Hey, everyone! Today we're releasing v1.6.0, featuring the below fixed issues and improvements.

Breaking Changes:

• Re-designed the material definition system for flexibility and modding.
  
• Removed support for the VK_NV_ray_tracing Vulkan extension, which is superseded by
• VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline and VK_KHR_ray_query that were added earlier.

New Features:

• Added a setting to enable nearest filtering on world textures, pt_nearest.
  
• Added a setting to enable the use of texture and model overrides in the GL renderer, gl_use_hd_assets (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/151)
  
• Added support for converting sky surfaces into lights based on their flags, see pt_bsp_sky_lights.
  
• Added support for IQM models and skeletal animation for the RTX renderer.
  
• Added support for making any models translucent, and cl_gunalpha specifically.
  
• Added support for masked materials (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/127)
  
• Added support for polygonal light extraction from MD2/MD3/IQM models.
  
• Added support for smooth normals on the world mesh through a BSPX extension.
  
• Added support for unlit fog volumes. See the comment in fog.c for more information.
  
• Enabled game builds for ARM64 processors.
  
• Extended the "shader balls" feature to support arbitrary test models with animation.

Fixed Issues:

• Fixed a crash that happened when loading a map with non-emissive lava material.
  
• Fixed loading of multi-skin MD3 models.
  
• Fixed long texture animation sequences.
  
• Fixed some bugs in the model validation code (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/149)
  
• Fixed some self-shadowing artifacts by increasing the shadow and bounce ray offsets.
  
• Fixed some unlit or partially lit triangles by improving the BSP cluster detection logic.
  
• Fixed the MZ_IONRIPPER sound (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/143)
  
• Fixed the rcon_password variable flags to prevent the password from being stored (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/176)
  
• Fixed the background blur behavior when the menu is opened on a system with over 24 days of uptime.
  
• Fixed the barriers in non-uniform control flow in the tone mapping shader (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/129)
  
• Fixed the buffer flags on the acceleration structure scratch buffer (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/142)
  
• Fixed the crash that sometimes happened when entering The Reactor map (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/123)
  
• Fixed the disappearing light surfaces on some polygons with almost-collinear edges.
  
• Fixed the lighting on the first person weapon when it's left-handed.
  
• Fixed the missing frame 0 in repeated entity texture animations.
  
• Fixed the pipeline layout mismatch in asvgf.c (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/140)
  
• Fixed the rendering of the planet's atmosphere in the space environment.
  
• Fixed the sampled lighting estimator math, improved specular MIS.

Misc Improvements:

• Allowed changing the VSync setting without reloading the renderer.
  
• Extended the supported light style range to 200% to fix over-bright lighting.
  
• Implemented anisotropic texture sampling for objects seen in reflections and refractions using ray cones.
  
• Improved CPU performance by not re-allocating the TLAS on every frame.
  
• Improved the handling of transparent effects in the acceleration structures.
  
• Removed the fake ambient that was added when global illumination is set to "off".
  
• Removed the initialization of the async compute queue, which was unused. This improves rendering performance and fixes some compatibility issues with AMD drivers.
  
• Removed the MAX_SWAPCHAIN_IMAGES limit for XWayland (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/122)
  
• Replaced the implementation of model data handling on the GPU to improve scalability (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/171)
  
• Replaced the material BRDF with a more physically correct one and removed the non-linear albedo correction function.
  
• Replaced the normal map normalization on load with a compute shader to speed up engine startup and map loading.

Contributions by GitHub user @res2k:

• Added auto-complete for the ray_tracing_api console variable (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/112)
  
• Added support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/145)
  
• Added support for HDR monitors (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/159)
  
• Added support for synthesizing emissive textures and fixing lighting in custom maps (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/111, https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/136)
  
• Allowed saving and loading games in expansion packs (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/157, https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/150)
  
• Fixed a crash due to invalid clusters on some world geometry (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/165, https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/163)
  
• Fixed the debugging features of the bloom pass (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/160)
  
• Fixed the lighting from light surfaces with animated textures (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/137)
  
• Implemented full-screen blend effects (such as on item pickup) in the RTX renderer (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/110)
  
• Improved support for old mods and enabled x86 builds of the dedicated server (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/116)
  
• Improved the behavior of Dynamic Resolution Scaling on map changes (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/155)
  
• Improved the FPS counter behavior when r_maxfps is set (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/117, https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/118)
  
• Improved the tone mapper (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/156)
  
• Replaced the rendering of laser beams as billboards with volumetric primitives (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/108)

Contributions by GitHub user @Paril:

• Added settings for texture filtering in the UI (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/173)
  
• Added support for maps in QBSP format (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/133, https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/154)
  
• Merged over 350 commits from Q2PRO (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/166)
  
• Moved the security camera definitions to per-map files for modding (https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/169)

Hey, everyone! Today we're releasing v1.5, featuring the below features, fixed issues, and improvements.

