Half-Life: Alyx Mod Enables Full Campaign Experience Sans VR

[T0@st]

Gaming communities have been engaged in discussions about Half-Life: Alyx being partly playable without a VR headset for the past month or two. The team behind the NoVR modification project has, as of late week, announced that the game's story experience - from start to finish - is totally VR free. This news should satisfy many excited fans who have been anticipating Half-Life: Alyx's campaign being displayed on the small/medium screen. Previous entries in the long running Half Life series have always been two-dimensional traditional monitor affairs.

The GB_2 Development Team cheerfully introduces its latest iteration of NoVR: "This is our biggest update yet and we have no plans on slowing down! With thousands playing Half-Life: Alyx NoVR we are happy to announce our largest update yet! As the titles state the entire game can now be played from start to finish, with the Gravity Gloves fully implemented along with combine fabricators providing weapon upgrades. Also since we are now updating the final parts of the game there may be spoilers! We will do our best to not spoil anything while ensuring we communicate these late game areas have been updated along with their gameplay mechanics."



The mod team encourages fans to check out the latest (proof of concept) gameplay footage uploaded to YouTube (with spoiler warnings): "This is the next update for my open source HL:A NO VR Script! With this update you can finally reach the end of the official campaign! In this video you can also see some of the new features I've been working on, like weapon upgrades and the gravity gloves for non VR. Expect a first full release in the near future!"

Members of the Half-Life: Alyx development team have shared lukewarm opinions on the subject of VR-free modification community efforts. Gaming communities have continued to rage in debates about the proper way to experience the Half-Life: Alyx story campaign - after all, the game was designed around VR-based mechanics and control methods. The NoVR mod relies on various workarounds and cheats to function gameplay-wise on flat screen monitors. The GB_2 team anticipates that future updates will recreate an experience more inline with the older Half Life games.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[QUANTUMPHYSICS]

This should have been an option from day one.
It's totally ridiculous to release a game that literally needs a $500 - $1500 controller to play.

 

[caroline!]

Does anyone know if this will be paywalled or for free on sites like moddb?

 

[RandomWan]

This should have been an option from day one.
It's totally ridiculous to release a game that literally needs a $500 - $1500 controller to play.

There's a number of VR headsets that are less than $400 and if you don't mind used, you can get many for a couple hundred. It's a VR game and was designed as such, so of course it required it. Are you going to go bashing on every other VR game that isn't designed and released with a non-VR version?

 

[Sithaer]

There's a number of VR headsets that are less than $400 and if you don't mind used, you can get many for a couple hundred. It's a VR game and was designed as such, so of course it required it. Are you going to go bashing on every other VR game that isn't designed and released with a non-VR version?

Theres an other issue with VR other than the cost, some ppl get kind of sick from it and feel uncomfortable while using it. 'including me, tried my friend's old Vive and I had to take it off after just a few mins'
I did get kinda pissed off about Alyx when it was announced that its VR only as HL 2 was my first ever day 1 bought game as a school kid and I was looking for something new ever since HL 2 and then I couldn't play it thanks to that decision.

 

[evernessince]

This should have been an option from day one.
It's totally ridiculous to release a game that literally needs a $500 - $1500 controller to play.

$300 in the min for decent VR, not $500. The same could be said of playing any new AAA title, you are looking at spending $500 - $1,600 on a GPU to play at decent settings.

The game was designed from the ground up for VR. The non-VR mod version just looks so bad in comparison and it's easy to see why Valve did not bother.

Theres an other issue with VR other than the cost, some ppl get kind of sick from it and feel uncomfortable while using it. 'including me, tried my friend's old Vive and I had to take it off after just a few mins'
I did get kinda pissed off about Alyx when it was announced that its VR only as HL 2 was my first ever day 1 bought game as a school kid and I was looking for something new ever since HL 2 and then I couldn't play it thanks to that decision.

Vive was a first gen VR headset so that makes sense. Modern headsets are much better though. For those with really bad motion sickness, ginger tablets are effective. Eventually that goes away for even sensitive people the more they play VR. Having a good PC is also important, as higher latency can equal more sickness. Anyone will get sick in VR if the performance of the system is bad.

 

[Sithaer]

Vive was a first gen VR headset so that makes sense. Modern headsets are much better though. For those with really bad motion sickness, ginger tablets are effective. Eventually that goes away for even sensitive people the more they play VR. Having a good PC is also important, as higher latency can equal more sickness. Anyone will get sick in VR if the performance of the system is bad.

