Never, when I was playing this game all those years ago, did I ever think that a modern machine in the next century would struggle to play this. I think with your video, a more direct scene-by-scene comparison would be able to make the distinction between the two more clear. Also, I don't know if people are up on the rendering capabilities of Quake II XP. Making an informed choice between the two is confused further by some really regrettable texturing choices for the XP version (the Christmas ornament shaders on the players arm with the BFG! OMG!!). Thanks for posting the comparison though!
@@abdou.the.heretic shit damn, now that's retro. get a CRT monitor for that sucker if someone local sells it for cheap, you'd be amazed with OLED-like image quality.
Quake 2 RTX just looks like a sunny day in Fallout 4. The XP mod has nice reverb in the sound design though, adds more dimension audibly, something overlooked in entertainment mediums, is sound which is important for added immersion. just my 2 cents anyway :)
You can set the time of day as well as the sky texture in Q2 RTX. In any case, the XP version seems closer to the original art style, while the RTX version is more of a tech demo.
A long time ago there was a mod for Quake 2 which used Aureal's A3D sound system and an early prototype using a surface material system for what is essentially ray traced audio - sadly nothing ever came of it - would have been a nice addition to the RTX version.
I played the original Quake 2 on my Pentium 100Mhz, 32 MB RAM and 3DFX Voodoo 1 - 4MB and it was a blast in that time. Much later on I played the Quake 2XP version on my i3-2120, 8GB RAM and Radeon r9 380 (4GB) and the graphics were (and still are) fantastic ! Also the backgrounds were even more beautiful than in the original (that Big Gun is amazing to look at) Now today I play the RTX version on my i3-9100F, 16GB RAM and Geforce GTX1660-6 GDDR5 RAM and it looks very nice in 1920x1080 but is playable in 1280x720 and all in max settings (but resolution scaling on 100%) I like the GOD-RAYS and the day 'n night cycle but not that the beautiful backgrounds from the original is replaced by empty canyons. The orange setting is in my opinion more beautiful than the Earth like blues. PS: Quake 2 RTX has some Quake 2 XP adds. Ty for the cool video :)
The thing about it is, Quake 2 wasn't *designed with Raytracing in mind. I like the texture pack in Q2RTX though. I don't know why Nvidia adds raytracing to games made in the Jurassic Era.
makes sense to mkae these iD engine games into RTX mods, the lighting in these games on release was basically a very primitive form of ray tracing baked onto the walls that took hours to compile, now they can do it in real time so the shadows can move with the level geometry unlike the original version which just had static baked on shadows. Sure you have mods already that do dynamic lighting but its mostly all stencil type shadows that can have soft edges, they dont combine with other shadows to make areas darker, also RTX soft shadows have a dynamic level to the soft shadows, they will get softer the further the shadow gets drawn.
Because of the simple geometry, obviously. The more triangles to intersect with the ray, the heavier it is to compute. Moreover q2 is actually very well suited for ray/path tracing. They just used vanilla light sources, but instead of prebacked low res light maps they applied emmisive materials to them and it worked perfectly. Additionally there are now skybox and sun as a light sources and you even can even change the time of day, skybox and sun position as you like. They also reworked all the textures, which is are not only much higher res, but most importantly they are made for the pbr material system to define which surface and metallic or not and how reflective it is, to show path tracing better. I think they did a great job with it. The only thing I've changed is replacing all the pixelated sprites with hd effects or/and particles and updated the enemy models, cause they aren't changed at all, unlike the guns and most of the environment.
the main difference in case you cant quite tell is RTX has shadows of varying shades, XP just draws a shadow with a single uniform brightness throughout it.
It's not just shadows, pal. It's a real time path tracing. Gi, ao, reflections, shadows and even caustics from glass and water all calculated physically correct in real time. Plus many other features like volumetric lighting, This comparison is pretty pointless IMO, because it's totally different levels.
I have to admit that RTX version looks insane! But my problem with this is the sky of Stroggos. I mean, why blue? On the Quake 2 lore, the atmosphere of Stroggos is terribly affected by high levels of industrial contamination, but here, looks like a nice sunny day on Earth. The light it's a problem too because in the lore, you never seen Stroggos obit a yellow star like the Earth with the Sun, the star(s) of Stroggos maybe can be red(s).
thats just the settings. people do not realise you CAN modify it, and make the game dark and moody, and you get yourself a better version than the original.
Ray Tracing affects Lightning not Textures. People don't know you can download Mods for free that improve lighting without having to pay more for Pork.
..ray tracing is the lazy way to light imo.. looks generic through every game that uses it.. i for one do not see the value in ray tracing at the price NVIDIA is asking.. i see 0 benefit i only see inflated price and lower fps and generic looking average everyday lighting effect. in my sci fi fantasy universe game..quake 2 xp looks more fleshed out. beyond simple lighting.
