“NFS Underground 2 Gets a Graphics Overhaul with NVIDIA RTX Remix Modding Tools”

Need for Speed: Underground 2…A combination of words that has a magical meaning for someone. It seems unbelievable but it’s been 20 years since some of us drove around the city of Bayview and soaked up the atmosphere of its neon lights at night. Today, this part is considered one of the best in the series, alongside the successful Underground or Most Wanted from 2005.

The second part of the arcade races was handled by the EA Black Box studio, which was later renamed Quicklime Games (in 2012). Unfortunately, the studio went out of business in 2013. Their last venture was an attempt at a racing MMO, Need for Speed: World. However, it flopped in reviews, the studio disbanded and the members defected to other teams.

However, memories of the legendary Underground 2 remain, and a fan with the nickname UncleBurrito took advantage of NVIDIA RTX Remix modding tools, which focus on adding modern graphic effects such as Ray Tracing in the form of reflections or lighting, DLSS 2/3 support, etc.

Thanks to this, our the popular racing game received modern graphic effects and improvements. And even players who wouldn’t mind worse-looking games can try gaming gems from earlier years in an improved jacket with these very popular effects.

These tools are still in early access and only version 0.2 is available for now. This is therefore a very early stage of development, which can only be used by some and is still not freely accessible. This is evidenced by the fact that selected users can edit games that only support DirectX 8 or 9. They still have to wait for support for the newer DirectX 10.

In addition to NFS Underground 2, other classics such as Half Life 2, Portal, Max Payne or Grand Theft Auto San Andreas also plan to use these tools. However, as with all games using these effects, we have to expect higher hardware requirements. You can find a comparison video below so you can decide for yourself if it’s worth the sacrifice in performance.