What happens when you take one of the most influential first-person shooters ever made and give it a modern path-traced renderer? Quake: Ray Traced gives the original Quake a dramatic visual overhaul while keeping the classic game, levels, enemies, and gameplay intact.

Created by Sultim Tsyrendashiev, the project adds a path-tracing renderer to id Software’s Quake, building on the Vulkan-based vkQuake engine. The result is a version of Quake with modern lighting effects that can make the 1996 classic look surprisingly different while still retaining its unmistakable atmosphere.

What Is Quake: Ray Traced?

Instead of simply increasing the texture resolution or adding a few graphical effects, this project changes the way the game is rendered.

The ray-traced renderer uses path tracing to calculate how light interacts with the environment. That means lighting can bounce through the scene and produce much more natural illumination than the original Quake renderer.

The mod is based on vkQuake, a Vulkan port derived from QuakeSpasm. Because of that, you’re still playing the classic Quake experience underneath the modern renderer rather than a completely remade version of the game.

What Does Ray Tracing Add?

The biggest difference is lighting.

Instead of Quake’s original baked and relatively simple lighting system, ray tracing allows light to behave much more naturally throughout the environment.

Depending on the scene, you can expect to see:

• Real-time global illumination
• More realistic light and shadow behavior
• Dynamic shadows
• Light bouncing and indirect illumination
• More natural-looking colored lighting
• Improved reflections and lighting interactions
• Much deeper-looking dark areas
• More dramatic muzzle flashes, explosions and dynamic lights
• A more cinematic appearance without replacing the original game assets

The effect can be particularly impressive in Quake’s dark castles, underground tunnels and industrial environments. Areas that originally relied heavily on simple colored lightmaps can take on considerably more depth when illuminated using path tracing.

One of the fun parts is being able to compare the original renderer and ray-traced renderer, making it easy to see just how much the lighting has changed.

What You Need

Before installing the mod, you’ll need:

• A legally purchased copy of Quake
• The Steam version of Quake is the easiest way to get the required game files
• A modern GPU with hardware ray-tracing support
• Windows, if you’re following the Windows installation method
• The Quake: Ray Traced files downloaded from the project’s GitHub release

The project itself requires a GPU capable of ray tracing.

Important: The ray-tracing project does not provide Quake’s copyrighted game data. You need to own the game and provide the necessary files yourself.

Installation

Installing the Windows version is relatively straightforward.

1. Install Quake through Steam

First, make sure Quake is installed through Steam and that you can launch it normally.

You don’t need to modify your original Steam installation.

2. Download Quake: Ray Traced

Download the Windows release from the project’s GitHub page.

Quake: Ray Traced GitHub Repository

Extract the downloaded archive into its own folder.

Tip: If your Steam library is installed on a different drive, it’s a good idea to put the extracted Quake: Ray Traced folder on the same drive as your Steam installation. This can make it easier for the launcher to locate and copy the required game files.

For example:

D:\SteamLibrary\
D:\Quake-Ray-Traced\

3. Run vkQuake.exe

Open the Quake: Ray Traced folder and launch:

vkQuake.exe

On the first launch, the program will look for your Steam installation and Quake files.

If it finds your Steam copy, you’ll be prompted to copy the required files from the Steam directory into the Quake: Ray Traced directory.

Choose Yes.

This allows the ray-traced version to create its own working copy of the Quake game data without requiring you to alter your Steam installation.

4. Launch and Enjoy

Once the files have been copied, you should be able to launch the game through vkQuake.exe.

You can then explore Quake with the ray-traced renderer and compare the new lighting with the original look.

The renderer can also be switched while playing, making it particularly easy to see the difference between traditional rendering and ray tracing.

How Does It Actually Work?

Traditional Quake relies heavily on precomputed lighting information. The original game was designed for hardware from the mid-1990s, so lighting had to be calculated ahead of time and stored with the level.

Quake: Ray Traced replaces that approach with a modern rendering pipeline.

The ray-tracing system traces paths of light through the scene, allowing the renderer to calculate illumination and shadows dynamically. Rather than simply displaying a pre-calculated lightmap, the renderer can determine how light travels through the environment.

That is why the same old Quake level can suddenly look completely different.

A torch illuminating a wall, colored light spilling into a hallway, or an explosion lighting up a room can all contribute to a much more dynamic-looking scene.

The Result

The appeal of this project isn’t simply making Quake “prettier.”

It’s seeing 1996 game design combined with modern rendering technology.

The original low-resolution textures, blocky geometry and iconic enemies remain recognizable, but the lighting gives those environments an entirely different atmosphere.

Dark corridors can feel darker. Colored lights can feel more vibrant. Shadows have significantly more depth. Explosions and other light sources become much more visually dramatic.

And because the underlying game is still Quake, you get to experience those familiar levels with an entirely new visual presentation.

A Perfect Retro-Tech Experiment

Quake: Ray Traced is a great example of how far modern PC hardware can push classic games.

Quake originally helped define 3D PC gaming in the 1990s. Decades later, the same game can be rendered using hardware-accelerated ray tracing and path tracing on modern GPUs.

It’s a fascinating combination of 1996 game design and modern graphics technology—and one of the best ways to see just how much lighting technology has changed since the original Quake.

Get the Quake: Ray Traced project on GitHub