Valve announced "Half-Life: Alyx", a "flagship VR game"

Valve on Twitter: We’re excited to unveil Half-Life: Alyx, our flagship VR game, this Thursday at 10am Pacific Time.

https://mobile.twitter.com/valvesoftware/status/1196566870360387584

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When I first saw this (on another site), I was initially quite excited, but it looks like it might not be suitable in a sit-down VR situation, so I don’t think I’ll actually be able to play it. I’ll keep an eye out for the reviews, just in case.

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HL shouldn’t be a sit down game. This ain’t a car/flight simulation game.

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Fair enough. However I simply don’t have the space for stand-up VR. If I can’t play a game while sitting at my desk, I can’t play that game at all.

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A half-Life VR game. Index will be sold out once this one releases. :slight_smile:I am looking forward to it. While i never invested much time in The Lab because it is only minigames it showed me once. They got a good smooth running engine for VR and they got it done when the rest of VR was small amateur experiences. I expect much of this one.
Since the Index has slightly canted displays it can be assumed that we don’t need PP on this one.

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That’s not guaranteed. The index always runs in PP mode, from what I’ve heard.

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But it would be weird for Valve to release a game (based on their own engine) that wasn’t fully optimized for their own headset.

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Yeah the lab and hand lab are well made VR experiences.

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Yes, it would be weird. I’ve read that the game makes good use of Valve’s new controllers: A new tool has been added to the game, similar to the gravity gun, called “grabbity gloves”, which act sort of like magnetic hands.

My understanding is that the index is always in PP mode, so there’s no advantage to having support for canted displays. I certainly hope they do though.

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Sounds cool, and I just bought Index controllers… :sunglasses:

At least it’s not needed in The Lab and the Aperture Labs and I guess those are using the Source Engine? :wink:

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It’s about time. Oculus have screwed us plenty with exclusives and now the steamVR players have a system seller coming. Can’t wait.

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I guess this new flashback will plant the Chekov’s gun that foreshadows the deeply hidden personality trait, that will in episode 3 culuminate in friendly Alyx’s sudden committing genocide, as she sics Dog on King’s Landing, and then declares a rule of terror…

( Sorry – haven’t seen a single episode of Game of Thrones, but it’s impossible to avoid overhearing talk about it, on t’internet. :7 )

Not all VR users have a play space large enough to do proper roomscale but a lot, if not most, of roomscale games can work just fine seated.

The only real requirements for it work well is a height toggle, direct input movement using trackpad/thumbstick and a way of turning.

No Mans Sky VR is built around seated mode but work great standing as well, Fallout 4VR, Skyrim VR while just ported to roomscale VR work great seated if using a height changer like through OpenVR Advanced Settings, Doom VFR which is a “real” roomscale VR game works great seated with height changer and snap turning through OpenVR Advanced Settings.

I doubt those additions will be needed though because i think valve will make the default functionalities wide enough to encompass seated, to standing, to roomscale.

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You know nothing @jojon. :wink:

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Yeah, just a lot of fancy words!

I never play VR seated, it is just so much better @ roomscale. I would move all the stuff around to get roomscale. You don’t need that much space 2x1,5m should be possible for 90% of us.
Heck i even would rent a bigger flat for roomscale.
Also FU*K YEAH HL3, finally!

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Oh… Umm… Err… SwintViver is coming. [/voice=“foreboding”] :stuck_out_tongue:

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It really depends on the kinds of games you play. While I used to play a lot of first person shooters, these days, I prefer Elite D. The new MS Flight Simulator is also appealing. This new HalfLife VR game is the first game to interest me enough to consider getting VR controllers.

I play games in my office. I’d have to disassemble my huge L-shaped desk to get enough room.

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With steamVR you can play standing only, you don’t need to be seated or need a lot of room.

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Hope Valve nail it. I’m sure they will

I play room scale for action, shooter, and shorter term gaming. Elite and flights sims, of course sitting down. I play things like Fallout and Skyrim on a kitchen stool in the middle of my roomscale play area, and I play No Mans Sky in my PC chair, in the middle of my roomscale area but NMS corrects well for height etc when on foot, so being already seated in real life, for the vehicle/ship parts, seems more natural… plus i can spend a few hours in there at a time.

Im guessing this Half-Life game will be a full room scale game for me at first, then maybe progress to a kitchen stool game :slight_smile:

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