We reported on Nvidia's RTX Remix modding platform in September 2022, and now Nvidia has finally announced that the complete creator toolkit will be released in open beta on January 22. This is expected to update many legacy games with ray-traced visuals and AI-enhanced textures.

Last April, Nvidia released the RTX Remix runtime element of the platform, which can capture game scenes in real time and replace assets at playback time while injecting RTX technologies such as path tracing, DLSS 3, Reflex The company has released the RTX Remix runtime element. This was sort of a quick and dirty way to see what RTX Remix could do for older games.

Nvidia has set a January 22 release date for the complete toolkit as part of their CES announcement about the new RTX 40 series Super GPUs. This will allow game modders to assign new assets and lights within remastered scenes, as well as use AI tools to reconstruct the appearance of any assets in the game.

Prior to the full open source release of this toolkit, Nvidia is working with some game modders to update several classic titles. Most notable is probably Half Life 2: RTX Remix, currently in development by a team of four mods operating under the name Orbifold Studios. Of course, "Portal RTX" is also being made with RTX Remix.

Having no real experience with coding games or using mod tools, it is difficult to say exactly how easy it would be to use the toolkit and what the actual results would be. However, it appears that the toolkit allows modders to import game assets into the RTX Remix app at the touch of a button and convert the assets into commonly used Universal Scene Descriptions (USD). This allows these assets to be easily modified or replaced using apps such as Unreal Engine, Blender, or Nvidia's own Omniverse app.

The biggest advantage is that finished RTX Remix Mods can be easily exported and shared with other players online. Mods created using the Remix tool also automatically incorporate DLSS 3 support. Nice.

Whatever, the prospect of an updated Half Life 2 with ray-traced visuals and AI-enhanced, upscaled textures is more than a little exciting. Furthermore, this toolkit means that Valve does not have to rely on the original developers to improve an old game that would normally have to wait thousands of years or, more likely, forever.

Legacy titles that the PCG team would like to see the most RTX visual goods on are the OG versions of Deus EX and Bioshock, F.E.A.R., Arkham Asylum, Amnesia: the Dark Descent, and Far Cry 3 What about If you'd like to see some of the older titles completely beautified with proper lighting and pin-sharp textures, please speak up below.

Of course, perhaps the ultimate update would be OG Crysis. But will Crysis RTX Remix work?

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