NVIDIA has published its latest update for the RTX Remix framework, with version 1.5 bringing impressive improvements. As some may recall, NVIDIA's RTX Remix is a tool for remastering older games to enable the game engine to support modern visual enhancements like full ray tracing, neural rendering with DLSS 4, and multi-frame generation. It also automatically enhances materials with generative AI. NVIDIA has been updating classic games like Half-Life 2 and Portal. According to the company blog post, RTX Remix 1.5 now includes new visual enhancements and a more efficient storage system that can reduce file sizes by roughly one-third, depending on the specific game.

The first major feature update is Smooth Normals. This feature, highly requested by the RTX Remix modding community, adds automatic smooth-normal generation to the legacy geometry in the game. This prevents older in-game assets from appearing blocky or faceted when path-tracing lighting is applied. Interestingly, NVIDIA has prepared a demonstration in a concrete tunnel within the game, which now looks like a uniform piece instead of the multi-piece rendering it once was. The company also added lighting control from various viewpoints, meaning that remixes and modding community will get to play with more lighting controls.