'Half-Life 2' is getting an unofficial RTX remaster

Valve may not have touched the Half-Life franchise in over a decade apart from releasing its VR-only game Alyx, but that isn't stopping enthusiasts from giving the game a visual overhaul. NVIDIA has unveiled a community-led Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project that, as the name implies, will remaster the classic shooter for PCs with GeForce RTX graphics. The team isn't just adding ray tracing, though -- this is an attempt to modernize the overall look and feel of the game. The ray-traced lights are the star attraction, of course, but the modders are also using an early version of RTX Remix to add extra model detail (through Valve's Hammer editor) and rework materials with physical-based rendering properties. The result is what you'd expect.