Editor’s notice: This put up is a part of our weekly Within the NVIDIA Studio collection, which celebrates featured artists, presents artistic ideas and tips, and demonstrates how NVIDIA Studio know-how 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 know-how 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 as we speak 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. Be taught in regards to 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 working native AI basis fashions.

All of that is backed by the July NVIDIA Studio Driver, which helps these newest updates and extra, out there for obtain as we speak.

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 known 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 recreation’s plot.

With further chapters, take a look at 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. Try the unique recreation trailer beneath.

“Modders should put on many hats — they’re concurrently degree designers, 2D artists, scripters, writers, internet 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 property into new, high-resolution property 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 whole scene ranges with RTX Remix.

Subsequent, they used a element of RTX Remix known as RTX Remix Runtime to seize recreation scenes and substitute property throughout playback whereas including RTX know-how to the sport, together with NVIDIA Reflex for low-latency responsiveness.

“We performed with AI upscaling quite a bit,” mentioned Grevet. “It was tremendously useful in chopping down on early work and enabled sharper give attention to the hero property that required extra hands-on remedy, like characters and non-playable character fashions, in addition to giant, predominant textures.”

These higher-resolution property within the OpenUSD format had been uploaded to NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for connecting and constructing 3D instruments and purposes, by the Blender Connector. This allowed the staff to make use of their 3D app of alternative for modeling new geometry and beveling out edges, all in actual time, with full ray-traced constancy for ultra-photorealistic lighting and shadows. Blender Cycles’ RTX-accelerated OptiX ray tracing enabled easy motion within the viewport.

“Some property had been virtually modeled from scratch, whereas others — like pipes — principally simply had their edges beveled out in order that they had been increased poly and smoother,” mentioned Driver-Gomm. “Both method, it was exponentially sooner in Omniverse.” All refined property work from captured meshes reasonably than by making use of new meshes for particular person property, saving an unbelievable period of time.

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

Grevet and Driver-Gomm then moved to Adobe Substance 3D Painter and Sampler to create high-quality bodily primarily based render fashions. This implies photographs had 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 property in seconds.

With all property 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 real looking, path-traced lighting.

The ultimate results of Portal: Prelude RTX is “light-years forward of what I might do by myself,” mentioned Grevet. “Having the chance to remaster these ranges in the best way 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 recreation, load it in a 3D instrument and chip away at it as if this was being executed utilizing the unique recreation’s degree editor is insane.”

Decide up Portal: Prelude RTX at no cost for Portal house owners on Steam.

Try Grevet and Driver-Gomm on Twitter.

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