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Can You Play the Original Half-Life 1 With Ray Tracing? – Answered

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Ray tracing works wonders not just for modern games but for old classics as well, whether retroactively added to an old game by patch or by the effort of the modding community (and let’s face it, the PC modding community is pretty big and fast, but most of all, highly enthusiastic).

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Prima Games will reveal whether or not the original Half-Life can be played with ray tracing below.

How to Play the Original Half-Life 1 With Ray Tracing

This time around, ray tracing has been added by community members. Check out the trailer below:

Official Trailer for Half-Life 1: Ray Traced mod

Related: How to Get Ray Tracing for Minecraft

Credits for this mod development go to sultim_t, AKA Sultim Tsyrendashiev. We emphasize that this is in no way an official Half-Life mod made by Nvidia and/or Valve. Sultim_t is already known for creating ray-tracing mods for Quake 1 and Doom Classic, among other titles.

Where to Download Half-Life 1 Ray Tracing Mod?

You can pay a visit to Sultim_t’s official GitHub Releases Page, where you will see download links for two .zip directories at the bottom under “Assets.”

Related: Is There Ray-Tracing in Dead Space Remake? – Answered

How to Install Half-Life 1 Ray Tracing Mod?

Installation instructions are fairly simple:

  • Install a clean version of Half-Life 1 from Steam
  • Right-click on Half-Life, go to Manage -> Browse Local Files
  • Within this folder, unzip the two .zip directories downloaded from GitHub
  • Run the rt_bin/xash3d.exe
  • By pressing the “X” on your keyboard, you can change your renderers “on the fly,” per the statement of the mod’s developer.

Related: Steam Sale 2023 Schedule: All Upcoming Steam Sales and Fests Listed

Disclaimer: You are modding your game files at your own risk. Always make backups of files that you’re overwriting and be ready for a complete reinstallation of the game if things go south. In addition to that, always refer to the official GitHub page instructions in case the mod gets updated in the future.


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Author
Image of Nikola L
Nikola L
Nikola has been a Staff Writer at Prima Games since May 2022. He has been gaming since being able to hold an Amiga 500 joystick on his own, back in the early 90s (when gaming was really good!). Nikola has helped organize dozens of gaming events and tournaments and has been professionally attached to gaming since 2009.