Max Payne RTX Remix mod sacrifices 90% of its frame rate for realistic lighting effects

[Alfonso Maruccia]

The big picture: Upon release, Nvidia's RTX Remix brought fans and independent developers unprecedented modding opportunities. The software can add realistic effects to older games. However, it requires powerful GPU hardware to render all this next-gen graphics goodness.

Modders have been using the RTX Remix platform to improve the visual appearance of seasoned PC games for months. Decades-old titles gain ray tracing, path tracing, DLSS 3 frame generation, and other advanced graphics features to decades-old engines. A recent mod of Max Payne shows how RTX Remix can add impressive effects while demonstrating the computationally intensive cost.

The Max Payne RTX On demo adds path tracing to a game initially released in 2001 during the PlayStation 2 era. A recent video clip of a reasonably gutsy gaming setup depicts how these realistic effects can reduce GPU performance and frame rates by more than 90 percent.

Path tracing renders 3D scenes with detailed global illumination effects. The technique traces every ray of light to simulate shadows, depth of field, motion blur, ambient occlusion, and more. Path tracing is algorithmically simple, but it's a highly inefficient rendering method that was impossible to replicate in a real-time game environment until a few years ago.

Graphics performance in Max Payne goes from 1300 frames per second to a much slower but tolerable 60 FPS on a GeForce RTX 4080 with path tracing activated. Both CPU and GPU utilization levels spike accordingly, and the GPU alone will absorb around 300W of power. Running the mod on anything less potent than RTX 40 GPUs is ill-advised.

The original Max Payne helped popularize the "bullet time" gameplay mechanic in third-person shooters, turning the New York vigilante into an iconic video game character. Remedy Entertainment is developing a proper remake of Max Payne (2001) and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (2003).

The indie developers who added path tracing to Max Payne are now working on a larger modding project for the classic shooter. The Max Payne Remixed mod team currently includes three driven modders with a "strong love" for the Max Payne franchise. The team needs some new members to provide 3D modeling and GitHub repository management.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/101715-max-payne-rtx-remix-mod-sacrifices-90-framerate.html

 

[Puiu]

Real time bullet time. you don't need to press the ingame button anymore, your GPU will automatically run slow for you.

 

[wwwendigo]

Real time bullet time. you don't need to press the ingame button anymore, your GPU will automatically run slow for you.

At least with AMD!!!

 

[noel24]

At least with AMD!!!

You've meant "anything but over $1000 GPUs"? Jensen is showing Us all His middle finger, and nVidia shills are still clapping. Amazing.

 

[Lionvibez]

You've meant "anything but over $1000 GPUs"? Jensen is showing Us all His middle finger, and nVidia shills are still clapping. Amazing.

lol they also will sleep in front of bestbuy in a tent for a gpu. All hail the Mighty Jensen!

 

[RudyBob]

That's funny. Ewww but look at the lights

 

[Mr Majestyk]

lol they also will sleep in front of bestbuy in a tent for a gpu. All hail the Mighty Jensen!

AMD gpus like 7900's and 7800 are selling much better than Nvidia's equivalents. NO one is sleeping in tents to buy Nvidia. Forum trolls make the most noise but reality is diametrically opposite to their reality disotrtion field.

 

[Atmajaya2020]

Wow, look at that fps drop...
all for the sake of not-so-amazing graphic differences..
well, at least that's what it looks like on my screen..

 

[redgarl]

At least with AMD!!!

The XTX is faster than anything Nvidia has beside the 4090...

Hard cold fact...

 

[MasterAce]

Nvidia is right on track making it’s gpus obsolete so they can sell you all the new 5090

 

[Puiu]

At least with AMD!!!

It's both Nvidia and AMD.

 

[MasterAce]

AMD isn’t spending nearly as much on sponsoring games and their attempts at squashing hardware haven’t been as successful.

 

[erickmendes]

20x FPS reduction nice

 

[polord]

Same with quake rtx, with rtx it drop to 80 frames if I remember good, 7800x3d with 7900 xt

 

[Endymio]

Nvidia is right on track making it’s [sic] gpus obsolete so they can sell you all the new 5090

NVidia is bringing you unheard of studio-quality graphic effects that you can choose to enable or to forego, and you're upset? There's a reason that even the worst Hollywood film at 1080p and 30 fps appears far more realistic than the best videogame at 4K and 100 fps. That reason is the physics of light and motion.