That might be true I did not try since that, I do not have motion sicknes at all while playing normal non VR games on my PC so that caught me off guard. 'I did get a similar sick feeling in a cinema last year tho'
Its not really something I feel like gambling with and with that kind of money in case it still doesn't work for me, maybe if I get the chance to try a modern one.

 

[Frick]

This should have been an option from day one.
It's totally ridiculous to release a game that literally needs a $500 - $1500 controller to play.

If anything there should have been more games like it.

 

[evernessince]

That might be true I did not try since that, I do not have motion sicknes at all while playing normal non VR games on my PC so that caught me off guard. 'I did get a similar sick feeling in a cinema last year tho'
Its not really something I feel like gambling with and with that kind of money in case it still doesn't work for me, maybe if I get the chance to try a modern one.

You can always wait until it gets bigger anyways, it'll likely have solved those issues by then.

 

[ZoneDymo]

This should have been an option from day one.
It's totally ridiculous to release a game that literally needs a $500 - $1500 controller to play.

Why? Its a game made for a specific purpose.

 

[davidm71]

Theres an other issue with VR other than the cost, some ppl get kind of sick from it and feel uncomfortable while using it. 'including me, tried my friend's old Vive and I had to take it off after just a few mins'
I did get kinda pissed off about Alyx when it was announced that its VR only as HL 2 was my first ever day 1 bought game as a school kid and I was looking for something new ever since HL 2 and then I couldn't play it thanks to that decision.

Yeah I nearly puked trying to play it so didn't get through the first chapter. Spent rest of the day on the couch trying to collect myself. Look forward to playing the rest of this game with the mod. Thanks.

 

[GreiverBlade]

i have a cheap Windows-MR headset (349chf/$) ... i played with it for quite some time, compatible title and other apps ... spend time with it daily for at least a year and then ... back in the box and never touched it for ... hum almost 3yrs

it's fun of course but well ... having tested VR equivalent title for games i own and play (DOOM VFR, Serious sam VR and Skyrim VR ) in some sense VR does not bring much ... for media consumption (virtual cinema is fun ... i rewatched the whole Lord of the Ring trilogy and the original Dune) and virtual tour (well when there is one of good quality) ... yeah

a good point ... i never felt nauseous or bothered by VR, almost the perfect target for it ... but interest faded, still keep my headset aside ... who knows maybe one day ....



as for HL Alyx ... oh, that mod would motivate me to play it, depending on how it will turn out (i.e.: easily accessible, not being a paid mod, although i would support the modder if it's well executed. )

 

[Chrispy_]

FPS games don't work in VR. I've played Alyx for about three hours and couldn't get over how immersion-ruining, and disconnected the armless, floating hands are.

I also didn't like that I can turn with both the thumbstick and my neck; Maybe I'd get used to it with more time invested but rather than working together, I ended up having to compensate for any natural head turns with the joystick as I was re-centering my head. Effectively every head movement required a second input from the joystick to be of any use, at which point why wouldn't I just make the movement on the joystick in the first place? That's the obvious, more efficient way to look around!

Finally, I have a G1 Oddysey. It's old but it has a decent-resolution OLED panel so it's definitely still comparable to newer headsets and honestly, the picture quality experience of VR is so bad compared to a decent gaming monitor. Give me 240Hz 1440p without SDE over any 90Hz headset any day of the week. Not only does a monitor look vastly better than the zoomed-in, pixellated SDE, fresnel-glare image you get with VR, it's also comfortable to game on for 3+ hours at a time. The most I'm willing to wear any HMD for is about 45 minutes. Just long enough for a handful of Rally stages or X-Wing missions before my eyeballs remind me that they don't like being fixed-focus for very long, and the skin of my face prefers not to be pushed into a faux-leather vinyl cushion for long stints.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Guess that's why Alyx is still 60 bucks, barely sold due to VR exclusive and they can't recover from the development cost.

Been following his mod for a while now, it's progressing fast.

 

[Scircura]

A lot of people bought a $300 Switch for Breath of the Wild. It's not so strange to buy a $300 Quest 2 for HL: Alyx.

I played it on a Quest 2 wirelessly with Air Link. To traverse the game's corridors I'd slowly walk from one corner of my living room to the other, do a 180 IRL while tapping the thumbstick in the opposite direction (I preferred 60º snaps for turning), and then continue walking. Before arena battles I'd center myself in my room and then teleport to the center of the game arena. I tried to minimize teleport movement during battles since it trivialized the fighting.

It slowed the game down a lot for me, and I think helped protect me from motion sickness. The movement juggle/dance never felt totally natural even if I got pretty fluid with it.

I can't imagine the game being all that fun outside of VR, though. The shooting is meh enough already without a mouse trivializing the aim mechanics, and pressing W to run through the map would ruin the pacing.