Do you know why it looks generic in every game? BECAUSE THIS IS HOW LIGHT ACTUALLY WORKS... The main reason ray tracing was used in games is to get rid of the old rasterized and easily breakable techniques...for example SSR..it breaks whenever something is offscreen....or planar reflections...limited to flat surfaces... Ray tracing solves all these issues... One day ray tracing would be so cheap and light on performance... Real time ray tracing is the future of games graphics...
Dude, this is 25 year old game, ray tracing does nothing when game is so outdated. Few blocky things are running on the screen, does not matter if it uses the most realistic lighting in the world, it adds nothing. When games are more complicated with better graphics, then ray tracing becomes important.
@@georgefromjungle5211 i fully disagree... It looks a game changer in old games... Yet in newer games they found ways to rasterized these effects (however its not perfect) Quake uses a very low resolution lightmaps and lacks dynamic lighting... Just relook at the video... It makes a huge difference
@king x 100% agree! Even if it's just a 12 polygonal box floating in a room - with raytracing and a propper lightning it's a world difference. Who ever disagrees doesn't even know what raytracing actually means.
xp doesnt look good. its oversaturaded, the creator of that mod didnt understood the original mood of quake. rtx look great if you set it up right, if you leave it bright, than again youve misunderstood the mood that sold quake 2 as the greatest fps games of all time.
the lighting and reflections in the RTX version looks SO GOOD(it looks even better in person, youtube videos doesn't justify it at all). XP just looks like your average video game - meh.
Never, when I was playing this game all those years ago, did I ever think that a modern machine in the next century would struggle to play this. I think with your video, a more direct scene-by-scene comparison would be able to make the distinction between the two more clear. Also, I don't know if people are up on the rendering capabilities of Quake II XP.
Making an informed choice between the two is confused further by some really regrettable texturing choices for the XP version (the Christmas ornament shaders on the players arm with the BFG! OMG!!). Thanks for posting the comparison though!
back in my day i played quake 2 on a pentium 3 @ 320x240 software on 19.2k Dial up. 56k Was an upgrade dagnabbit. and the voodoo 1 blew my tiny mind.
@@homelessEh bro I'm literally playing it on 1024×768 on a pentium 4 laptop 💀
@@abdou.the.heretic shit damn, now that's retro. get a CRT monitor for that sucker if someone local sells it for cheap, you'd be amazed with OLED-like image quality.
I think Quake II XP looks better. I can't play it on my new Dell because it doesn't support an Intel graphics card.
Quake 2 RTX just looks like a sunny day in Fallout 4.
The XP mod has nice reverb in the sound design though, adds more dimension audibly, something overlooked in entertainment mediums, is sound which is important for added immersion.
just my 2 cents anyway :)
In rtx you can change sky texture to original or stroggos. stop writing about a sunny day in the rtx version
@@bowser3017 Ok ill stop writing about the sunny day im sorry.
You can set the time of day as well as the sky texture in Q2 RTX. In any case, the XP version seems closer to the original art style, while the RTX version is more of a tech demo.
How would you compare current remaster with XP n RTX?
A long time ago there was a mod for Quake 2 which used Aureal's A3D sound system and an early prototype using a surface material system for what is essentially ray traced audio - sadly nothing ever came of it - would have been a nice addition to the RTX version.
XP looks way better.
I played the original Quake 2 on my Pentium 100Mhz, 32 MB RAM and 3DFX Voodoo 1 - 4MB and it was a blast in that time.
Much later on I played the Quake 2XP version on my i3-2120, 8GB RAM and Radeon r9 380 (4GB) and the graphics were (and still are) fantastic ! Also the backgrounds were even more beautiful than in the original (that Big Gun is amazing to look at)
Now today I play the RTX version on my i3-9100F, 16GB RAM and Geforce GTX1660-6 GDDR5 RAM and it looks very nice in 1920x1080 but is playable in 1280x720 and all in max settings (but resolution scaling on 100%)
I like the GOD-RAYS and the day 'n night cycle but not that the beautiful backgrounds from the original is replaced by empty canyons. The orange setting is in my opinion more beautiful than the Earth like blues.
PS: Quake 2 RTX has some Quake 2 XP adds.
Ty for the cool video :)
The thing about it is, Quake 2 wasn't *designed with Raytracing in mind. I like the texture pack in Q2RTX though.
I don't know why Nvidia adds raytracing to games made in the Jurassic Era.
Because if you did a full pathtrace version of any new game like cyberpunk with high resolution textures, geo, and shaders it would run at 5fps.
makes sense to mkae these iD engine games into RTX mods, the lighting in these games on release was basically a very primitive form of ray tracing baked onto the walls that took hours to compile, now they can do it in real time so the shadows can move with the level geometry unlike the original version which just had static baked on shadows.
Sure you have mods already that do dynamic lighting but its mostly all stencil type shadows that can have soft edges, they dont combine with other shadows to make areas darker, also RTX soft shadows have a dynamic level to the soft shadows, they will get softer the further the shadow gets drawn.
