Game On: How Modders Reimagine Classic Games With NVIDIA RTX Remix and Generative AI

Last week at Gamescom, NVIDIA announced the winners of the NVIDIA and ModDB RTX Remix Mod Contest, a $50,000 competition celebrating community-made projects that reimagine classic games with modern fidelity.

The entries showed how far video game modding has come, with individual modders and small teams pulling off overhauls of similar quality to those created by entire studios.

At the heart of these projects was NVIDIA RTX Remix, a platform that lets creators capture assets from classic titles and rebuild them with modern lighting, geometry and materials. Paired with generative AI tools like PBRFusion and ComfyUI, modders can now upscale or generate thousands of textures and automate repetitive tasks so they can focus on their artistry.

Plus, with NVIDIA RTX GPUs accelerating these AI-driven workflows, ambitious remasters that once took years can now come together in months.

There are currently 237 RTX Remix projects in development, building on over 100 finished mods and 2 million downloads across fan favorites like Half-Life 2, Need for Speed: Underground, Portal and Deus Ex.

Transforming Classics With Generative AI

The RTX Remix Mod Contest crowned Merry Pencil Studios' Painkiller RTX Remix with several awards, but it wasn't the only mod worth celebrating.

Here's a closer look at the winning submission, along with other standout projects that showcase how RTX Remix and AI-powered tools are redefining what's possible with modding on PCs.

Painkiller' RTX Remix: Winner in Best Overall, Best Use of RTX and Most Complete Categories The mod team Merry Pencil Studios rebuilt more than 35 levels of the gothic shooter Painkiller using AI-assisted workflows and handcrafted artistry. The team batch-processed thousands of low-resolution textures and generated high-resolution physically based rendering (PBR) materials that automatically got imported into RTX Remix.

The team's AI model of choice was PBRFusion, a model trained by the RTX Remix community that can upscale textures by 4x and generate high-quality normal, roughness and height maps.

This workflow provided a consistent foundation for the game's complex environments, freeing up time for creative polish. From there, the team used tools like Blender and InstaMAT to craft assets like lanterns and other gothic details that define the game's atmosphere.

Generative AI has completely expanded what feels possible in modding. Beyond texture upscaling, we're now seeing it generate 3D models, refine complex multi-material surfaces and assist with coding tasks like building workflow tools, writing documentation and catching errors. - Merry Pencil Studios

RTX Remix transforms the gothic cathedral in Painkiller : RTX OFF (left) shows the original look, while RTX ON (right) fills the hall with stained glass reflections, volumetric beams and realistic shadows. PBRFusion and other AI tools made it possible for a small team to convert an entire game into PBR. It set the baseline look, while we focused our manual efforts on the assets players notice most. - Merry Pencil Studios

With RTX Remix, gothic churches now glow with volumetric light pouring through stained glass, marble statues scatter colored light and combat scenes erupt with particle effects that cast realistic shadows. NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs powered the workflow from start to finish, with real-time path tracing and NVIDIA DLSS technology ensuring smooth iteration while editing even on massive scenes.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 GPU was a dream for our workflow: speed, fluidity, everything felt seamless. DLSS Frame Generation doubled or even tripled frame rates, making the game look incredible on high-refresh displays. - Merry Pencil Studios

What makes the Painkiller RTX Remix notable is its scope, featuring over 35 remastered levels. This amount of work couldn't have been completed in such a short time without RTX Remix and the generative AI tools the team used.

By combining generative AI automation with careful craftsmanship, Merry Pencil Studios delivered a project that feels both ambitious and polished.

Unreal' RTX Remix: An Ambitious AI Texture Rebuild I wouldn't have been able to create PBR textures without AI. I could have maybe created emissive maps and height maps, but I wouldn't have been able to do the roughness or normal maps myself. - mstewart401

UnrealRTX demonstrates the scale of generative AI's impact in modding. Modder mstewart401 set out to rebuild nearly every texture across 14 levels of the 1998 classic - a task that would have taken years by hand.

With RTX Remix's built-in AI texture tools, plus experimental methods like generating animations from AI video tools and hand-editing light maps, whole environments were reimagined with new detail and atmosphere.

The results are striking: glowing crystals pulse with emissive light, alien landscapes shimmer with modern materials and the game's otherworldly maps feel richer and more alive. By leaning on AI for the bulk of the texture work, mstewart401 could focus on creative polishing - delivering an overhaul that feels ambitious even by professional standards.

RTX Remix transforms the alien environments in Unreal : RTX OFF (left) shows the original flat look, while RTX ON (right) adds detailed PBR materials, emissive lighting and realistic reflections. If someone like me can make a mod like this, anyone can. I only get an hour here and an hour there, but with generative AI and RTX, I've been able to push Unreal' further than I ever thought possible. - mstewart401

Need for Speed: Underground' RTX Remix: Blending AI and 3D Artistry In the Need for Speed: Underground RTX Remix, modder Alessandro893 used AI and 3D artistry to remaster every race course in the game with new textures, materials and lighting.

In racing games,

LINK:	https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/rtx-ai-garage-rtx-remix-mod-contest-gen-...
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