Quake RTX will be Free for Windows and Linux Users in June [1]

NVIDIA is releasing a fully mastered version of Quake II RTX for Linux and Windows users on June 6, 2019

NVIDIA has announced [3] that Linux and Windows users will be able to download the remastered version of Quake II RTX next week. The first three levels are free for anyone to play. If you own a copy of Quake II, you can play the game in its entirety, and play against others online. If you don't own a copy of Quake II, you can pick one up on Steam for less than five dollars and be able to play the entire game free when it's released, though it's not clear how long that pricing will last.

You'll need some decent computer hardware to run Quake RTX, NVIDIA recommends [3] these minimum specs:

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit or Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i3-3220, or AMD equivalent
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, or higher
• Storage: 2GB available space

If your system is up to spec, you can expect to see these improvements, enhancements, and new features:

• Improved Global Illumination rendering, with three selectable quality presets, including two-bounce GI
• Multiplayer support
• Time of day options that radically change the appearance of some levels
• New weapon models & textures
• New dynamic environments (Stroggos surface, and space)
• Better physically based atmospheric scattering, including settings for Stroggos sky
• Real-time reflectivity of the player and weapon model on water and glass surfaces, and player model shadows, for owners of the complete game (the original Shareware release does not include player models)
• Improved ray tracing denoising technology
• All 3,000+ original game textures have been updated with a mix of Q2XP mod-pack textures and our own enhancements
• Updated effects with new sprites and particle animations
• Dynamic lighting for items such as blinking lights, signs, switches, elevators and moving objects
• Caustics approximation to improve water lighting effects
• High-quality screenshot mode that makes your screenshots look even better
• Support for the old OpenGL renderer, enabling you to switch between RTX ON and RTX OFF
• Cylindrical projection mode for wide-angle field of view on widescreen displays

Download Quake II RTX directly from NVIDIA [4] on June 6th, 2019 (the link to buy Quake II on Steam is there too).
For those who are interested, the source code will be on GitHub.

(h/t The Verge [5])

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