Half-Life 2 RTX Remix Developers Respond to Concern From Some Fans That It Ruins the Original Game's Atmosphere

The hotly anticipated Half-Life 2 RTX launches its demo today, March 18, and IGN sat down with its developers to sermon however they reimagined Valve’s 20-year-old masterpiece utilizing Nvidia's RTX Remix tech, and statement the interest from immoderate fans that it negatively impacts the original’s atmosphere.

The modding squad Orbifold Studios utilized RTX Remix to modernize Half-Life 2, adding afloat ray tracing, remastered assets, and DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation. It is escaped DLC for Half-Life 2 owners, and its demo is retired present connected Steam.

However, not everyone successful the Half-Life assemblage believes RTX Remix really improves upon Half-Life 2. Various complaints based connected aboriginal gameplay footage revolve astir RTX Remix’s caller lighting, which immoderate person said “strips away” the original’s atmosphere.

The iconic Ravenholm country is dimly lit successful the original, but immoderate fans accidental RTX Remix makes Ravenholm excessively brightly lit, reducing the effect of its fearfulness ambience. “Ravenholm has gone from ‘moody’ to ‘obvious tech demo’,” 1 commenter said.

The feeling is the pursuit of realism with RTX Remix pulls distant from Valve’s archetypal creation direction, that creator choices made by Valve implicit 20 years agone are negated by RTX Remix’s interaction connected lighting.

That’s a constituent IGN enactment to David Driver-Gomm, co-lead of Half-Life 2 RTX Remix astatine Orbifold Studios, successful our interview, the video mentation of which is above. In his response, Driver-Gomm said the modders were absorbing the feedback now, and insisted Half-Life 2 RTX was not a finished merchandise by immoderate means, truthful could beryllium tweaked successful the future.

“When you person antithetic tools, you marque antithetic decisions and you marque immoderate that are calved of necessity and you marque immoderate that are calved of art, and we person to effort and unpick wherefore they did what they did,” Driver-Gomm explained.

“Did they bash this due to the fact that it was intentional oregon did they bash this due to the fact that determination was a limit, right? That was done due to the fact that that was what the motor astatine the clip allowed.

So past erstwhile we travel and we remake the zombie to a modern fidelity, we usage modern technologies similar ‘hair cards’ successful bid to execute an extremity effect that we anticipation would benignant of beryllium successful the artist's mind's oculus astatine the time.

“There are going to beryllium a wide assortment of opinions. There's going to beryllium a batch of radical who consciousness similar thing would beryllium done differently, and a batch of that feedback is worldly that we are taking connected committee and moving with organically.

“And past to a definite extent, immoderate of it is just, we each emotion this game, truthful we each person precise antithetic opinions connected however it should beryllium treated and however the creation should travel across.”

Driver-Gomm past said that Orbifold Studios’ mod is its mentation of Half-Life 2, and immoderate mod squad is escaped to person a spell astatine making an alternate utilizing the RTX Remix technology.

“It’s moddable,” Driver-Gomm began. “Remix is retired there, Half-Life 2 works with it due to the fact that we're doing it. There is ever country for radical to enactment successful their ain interpretations, and I consciousness similar that is the healthiest mode to attack it.

“Half-Life 2 RTX is an interpretation, right? We're beauteous arrogant of it. We deliberation we're doing a batch of probe to get it beauteous connected point. If radical disagree, which is wholly their close to bash so, past they person the tools to spell and marque that alternate interpretation.”

The lighting isn’t the lone ailment from immoderate Half-Life 2 fans. Others person pointed to possibly over-eager clouds of fume emerging from occurrence and explosions whitethorn obscure the player’s vision. At 1 constituent successful IGN’s demo gameplay, below, astatine 3:50 mark, Father Grigori’s shotgun blast and uncover is obscured by smoke, perchance causing the subordinate to miss a cardinal communicative infinitesimal successful the game.

Driver-Gomm said the squad is already looking into the fume issue, and explained their process there: “We person Source particle experts connected the squad and you tin spot the effect of that with things similar our caller fires and our caller explosions. In places wherever we haven't yet been capable to writer thing different, we've been moving with the basal crippled materials and that's benignant of however we've ended up wherever we are with that smoke.

“Again, it's an evolving process. Mods are not a happening that's similar 1 and done and that's it, it's finished, right? That's ne'er been mods. It's ne'er going to beryllium mods. It's ever surviving and breathing. It's ever responding to feedback. It's ever deciding, does this idiosyncratic person a constituent oregon bash I consciousness that my imaginativeness is worthy pursuing, and hopefully the results volition triumph out.

“It is simply a analyzable thing. We cognize we're doing thing that a batch of radical consciousness precise powerfully astir present with remastering Half-Life 2, and cardinal moments similar that are things we are actively moving connected to marque definite lucifer up with the original.

“But this is simply a demo. This is not the afloat last game. This is not america saying that this is it ever and forever. The constituent of this demo is to go, we've done a beauteous beardown instauration here. We've covered a immense magnitude of assets, we've covered a immense magnitude of the environment. We privation to spot what the radical think.”

With the demo for Half-Life 2 RTX Remix present released, thoughts inevitably crook to whether Orbifold Studios volition instrumentality connected Episode 1 and 2 next. Driver-Gomm kept his cards adjacent to his chest, but did accidental if his squad doesn’t proceed on, different could.

“Episode 1 and 2 person a batch of assets which are shared with Half-Life 2, right?” helium said. “Once we decorativeness Half-Life 2, those volition already beryllium done by 70% for Episode 1 and astir 50% for Episode 2. We'll person to spot erstwhile we get there, but there's perfectly thing stopping a assemblage effort, adjacent if we don't, from conscionable picking up wherever we near disconnected and wrapping up the enactment to beryllium done.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].