Rollercoaster Tycoon in any of its original guises is not a game that needs a fancy new graphics makeover. So much of its charm is in its of-its-time graphics. However, we’re not ones to say no to a little bit of free ray tracing. That’s why we’re all too happy to see there’s an RTX Remix mod in the works for Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 – the first truly 3D version of the series.
The Nvidia RTX Remix mod for Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was announced by Nvidia’s “GeForce Evangelist” Jacob Freeman via X. Freeman has been highlighting a slew of recent RTX Remix mods via his X account, with the likes of Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament, and GTA San Andreas all currently available or under development.
For those unfamiliar, RTX Remix is Nvidia’s suite of software that makes it easier for developers to retrofit ray tracing to older games. This allows for really basic-looking, ancient games to suddenly benefit from the realistic lighting and shadows that are the signature of ray traced rendering.
Not all games are truly transformed by the addition of ray tracing – the above San Andreas mod lost a lot of its stylistic charm with ray traced lighting – but this RCT 3 mod looks just right. The game still looks and feels every bit like the original (it actually always had quite good shadow effects) but now you get realistic soft shadows and lighting. Enter the log flume tunnel and you’re plunged into darkness and blinded by the bright light entering from the tunnel’s end. Wander among the trees and you see the dappled shade you’d expect from the real thing.
Before and after screenshots of the game haven’t been provided but you can see examples of the original lighting in the video below.
The mod is being developed by a user on Nvidia’s Remix Discord channel, who goes by the name Hemry. You can download the mod yourself via the channel and try it yourself now.
One thing to note is that you’ll need Nvidia RTX hardware to run these, so you’ll want to check out our best graphics card guide to find the best Nvidia card for your budget if you want to join in the fun.