Classic PC games modded with RTX Remix just received support for one of Nvidia's newest features: Ray Reconstruction

Jacob Ridley
·2 min read
Nvidia's Ray Reconstruction in action, with a comparison shot showing the technology on and off.
Nvidia's Ray Reconstruction in action, with a comparison shot showing the technology on and off.

RTX Remix, the tool created by Nvidia to help remaster video games, has been updated to include DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction. That means any mod built using the tool should be able to clean up untidy ray-traced effects in-game and hopefully make for prettier versions of classic PC games.

RTX Remix effectively replaces large swathes of classic PC games, allowing modders to add in new, modern features such as upscaling (DLSS), path tracing and the ability to adopt industry-standard file types. It's more akin to switching out the engine, chassis and transmission of a car than just a fresh lick of paint.

With the latest update to RTX Remix, currently in beta, Nvidia is introducing a feature called Ray Reconstruction. This is a different way of denoising a scene, which is an important step when using ray tracing. To save graphics performance with the latest and greatest rendering technology, ray tracing relies on sampling rays to nail down certain attributes of a scene—global illumination, shadows, reflections—and then fills in the blanks with a denoiser. Ray Reconstruction is Nvidia's AI-powered denoiser, basically.

Yeah, as usual with Nvidia, AI has a part to play in all this.

Ray Reconstruction is part of a neural renderer that's trained to fill in the blanks better than even a hand-tuned denoiser, and if that sounds like complete nonsense to you, the important thing is that it has been shown to work a treat. In Cyberpunk 2077, our Dave found that Ray Reconstruction aided in grounding the game's lighting effects in the world, making for a more realistic and better-looking scene.

Nvidia's Ray Reconstruction in action, with a comparison shot showing the technology on and off.
Nvidia's Ray Reconstruction in action, with a comparison shot showing the technology on and off.

So, that's now available to any modder willing to give it a go in a classic PC game. There are heaps of ongoing projects set to benefit, too, from Half-Life to Need for Speed.

Other updates to RTX Remix include native DirectX 8 game compatibility, opening the tool up to more native game support. It had worked previously with DirectX 8 games, though required modders to add a file manually. Now both DirectX 8/9 games should be simpler to bring into the tool, though as I found out when speaking to those using it, there's nothing simple about actually remastering a game, RTX Remix or otherwise.

For a deeper dive into RTX Remix, from the perspective of the modders using the tool today, you can check out my RTX Remix explainer and interviews with Nvidia; the team behind Half-Life 2 RTX, Orbifold Studios; and the team behind Need for Speed Underground 2 RTX.