Nvidia releases major update for Quake II RTX

Nvidia has released a major update to Quake II RTX so it shows off even more of that lovely RTX real-time ray-tracing technology. The new drivers are also 'Game Ready' for Halo: Reach next week.

It continues to feel a little strange in 2019 to be discussing a patch for such an old yet classic game, but there we are - Quake II RTX is worth checking out as a form of tech-demo for ray-tracing. It runs on nearly all DXR-compatible graphics cards and includes the first episode of the game's shareware form, with the option to add your own licensed game data to receive the full game.

The 1.2 update adds extensive support for useful features. This includes dynamic resolution scaling so that the rendering resolution of Quake II adjusts on the fly with a bid to reach your desired frames-per-second goal. Over 400 textures have been remastered by Nvidia, thereby increasing texture detail.

Elsewhere, support has been added for multiple reflection/refraction bounces so that a 'hall of mirrors' style effect is created. There are also now light shafts throughout the game, including underwater light shafts. Metal and glass surfaces are also made to appear more photo realistic thanks to Nvidia tweaking and improving the AI denoiser for the game.

Various stability fixes have also been implemented.

Quake II is fast approaching its 22nd birthday so it's great to see it be revitalised via this tech demo. 

In the same update, Nvidia has also prepared for the launch of Halo: Reach with various tweaks that the GPU manufacturer hope will mean you get the most out of Master Chief's adventure. 

Nvidia reckons that if you use a RTX 2060 graphics card, you should be able to achieve 120fps at 4K resolution while playing Halo: Reach. Alternatively, if your system contains an RTX 2080 Super, expect a very respectable 200fps at 4K and with the graphics set to the highest level. That's perhaps not entirely surprising given the age of Halo: Reach but it's good to know for certain what to expect. 

For more on the many, many tweaks that Nvidia has made to Quake II RTX, check out its blog post which offers some rather nice comparison pictures.