When the summer sun crests, gamers know that more than tan lines are coming. They also know that means the next wave of PC gaming is just ahead from NVIDIA and game publishers.
This year, gamers had their eyes trained on Computex in Taiwan, one of the world’s biggest annual tech trade shows, where many game trailers made their debut.
Quake II AND Wolfenstein: Youngblood were among the AAA titles, cult classics, hot sequels and sizzling indie fare that made news in Taipei. And they’re all spiked with real-time ray tracing accelerated by NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs.
Respect the Game. Know Its History: Quake and Wolfenstein
First-person shooters were integral to the emergence of PC gaming. And two of the most storied franchises in history are Quake and Wolfenstein. Both made news at Computex, but with a twist.
Quake II Reimagined with Ray Tracing
NVIDIA recently built on the work done in the open source community to polish up Quake II with the most modern of PC technologies — ray tracing. The result: Quake II RTX.
Its completely updated look has been achieved through path tracing, a ray-tracing technique that unifies all lighting effects — such as shadows, reflections, refractions and more — into a single ray-tracing algorithm to deliver a stunning, realistic image.
We announced that, starting June 6, gamers could download Quake II RTX from Steam for free. They get the first three single-player levels and if they already own Quake II, they can experience the game in its entirety, including multiplayer deathmatch and cooperative multiplayer modes. All fully path traced. Get more details on GeForce.com.
Gamers who weren’t at Computex can get all the details, and see how ray tracing improves games, in the Quake II RTX trailer.
Ray Tracing Draws New Blood from Wolfenstein in Latest GeForce Bundle
The Wolfenstein franchise launched the first-person shooter genre. A new spin on the storied franchise, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, is set 19 years after the events of Wolfenstein II. It’s the first modern co-op Wolfenstein adventure, and officially launches July 26.
To set the game apart, Bethesda is using ray tracing, NVIDIA Adaptive Shading and other advanced NVIDIA gaming technologies. And, for a limited time, gamers will receive Wolfenstein: Youngblood for free, with the purchase of an eligible GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, 2080, 2070 or 2060 GPU-equipped graphics card, desktop PC or laptop. You can check out Wolfenstein: Youngblood in the new trailer.
Sword and Fairy 7 Uses Ray Tracing to Bring Fantasy to Life
Rounding out the list of games turning to ray tracing to create visuals that will captivate gamers is Sword and Fairy 7, a long-running Chinese RPG franchise that’s spawned TV shows, stage plays, over a dozen spin-offs games, and nine mainline games.
The latest in the The Legend of Sword and Fairy series, Sword and Fairy 7 will use ray tracing for reflections and shadows to help create a mystical land ripe with Chinese mythology and ancient legends. Take a look at the trailer that debuted at Computex.
Check back soon to see what NVIDIA and our friends in game publishing have on tap for E3, which kicks off in Los Angeles on June 11.
