Someone is remaking the original Unreal with Unreal Engine 4 and ray tracing effects

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: DKG-Prog hasn’t provided an estimated completion date for the project nor do we even know if a public release is in the cards. With any luck, maybe it’ll convince Nvidia and Epic to work together on an official remake with ray tracing effects added. Nvidia worked with Bethesda on a similar project for Quake II so it’s not an unheard of idea. Fingers crossed!

Modder DKG-Prog last summer shared some early screenshots of a fan remake of the original Unreal game built using Epic’s excellent Unreal Engine 4. The screens were somewhat promising but as DSOGaming highlighted at the time, the remake had “major issues that need to be addressed.”

Fortunately, it seems as though the modder took the constructive criticism to heart and has done just that. Wow, what a difference a year makes!

The latest screenshots demonstrate some of the RTX ray tracing effects that have been added. As the publication notes, DKG-Prog has also implemented time of day options, new weapon and texture models, improved atmospheric scattering, reflectivity to glass and water surfaces, dynamic lighting for blinking lights and more.

For a game that originally launched in 1998, it looks great thus far.

BTW, you can grab Quake II RTX on Steam or as a standalone download directly from our download section.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/81188-someone-remaking-original-unreal-unreal-engine-4-ray.html

 

[amstech]

WWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT???
OMG!! OMG!!

 

[Odium]

My eyes....are bleeding

 

[mcborge]

But why? Leave the classics alone and work on something fresh. The gaming industry like the film industry really has run out of new ideas.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

But why? Leave the classics alone and work on something fresh. The gaming industry like the film industry really has run out of new ideas.

Except this isn't "the gaming industry". This is a single independent modder having fun, you know, modding an old game. If you don't wish to support or play it, simply don't.

 

[amstech]

But why? Leave the classics alone and work on something fresh. The gaming industry like the film industry really has run out of new ideas.

Normally I agree with this sentiment.
This generation is fixated on nostalgia, and its overwhelming.
That being said there are a few games many folks didn't play as PC gaming wasn't the monster it is now.

Unreal is a game that I would actually like to see re-done, with updated models with more polygons, new world textures/more complex mip-mapping, shadows ext. RT is not that important to me, but maybe I just haven't seen enough yet.
I would love to see a new Drakan game with modern technology, as well as a Croc : Legend of the Gobbos title.

 

[mcborge]

Normally I agree with this sentiment.
This generation if fixated on nostalgia, and its overwhelming.
That being said there are a few games many folks didn't play as PC gaming wasn't the monster it is now.

Unreal is a game that I would actually like to see re-done, with updated models with more polygons, new world textures/more complex mip-mapping, shadows ext. RT is not that important to me, but maybe I just haven't seen enough yet.
I would love to see a new Drakan game with modern technology, as well as a Croc : Legend of the Gobbos title.

I agree on seeing a new Drakan and maybe a new Primal for that matter (one can only hope) but maybe devs should leave the new shinyness for continuations of those games as apposed to revamping past titles. We need to see where we came from as much as where were going. I'm happy to see an older title updated to run on modern systems, which is what GOG is for but this feels a lot like the rewriting of history to me.

 

[mcborge]

Except this isn't "the gaming industry". This is a single independent modder having fun, you know, modding an old game. If you don't wish to support or play it, simply don't.

It will either trigger a copyright infringement or it will get picked up by Epic and released on their store.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

But why? Leave the classics alone and work on something fresh. The gaming industry like the film industry really has run out of new ideas.

I'm glad your not an employee at Blizzard software. Warcraft 3 ReForged would have been axed.

Re-writing history? A little too conspiratorial sounding for my taste. There is no attempt to cover up any truth here. It's simply bringing more attention to history. As another person has already said, your certainly under no obligation to install this mod.

And you may be wrongfully equating the programming skill of modders with those of veteran programmers. Maybe this is a great learning experience for the modders that lays the groundwork for them to do something fresh in the future.

So, the TL;DR version of my message is, in my opinion, "It's all good!"

 

[arrowflash]

Based on the screenshots, looks terrible and is in serious need of competent art direction. Too much bloom, godrays and other filters and effects that can help a game look great or terrible depending on who's behind the dials.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Such an amazing game at the time, the visuals for that era were awesome. I would most welcome a remaster with all the currently available tech. Imagine this at 4K with RT, high res textures, high polygon models, dynamic soft shadows, volumetric fog, etc etc.

 

[toooooot]

Whenever you play an action game that requires all your attention, and that's the games that are most played, you don't want anything distracting like light rays. So everybody is trying to turn off the things that decrease visibility.
Take Ark Survival for example. The game has beautiful light effects. But when you are in a dangerous area, you wanna see the things that wanna eat you.

These beautiful things are only good for a small number of games or demos that often don't even cover the investments. It makes me sad, but it is so. Ugly games like minecraft will keep capturing investments and fans, while all the pretty games will barely sell enough copies to cover the salaries of those making them.

 

[Nobina]

One thing I noticed about mods like this in general is that they tend to go too far with the lighting effects. They want realism but they go overboard with effects and end up making it too glowy.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

So basically, we won't get any new CRYSIS games...but we are gonna REPLAY the 1990's and Early 2000's...

RTX HALF LIFE anybody?

RTX Command and Conquer?

RTX Soldier of Fortune?

RTX HALO???

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I played through the original Unreal.

Absolutely amaziing experience - totally UNREAL in fact.

It was a more straight forward shooter than Half Life, but Half Life had arguably better direction.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

So basically, we won't get any new CRYSIS games...but we are gonna REPLAY the 1990's and Early 2000's...

RTX HALF LIFE anybody?

RTX Command and Conquer?

RTX Soldier of Fortune?

RTX HALO???

Wow, I admire you. You don't let facts get in the way at all of your perceptions of reality. Do you? I don't think the modder works at Cry-Tek. I could be wrong.

I haven't formed an opinion yet of whether RTX is something I really care about in games. Sometimes people confuse better looking games with a more fun or more enjoyable experience. Certainly higher resolution games are more aesthetically pleasing. Up to a point I'm sure though. Going from 640x480 to 1920x1080 is worth upgrading the hardware and software. Going from 4k to 8k resolutions may not be. The law of diminishing returns maybe.

So, if I had to vote, I would vote yes to all. Because having more options instead of less has never angered me personally. But to each their own.

P.S. I believe an announcement has been made for a remaster of all (or some) of the Command & Conquer series:

https://www.pcgamer.com/command-and-conquer-remastered-moves-into-production/

So, maybe it will get RTX also.

 

[vexcro]

But why? Leave the classics alone and work on something fresh. The gaming industry like the film industry really has run out of new ideas.

I agree with this. Whole industry is looking back and recycling things again and again. And I know why: because they are greedy, sliming, fat lizards, that's why lol.