Quake 2 RTX-new-5

Quake 2 RTX Update 1.5 adds support for new Vulkan extension, improves performance


NVIDIA and id Software have released a new update for Quake 2 RTX. According to the teams, Patch 1.5 adds support for ray tracing using the `VK_KHR_ray_query` extension API. This new extension promises to improve performance and according to some early reports, it really does.

Moreover, Update 1.5 fixes a crash that occurred on some systems when the users have minimized the game. It also fixes the out-of-bounds addressing of the framebuffer array.

As always, Steam will download this latest patch the next time you launch its client. Below you can also find its complete changelog.

Quake 2 RTX Update 1.5 Release Notes
New Features:
  • Added support for ray tracing using the `VK_KHR_ray_query` extension API.
    NOTE: This is an optional feature, and the two previously supported methods, `VK_NV_ray_tracing` and `VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline`, are still supported. We recommend using NVIDIA Graphics Driver version 465 or newer, or AMD Radeon Software version 21.3.1 or newer.
Fixed issues:
  • Fixed the crash that happened on some systems when the game is minimized
  • Also fixed the invalid Vulkan API usage that happened in the bloom pass
  • Fixed the invalid barrier for an inter-queue resource transition
  • Also fixed the out-of-bounds addressing of the framebuffer array
Misc Improvements:
  • Reduced the delay after resolution changes by avoiding re-initialization of the RT pipelines.
  • Changed the memory type required for the UBO and transparency upload buffers to `(HOST_VISIBLE | HOST_COHERENT)`.
  • Improved logging around SLI initialization.