 

[Lionheart]

That's awesome, now I hope it comes to PSVR2.

 

[Chrispy_]

The movement juggle/dance never felt totally natural even if I got pretty fluid with it.

Yeah, that's kinda what I meant.

In your case you moved entirely in physical space, interrupting it to juggle a U-turn IRL and counter-turning with the controller in-game to compensate.
In my case I played mostly seated but had the same unwanted juggle of straightening my neck IRL and counter-turning with the controller in-game to compensate.
Even when I'd been doing it for an hour it still felt bad/wrong/clunky and definitely an interruption I'm not used to with FPS games outside of VR.

Teleporting does trivialise the game difficulty and completely ruins immersion too - so I also avoided using it unless necessary for progression.

 

[80251]

The Half Life 2 engine is how old? 20 years? Or did they upgrade it for the Alyx VR project?

 

[qwerty_lesh]

The Half Life 2 engine is how old? 20 years? Or did they upgrade it for the Alyx VR project?

Half Life 2 is Source 1. Half life Alyx is Source 2. There are newer source 2 games than Alyx which valve has made and don't need VR headset.

The NoVR project by GB_2 Dev adds alot of value, opening the story and experience (albeit with less fidelity) to a swathe of more people.
As long as you are okay with (and understand that Valve intentionally) designed it to be slower pace (low-barrier of entry for a wide VR audience) then why not enjoy!
Even VR owners who may not be bothered to don a HMD can fire up a Flat experience and enjoy it.

I'd like to highlight that the opposite is also happening out in the wild - where very old engines like Gold source & Source 1( Half Life 1, 2, HL2 Episodes 1 and 2, and Black Mesa Source) are all now becoming available in VR thanks to the passion and abilities of Dev teams comprised of volunteer fans of the genre.

There's never been a better time to be into the Portal/HL universe, because you are now truly spoiled for choice, being able to play literally everything (with the only exception of a few obscure releases being Flat screen only - Lostcoast/Blueshift) on both Monitor or on VR HMD.

How freaking good is that!

 

[Karti]

This should have been an option from day one.
It's totally ridiculous to release a game that literally needs a $500 - $1500 controller to play.

believe me, Half Life Alyx without VR feels like a really week mod... like from 2005-2007 era of source games... ;s

 

[TheDeeGee]

A lot of people bought a $300 Switch for Breath of the Wild. It's not so strange to buy a $300 Quest 2 for HL: Alyx.

I played it on a Quest 2 wirelessly with Air Link. To traverse the game's corridors I'd slowly walk from one corner of my living room to the other, do a 180 IRL while tapping the thumbstick in the opposite direction (I preferred 60º snaps for turning), and then continue walking. Before arena battles I'd center myself in my room and then teleport to the center of the game arena. I tried to minimize teleport movement during battles since it trivialized the fighting.

It slowed the game down a lot for me, and I think helped protect me from motion sickness. The movement juggle/dance never felt totally natural even if I got pretty fluid with it.

I can't imagine the game being all that fun outside of VR, though. The shooting is meh enough already without a mouse trivializing the aim mechanics, and pressing W to run through the map would ruin the pacing.

The Switch is a console, the Quest is a controller with LCD.

 

[qwerty_lesh]

The Switch is a console, the Quest is a controller with LCD.

No the Quest is ARM, it can play games standalone. It is not the same as a barebones PCVR only HMD. The Quest is closer to a Console or a Mobile phone thank you may like to acknowledge.

 

[TheDeeGee]

No the Quest is ARM, it can play games standalone. It is not the same as a barebones PCVR only HMD. The Quest is closer to a Console or a Mobile phone thank you may like to acknowledge.

Fair enough, but most people get it to just play VR games.

I simply don't have the space in my room to do proper VR, don't want to fall into my glass display cabinet and bleed to death.

 

[RandomWan]

FPS games don't work in VR.

I'll be sure to let all the Onward and Pavlov players know you have spoken.

I've played many FPS games in VR and they do work.

 

[Chrispy_]

I'll be sure to let all the Onward and Pavlov players know you have spoken.

I've played many FPS games in VR and they do work.

You and I have differing opinions. Neither of us is right or wrong, but the games you just mentioned are a niche market with insignificantly small player numbers.

Statistically-speaking, if you filled every single one of the 80,000 seats in an Olympic stadium with randomly-selected Steam players, there's a high probability that you'd get one single person who has logged any time with either of these two games.

Also, Onward seems to be getting review-bombed right now for being visually downgraded to run on lower-end hardware, truly helping VR's cause right there...