@FoxenAround]

i’ve never been more terrified and awestruck by seeing babies embedded in literally everything

[@Catzzye]

This is insanely cool, I can't wait to see what super talented people do with these now the tools have finally been released to the masses..

[@OxibanCraft]

The song that starts at 1:55 is such a banger, I can barely concentrate on the video when it comes on!

[@babydollface]

I wasn't expecting the visceral reaction that I had to the final part of this video lol

[@usernametaken4023]

As a Half-Life fan I also attach creepy dolls to everything!

[@Saccade_HS]

The end clips were absolutely cursed. Brilliant.

[@Piotrek7654321]

Ahh, the sound of a silt strider in Morrowind is something that immediately triggers memories.

[@veryseriousperson_]

This is amazing! First time I've heard about this. Gosh imagine the possibilities as this thing gets better and better!

[@fireaza]

Wow, I have no idea that's how this tool worked! Surprisingly intuitive, and approachable for non-programming types!

[@KimboKG14]

I would love to see the upscaling feature and lighting on silent hill 2. just putting the models into unity and walking around the town in vr was allready insane.

[@jonathonschott]

Thank you for showing me the moddb page. I use nexus more often than not and so I missed this. Some of the games listed certainly have my interest perked, like the elder scrolls and fallout games and a few others. Phillip, you are the man.

[@MultiGingerface]

I love when the wood in videogames looks like glass

[@ProjectPrologue]

The ending got me dying, legend 😂

[@The_Blog]

I am so impressed how this just ... works. I would expect the process of editing things in an ingame UI Overlay in real time to add RTX be complex and having to be tuned for every game individually, but since it's just a layer that intercepts the render calls from the game to the GPU it doesn't actually have to edit the game itself in any real way. It just takes the calls and maps them to something different GPU side (reflectiveness, different texture handling, etc.). Adding things like lights and stuff is really impressive to me though on a technical level. I don't know how finicky these things are when you actually use the tools, but from the video it seems incredibely plug and play. Maybe thats due to the sponsorship, but I would give philip enough integrity that he would point or if there were some bigger usability problems. On the point of Paralex Mapping to give textures more depth. Would it be possible to bring the Tessalation technology back that was popular in games a few years ago for things like cobblestones etc. Cause the problem with Paralex Mapping are always the edges of these textures since it's still a hard cut. Tessalation actually changes the geometry in those places and can result in more convincing edges. Cool tech, really curious to see how this will evolve in like 5 years from now.

[@gabrielandy9272]

its very plug and play once you get the game to launch with it, u may have some issues to get it to launch tho.

[@day.brakeF1]

I love nvidia sponsoring u after you made 2 vids deriding them

[@Joseph843]

Those mods you made to Morrowind at the end made me cry 😭

[@R3TR0J4N]

Every time a remaster is announced, I expect it’s Remixed

[@btarg1]

Fantastic! I wanted more news on hl2rtx!

[@bonelessler]

0:18 holy shit flat out in rtx? sign me up

[@KRBadonkadonk]

First time I've heard of ModDB in a while

[@Pyke64]

Starts off as an interesting video about enhancing older games, becomes nightmare fuel with dead creepy baby dolls everywhere X_X

[@JunkyardBashSteve]

I never really wanted an RTX capable card til I saw the HL2 remake. But now I can't contain my want for it

[@Turgineer]

5:58 Finally, a street lamp that can fly.

[@kaninepete]

What file browser was that?

[@thealandude9146]

thus begins the doll invasion

[@Infarlock]

SWAT4 needs this

[@ZeeDuke]

Philip always makes the most informative videos

[@nintendians]

nvidia's rtx remix tools are great and hopeful nvidia expand it more.

[@Rocky1138]

I realize this is an ad but I'm happy to see attention given to RTX Remix. When they announced it and showed off Morrowind I was kinda interested to see where the community would go with it but since then it's just dropped off a cliff.

[@Cats-TM]

That is how all birds should look, yes.

[@mrhappytroll]

Is there a performance hit with doing this? I mean considering the games are old anyway im sure it is more than playable still, but aside from just uping the texture resolution. I have no idea how this works, is it just using tensor cores at run time to replace everything?

[@sonks336]

Please never stop with the Caboosing drops.

[@Adriethyl]

I wonder if you can retool the USD export for ripping model assets

[@Denvigen]

Dude this is actually insanely cool tech, I am seriously mindblown.

