Doom II: Ray Traced is an incredible Path Tracing mod that transforms the 1994 original

id Software's Doom II from 1994 is not only an iconic first-person shooter; it helped change how PC games were made and played forever. Hot on the heels of Bethesda releasing a moddable and notable mod-friendly upgrade to the original Doom and Doom II on PC, it's time to feast your eyes on Doom 2: Ray Traced.

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A new and stunning path tracing mod based on the popular GZDOOM port of the game. Okay, so there's a lot going on here - which includes the improved hardware support and visuals of GZDOOM and the fantastic voxel-based character models from the 'voxel doom project' that recreates all of the game's 2D sprites as full 3D characters.

On top of this, you've got the ray-tracing renderer used in previous ray-tracing mods for Half-Life 1 and Quake 1 - supercharged. With improved particle support and better overall performance, with NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation and AMD FSR 3 Frame Generation support. The result? Insanity. Doom II, like you've never seen before.

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The difference comes down to full path-tracing for shadows, reflections, and global illumination, delivering a stunning experience that looks incredible. Every classic Doom 2 character enemy and environment comes alive with this mod in ways that stun you - especially if you've played the original games.

The lighting adds a new layer to the immersion, creating real tension and even horror. The modDB page for Doom 2: Ray Traced also confirms that the mod is RTX Remix compatible, NVIDIA's game remastering toolset that includes AI features for texture upscaling and the ability to remake or remix old PC games to make them look new again.

Installing it is easy: install Doom and Doom II on Steam, unpack the .zip into an empty folder, and launch gzdoom.exe. Check out some gameplay footage below, captured on my rig running in 4K on the glorious MSI MAG 321UPX QD-OLED 4K 240Hz display.

And here's a bonus video with more gameplay with the over-the-top blood effect mod disabled.