$50,000 RTX Remix Mod Contest Begins, Portal with RTX Adds DLSS 4 With Multi Frame Generation

Many classic PC games remain beloved for their unforgettable stories, characters, and gameplay. But as technology advances, their visuals struggle to keep up, making it harder for the original gamers who played them or new generations to appreciate their magic.

NVIDIA RTX Remix, a modding platform for RTX AI PCs, was built to change that. By reimagining the graphics of these timeless classics with cutting-edge ray tracing, we’re bridging the past and the future, allowing longtime fans to relive their favorite adventures in stunning detail, while introducing a new wave of players to the games that defined an era.

Since its initial release, the RTX Remix modding community has grown with over 350 active projects, and over 100 RTX Remix mods released. They span a catalog of beloved games like Half-Life 2, Need for Speed Underground, Portal and Deus Ex, with over 2 million gamers having downloaded them.

As a modder plays through a classic game with RTX Remix, textures, models, lighting, effects, and more can all be captured, and reassembled into an editable scene. Through an intuitive interface, the RTX Remix application lets modders drag and drop lights, move objects, copy-paste existing objects into a scene to increase clutter and grass coverage, convert lights to be fully ray-traced, AI enhance textures, and add DLSS 4 to improve image quality and accelerate performance.

And because RTX Remix runs on the highly flexible OpenUSD file format, mod artists can use practically any digital content creation tool of their choosing, whether it be Blender, Adobe Substance 3D Painter, or Autodesk Maya to modify or rebuild original game assets.

Now, we’re inviting modders to update their existing RTX Remix mods with the latest features, and create entirely new mods for a chance to win massive cash prizes in the ModDB NVIDIA RTX Remix Mod Contest.

Enter The NVIDIA RTX Remix Mod Contest For A Chance To Win $50,000 Cash Prizes

In partnership with ModDB, we’re kicking-off the NVIDIA RTX Remix Mod Contest, with one of the largest modding prize pools in history!

The developer of the Best Overall Remix Mod will take home a $20,000 cash prize. And winners of 3 other categories including Best Use of RTX and Most Complete Playable Experience will each win a $10,000 cash prize.

We’re also inviting the community to jump in! Starting on July 18 on ModDB, you can vote for your favorite participating Remix mod as part of our “Player Choice” category. The winner gets $10,000 in cash!

And all winners will also receive 6 months of GeForce NOW Ultimate, subject to regional availability.

RTX Remix mods can be developed individually or in teams, and can focus on a specific level, area, or sequence.

To get started, pick a compatible RTX Remix game from ModDB’s compatibility tracker, and be sure to fully read the rules and requirements for the NVIDIA RTX Remix Mod Contest.

After the mod submission deadline ends on July 18th, ModDB’s team will judge each mod, with winners to be announced during Gamescom 2025 in August.

Best Overall RTX Remix Mod - $20,000 Cash Prize

The mod that demonstrates the best overall effort using RTX Remix, featuring fantastic textures, RTX lighting, and volumetrics, while also providing an excellent playable experience.

Most well-rounded, can be a slice of or a full demo
Best use of RTX (Lighting/Volumetrics/Skin)
Best Remastered Assets

Best Use Of RTX In a Mod - $10,000 Cash Prize

The mod that best utilizes RTX Remix to realistically affect scenes. Show off atmospheric fog, smoke, dynamic lighting, shadows, particles, RTX Skin, etc to create an incredible visual experience.

Best utilizes lighting to realistically affect scenes
Game edits that take advantage of path tracing are encouraged, such as adjusting geometry for improved interactions with lighting
Use of RTX Skin, and inclusion of PBR materials that take advantage of the environment are encouraged

Most Complete RTX Mod - $10,000 Cash Prize

The most fully playable remaster, with multiple levels or the entire game modded, showcasing the power of RTX Remix.

A completed or nearly completed stable and playable RTX mod
Reflects high quality throughout
May contain vertical slices of exceptional quality

Community Choice RTX Mod - $10,000 Cash Prize

Your vote, your choice–at the end of the mod submission period the community will vote on their favorite mods from all of the entries!

Voting will take place once the entry period has ended
Voting will take place solely on ModDB
Vote for as many of your favorite mods

Before you begin your modding journey, please review the ModDB NVIDIA RTX Remix Mod Contest terms and conditions. Non-compliant mods will be disqualified.