Because of the simple geometry, obviously. The more triangles to intersect with the ray, the heavier it is to compute. Moreover q2 is actually very well suited for ray/path tracing. They just used vanilla light sources, but instead of prebacked low res light maps they applied emmisive materials to them and it worked perfectly. Additionally there are now skybox and sun as a light sources and you even can even change the time of day, skybox and sun position as you like. They also reworked all the textures, which is are not only much higher res, but most importantly they are made for the pbr material system to define which surface and metallic or not and how reflective it is, to show path tracing better. I think they did a great job with it. The only thing I've changed is replacing all the pixelated sprites with hd effects or/and particles and updated the enemy models, cause they aren't changed at all, unlike the guns and most of the environment.
@@abramjessiah you just got proved wrong xD
It makes for a pretty cool tech demo, as it shows how much of a difference real time ray traced lighting makes to an old game.
the main difference in case you cant quite tell is RTX has shadows of varying shades, XP just draws a shadow with a single uniform brightness throughout it.
It's not just shadows, pal. It's a real time path tracing. Gi, ao, reflections, shadows and even caustics from glass and water all calculated physically correct in real time. Plus many other features like volumetric lighting, This comparison is pretty pointless IMO, because it's totally different levels.
XP much more colorful and better!
I have to admit that RTX version looks insane! But my problem with this is the sky of Stroggos. I mean, why blue? On the Quake 2 lore, the atmosphere of Stroggos is terribly affected by high levels of industrial contamination, but here, looks like a nice sunny day on Earth. The light it's a problem too because in the lore, you never seen Stroggos obit a yellow star like the Earth with the Sun, the star(s) of Stroggos maybe can be red(s).
The problem I noticed with quake rtx is the lack of
Ambience no footsteps no doors closing in the distance very one dimensional that way
The ray tracing completely changed the mood of the game. For worse.
thats just the settings. people do not realise you CAN modify it, and make the game dark and moody, and you get yourself a better version than the original.
@@Najstefaniji people do not want to educate themselves and immediately draw conclusions
I very much disagree. I just played through quake 1 with path tracing and it was like an entirely new experience. way moodier and dynamic.
Ray Tracing affects Lightning not Textures. People don't know you can download Mods for free that improve lighting without having to pay more for Pork.
Rtx is a shitty gimmick
Xp is good for indoor but rtx is way cooler at open environment
Time for a Quake 2 XP vs Quake 2 Remastered now!
bay fare Quake 2 XP is tolti beter in many wais cool . win gos to Quake 2 XP BRAVO . COOL FIN
prefiero el XP mod
What XP version in what quake 2 version? Thanks. I dont need to look too much to see xp is way better than rtx.
2:10 omg that metal ground texture is hideous. They really couldn't make the parallax a bit higher? XD Honestly both of these look like ass.
everything is about that mod
obviously open areas in Q2RTX looks beautiful as nothing else, but they also changed the entire skybox
Character models still 1997.
Can the XP version run on rtx? =D
..ray tracing is the lazy way to light imo.. looks generic through every game that uses it.. i for one do not see the value in ray tracing at the price NVIDIA is asking.. i see 0 benefit i only see inflated price and lower fps and generic looking average everyday lighting effect. in my sci fi fantasy universe game..quake 2 xp looks more fleshed out. beyond simple lighting.
This !
Do you know why it looks generic in every game? BECAUSE THIS IS HOW LIGHT ACTUALLY WORKS... The main reason ray tracing was used in games is to get rid of the old rasterized and easily breakable techniques...for example SSR..it breaks whenever something is offscreen....or planar reflections...limited to flat surfaces... Ray tracing solves all these issues... One day ray tracing would be so cheap and light on performance... Real time ray tracing is the future of games graphics...
Dude, this is 25 year old game, ray tracing does nothing when game is so outdated. Few blocky things are running on the screen, does not matter if it uses the most realistic lighting in the world, it adds nothing. When games are more complicated with better graphics, then ray tracing becomes important.
@@georgefromjungle5211 i fully disagree... It looks a game changer in old games... Yet in newer games they found ways to rasterized these effects (however its not perfect)
Quake uses a very low resolution lightmaps and lacks dynamic lighting... Just relook at the video...
It makes a huge difference
@king x 100% agree! Even if it's just a 12 polygonal box floating in a room - with raytracing and a propper lightning it's a world difference. Who ever disagrees doesn't even know what raytracing actually means.
xp doesnt look good. its oversaturaded, the creator of that mod didnt understood the original mood of quake. rtx look great if you set it up right, if you leave it bright, than again youve misunderstood the mood that sold quake 2 as the greatest fps games of all time.
RTX Q2 is even worse. Blue sky in the Strogg planet, really?
pretty sure rtx did not understood the original mod of quake 2.
the lighting and reflections in the RTX version looks SO GOOD(it looks even better in person, youtube videos doesn't justify it at all). XP just looks like your average video game - meh.
Both versions are tremendously horrible
rtx is better in lighting and shading and echoing
by far the best RTX
I like the blood fx in XP . The original FX (which to my surprise retain in RTX) , were terrible.. An also the sound FX in XP are better.