New Features:

• Added support for ray tracing using the `VK_KHR_ray_query` extension API.
  NOTE: This is an optional feature, and the two previously supported methods, `VK_NV_ray_tracing` and `VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline`, are still supported. We recommend using NVIDIA Graphics Driver version 465 or newer, or AMD Radeon Software version 21.3.1 or newer.

Fixed issues:

• Fixed the crash that happened on some systems when the game is minimized: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/103
  
• Fixed the invalid Vulkan API usage that happened in the bloom pass: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/104
  
• Fixed the invalid barrier for an inter-queue resource transition: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/105
  
• Fixed the out-of-bounds addressing of the framebuffer array: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/107

Misc Improvements:

• Reduced the delay after resolution changes by avoiding re-initialization of the RT pipelines.
  
• Changed the memory type required for the UBO and transparency upload buffers to `(HOST_VISIBLE | HOST_COHERENT)`.
  
• Improved logging around SLI initialization.

Hey, everyone! Today we're releasing v1.4.1, featuring the below fixed issues and improvements.

Fixed issues:

• Fixed a crash on launch when there is no "newgame" command, for example, when someone overrides the default.cfg file.
  
• Fixed crashes or corruptions on AMD GPUs by increasing the size of the AS build scratch buffer and using correct scratch buffer alignment: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/99
  
• Fixed some potential memory leaks as noted in https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/pull/84
  
• Fixed the bloom output jittering when DRS is used.
  
• Fixed the game not launching on pre-r460 NVIDIA GPU drivers: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/100
  
• Fixed the non-TAAU upscaling when DRS is enabled and its maximum scale is set to lower than 100%: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/96
  
• Fixed the render corruption when running the game on GPUs with 6 GB of memory at 4K resolution: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/98 Fixed the SBT size for hit and miss shaders, preventing potential issues with future drivers that might rely on that information.

Denoiser Improvements:

• Reduced the noise on first person weapons.

Misc Improvements:

• Added a driver version check for AMD GPUs to make sure that at least version 21.1.1 is used.
  
• Added an option to build `glslangValidator` as a submodule.

Hey, everyone! Today we're releasing v1.4.0, featuring added support for final Vulkan Ray Tracing API, and enabling dynamic selection between the pre-existing NVIDIA VKRay and the new Khronos extension backends.

New Features:

• Added support for final Vulkan Ray Tracing API. The game can now run on any GPU supporting `VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline` extension
  
• Added temporal upscaling, or TAAU, for improved image quality at lower resolution scales.

Fixed Issues:

• Fixed a crash that happened when there are no available sound devices.
  
• Fixed a few issues with the tone mapper and the profiler for AMD GPU compatibility.
  
• Fixed a server crash: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/86
  
• Fixed black materials and some light leaks: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/55
  
• Fixed missing railgun lights in photo mode: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/75
  
• Fixed missing sun light on geometry with invalid clusters.
  
• Fixed the CFLAGS for MinSizeRel and RelWithDebInfo builds to generate correct debug symbols.
  
• Fixed the game stuttering on Linux: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/62
  
• Fixed the issue with all models being missing or corrupted on some maps during network play.
  
• Fixed the nearest filter when DRS was enabled and then disabled.
  
• Fixed building the game with GCC10 on Linux: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/80

Denoiser Improvements:

• Implemented a new gradient estimation algorithm that makes the image more stable in reflections and refractions.
  
• Implemented sampling across checkerboard fields in the temporal filter to reduce blurring.
  
• Improved motion vectors for multiple refraction, in particular when thick glass is enabled.
  
• Improved the temporal filter to avoid smearing on surfaces that appear at small glancing angles, e.g. on the floor when going up the stairs.
  
• Improved the temporal filter to make lighting more stable on high-detail surfaces.

Misc Improvements:

• Added git branch name to the game version info.
  
• Improved the console log to get more information in case of game crashes.
  
