Half-Life 2 RTX

olivierestsage · 2025-03-18T13:58:27 1742306307

I know it's a bit silly to criticize something offered for free -- I'm glad it's there for those who want it! -- but I really feel like something of the original aesthetic has been lost in translation here. The before-and-afters aren't always flattering to the new version; everything is glowing orange. Darker atmospheres have become brighter.

moolcool · 2025-03-18T14:18:06 1742307486

It reminds me of the Alan Parsons quote "Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment"

ListeningPie · 2025-03-18T14:16:48 1742307408

The original aesthetic, including lighting, was made keeping the original limitations in minds. Kind of running old sprite games on LCDs instead of CRTs makes them look jagged.

So it's different and a tech demo, but I agree it's not necessarily better and could be one the reasons it is free.

zeroCalories · 2025-03-18T14:21:34 1742307694

Yeah when looking at games like Alyx it seems like the vision isn't too far off. Personally I don't mind the RTX version as I always found hl2 to be depressingly boring to look at.

bl4ckm0r3 · 2025-03-18T14:07:05 1742306825

I thought exactly the same things about the illumination, i feel like it's too much "look how cool rtx is" and not enough "this should be scary and dark". In this, and other demos, i also felt like refractions are exaggerated, like floors that seem like mirrors is not really realistic to the end user. Sometimes it reminds me of when hdr pics came out and everyone was overdoing it. (But it should be a settings problem more than anything else!)

Retr0id · 2025-03-18T14:04:35 1742306675

My main complaint with the original half life 2 was that the floors weren't shiny enough, so I'm glad to see this has finally been rectified.

rob74 · 2025-03-18T14:14:26 1742307266

Hm, have I watched the same video? Most of the difference I saw on the floors is lighting and shadows, the only case where the floor was really "shiny" was a tiled floor, and that is actually reflective in real life, so...

hyperbrainer · 2025-03-18T14:21:28 1742307688

But Ravenholm loses some of its scare-factor due to that.

royletron · 2025-03-18T14:06:58 1742306818

But this is sooooo shiny!

HelloUsername · 2025-03-18T14:15:09 1742307309

The trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j31ISEd8xRM) actually shows the old lighting has much more mood and atmosphere.. RTX is far too bright. Ravenholm is supposed to be scary!

the__alchemist · 2025-03-18T14:30:15 1742308215

Is it? I thought its mood was more grav-killbox. Relative to games and sections re scare factor.

klaussilveira · 2025-03-18T14:20:59 1742307659

It's funny how, in my opinion, whenever the RTX On/Off comparison shows up, the older has better mood, atmosphere and design. The "RTX On" almost feels like "Generic UE5 pseudo-realism On".

Based on other comments, I'm not the only one. Is "RTX On" the "bloom/motionblur/green filter" of this generation?

josteink · 2025-03-18T14:30:09 1742308209

While I think the ray-traced version looks better in a technical sense, it seems to me that they have completely forgotten to apply darkness and shadow appropriately in the scenes to create an immersive atmosphere.

Take all the new stuff tech and dial the ambient lighting down. That would be amazing.

Make it feel dark, uncertain and risky again. You’re not supposed to know what’s in that corner or that room before it comes lounging at you.

In the RTX version you can see everything in every location, completely killing any sense of suspense.

feverzsj · 2025-03-18T14:15:03 1742307303

I actually prefer old games. They are just crystal sharp with MSAA. Much easier on my eyes than modern game.

AdmiralAsshat · 2025-03-18T14:16:31 1742307391

Does this require an NVIDIA GPU to run? Or is a comparable AMD GPU sufficient?

pawelduda · 2025-03-18T14:30:15 1742308215

According to one of the Steam reviews, it ran horrible on RTX 4070 due to insufficient VRAM. The trailer shows FPS counter with 4x framegen, which is exclusive to 50xx series, also most likely relies on Nvidia upscaling. I wouldn't be too optimistic for AMD GPUs

dcan · 2025-03-18T14:18:17 1742307497

I tried Portal RTX on a 9070 XT and got 20 FPS at full resolution (no frame generation). There’s no driver limitations, but I have no idea what the expected FPS is

thot_experiment · 2025-03-18T14:26:33 1742307993

yikes that's dismal, I wonder what a 5070 gets

hyperbrainer · 2025-03-18T14:21:02 1742307662

You need RT-capable cards and minimum 3060Ti or equivalent.

whalesalad · 2025-03-18T14:02:52 1742306572

Still nothing on ProtonDB about this - https://www.protondb.com/app/2477290

Anyone got it working? I have an RX6600 in my Linux workstation but I have been thinking about upgrading to play some games here and there.

GranPC · 2025-03-18T14:08:52 1742306932

According to the reporting on GamingOnLinux, it works. Haven't tried it myself yet.

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