Nvidia is partnering up with id Software to provide a version of Quake II with RTX support for free. Nvidia has been working on this remaster of the 1997 FPS to demonstrate the power of ray-tracing. Quake II RTX is the first fully path-traced game, where all lighting effects (light, shadow, reflection, refraction) are using one ray-tracing algorithm.
Quake II RTX will contain the first three levels for free, just like the original Quake II and its shareware model. Should you have your own copy of Quake II, the full game, including online multiplayer, can be played with ray-tracing on. Though the expansions packs are not supported.
You still have the textures and models that looks rudimentary in today’s age (though slightly touched up), juxtaposed with the surreal-looking lighting effects that really bring the levels to life.
It’s a good showcase for what ray-tracing can really do and by isolating the lighting from the generally good-looking post-processing and high-quality model textures, it’s an easy way to see the power of ray-tracing for the general public.
Quake II RTX is created using the NVIDIA VKRay extension which uses Vulkan. This means a Linux version is also available.
Quake II RTX will be available to download straight from Nvidia’s GeForce site on June 6th.