• Increased precision of printed FPS when running timedemos.
  
• Reduced the amount of stutter that happened when new geometry is loaded, like on weapon pickup.
  
• Replaced the Vulkan headers stored in the repository with a submodule pointing to https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Headers
  
• Static resolution scale can now be set to as low as 25%.
  
• Vulkan validation layer can now be enabled through the `vk_validation` cvar.
  
• Updated SDL2 version to changeset 13784.

Hey, everyone! Today we're releasing v1.3.0, featuring an exclusive Photo Mode, support for video cutscenes, and further improvements. Read our full article here.

New Features:

• Added Photo Mode
  
• Added free camera controls for Photo Mode when the game is paused. See the Readme for more information.
  
• Added support for Depth of Field in Photo Mode
  
• Added support for campaign video cutscenes.
  
• Added support for selecting which display should be used for the fullscreen mode.
  
• Added support for loading map-specific files with sky clusters, which should be useful for custom maps.
  
• Added display of the selected inventory item name in the status bar.

Photo Mode Instructions:
When a single player game or demo playback is paused with the pause key, the photo mode activates. In this mode, denoisers and some other real-time rendering approximations are disabled, and the image is produced using accumulation rendering instead. This means that the engine renders the same frame hundreds or thousands of times, with different noise patterns, and averages the results. Once the image is stable enough, you can save a screenshot.

Depth of Field (DoF) - simulates camera aperture and defocus blur, or bokeh. To control DoF in the game, use the mouse wheel and Shift/Ctrl modifier keys: wheel alone adjusts the focal distance, Shift+Wheel adjusts the aperture size, and Ctrl makes the adjustments finer.

Free Camera Controls - once the game is paused, you can move the camera and detach it from the character. To move the camera, use the regular W/A/S/D keys, plus Q/E to move up and down. Shift makes movement faster, and Ctrl makes it slower. To change orientation of the camera, move the mouse while holding the left mouse button. To zoom, move the mouse up or down while holding the right mouse button. To adjust camera roll, move the mouse left or right while holding both mouse buttons.

Settings for all these features can be found in the game menu. To adjust the settings from the console, see the pt_accumulation_rendering, pt_dof, pt_aperture, pt_freecam and some other similar console variables in the Client Manual[github.com].

Fixed Issues:
Fixed a crash that happened at map load time when a custom map has no analytic lights.
Reduced the noise in the biggun map next to the barred windows.
Reduced the noise from yellow lamps next to the entrance of the jail4 map at night.

Misc Improvements:
Improved the menu settings to show units for various sliders, such as degrees or percentage.
Made the volume controls logarithmic instead of linear.


Enjoy! Let us know if you have any questions.

Today we're releasing a minor update for Quake II RTX, v1.2.1. This update focuses mostly on fixing the issues reported by the community since the launch of v1.2.0 two days ago.

Fixed Issues:

• Fixed the bug with broken OpenAL sound on certain maps: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/47
  
• Fixed the material on the pipe at the end of the `strike` map.
  
• Fixed a typo in the `pt_enable_sprites` cvar name.
  
• Fixed the handling of swap chain image layouts to avoid the black screen bug on a future driver version [200570279]
  
• Restored the "projection" setting in the Video menu.

In June, we released our ray-traced remaster of the beloved 1997 first-person shooter. Now, we’re launching a major v1.2 update [www.nvidia.com]that further improves graphical fidelity, and introduces new configuration options so you can tailor the experience to your liking.

Most noticeably, we’ve updated over 400 textures to improve image quality, and have improved the rendering of metals, which together significantly enhance the look of many levels and areas.

Water has improved, too, with the rendering of underwater god rays, and the display of god rays in reflections and refractions, which can improve the realism and illumination of surrounding detail.