[@retiredaccount0]

Actually a really fun and informative video. Thank you

[@wingedhussar1453]

Can they add surface tied to textures so wood looks flat and not shiny

[@jaakarimiquel8473]

Looking forward to my once-a-decade replay of Gunman Chronicles

[@Sengial]

Is texture upscaling like simple ones? Or do they actually use image generators to get higher quality?

[@igorthelight]

Using AI ;-)

[@zefhi1433]

whats the download for rtx remix for hl2?

[@UncleBurrito15]

Very cool tech. Maybe I'll try it some day.

[@worldgeographer1360]

sponsored by nvidia? DAAAAAMN philip! great work!

[@orektez]

heh water was still missing in the RTX modded morrowind.. like the first thing i noticed on my first playthrough of that game was the water and the strider. with the lower view distance putting it into perspective more.

[@otonielb]

Outro is quite interesting

[@mememe37]

That tool is insane, it almost makes me want to buy an rtx card

[@EverythingPS5Pro]

This is the best video you’ve made in a while, really good one too, more RTX Remix please! ❤️

[@windowpeeper]

whats the song in the background at 7:24

[@KelBShobra]

This is so crazy that this is even possible

[@MrMycelium]

Is there a way to use the tools om their own? Generating normal maps and speculative maps would be an incredible time saver in unity or unreal!

[@igorthelight]

You can use it on your game ;-)

[@MarshaIIs]

Congrats on the sponsor!

[@cocoabuttervaseline]

Thank you, the possibilities are endless

[@Xeogin]

My favorite part is at 1:24 where of all the possible games, you have HL2DM still installed

[@5po0n]

i wish this vid was longer

[@ToxicMothBoi]

Nah this is insane oh my god. Good work nvidia, this is hella impressive

[@jessicacarpenter871]

Thank you so much 🔥☺

[@Blaxi187]

do you need a rtx graphics card? and if not, is the gtx 1080 compatible with it?

[@Barmem]

I remember dreaming about that tech like 10-15 years ago. Ability to "scan" any in-game map and mod it. It is literally dream come true.

[@DJEylisium]

Im gonna have to have a look at using this on Bioshock & FEAR

[@gomathemascar9633]

great video as always, but is something wrong with the subtitles? they aren't really coinciding with the narration

[@bartham9285]

i love the train song so much

[@shalom1523]

hey Just 1 question What tool do you use to upscale your images?

[@kniazjarema8587]

He made a video long time ago, about cs 1.6 textures, you should check it out since i'm pretty sure he mentioned the method he uses in that video.

[@timerunner16]

@@kniazjarema8587 AFAIK the RTX Remix toolset has a built-in AI-based texture upscaler, which also creates PBR (normal + roughness) maps with it.

[@NKorru]

That RTX Remix tool looks like modernized version of Hammer Editor.

[@MarcoLoves360gamer]

How can I do this with halo 2?

[@BuzzinPlays]

Can rtx remix be used to cheat? By changing e. g. the texture/model of assets in counter strike?

[@igorthelight]

Not sure that you could play any multiplayer games with that ;-)

[@TheSeriousDog]

Do it on Destruction Darius

[@NexusGamingRadical]

I get not being able to use the tools on AMD, but can you consume the mods created on AMD?

[@bellehook]

you can use the mods on any GPU as long as it supports raytracing, including AMD. it even "runs" on the steam deck, if 1 frame per 30 seconds is "running".

[@user-xe6sm4jv8f]

@@bellehook Oh come on, it's not THAT bad.....

[@marcelosoares7148]

You can use the tools and mods just fine on AMD hardware that supports raytracing, but the performance is really bad on anything except Nvidia RTX cards honestly.

[@lukabrasi001]

so ready for vampire the masquerade bloodlines RTX

[@showalk]

I wanna see Republic Commando with RTX so bad...

[@suprem1ty]

This is honestly really cool!

[@Teubje]

Hearing caboosing cheers me up every single time

[@ThisIsGlitch]

also... i wonder if you can use remix but opt to not use path traced lighting, that could be also a game changer

[@bruhmoment2312]

Ofc as soon as i go wirh radeon nvidia releases the one banger feature i care about

[@TheDevil259]

Games made with RTX Remix are not Nvidia specific. Only the software to create RTX Remix games is.

[@bruhmoment2312]

@@TheDevil259 oooh ok thanks thats a relief

[@zuryan]

at a glance I could have sworn you added your own face on AOEIIs steam profile at 1:24

[@0bsidianFox]

what about a L4D2 RTX Remix? i haven't seen anything like that yet.