If frame rates are your god, go back to 16 color block graphics at VGA resolution. You'll never worry about performance again.

 

[Eldritch]

Slightly better graphics where everything is either dark or looks like it is coated with vaseline (even the walls!) for just 2200% performance drop!

 

[bviktor]

I'll just wait for the official remake that's already in the pipe, thanks.

 

[nnguy2]

Nvidia: we cripple the performance of a 20 yr game and get people to buy new gpus

 

[MasterAce]

NVidia is bringing you unheard of studio-quality graphic effects that you can choose to enable or to forego, and you're upset? There's a reason that even the worst Hollywood film at 1080p and 30 fps appears far more realistic than the best videogame at 4K and 100 fps. That reason is the physics of light and motion.

If frame rates are your god, go back to 16 color block graphics at VGA resolution. You'll never worry about performance again.

Yes, I’m upset when it’s unplayable for the average consumer and when they blatantly make sure it’s unplayable even on their own current gen gpus, just to sell you another gpu which they will abandon as soon ad it’s out.

 

[Endymio]

Yes, I’m upset when it’s unplayable for the average consumer and when they blatantly make sure it’s unplayable even on their own current gen gpus, just to sell you another gpu which they will abandon as soon ad it’s out.

How is 60 fps "unplayable"? If you don't have a 4000-series GPU, well then you can play the game in its original state and enjoy your 1300 fps instead.

 

[MasterAce]

How is 60 fps "unplayable"? If you don't have a 4000-series GPU, well then you can play the game in its original state and enjoy your 1300 fps instead.

4080 specificly. Is it 1080p? Fakeframes?

I’m not really upset with the specifics of this particular case, it’s the Nvidia business practices that can be seen in everything they do.

 

[Endymio]

I’m not really upset with the specifics of this particular case, it’s the Nvidia business practices that can be seen in everything they do.

They created a tool to make old games more realistic, if you have the hardware to support it. Dear god, save us! The horror!

 

[MasterAce]

They created a tool to make old games more realistic, if you have the hardware to support it. Dear god, save us! The horror!

They created a tool to make you abandon your perfecly fine gpu and lust over the next greatest thing they choose to sell.

For example; why was portal rtx so much more demanding than quake2 rtx? Higher ray counts and more bounces etc. Then why was the quake2 quality not even an option? People were editing cfg files to enable the less demanding quality, which was very much in the game, just hidden.

If nvidia actually wanted to optimize this tool, it could run in all the RTX gpus starting with the 2000 series. But that’s not the case here.

Games like metroEE and avatar prove that when devs set out to optimize and support a full range of gpus, they do run really well and look great.

Whatever Nvidia does, is rigged to obsolete your current setup. They are not doing it to give us something cool, they are playing us for fools and media likes to glorify them with this ”can it run crysis” attitude. Meanwhile gamers are perpetually dissatisfied with their systems. It’s a sick game of marketing.

 

[Endymio]

They created a tool to make you abandon your perfecly fine gpu and lust over the next greatest thing

If the NVidia mind-control rays are getting too strong, I suggest a double-layer of tinfoil around the cranial region.

And yes, NVidia created this tool to showcase their latest hardware, and thus help themselves. If you prefer a community where businesses act instead to hurt themselves, you might wish to check out the booming consumer paradises of Cuba, North Korea, or a former Soviet Republic.

 

[Joey Rakas]

Bitter sweet. Seeing all these old games get this kind of of treatment is a nice gesture, but some HD texture packs(where possible) would make far better visual impressions and have far less impact on performance. Fact: Even with "Nvidia RTX Remix" that game by all means looks like total garbage by visual standards in 2024. In fact 2007 Crysis looks better without any mods, so there is that. The game from 2001 still looks like a game from 2001. Paying keen attention to the side-by-sides, there is certainty some major flaws of this path tracing mod that seem to conflict with such an old game engine ie; corpses can now clearly be seen "floating" off the ground casting shadows underneath itself. Again though, for die hard fans of some of these older games, it's gotta be pretty welcoming. 60 FPS is still an extremely playable framerate, just crazy to think you only get 60 FPS for a game that again......looks like total garbage by today's standards.