Real-time ray-traced graphics can now be shown on security monitors and other displays, improving scene detail and immersion:

Recursive reflections (reflections reflected on other reflections) can now be rendered on select surfaces, creating a hall of mirrors effect:

The rendering of glass has been improved, along with the rendering of reflections, refractions and god rays through the glass. And we’ve introduced a new optional setting that further improves the quality of glass rendering:

Note: Thick Glass image captured in paused screenshot (reference) mode, to fully demonstrate the new option’s capabilities

Additionally, we’ve also made numerous changes and improvements to denoising and other rendering features, improving image quality in all levels, and greatly improving quality in certain scenes:

Tinted glass now affects light passing through it, and together with the aforementioned improvements, this scene’s fidelity is greatly improved

And finally, we’ve introduced several new graphics options and toggles:

• Resolution Scaling Options: previously, you could decrease the internal rendering resolution to improve performance, or crank up the resolution to increase image quality. Now, there are options to enable dynamic resolution scaling - when dynamic scale is activated, the game will try to keep the target frame rate by adjusting the scale between minimum and maximum. By default, the option will try to keep your gameplay at 60 FPS by scaling between 50% and 100% resolution scaling. If the game is faster than 60 FPS at 100%, it will not increase the scale further, so if you see you have a ton of extra performance, increase “Maximum Scale”
  
• Reflection and Refraction Depth: configure the number of allowed reflection or refraction bounces, which most prominently affects the recursive reflections demonstrated earlier
  
• Temporal Anti-Aliasing Toggle: enable or disable our post-process anti-aliasing
  
• Security Cameras: enable security camera monitors to display real-time gameplay, as shown above
  
• Thick Glass Refraction: experimental option that renders more physically accurate representations of thick glass, with internal reflection and refraction

If you have Quake II RTX on Steam, the v1.2 update will be automatically installed. If you have a standalone Windows copy, download the update here[international.download.nvidia.com], and for Linux head here[international.download.nvidia.com]. And if you’re interested in modding Quake II RTX, check out our new modding guide. If you don’t own a copy of the game, you can still try the first three levels for free. To get access to everything, buy a copy from Steam, GOG or Bethesda.net.

To read the extensive list of changes in v1.2, click here.

© 1997 id Software LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. QUAKE, id, id Software, id Tech and related logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of id Software LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Bethesda, Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax and related logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved.
This product is based on or incorporates materials from the sources listed below (third party IP). Such licenses and notices are provided for informational purposes only.
Quake II: Copyright (C) 1997-2001 Id Software, Inc. Licensed under the terms of the GPLv2.
Q2VKPT: Copyright © 2018 Christoph Schied. Licensed under the terms of the GPLv2.
Quake2MaX "A Modscape Production": Textures from Quake2Max used in Quake2XP. Copyright © 2019 D Scott Boyce @scobotech. All Rights Reserved. Subject to Creative Commons license version 1.0. Roughness and specular channels were adjusted in texture maps to work with the Quake II RTX engine.
Q2XP Mod Pack: Used with permission from Arthur Galaktionov.
Q2Pro: Copyright © 2003-2011 Andrey Nazarov. Licensed under the terms of the GPLv2.

Hey, everyone! Today we're releasing v1.2.0, coming with fixes and improvements. Read our full article here.[www.nvidia.com]

New Features:

• Added support for dynamic resolution scaling that adjusts rendering resolution to meet an FPS target.
  
• Added support for multiple reflection or refraction bounces.
  
• Added light coloring by tinted glass.
  
• Added support for security camera views on some monitors in the game.
  
• Added god rays in reflections and refractions, improved god rays filtering.
  
• Added a spatial denoiser for the specular channel.
  
• Added support for loading custom sky (portal) light meshes from .obj files, and added portal light definitions for many maps in the base game.
  
• Added triangular lights for laser beams: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/43
  
• Added “shader balls” to the shipping builds.
  
• Added cvar `pt_accumulation_rendering_framenum` to control how many frames to accumulate in the reference mode.
  
• Added cvar `pt_show_sky` to make analyzing skybox geometry easier.

Fixed Issues:

• Fixed the stutter caused by Steam overlay by updating to the latest version of SDL2.
  
• Fixed Stroggos atmospheric scattering (sky color) and overall sky brightness.
  
• Fixed light scattering on the clouds.
  
• Fixed the issue with overexposed player setup screen: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/18
  
• Fixed the sudden darkening of the screen: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/26
  
• Fixed the "PF_centerprintf to a non-client" warnings that happened on the "command" map when the computers are blown up, instead of informative on-screen messages.
  
• Fixed missing GI on reflections of the first person model.

Denoising and image stability improvements:

• Improved image quality and temporal stability of reflections and refractions by computing correct motion vectors for reflected surfaces and surfaces visible through flat glass.
  
• Disabled the pixel jitter when temporal AA is turned off.
  
• Added sample jitter to the spatial denoiser to improve the noise patterns that appear after light invalidation.
  
