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Half-Life: Alyx

half-life.com

41–50 of 444 posts

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#41
post #27

Question to VR gamers: Why are the arms not animated?

You can't easily know where your elbows are correctly. In games where they try to fake it, it feels dysphoric to have the elbows in the wrong place.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#42
post #10

A cool idea that I'd never ever ever try. Half Life 1 on low res was scary enough. In all seriousness though – is there any studies done on potential PTSD-like effects that arise from this sort of VR game?

You can't develop PTSD from VR because VR isn't real. Even if you get scared it's not the same kind of fear as being in a situation where you can actually get hurt, or die, or you actually kill another human being.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#43
post #38

This has got to be the most narrowly targeted game ever. I played through all of HL/HL2/Ep1/Ep2 IIRC, but I can barely even remember the story clearly it was so long ago. And it's such a blur maybe I never finished Ep2. I was 21 when HL1 came out but I didn't get to play it till I was like 24 maybe when I had gotten out of school and got a nice computer & some money. HL2 came out when I was 27.. still playing games b…

The Orange Box came out and was a big hit when I was still a kid, now in my 20s I certainly remember the series fondly. Not that I have a lot of spare time either.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#44
post #27

Question to VR gamers: Why are the arms not animated?

Only hand position is tracked by the controller.

And trying to use ik / kinematics to infer the player's pose by just using head and hand positions creates a very jarring effect when it is inaccurate.

It turns out to be much more immersive with the floating hands than you would at first think.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#45

Appears to be fairly on rails, which I guess eliminates the whole movement thing. Good to see them releasing something, even if it is a narrow market. Seems to be a lot of doubt in them after lackluster Artifact and Epic Store entering their space.

Website says they support teleportation based movement, shift based movement, and continuous movement with the controllers.

https://half-life.com/en/alyx/vr

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#46
post #38

This has got to be the most narrowly targeted game ever. I played through all of HL/HL2/Ep1/Ep2 IIRC, but I can barely even remember the story clearly it was so long ago. And it's such a blur maybe I never finished Ep2. I was 21 when HL1 came out but I didn't get to play it till I was like 24 maybe when I had gotten out of school and got a nice computer & some money. HL2 came out when I was 27.. still playing games b…

I think you underestimate how popular Half-Life was. The #1 game played on steam right now is a former HL mod, Counter Strike. I don't think the market for HL is small at all.

VR, though, is a different story. That absolutely limits the market. That being said, I'd wager that a majority of people who play VR games on PC will likely buy this game, as it's probably the first true AAA title developed specifically for VR.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#47
post #27

Question to VR gamers: Why are the arms not animated?

The controllers are in your hands, and they can be tracked as precisely and reliably as your head position. The position of your arms could be concluded from full-body tracking data, but that is imprecise, only supported by some devices, jittery, and has some weird edge cases, because it's based on depth sensing.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#48
post #42
post #10

A cool idea that I'd never ever ever try. Half Life 1 on low res was scary enough. In all seriousness though – is there any studies done on potential PTSD-like effects that arise from this sort of VR game?

You can't develop PTSD from VR because VR isn't real. Even if you get scared it's not the same kind of fear as being in a situation where you can actually get hurt, or die, or you actually kill another human being.

[citation needed]

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#49
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the accuracy (or lack of it) of individual finger movements on the Valve Index controller, it's not going to be anything more than a gimmick. The tech looks impressive in a demo, but our hands are used to manipulating things with a much finer touch than the Index controller allows so it doesn't translate very well to games.

it's not going to be anything more than a gimmick. Not sure if I share this sentiment, I read elsewhere Valve is treating this as their next "flagship" release, a true first class VR game (hopefully not just some 30 minute "experience" that ends right as it's getting good). It this were literally any other game studio I'd have an eyebrow raised right now, but when Valve puts their full muscle and creative energy behi…

> When Valve puts their full muscle and creative energy behind something as a flagship, lead-off hitter, they've yet to disappoint.

Genuine question: when would you say is the last time they did that? I don't really think of Dota 2 or CS:GO or whatever to be "flagships." I'd have to go back to, Portal 2, I guess, but I'm not sure even that I would call a "flagship," just a really good game. Certainly the Orange Box as a whole... but that was 12 years ago. Even Portal 2 is 8 years ago.

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