Editor’s notice: This submit is a part of our weekly Within the NVIDIA Studio sequence, which celebrates featured artists, presents artistic suggestions and tips, and demonstrates how NVIDIA Studio expertise improves artistic workflows. We’re additionally deep diving on new GeForce RTX 40 Collection GPU options, applied sciences and sources, and the way they dramatically speed up content material creation.

The Portal: Prelude RTX gaming mod — a remastering of the favored unofficial Portal prequel — comes with full ray tracing, DLSS 3 and RTX IO expertise for cutting-edge, AI-powered graphics that rejuvenate the legendary mod for avid gamers, creators, builders and others to expertise it anew.

Nicolas “NykO18” Grevet, a software program engineer behind Portal: Prelude, collaborated with modder David Driver-Gomm to create the mission — which launched at the moment as a free obtain on Steam — utilizing NVIDIA RTX Remix. The free modding platform allows customers to shortly create and share RTX mods for traditional video games. Study concerning the duo’s workflow this week Within the NVIDIA Studio.

Plus, this month, graphics card companions will start to supply the 16GB model of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPU, that includes the state-of-the-art NVIDIA Ada Lovelace structure that supercharges artistic apps and productiveness whereas delivering immersive, AI-accelerated gaming with ray tracing and DLSS 3. The GPUs are well-suited for working in bigger 3D scenes, enhancing movies in as much as 12K decision and operating native AI basis fashions.

All of that is backed by the July NVIDIA Studio Driver, which helps these newest updates and extra, accessible for obtain at the moment.

As well as, the NVIDIA Studio #StartToFinish neighborhood problem is in full swing. Use the hashtag to submit a screenshot of a favourite mission that includes its starting and ending levels for an opportunity to be featured on the @NVIDIAStudio and @NVIDIAOmniverse social channels.

A Portal Into Creativity

Portal: Prelude’s storyline revolves round what’s referred to as the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Working System, or GlaDOS, an AI created by Aperture Science, the fictional scientific analysis company key to the unique sport’s plot.

With additional chapters, check chambers, challenges and an prolonged storyline, the most well-liked Portal mod of all time was acknowledged by Mod DB with a “Mod of the Yr” award. Take a look at the unique sport trailer under.

“Modders must put on many hats — they’re concurrently degree designers, 2D artists, scripters, writers, net builders, quality-assurance analysts and a lot extra,” mentioned Grevet. “This calls for resilience and flexibility.”

Grevet and Driver-Gomm reworked Portal: Prelude’s older, lower-resolution belongings into new, high-resolution belongings utilizing RTX Remix. Each creators used a GeForce RTX 40 Collection GPU, which enabled full ray tracing and DLSS 3.

The duo first gathered 360-degree screenshots of total scene ranges with RTX Remix.

Subsequent, they used a part of RTX Remix referred to as RTX Remix Runtime to seize sport scenes and substitute belongings throughout playback whereas including RTX expertise to the sport, together with NVIDIA Reflex for low-latency responsiveness.

“We performed with AI upscaling loads,” mentioned Grevet. “It was tremendously useful in reducing down on early work and enabled sharper deal with the hero belongings that required extra hands-on therapy, like characters and non-playable character fashions, in addition to massive, predominant textures.”

These higher-resolution belongings within the OpenUSD format have been uploaded to NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for connecting and constructing 3D instruments and functions, by the Blender Connector. This allowed the staff to make use of their 3D app of selection for modeling new geometry and beveling out edges, all in actual time, with full ray-traced constancy for ultra-photorealistic lighting and shadows.

“Some belongings have been virtually modeled from scratch, whereas others — like pipes — principally simply had their edges beveled out so that they have been larger poly and smoother,” mentioned Driver-Gomm.

The staff then UV unwrapped the belongings, which is the method of opening a mesh to make a 2D texture that may blanket a 3D object for the exact utility of textures and supplies.

Grevet and Driver-Gomm then moved to Adobe Substance 3D Painter and Sampler to create high-quality bodily based mostly render fashions. This implies photographs have been rendered modeling lights and surfaces with real-world optics. GPU-accelerated filters sped up and simplified materials creation, whereas RTX-accelerated mild and ambient occlusion baked belongings in seconds.

With all belongings in place, the staff used RTX Remix to swap older ones with these newer, higher-fidelity fashions. However the creators weren’t able to relaxation on their laurels simply but — RTX Remix allowed them to relight each single degree with lifelike, path-traced lighting.

The ultimate results of Portal: Prelude RTX is “light-years forward of what I may do alone,” mentioned Grevet. “Having the chance to remaster these ranges in the way in which I’d meant for them to look and behave was a pleasant cherry on prime.”

“The RTX Remix instrument is insanely highly effective and virtually comes throughout as magic to me,” mentioned Grevet. “The flexibility to seize any a part of a sport, load it in a 3D instrument and chip away at it as if this was being accomplished utilizing the unique sport’s degree editor is insane.”

Decide up Portal: Prelude RTX free of charge for Portal homeowners on Steam.

Take a look at Grevet and Driver-Gomm on Twitter.

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