Grand Theft Auto 4 RTX Remix revives the 2008 classic with modern path traced lighting

Grand Theft Auto RTX Remix is a new mod project currently in development that is remastering Rockstar's classic for PC with modern path-traced lighting.

Grand Theft Auto 4 RTX Remix revives the 2008 classic with modern path traced lighting
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TL;DR: NVIDIA's RTX Remix enables modders to remaster classic PC games with advanced path-traced lighting and DLSS. A new GTA 4 RTX Remix mod enhances Rockstar's 2008 title using ray tracing, requiring powerful GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs for smooth 4K performance.

NVIDIA's RTX Remix toolset, which allows modders to remaster and even remake older PC titles with access to modern path-traced lighting and technologies like DLSS, has been used to great effect to breathe new life into classic games. And now we can add Grand Theft Auto IV or GTA 4 to the mix, with a new RTX Remix version of the game showcasing Rockstar's 2008 classic in a new light.

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Coming from experienced modder xoxor4d, this project is a little different than some of the others we've seen because it required some reverse engineering of the game's code and how it handled DirectX to be compatible with RTX Remix. Currently playable for xoxor4d's Patreon subscribers, the mod is on track for a full free release once completed.

For those wondering how it looks, even without updated assets like higher-resolution textures and new models, the path-traced lighting enhances GTA 4's distinct look. As expected, path tracing in the open-world GTA 4 requires powerful GeForce RTX 50 Series hardware to run, but part of this is due to the game itself.

This game is renowned for being poorly optimized for PC, with both CPU and GPU bottlenecks significantly impacting performance. As highlighted in Digital Foundry's breakdown of the Grand Theft Auto RTX Remix mod, this is a game that never really ran well on PC hardware - and that it's only now, via brute force, that the game can hit frame rates of over 100 FPS. Still, to achieve 60+ FPS on the GeForce RTX 5080 in 4K (as per MxBenchmarkPC's video below), you need to enable DLSS using the Performance preset, alongside Frame Generation.

We'll be closely following the progress of Grand Theft Auto RTX Remix, as this is a game that deserves a proper remaster with support for ray-traced lighting and updated assets.