One modder has taken up the real-time path-tracking torch to incorporate ray tracing into the original half-life and is planning a release in 2022 – that is, this year. The Russian modder sultim_t has published a teaser on how Half-Life looks in action with ray tracing on Youtube, and says they’ll release both the full build and source code when it’s done.
Ray tracing calculates the global lighting and enables detailed reflections, refractions, soft shadows and detailed visual effects of the lighting. Sultim_t’s work builds on previous work by other modders to bring Vulkan ray tracing to Xash3D, an engine for modding Half-Life’s engine. Impressive mods like this are, as always, an iterative, time-consuming process.
For one, I love the feel of old games like this one that add ray tracing. It’s that first demo of Quake 2 with ray tracing in 2019 that really got me excited about the aesthetics. Something about these crisp, modern reflections and lighting combined with the old lo-res textures and polygons creates a precise aesthetic that I can’t help but love. In a way, it’s like bringing an old, dirty painting back to its former glory.
This article was previously published on Source link
