Here’s a quick peek at Return to Castle Wolfenstein with path tracing

Time to return to Return to Castle Wolfenstein

It’s not uncommon for older games to be given a modern facelift. Case in point: the original Half-Life recently got a ray tracing mod, and the new lighting makes the aged FPS look pretty spiffing. Now it’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein‘s time to shine, thanks to an upcoming modification for the 22-year-old title.

As spotted by DSO Gaming, graphics engineer and Twitter user Dihara Wijetunga is currently working on a project that will see the lighting for the 2001 Wolfenstein entry be given a boost. In a recent tweet, the modder uploaded a brief clip from the game showing the path tracing technology that’s being implemented.

A short clip of Wolf PT in action. The emissives have to be tweaked but it's coming together pretty well. pic.twitter.com/pEA47ypNw6

— Dihara Wijetunga (@diharaw94) July 9, 2023

Those familiar with the original game will see the difference, with bolder light and sharper shadows really giving the titular castle a gloomy look. For those who don’t quite see it, Wijetunga’s clip handily gives a side-by-side comparison, so you can see how RtCW used to look, and how it will look once the mod releases.

When is Return to Castle Wolfenstein with path tracing coming out?

There doesn’t appear to be a release date for it yet, but it’s worth keeping an eye on Wijetunga’s GitHub portfolio. If nothing else, you can check out their other work while you wait for the mod.

According to the report from DSO Gaming, path tracing for Return to Castle Wolfenstein will not be using Nvidia’s new RTX Remix software. Instead, the upcoming modification will be native to the game.

So far, what Wijetunga has done is pretty impressive. It kind of gives you a good sense of just how far video game technology has advanced over the years. It may be more than 20 years old at this point, but RtCW is something of a classic, so it’ll be nice to replay it with some visual oomph.