How to Get a Free Reissue of Beautiful Quake II RTX
The classic first-person shooter Quake II is re-released with stunning graphical updates. Better yet, you’ll be able to download it completely free of charge starting June 6, although you’ll need a reliable Nvidia GPU on your PC or laptop to play it.
The new version of the game, dubbed Quake II RTX , was jointly developed by Nvidia and Bethesda (which owns the original Quake II development studio, id Software) to showcase the powerful capabilities of Nvidia’s RTX series graphics cards.
Quake II RTX features new textures, models and animations; support for high-resolution displays; and ray tracing is something that is only possible on top-of-the-line GPUs currently available. Ray tracing is essentially mathematically accurate spatial lighting in real time. As a result, Quake II RTX players will be able to tweak in-game settings such as the time of day and ambient lighting to influence the lighting changes in real time – while they run around trying to scold each other, of course.
To take full advantage of ray tracing in any game, you’ll need a powerful PC, and Quake II RTX requires at least an Nvidia RTX 2060 to run. You can get the RTX 2060 for around $ 350 , although the most powerful RTX lineup, the RTX 2080 Ti, will be cost you between $ 850 and $ 1200 .
Other minimum system requirements include:
- 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
- Intel Core i3-3220 processor or AMD equivalent
- 8 GB of RAM
- 2 GB of free hard disk space
Despite the high GPU requirements, Quake II RTX will be free to download and play. The free version includes the first three levels of the original 1997 Quake II , although those who own Quake II on Steam ( currently available for $ 5 ) can play the entire single player campaign and all multiplayer modes with enhanced ray tracing.
You’ll find Quake II RTX on Nvidia’s website and Valve’s Steam service starting June 6th.