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Quake II RTX released back in 2019, with NVIDIA using it to show off more ray tracing effects for their RTX GPUs but now they're done with it. It's still free on Steam and the project behind it is open source, but NVIDIA aren't doing any more with it now.

Noted on the GitHub page is a message that it has been discontinued, and the GitHub repository has been archived. They did one small final release version 1.8.1 with a few fixes but that's it now.

More about it: "Quake II RTX builds on the work of Christoph Schied and the team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, who added ray tracing to Quake II to create Q2VKPT (in turn building upon the Q2PRO code base). NVIDIA has introduced new path-traced visual effects, has improved texturing, and has made dozens of other changes and improvements, resulting in an experience that rivals games created today, and pushes your RTX hardware to the limit."

Quake II RTX | Release Date: 6th June 2019
Platform: Native Linux

Official links:

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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12 comments Subscribe

AsciiWolf 23 hours ago
Time to discontinue NVIDIA. ;-)
PixelJumper 23 hours ago
I guess they're too busy chasing AI now to care about gaming, not that they ever did.
Avehicle7887 22 hours ago
The beauty of open source is that discontinued doesn't mean dead. Anyone can pick up the torch and move forward.
FireBurn 22 hours ago
I'm just glad they got the wayland fixes in
hardpenguin 22 hours ago
User Avatar
Thanks, Satan
rea987 19 hours ago
Because, Abominable Intelligence makes shareholders wet.
Klaas 16 hours ago
Oh well. I've never used it – because I don't think the look fits the Quake 2 visuals, but it's a shame for those that like and use it.
GoEsr 14 hours ago
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This doesn't sound like a big deal to me, it came out 6-1/2 years ago. The fact that they were still applying any patches is frankly surprising. How many games that don't have roadmaps and live service FOMO keep getting fixes after that long?

Last edited by GoEsr on 15 Dec 2025 at 8:30 pm UTC
The_Real_Bitterman 14 hours ago
I don't see any issues here, unlike others in the comments it seems. Technically the game is complete and works well.

Last edited by The_Real_Bitterman on 15 Dec 2025 at 8:50 pm UTC
Oet_ 9 hours ago
Just installed Quake II RTX last week to compare ray tracing capabilities. The AMD 6000-series struggles, but the 9000-series has no problem whatsoever.
anokasion 2 hours ago
Therefore I ask, if even raytracing could have been a fad, why not AI too?
Eike 2 hours ago
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: anokasionTherefore I ask, if even raytracing could have been a fad, why not AI too?
Raytracing is making visuals more realistic and will stay. The GPUs need something to do, and they will not become weaker.

It's even more obvious for AI: It does useful things. It will stay. The question is how much of it, if people will trust LLMs (which they shouldn't) and how all this is paid for.
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