Black Mesa Gets Shiny: Free Half-Life Ray Tracing Mod Adds Subtle Splendor

Enlarge / The familiar hallways of Black Mesa can be revamped with generative lighting. Valve

Half-Life is a legendary game, a title that was ahead of its time in its storytelling, mechanics, and technology. Graphically, however, it can't help but look extremely 1998. A new free ray-tracing mod makes the PC original that much more appealing to revisit.

Sultim Tsyrendashiev, working on GitHub as sultim-t, has worked on graphical upgrades and ports for many games and tools, including Serious Engine and Quake. The Xash3D: Ray Traced project, now ready for public use with Half-Life 1, modifies an alternate version of the Half-Life source engine to add a custom path. plotted renderer. The technology that moves applications from fixed path tracing to real-time path tracing is exciting and promises even more ray tracing nostalgia to come.

[embedded content] Sultim_t's "Half-Life: Ray Traced" mod release trailer.

But what interests us most is how it works in Half-Life. It's very pretty, and while the effect is mostly subtle, it can steal the show in big moments (sorry, giant tentacle that has to go). I played the first level and a bit of the second with the mod installed, and visited a few other levels with map warping cheats (although I died quickly in most as I couldn't get the weapon cheats). Textures aren't enhanced (unless you do it yourself with other mods), but modern lighting can make a big difference in how certain areas of the game look.

The intro train ride is marred a bit by light streaks and canyon shadows. Valve

It seems a bit more ominous to insert the sample into this kernel. Valve

Black Mesa safety auditors would be delighted to see the improved visibility of these emergency exit signs. Valve

The textures are the same, but the light and shadows look much more modern Valve

My favorite part of this mod is that you can switch between the classic graphics and the new heat of ray tracing with Alt + X. This is very useful if you wonder why so many game and graphics card manufacturers are excited about the potential of RTX on new games and remasters.

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