• Improved image stability around blinking lights by using the light intensities from the previous frame on gradient pixels.
  
• Improved stability of indirect lighting from sphere lights by limiting their contribution.
  
• Added storage scaling for all lighting channels to avoid color quantization.
  
• Fixed flickering that happened when the number of dynamic lights changes.
  
• Improved sharpness of textured glass and similar transmissive effects by passing them around the denoiser.
  
• Added multiple importance sampling of specular reflections of direct lights.
  
• Replaced sphere lights that were used for wall lamps (mostly in the “train” map) with polygon lights to reduce noise.
  
• Added an upper limit on sky luminance to avoid oversampling the sky in shadowed areas and thus reduce noise from direct lights.
  
• Added light sampling correction based on statistical per-cluster light visibility. The idea is, if we see that a light is usually not visible, let's not sample it so much.

Material improvements:

• Metals are now rendered much better thanks to the denoiser and BRDF improvements.
  
• Over 400 textures have been adjusted or repainted.
  
• Removed the nonlinear transform from emissive textures, and reduced the negative bias applied to them.
  
• Force light materials to be opaque to make the laser lights in mine maps appear in reflections.
  
• Restore specular on materials with roughness = 1, but make specular on rough dielectrics much dimmer.

Shading and BRDF improvements:

• Fixed scaling of diffuse and specular reflections: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/37
  
• Fixed relative brightness and spotlight terms for different light types.
  
• Hemisphere sampling for indirect diffuse tuned to make the results better match the cosine-weighted sampling in reference mode.
  
• Trace more specular rays for shiny metals that do not need indirect diffuse lighting.
  
• Fixed the misdirection of second bounce lighting into the diffuse channel when the light path starts as specular on the primary surface: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/25
  
• Replaced regular NDF sampling for specular bounce rays with visible NDF sampling: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/40
  
• Tuned fake specular to be closer to reference specular.
  
• Added normalization of normal map vectors on load to avoid false roughness adjustments by the Toksvig factor.
  
• Improved roughness correction to not happen on texture magnification, and to better handle cases like zero roughness.
  
• Fixed the computation of N.V to avoid potential NaNs: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Q2RTX/issues/23

Misc Improvements:

• Removed the multiplayer specific sun position setting, and changed the remaining setting to be morning by default.
  
• Changed the default value of texture LOD bias to 0 for extra sharpness.
  
• Use nearest filter for upscaling from 50% resolution scale (a.k.a integer scaling).
  
• Made the brightness of sprites, beams, particles, smoke, and effects like quad damage be similar to overall scene brightness, to avoid having them washed out under direct sunlight.
  
• Made the explosions and other sprites appear in low-roughness specular reflections.
  
• Changed the flare lights to be derived from the flare model entity instead of the effect event, which makes the lights follow the flares smoothly in flight, and reduces flicker that was due to frequent light creation and destruction.
  
• Removed insane and dead soldiers with `nomonsters 1`.
  
• Random number generator now produces enough different sequences to cover thousands of frames for reference mode accumulation.
  
• The `pt_direct_polygon_lights` cvar has a new meaning when set to -1: all polygon lights are sampled through the indirect lighting shader, for comparison purposes.
  
• Moved the first person player model a bit backwards to avoid having it block reflections.

Enjoy! Let us know if you have any questions.

Today we're releasing v1.1.0, coming with fixes and improvements.

New Features:

• Added music playback support - see the Readme[github.com] for instructions.

Fixed Issues:

• Fixed the crash with message "recursive error: bad tail" that sometimes happened at the end of the biggun map.
  
• Fixed the issue with players spawning at the wrong level entrance after loading an autosave.
  
• Fixed the Linux install script to work with spaces in paths.
  
• Fixed the interpretation of pt_fake_roughness_threshold.
  
• Fixed the bright noise that appeared at the end of the hangar2 map after closing the hangar doors.
  
• Fixed the image blurring on FOV changes.
  
• Added limits for sky brightness to avoid denoiser artifacts when the sky is too bright.

Other Improvements:

• Re-arranged some menu options to make the menu less confusing.
  
• Added the player models from the Quake II shareware demo to the package.
  
• Added a menu option to invert mouse controls.
  
• Enabled cl_adjustfov by default because that works better for wide screens.
  
• Tweaked the tone mapper to make really dark places brighter.

For more info on Quake II RTX, you can check out our Feedback Thread, as well as our official GitHub page[github.com].