The in-development Half-Life 2 remaster project, Half-Life 2 RTX, and the existing Portal RTX project have received massive reductions in file size due to RTX Remix optimisations.

RTX Remix is a tool that hooks into DirectX 8 and 9 applications to replace renderers with ray-tracing and path-tracing options and swap out textures with higher-quality, PBR materials on the fly. Available for official releases or as a tool for modders, the tool can provide higher-quality releases when done well. 

While there are also multiple fan remasters of Valve’s FPS epic in development, Half-Life 2 RTX is a massive official release in the works at Orbifold Studios. As of right now, only two missions have been made available to players, Ravenholm and Nova Proskpekt, and they already take up 80GB of storage space on the SSD storage they require.

Thankfully, that file size has been massively reduced with the release of Nvidia’s RTX Remix 1.5 update. Through the new update, which uses Nvidia’s tensor core-powered compression technology, Half-Life 2 RTX’s recent currently available demo has shrunk from 80GB to 50GB in size. That’s a 37.5% reduction in size.

Additionally, Portal 2 RTX has seen an equally impressive reduction in file size. The smaller puzzle game has seen a reduction from 25GB to just 17GB. That’s a 32% reduction in file size, if I’ve remembered how to do that properly. (Not a maths guy!)

Alongside the optimisations in compression, RTX Remix 1.5 also benefits from multiple improvements. In the new update, the modding platform now uses “smooth normals” to better blend low-poly assets into a path-traced environment. Additionally, it’s easier for modders to edit existing light sources to be more physically accurate.

Finally, Nvidia has added AI coding agent support to the modding tools for those who want them. With the new version of RTX Remix, modders can now make use of “RTX Remix Skills” which can write scripts for you. (Obviously, being AI-generated, you should absolutely be looking over that code yourself as well.)

All of these optimisations come amongst a very difficult time for gamers, largely due to the massive investment in AI. Right now, games such as Stellar Blade: Blood Rain and Phantom Blade Zero are purposefully targeting lower-spec hardware as the ongoing memory shortage causes SSD and RAM prices to skyrocket.

With that said, even with these reductions in file size, Half-Life 2 RTX is set up to be an absolutely massive install when it finally releases. Right now, two missions take up 50GBs even after these changes. The original Half-Life 2 has a total of 13 missions. Goodbye, storage.