id Software’s first three-dimensional first-person shooter can be played with ray tracing if you have the hardware.

The original Quake engine (which could be called id Tech 2, but the code base for Quake II was released under a different GPL…) is old technology, and in 1996, when the game was released, ray tracing technology was nowhere to be found. You can add it to the game via a mod to replace the original lighting with ray-traced lights. The modder, sultim_t, is well-versed in the subject, having done similar graphical tuning for DOOM and Half-Life 1, two classic FPS titles.

The case of Quake is unique: id Software has gone for a darker (and therefore somewhat spookier) style, and by installing the mod, the environment with ray tracing looks rather colorless and medically sterile. There is a workaround for it, however, as the rt_sky option is set to 9 by default, according to a YouTube comment it’s worth turning it down to 1 with a console command so that the exteriors don’t look overly bright and washed out. The sun shadows can be turned on with rt_sun 1, the bloom effect can be achieved with rt_bloom_intensity 0, or if you want to weaken it, set it to 0.5. If you need a smaller flashlight illumination, rt_flashlight is the solution.

We’ve slowly come full circle, as several players have had their first experience of how ray tracing can give a 20+-year-old game more potent visuals in Quake 2 RTX. In the meantime, here are more tips on how to set it up for the best results, and the mod itself can be downloaded from Github; you can also see how to apply it to the original on Steam, for example.

You’ll need a more modern graphics card for it, and then you might not be playing Quake, but we’re glad to see that games from the past are getting some attention (Quake got a remaster, after all).

Source: PCGamer