Bottom line: Some classics can benefit greatly from a subtle yet striking enhancement, like path-tracing using RTX Remix. As YouTube user Dominus Aurate recently highlighted, the original Tomb Raider – with its tired textures and all – looks absolutely stunning with Nvidia's tech applied.

I have a soft spot for select 90s-era video games. Groundbreaking titles like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider still hold up today in terms of replayability and fun factor, but graphics often leave a lot to be desired.

Remasters can help but there is a fine line to walk and more often than not, they go overboard with visual overhauls that are not true to the original. Things go from bad to worse when developers start tinkering with gameplay mechanics and adding questionable content.

(Tomb Raider looks way better with path tracing)

Nvidia announced RTX Remix in September 2022. The modding platform makes it easier to remaster classic games with path tracing, Nvidia DLSS, AI-enhanced textures, and user-created assets. The open-source runtime is available on GitHub for anyone interested in taking it for a spin.

The first entry in the Tomb Raider franchise arrived in 1996, a seminal year for gaming that also delivered other classics like Diablo, Quake, Resident Evil, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Super Mario RPG, Super Mario 64, Sid Meier's Civilization II, and Crash Bandicoot, among many others. The game spawned a slew of sequels, spin-offs, and movies, although things have been relatively quiet as of late following the last mainline entry – Shadow of the Tomb Raider – in 2018.

Late last year, we learned that Amazon Games has partnered with Crystal Dynamics and will publish the next major entry in the Tomb Raider series. Not much is known about it but Amazon said it will be a single-player, narrative-driven adventure that continues Lara Croft's story across multiple platforms and will be powered by Unreal Engine 5.

Those interested in trying the Tomb Raider RTX Remix can grab the requisite files over on GitHub.