Portal with RTX DLSS 4 With Multi Frame Generation & RTX Neural Radiance Cache Upgrade Out Now

Another fantastic example of what’s possible with NVIDIA RTX Remix is our own release, Portal with RTX. This reimagining of Valve’s timeless classic uses full ray tracing to accurately model the real-world properties of light, and how that light affects every surface and object. Illumination, shadows, reflections, refraction, and everything in between are all a result of the fully ray-traced world and their interactions with upgraded assets, adding dazzling detail and dynamism to levels and effects.

In a new update that’s available now on Steam, we’ve upgraded Portal with RTX’s neural renderer to deliver even better performance and image quality. And Portal with RTX now features a native integration of DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, while DLSS Frame Generation is upgraded to the latest AI model, and DLSS Ray Reconstruction is upgraded to the new transformer AI model.

Additionally, the Portal with RTX update introduces RTX Neural Radiance Cache (NRC) technology, the world’s first neural shader that leverages AI to estimate accurate indirect lighting. Available on all GeForce RTX GPUs, NRC traces a limited number of indirect light rays in a scene and uses neural networks to infer a multitude of rays and bounces. While you play, the AI behind NRC trains on your live game session, tailoring itself to your specific content, ensuring the indirect lighting for Portal with RTX is optimized for the chamber you are currently portaling through.

Activating our complete suite of DLSS 4 technologies, and our new RTX Neural Radiance Cache technology, allows performance in Portal with RTX to soar. When enabled, GeForce RTX 50 Series 4K performance is on average 11.4X faster, allowing GeForce RTX 5090 owners to play at up to 270 frames per second, and other GPUs to exceed 140 frames per second.

At 2560x1440, GeForce RTX 50 Series gamers can accelerate performance by 8X on average using DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, and NRC. The GeForce RTX 5090 surpasses 370 frames per second, the GeForce RTX 5080 clocks in at over 240 FPS, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at over 210 FPS, and the GeForce RTX 5070 at over 160 FPS.

And at 1920x1080, performance increases by 6.4X on average using DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, and NRC. All GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs exceed 130 FPS, with performance scaling rapidly in line with the capabilities of each card, ultimately seeing the GeForce RTX 5090 blazing past 450 frames per second:

Laptop gamers can also enjoy Portal with RTX at its highest detail levels thanks to DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, which multiplies frame rates by an average of 6.2X at 1920x1080, enabling mobile gameplay at up to 250 FPS:

At 2560x1600, an 8.5X average performance multiplier enables our fastest GeForce RTX 50 Series Laptop GPUs to deliver an excellent on-the-go experience:

Using DLSS 4 and NRC, lighting and materials in Portal with RTX are further enhanced, with more lighting information, and incredibly small and precise details preserved, while simultaneously increasing performance.

DLSS 3.5 without NRC vs. DLSS 4 with NRC (DLSS Ray Reconstruction enabled in both) - click here to view the comparison in 4K

Objects in motion look crisper, with improved image stability using DLSS 4 and NRC:

The upgraded neural renderer is able to resolve noise better, and maintain details while in motion:

And full ray-tracing is even better with NRC and DLSS 4, as lighting is more responsive than ever. Take a look at the clip below, where a lit sign is changing colors from yellow to blue; with our old neural rendering, the reflections could not keep pace with the changes in color. By comparison, DLSS 4 and NRC are able to show near-instantaneous accurate reflections.

Portal with RTX’s DLSS 4 and NRC upgrade is available to download now on Steam. Boost performance with NRC, increase image quality with DLSS 4’s new AI models, and add a massive performance multiplier on GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards thanks to DLSS 4.

Make Your Own Mods With NVIDIA RTX Remix!

To make your own RTX mods, download NVIDIA RTX Remix from the Home screen of NVIDIA app. And grab the Half-Life 2 RTX demo or Portal with RTX from Steam for an example of what’s possible with the latest RTX Remix upgrades.

NVIDIA RTX Remix, a NVIDIA Studio tool, requires a GeForce RTX GPU to create RTX Remix Mods, while mods and games built using Remix are compatible with any hardware that can run Vulkan ray-traced games. To find RTX Remix mods to download and play, we recommend ModDB and the RTX Remix Showcase Discord server.

And for news about future RTX Remix enhancements, new RTX games, RTX technologies, drivers, NVIDIA software, and more, return to GeForce.com regularly.