Quake II RTX has received a new update that includes at least a handful of reasons for gamers to revisit the ray-traced version of id Software’s classic 1997 FPS.
As detailed in the patch notes shared by Steam, Quake II RTX’s 1.6.0 update not only fixes various issues but introduces numerous improvements, including contributions by GitHub user @res2k. Some of those exciting enhancements include support for HDR monitors and tonemapping, as well as the option of enabling red team’s upscaling solution for greater performance, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution.
The highlights, as shared by NVIDIA’s Alexey Panteleev:
- AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution
- Automatic generation of emissive textures for custom maps
- Full-screen blend effects
- Gradient fog volumes
- HDR monitor support
- Improved laser beams
- Improved performance when using high-detail static models
- Improved, more physically correct material shading model
- New settings for nearest filtering on world and UI textures
- New, more flexible material definition system
- Reduced engine start-up and map load times
- Support for IQM models with skeletal animation
- Support for QBSP and BSPX map files with optional smooth normals
“Quake II RTX builds on the work of Christoph Schied and the team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, who added ray tracing to Quake II to create Q2VKPT (in turn building upon the Q2PRO code base),” the about section of the game on Steam reads.
“NVIDIA has introduced new path-traced visual effects, has improved texturing, and has made dozens of other changes and improvements, resulting in an experience that rivals games created today, and pushes your RTX hardware to the limit.”
Quake II RTX is available to play on Windows and Linux machines. The game is available as a free download, but Quake fans who want to play more than just the first three levels of the game will need a full copy of the original.
Source: Steam