A new fan mod brings modern lighting to the original Painkiller. DSOGaming reports that modder “capzor” has released a demo for a Painkiller RTX Remix Path Tracing Mod. The mod uses Nvidia’s RTX Remix tools to add path-tracing support and upscaled physically based rendering (PBR) textures to the first four levels of the 2004 shooter.

According to the report, capzor shared a video showing how the enhanced levels look with full path tracing and improved textures. The demo can be downloaded for both the GOG and Steam versions of Painkiller: Black Edition, making it accessible for long-time fans. DSOGaming notes that there will likely never be an official remaster of the original game, so this fan mod is a welcome upgrade.

The article also highlights quality-of-life improvements added by the mod. Because path-traced lighting can make scenes darker, the demo includes a new flashlight option; players can enable it via the in-game RTX Remix settings and adjust the “Fallback Lighting” parameter to always on. With modern lighting and high-resolution textures, the mod offers a fresh way to revisit Painkiller’s first levels while waiting for the upcoming 2025 reimagining.