Need for Speed Underground's Redux mod has been given a ray tracing overhaul and the results are shown off in this gameplay video.

Need for Speed Underground came out in 2003, that’s 17 years ago, and thanks to some fancy modding work, we get to see what the game would look like with ray tracing shaders applied to the street racing title from EA. However, if you’re planning on running it, you’ll need a pretty powerful computer.

The original modification Need for Speed Underground Redux was created by AMTxDRxRL, released in 2017, and features new global reshade and texmod modifications. The mod was apparently in development for 6 months and also includes over 300 high-resolution textures alongside detailed road reflections and realistic fog shaders.



Now, modder Stre1itzia has taken the redux mod and ported it over to a new version of ReShade as well as adding new shaders including ray tracing. The results are showcased in the above video, and while it certainly looks a lot more flashy, shiny, and pretty, the performance has taken a hit.

The video was captured at high resolution with a frame rate lock on 30fps. The graphics card used by Stre1itzia is a GeForce GTX 1060 3gb which does seem to support ray tracing, but not as well as more advanced graphic cards.

For those unaware, ray tracing is a new technology that massively improves reflections and global illumination in video games, bringing more realistic lighting and reflections to games such as Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Control and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 which has recently seen a brand new themed GPU teased.

This month, it was announced that EA would be handing Need for Speed back to Criterion Games while Ghost Games will be returning to EA Gothenburg as an engineering hub.

Posted: Feb 26, 2020 8:19 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/need-for-speed-underground-redux-mod-gets-ray-tracing-update/